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6:00

the material. So, but

6:02

now I both have to get

6:04

both of those others because, you

6:07

know, trauma is my focus

6:09

and you know, I

6:11

always want things that are very specific to

6:13

trauma, but. And trauma is

6:15

my focus too. Yeah. And don't

6:17

you think that with rare

6:19

exception trauma underlies. All

6:23

mental, physical distress. And

6:25

I think that's one

6:27

of my main goals is to

6:29

educate therapists that the physical

6:31

forms of distress that we're seeing,

6:34

the digestive problems, the

6:36

pervert, the IBS, the

6:38

headaches, the

6:40

autoimmune disorders, chronic

6:43

pain, the addictions, these are all

6:45

rooted also in trauma. And yet,

6:48

as psychotherapists, we don't always understand them

6:50

or know what it means or how

6:52

to help our clients integrate a

6:54

program and a plan of care

6:57

so that they recover from those forms

7:00

of distress and symptoms also. I'm

7:03

just, I could not agree with you more than

7:05

I'm feeling. You

7:08

know, I'm always like about to

7:10

burst into tears, but I'm feeling so much

7:12

about what you're saying because some

7:15

of my family members have, you know,

7:17

one has this long standing, like I

7:19

don't know if it's mass cell activation

7:21

or what it is. That

7:24

person has a severe trauma history.

7:27

Another person I love has

7:29

diabetes and it's

7:32

not well, it,

7:35

I believe it is from childhood

7:38

trauma, but they think,

7:40

you know, it's just like a

7:42

disease you get or you don't get, you know, but I

7:45

think it's not type two, I think it's

7:47

type one, but they didn't have a

7:49

child and I don't know. I don't quite understand. And

7:51

maybe you could explain about that. Why don't we just,

7:53

but then I have our family members who have dementia

7:55

and I'm thinking about that too. So

7:57

let me just ask you, will you get a little bit.

8:00

more like expand

8:02

on what you were saying about those topics?

8:04

Sure. And I really agree with

8:07

you and I think your sense

8:10

of the etiology of these

8:12

dis-eases, I don't know, being

8:14

out of ease, disorders, being

8:16

out of order, isn't absolutely

8:18

true. The risk factor for

8:21

all of these diseases is

8:23

very high if you've had childhood trauma.

