Discovered this last week. Still not sure what I think.
Positives:
Host is feminist and body positive. Some useful/practical ideas for improving mental health, mostly grounded in a CBT perspective.
Unsure:
Her main position that is reiterated constantly is “thoughts cause feelings and you control your thoughts. Change your thoughts and you can change your feelings.” OK, in many contexts this is true, but doesn’t seem to be a very trauma-informed perspective. She does have at least one episode (#86, I think?) that touches on trauma, but I havent been able to listen to the whole thing while awake yet (I keep falling asleep while it is playing).
Anyway, just wondering if anyone else here has listened to it and if so what your take on it is. If there are “red flag” episodes maybe I can skip to those and see if it is something I want to keep in my rotation or not.
I only listened to a couple episodes. I think my issue was more her style than the CBT perspective, but it might be worth looking for a DBT podcast instead.
I haven’t, but I have a number of friends who swear by it.
If it’s CBT-based, then I agree with you that it will work less well on trauma. I found CBT extremely helpful for certain anxieties (like around my job) but anything rooted in trauma - nope. My brain wouldn’t hear it. It’s my experience that my trauma-related feelings have little or nothing to do with thoughts; it’s more like my body just randomly spits stuff out at me without a conscious thought behind it.
Exactly. I know that some of the mental processing/spinning I do in the wake of having a response to something that triggers me physically might be something I can work on controlling better. But things like jerking awake in a panic when someone nudges me to make me stop snoring, or flinching when I feel a car is going out of control? Those are deeply wired physical reactions to real events in my past and not something I made up or can just stop doing without other types of intervention (still considering EMDR).
Let me know if you find a good trauma-informed podcast. I agree with TrisPrior that I’ve found CBT helpful for the surface stuff but it hasn’t helped the underlying and harder issues. My current therapist is helping me with ABC (action, beliefs, commitment) therapy, but I’m also not entirely sure if it’s the most useful for trauma.
It’s not billed as “Trauma Focused” - but in some ways, it is - I’ve found Brene Browns “Unlocking Us” to be a helpful tool for thought about generational violence/trauma related stuff - especially in dealing with the more subtle nuances of how it can affect a person. I’m pretty non-religious (read: spiritual, but atheist) - she does cover/use religion for some of her context but it was very palatable for me.
Might be worth a checkout - I’ve only talked with my Aunt about it who is the one who introduced me to her - would be curious to hear OMD thoughts if anyone picks it up for a listen.