8:27

Because childhood trauma, as you well

8:29

know, dysregulates every

8:31

system in the body. It

8:34

dysregulates the hypothalamic pituitary

8:36

axis, our stress management

8:38

system in the body that

8:41

helps us calibrate and

8:43

rise to the occasion where we need to, but

8:45

then settle down when we

8:47

can rest. It

8:50

often stays overly activated. It

8:53

disrupts our immune function. So

8:56

in the same way that we

8:58

become hypervigilant in response to the

9:00

traumatic events, always

9:02

on guard, always looking out for

9:04

danger, rarely being able

9:07

to settle down into our skin,

9:09

that's what happens to the immune

9:11

system where it starts to seem to

9:13

injure everywhere. So much so

9:16

that it can start to attack itself. That's

9:19

the autoimmune disease that evolves

9:21

that we see high

9:23

rates of Hashimoto's and Mupits

9:25

and Rheumatoid Arthritis. So

9:28

we get this both

9:30

over activation and under

9:32

activation biologically as an

9:35

analogy to just what we see

9:37

emotionally that we're treating while we're

9:39

doing trauma treatment. But

9:42

in addition to that,

9:44

the experience of particularly

9:46

childhood trauma often

9:49

leads to the challenges

9:51

of self-care. The

9:54

challenges of maybe

9:57

you didn't have a role model for taking care

9:59

of your child. So it's not

10:01

anything you ever learned or or

10:03

the sense of helplessness to make change

10:06

in one's life And

10:08

so added to that then is often

10:11

a lifetime of exposure To

10:14

poor quality foods or maybe there's

10:16

food insecurity There can be poverty

10:19

and poverty is a trauma as

10:21

well. Oh, yeah, and and trauma

10:23

is a social justice issue So

10:26

we've we've got piles upon piles

10:28

of what I called stressor

10:30

exposures that then really

10:33

disrupt this physical being that

10:35

houses our spirit and our

10:38

Ourself our personality so

10:41

that by the time maybe

10:43

by 10 or 15 or 20 maybe

10:45

we're lucky to make it 40 before

10:48

we hit the ball and

10:50

we've got not only depression

10:52

and anxiety and Insomnia and

10:54

you know everything that we know would

10:57

liability with trauma But we've

10:59

got these chronic illnesses like

11:01

diabetes like IBS

11:04

like gird acid

11:06

reflux headaches and and

11:09

then we're going to Physicians

11:12

or nurse practitioners who are giving us skills

11:16

to medicate Doesn't get

11:18

at the root rozz doesn't get at

11:20

the trauma doesn't get at the Disregulation

11:23

of the body. It

11:26

just covers over the symptoms

11:28

Yeah, and then you have reactions

11:30

to the medications. So then you

11:32

need to take more Fills.

11:36

Yeah, and then you've got

11:39

side effects and on and on

11:41

the cycle goes And

11:43

still the childhood trauma isn't being addressed

11:46

So the effects are still there

11:48

under the surface and you're not

11:51

it's that you know, it's not Lessening

11:54

over time. No effects

11:56

are increasing over time. That's

11:58

right because as we get

16:00

these connections for our well-being,

16:04

our wellness as a population.

16:07

You know, it's just so

16:09

harmful that the way that

16:12

our health is approached

16:14

in the Western world is like, you

16:18

know, you have a headache, take a pill to make

16:20

the headache go away, instead of wondering why you're having

16:22

a headache. And I think that sometimes

16:24

these symptoms are so debilitating, all of

16:26

the symptoms that I mentioned, that

16:29

you can't even like see

16:32

what to do or where to go, because

16:34

you're just so, you know, you've got brain

16:37

fog, you're exhausted, and now

16:39

how did the effects of COVID

16:41

and long COVID, oh, it's

16:43

just, but you know, the

16:46

idea that, and I

16:48

feel like I only really learned this from

16:50

you, which is kind of ridiculous, but the

16:52

idea that what you put in your body

16:54

does affect, you

16:57

know, everything that's going on

16:59

inside, but we don't, like

17:02

culturally, we just don't. No,

17:05

we don't teach it. We do that, yeah. We teach

17:07

the opposite. I call it

17:10

social dissociation. Yeah, yeah, that's

17:12

true. In trauma, we treat dissociativity.

17:15

We think about come

17:17

into your body, live in your body, it's

17:19

safe, you know, claim your body,

17:22

tolerate the sensations. But

17:25

I think there's a kind

17:27

of social dissociation where we're

17:29

fed information that does

17:31

not support the fact that

17:34

our body's talking to us, we

17:37

can listen. And you made such an

17:39

important point that when we do suffer

17:41

the way that you did suffer, we

17:44

blame ourselves, we feel shame.

17:47

And it's really because there's no

17:49

one helping us put

17:51

the pieces of the puzzle together and say,

17:54

you know, this does go back to

17:57

your traumatic events that you're

17:59

amazing. attuned

22:00

to. That's what our brain responds

22:03

to. Light and dark. And

22:05

we ignore it routinely. Who

22:08

goes to sleep when it gets dark?

22:10

No point. It's like you think

22:12

of a farmer, they get up really early in

22:14

the morning and then go to bed

22:16

when it's dark, but that's because they're up at like

22:19

4am. But yeah, right. And

22:21

that sets the stage for illness.

22:23

It sets the stage for mental

22:25

illness. We know bipolar and I

22:27

call, you know, while there's true

22:29

bipolar out there a lot, I

22:32

call it the diagnosis du jour because

22:36

it's routinely misdiagnosed

22:38

when people should be diagnosed

22:40

with trauma, should be

22:43

diagnosed with complex trauma,

22:45

the mood lability that gets

22:47

misdiagnosed. But that's truly a

22:50

circadian rhythm disorder or ODD,

22:52

another specious diagnosis, which really

22:54

comes out of chronic stress

22:57

exposure. Even we could say

22:59

ODD is a specious diagnosis

23:07

that comes from chronic stress in

23:10

childhood. Oppositional defiant disorder is

23:12

not real. Okay.

23:14

Thank you. When we, we know

23:16

that when we treat the trauma,

23:19

the symptoms can resolve.

23:21

Yes. But we're missing

23:23

the trauma treatment oftentimes.

23:26

And on top of that, we're missing supporting

23:29

the biological cell. And

23:32

we can't blame therapists because we're

23:34

not training there and before

23:36

that until we are as

23:38

a postgraduate program. But

23:41

to me, it's the missing piece in

23:43

trauma treatment. And it's the

23:45

piece that gets us further

23:47

down the road with efficacy, with

23:49

results. Well, I'm

23:53

convinced, but I haven't,

23:55

this is going back to something you

23:57

said, like probably 10 minutes ago. But

28:00

I think we have a growing use

28:02

of medical application of these

28:04

cannabinoids. And

28:08

we know that PTSD and

28:10

trauma disrupts this endocannabinoid

28:12

system as well, which

28:15

often leads to it's why we

28:18

see very high rates of cannabis

28:20

use among people with PTSD. But

28:22

we also see high rates of use

28:25

with IBS and

28:27

chronic pain as well. Yeah,

28:30

I think that we are seeing high rates

28:32

of use of cannabis. It's

28:35

like everyone. With

28:37

everyone. You know? Yes. And

28:40

I mean, and then there's so much controversy

28:43

about is it a medicine or is it

28:45

something that causes psychosis? I hear so much

28:47

in medicine about cannabis

28:50

causing psychosis. Well,

28:53

I look to the work of

28:55

Dr. Ethan Russo, who's been a

28:58

real pioneer. He's a neurologist who

29:00

pioneered the use, by the way,

29:02

speaking of your family, for

29:05

the use of cannabis for migraines. And

29:08

he's done a stellar research

29:10

and he actually pointed a

29:13

concept called endocannabinoid deficiency

29:15

syndrome, which suggests that

29:17

we come into the world with a certain

29:19

amount of tone to that

29:21

spots or our

29:24

system, our endocannabinoid system,

29:27

which makes us perhaps more vulnerable,

29:29

more or less to needing to

29:31

fill up those little

29:33

synapses with cannabinoids. But

29:35

I think if we're going to

29:38

talk about cannabis, I think it

29:40

apply. I think what we

29:42

might say about cannabis applies to everything.

29:45

Everything has the potential to be

29:47

a medicine, but it also

29:50

has the potential to be poison. Sugar

29:52

is a poison, but it's not a

29:54

poison if you have it every once in a while. It

29:57

is if you have it every day. And it's

29:59

the same. And

40:01

I think there's just too little support

40:03

for that in our training

40:05

programs. When

40:07

I travel the country and teach, I see

40:09

people sitting with diet Pepsi's

40:12

or Coca-Cola's. People

40:15

come into my office and say, why

40:17

didn't I know that this approach existed?

40:20

So I think it's about education.

40:22

I think it's psychoeducation. I think

40:24

it's about awareness and

40:26

changing the narrative and

40:30

providing support for people. And

40:34

also making these approaches

40:37

more accessible. I belong

40:39

to a group called Integrative Medicine

40:41

for the Underserved. I think our

40:43

work has to be rooted

40:46

in social justice. It has to

40:48

be rooted in accessibility. It

40:51

can't be about privilege. We have

40:53

to do pro bono work,

40:55

donate. I'm in public health by

40:58

training and by disposition. And

41:00

so I think we have to

41:02

be creative about

41:04

expanding our networks

41:08

for making this approach

41:10

accessible. And recognizing

41:13

that this work

41:15

is rooted in indigenous cultures

41:17

and in cultural traditions. It's

41:19

why when I begin working

41:22

with every client, like

41:24

I could imagine you, your people

41:26

go back to that beautiful country

41:28

called our one. And

41:30

what did your people eat?

41:33

Your people survived on salmon.

41:35

My favorite. That's

41:38

what your genes are nourished

41:41

by. And

41:44

so understanding our cultural

41:47

heritage, understanding that unless we're

41:49

indigenous to this land, we all

41:52

come from somewhere where our

41:54

genes are nourished by the

41:56

foods of that land. to

42:00

claim cultural identity

42:02

in order to be

42:05

culturally savvy with

42:07

culturally diverse clients. So

42:09

it goes back to this, it

42:12

begins with us. We

42:14

have to do it as therapists

42:17

in order to then guide our clients

42:19

along the path. Oh, that's

42:22

so true. That's so true.

42:24

And we can do it. We

42:27

are doing it. Yeah, we're doing it. And there's

42:31

so much, I mean, you've made

42:33

this information so accessible

42:37

and like put it

42:39

all together. That's what's

42:41

so amazing about what you

42:43

do. Well,

42:46

I called it, over time it

42:49

evolved into 17 different

42:52

methods that I call the Brimbo

42:55

Blueprint. And it began because

42:57

no one cared about me saying

42:59

go eat this vitamin or that. I

43:02

said go pick out vegetables and

43:04

fruits and foods that

43:07

represent the colors of the

43:09

rainbow because all of those colors

43:11

represent different kinds of nutrients that

43:14

nourish us. And so

43:16

then the rainbow turned into the

43:18

Brimbo because we're nourishing that engine,

43:20

that brain of ours so that

43:23

we can give it what it

43:25

needs, the good quality fats and

43:27

the carbohydrates and the proteins for

43:29

the amino acids. And

43:31

from there it evolved

43:33

into these 17 different

43:35

approaches that can be integrated

43:37

in any way someone

43:40

wishes in any pace that

43:42

they wish. So how

43:44

do you teach those 17 different methods?

43:47

Is that all in your integrated

43:50

courses? Are horses of nice

43:52

each method as it

43:54

applies to the symptoms that people

43:56

have. So in the trauma course

43:58

I teach about. about all types

44:01

of trauma, particularly the

44:03

interpersonal, the ACEs, and

44:06

how it affects physical health. Because I

44:08

think in mental health, we

44:10

need to be well-versed in the physical.

44:13

And I teach the physical clinicians about

44:15

the mental, because we just got

44:17

too much compartmentalization

44:20

in our healthcare system. The

44:23

more we can put the pieces of the

44:25

puzzle together, the more it makes sense, and

44:27

we've got a coherent narrative. And

44:30

so I begin with bio-individuality.

44:33

Your people are from Ireland. You weren't going

44:35

to do well on salmon. You weren't going

44:37

to do well eating a vegan

44:39

diet. Your people in your teensy

44:42

falls to the climate that

44:44

was cool and moist

44:46

and around the sea, and you

44:49

had carbs, you had

44:51

proteins, you had foods from the sea,

44:53

and that's going to be a very

44:55

mixed diet. For you to go on

44:57

an extreme diet is

45:00

not going to serve you any more

45:02

than it does my Inuit patient who

45:04

evolved even further north in

45:07

Greenland eating whale blubber

45:10

and very few carbohydrates, maybe

45:12

some berries during the summer months.

45:15

For them to eat soy food or wheat

45:18

or pig is

45:21

anathema to their genetic

45:23

background. And so for them to

45:25

eat in their bio-individual way

45:27

that nourishes their body is

45:30

going to nourish their mind as well. So

45:33

that's where we begin representing our

45:36

diversity and understanding that

45:38

there's no one right diet for

45:40

everyone. There's no fad to follow.

45:43

There's no keto this or vegetarian

45:45

that. That's where it fails. Just

45:47

like in psychotherapy, we tailor our

45:50

work. And from there, I

45:52

teach an integrated assessment, how

45:55

to put the pieces of the puzzle together, how

45:57

to understand when a client

46:00

is sitting with us and they

46:02

say, I don't have a history

46:04

of trauma, but that they

46:06

record several types of

46:09

elective surgeries. They've had

46:11

numerous cosmetic surgeries, liposuction, bariatric

46:14

surgery. That's a red flag

46:16

that goes off because we

46:18

know the high

46:20

correlation between elective surgeries

46:22

and history of childhood,

46:25

social abuse. So

46:27

just like we get these hints out

46:30

of our assessment, even if the client

46:32

isn't ready to talk about it, we

46:34

begin to walk that path saying, there

46:36

may be some trauma history. Yeah,

46:39

I tell myself, where I call that like

46:41

a working theory that I just keep in

46:43

the back of my mind and

46:45

don't necessarily have to say, oh yes, you

46:47

do have trauma. I wouldn't be in an

46:49

early meeting. Someone's exploring to their own life,

46:51

but I'm just listening for, maybe

46:54

they don't realize this could indicate

46:57

that and then as things unfold,

47:00

more pieces begin to build and you say,

47:02

I'm seeing that kind of the picture here,

47:05

but. Yes, and

47:07

so by adding in the physical piece

47:09

and in my talk yesterday

47:12

I shared because I could

47:14

see people saying, but I don't understand

47:16

physical anatomy. I said, well, we didn't

47:18

understand what we were doing when we

47:20

did our first intake during our practical.

47:22

Did we? No, we had studied it

47:24

and then we figured it out. Hopefully

47:27

we did no harm, but we learned

47:29

by doing. We study and we

47:31

learn and we sit with

47:33

our clients and we help them put pieces

47:36

together and make sense of it with

47:38

them. And so from there we look

47:40

at digestion. I

47:42

promise you any client

47:45

with mental distress has digestive

47:47

distress. I promise you that

47:49

wherever it is, it could

47:51

be GERD, it could

47:53

be stomacles or it could be bloating

47:56

and gas. It could be constipation.

48:00

Pesticide. Pesticide. Pesticide,

48:02

diurea, could be anal, retentive. I mean,

48:04

it could be any of the hemorrhoids.

48:07

Somewhere along the way, because

48:09

poor digestion exacerbates

48:11

mental illness, it can

48:14

contribute mightily to mental

48:16

distress. But therefore, if

48:19

we improve digestion, we improve

48:21

mental health. We get

48:23

that extra percentage of improvement.

48:25

So with what we're doing

48:27

in post trauma therapy, if

48:30

you can improve digestion, you get 10, 20,

48:32

30, 40% improvement. If

48:35

you can improve diet, you get

48:38

that percentage of improvement. So that's

48:40

where you get that whole life

48:43

improvement, not just a

48:45

little bit of improvement where you're feeling

48:47

better, but you're still having to take

48:49

drugs or to manage every day. Yeah,

48:53

you still physically feel gross, but you

48:55

at least feel much only

48:57

better. Like you can cope better, but

48:59

why not go for the optimal? Why

49:02

not do it all? Yeah,

49:04

I agree. Yeah. And

49:06

it's now inaccessible. So I think

49:09

it is. So we

49:11

incorporate nature, the role of

49:14

nature. We incorporate the role

49:16

of nutrition and nutrients,

49:18

because diet's essential, but it's

49:20

not enough. You

49:22

can't go head to head with a benzo

49:24

addiction by just taking, you

49:27

know, eating oatmeal in the morning. You

49:30

have to really give the

49:32

brain a substitution. And

49:34

I have a concept called the principle

49:36

of substitutions. You don't have to give

49:38

up your sweet tooth. You

49:41

could find alternative, healthy

49:43

sweetness in your life. You're

49:45

better off eating raw honey or maple

49:48

syrup or stevia or another

49:52

making a sweet juice out of soaking

49:54

dried fruit. So you're improving

49:56

the quality of the food. It's

49:59

not that you'd have to. give up your

50:01

hot dogs and sauerkraut, but

50:03

you're getting fresh sauerkraut at

50:05

the farmer's market. You're having

50:07

dye-freeing or additive-free hot dog

50:09

or a real beef hot

50:12

pot. So you're slowly improving

50:14

quality and eliminating these

50:16

environmental stressors that are toxins

50:18

to the brain that

50:20

I think are underlying many, many

50:22

symptoms that people have that they're

50:24

unaware of. Joan

50:27

was post-divorce, menopausal,

50:29

depressed, not eating

50:31

well. She was drinking

50:34

a lot of coffee. She had stomach aches.

50:36

She was using creamer and

50:39

artificial sweetener, eating Danish for

50:41

breakfast. I said, Joan, would

50:44

you like to have real cream instead

50:46

of creamer? Oh, yes. Could I

50:49

do that? Why not? This

50:51

creamer is full of crap. Okay,

50:54

I said, then how about a little honey to

50:56

sweeten your coffee instead of this

50:58

artificial sweetener? Oh, I could do that. So

51:01

right away, we weren't saying, don't

51:04

do this and don't do that. What

51:06

a substitution. You can still satisfy.

51:08

So, Joan, I think you'd feel

51:11

better. Do you like eggs? Could

51:13

you have an egg for breakfast? And

51:15

let's find you a nice chocolate

51:18

smoothie, kind of a chocolate mocha

51:20

smoothie. I created a matcha

51:23

mocha smoothie, which is full of green

51:25

tea and a little bit

51:27

of espresso and chocolate with a little

51:29

bit of honey as a mid-morning pick-me-up.

51:31

She worked in an office and her

51:33

energy was plummeting by 10 a.m. And

51:36

so she was adrenally stressed. She had

51:38

gone through lots of trauma and

51:40

then the divorce was the final

51:42

trigger. And so we

51:45

just found some adjustments in her

51:47

diet that gave her a little bit more

51:49

protein, a little bit more energy. Still

51:52

satisfied what she wanted to

51:54

do and added in

51:56

a little bit more protein at her

51:59

lunchtime. Decreased. sugar in her

52:01

life and over time she got

52:03

off her psychotropic medication, she began

52:06

exercising again and she actually

52:08

became an educator in

52:10

her office where she started teaching

52:12

what she was learning. I said,

52:15

Joan, how about not eating that

52:17

French dressing at lunchtime? Would you

52:19

like a real healthy, delicious dressing

52:21

for your salad? She said, I'd

52:23

love to do that. I

52:25

gave her a recipe I call the Brain

52:27

Boost dressing with olive oil and hemp oil

52:30

and flaxseed oil and apple cider vinegar. I

52:32

said, just keep it in your office fridge

52:34

and take it out with you if you're

52:36

going out for lunch and just pour it

52:38

on your salad there. She said, oh, I

52:40

can do that. That's easy. So

52:43

sometimes we're helping people just

52:45

make small changes to begin with

52:47

that don't feel too overwhelming or

52:50

too radical, but bring about big

52:52

change when you eliminate some of

52:55

the really dangerous toxic

52:57

foods to our brain and our

53:00

arteries. Well,

53:03

I must say, since the first

53:05

time I talked to you and I got

53:07

your things called Eat, Eat

53:10

Right, Feel Right. That

53:16

I think differently about the foods I

53:19

make. When I prepare

53:22

foods at home, I think about the

53:24

oils and I think about making my

53:26

own salad dressing instead of buying a

53:28

bottle salad dressing. It feels

53:30

better to me. It just feels

53:32

like I feel like what I'm

53:34

eating is more nutritional. It's not

53:36

about restricting anything. It's not about

53:38

diet or weight loss or

53:40

anything. It

53:44

feels like, oh, when I eat

53:46

this olive oil, this isn't

53:48

just an oil to make my food

53:50

not stick to the pan. This

53:53

is a healthy

53:55

fat that I'm adding to. When

53:57

I eat an avocado, I think about the healthy fat.

54:00

and it just makes me feel, it's

54:02

not just in my mind, it's

54:04

a whole body experience of just

54:06

feeling like this food feels very

54:08

wholesome. Food is nourishing.

54:11

Yes, it really does. And

54:13

the kitchen is our pharmacy.

54:15

Our use of spices and

54:17

herbs and as you say,

54:20

nature's oils, olive oil,

54:23

not synthetic oils,

54:25

but you're so damaging to

54:27

us. So it does begin with

54:29

awareness, as you say, and then we feel

54:32

it at the sensory level. And I

54:34

think that goes back to where we

54:37

began around social dissociation. There's

54:40

so much trauma that we often don't

54:42

live in our bodies and feel

54:44

our bodies. And there's

54:46

so much inundation of these powerful

54:49

tastes and overwhelming

54:52

sensory experiences that

54:55

we don't experience

54:57

the true nature of, let's say,

54:59

what a celery really tastes like,

55:02

as opposed to some heavily salt-laden

55:05

burger that we might buy at

55:07

a fast food place. So it's

55:09

getting back to our essence and

55:11

our our ability to really use

55:13

our senses as they truly

55:15

exist and not overwhelm them.

55:18

Yeah. And well, you've shown me that

55:20

it's possible to make small changes

55:23

that just become new

55:26

habits. You know, like

55:28

we always put pepper on our arugula and

55:31

my husband makes sure when we have

55:33

that fresh ground. And so good

55:35

for your liver and called bladder

55:38

arugula. Oh, the best

55:40

food there is. Your liver is so happy.

55:42

Oh, good. And I eat my

55:44

salmon. I love my salmon. Oh,

55:47

yeah. Young. When's,

55:49

which I know, like, what do I want

55:51

today? Well,

55:54

I, I always love talking to you and

55:56

we could certainly spend hours, but I know

55:58

you have. other things to

56:00

do, including a plane to catch. But if

56:04

we can take a minute for

56:06

these last two questions that Pesi

56:08

wanted us to discuss, first

56:10

question is, what advice do you

56:12

have for new therapists? Oh,

56:15

we could talk for a long time about this,

56:17

but I think self-care is

56:19

essential. I think we

56:21

should be exercising every day. I think

56:25

we need to build muscle. There's great

56:27

research that shows that the more

56:29

muscle we have, the happier

56:31

we are. So I've got

56:33

a whole new series coming out on muscle

56:35

and mental health. So I think

56:37

we have to take at least an hour

56:40

a day doing exercise.

56:43

And that's part of our

56:45

self-care routine as therapists because

56:47

we're often sedentary. Unless we're

56:50

doing walking therapy, we're

56:52

sitting and we've got to

56:54

move. We have to get

56:56

off the sugar. There are very few no's or

57:01

absolutes in this approach. It doesn't mean

57:03

we can't have an occasional birthday cake.

57:05

That's not what does us in. It's

57:08

sugar every day. So stop

57:11

the self-medicating in

57:13

order to help others, because

57:16

many of us, we talked about being wounded

57:18

healers. We come to this work

57:21

because we have healed

57:23

ourselves to the degree that

57:25

we're now ready to channel

57:27

that and help others.

57:29

We want to help others as

57:31

service in the world, but we

57:35

have to continue to help

57:37

ourselves. We have to continue

57:39

to heal ourselves and

57:42

not engage in those

57:44

traumatic memories of

57:47

self-abnegation or sacrifice

57:50

or lack of self-care

57:52

in the process of helping others.

57:55

That suggests the

57:57

lack of resolution. Yeah. For

1:06:01

more information, please

1:06:03

visit therapychatpodcast.com.