My guest this week is Dr. Yael Schonbrun, a clinical psychologist with an excellent new book entitled Work, Parent, Thrive: 12 Science-Backed Strategies to Ditch Guilt, Manage Overwhelm, and Grow Connection (When Everything Feels Like Too Much) . This episode is part 2 in a 4-part series on parenting. As you’ll hear in our discussion, Yael has a gift for both/and thinking. She acknowledges the conflict between our roles as parents and people who work for pay, and also underscores the ways that t...
Dec 07, 2022•49 min
My guest this week is Dr. Rebecca Schrag Hershberg, author of the excellent book for parents, The Tantrum Survival Guide (affiliate link). Rebecca shared some of her top tips for being a more effective parent, which starts with the simple recognition that we all struggle at times in our relationships with our kids. One of the biggest takeaways is about being present with our kids and finding ways to pause when emotions are high so that we can make better choices. (Which sounds a lot like what we...
Dec 01, 2022•38 min
This week I’m flying solo on the podcast. It’s great to be back with you and I have a few updates since the last episode. I’ll also tell you more about my new book, Mindful Cognitive Behavioral Therapy , which will be released on Dec. 6, 2022, and I read a passage from the first chapter. In the rest of the episode I share with you some of the most effective ways to manage constant and uncontrollable worry. Get full access to Think Act Be with Seth Gillihan at thinkactbe.substack.com/subscribe...
Nov 23, 2022•40 min
My guest this week is Dr. Rachel Turow, author of the forthcoming book, The Self-Talk Workout: Six Science-Backed Strategies to Dissolve Self-Criticism and Transform the Voice in Your Head (affiliate link). In this final part of our series on managing stress, we explored how the way we talk to ourselves is closely tied to our stress levels. Rachel shared some powerful exercises for practicing self-kindness, including a guided exercise you can take part in. Toward the end she described ways to co...
Aug 17, 2022•36 min
My guest this week is Rebecca Ward, author of the book The Paper Tiger Syndrome: How to Liberate Yourself from the Illusion of Fear (affiliate link). Rebecca has a lot of expertise in effective stress management, and we explored the somatic-based approach she uses to help people regulate their body in order to manage stress. We also discussed the vagus nerve, which plays a central role in how we deal with stress, and it's of special interest to me based on some of my own health challenges. Towar...
Aug 03, 2022•36 min
My guest this week is Dr. Alice Boyes, back on the podcast for the third time for our series on managing stress. I wanted to talk with Alice because she has a phenomenal new book called Stress-Free Productivity (affiliate link), and she shares lots of great advice for how to get things done without stressing yourself out. We also talked about how trauma can affect our stress reactions, and how to be more self-compassionate toward ourselves when we’re struggling. Alice is a good friend and a real...
Jul 20, 2022•41 min
My guest this week for Part 1 in our series on managing stress is clinical psychologist Dr. Melissa Hunt. We discussed her work on treating irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), which is common, poorly understood, and rarely treated effectively. As Melissa described so well, unmanaged IBS can be incredibly distressing and debilitating. Fortunately there is effective treatment, including a protocol that Melissa developed based in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). She does a great job describing the b...
Jul 06, 2022•42 min
My guest this week is clinical psychologist Dr. Daisy Singla. We talked about the exciting research that Daisy is doing, both in North America and throughout the world. I think what I love most about her work is that she’s finding truly innovative ways to address the global mental health care crisis. There are just too many of us in need of help to be able to meet these needs with the current model of long, expensive therapy with a highly trained specialist. Much of our conversation focused on i...
Jun 15, 2022•26 min
My guest this week for part three of this series on depression is Dr. Willem Kuyken. He knows all about depression, both from his personal experience since early in life as well as from his extensive research. In this episode you’ll hear about mindfulness for depression, which Willem explains so clearly, and why it’s so helpful. The benefits of being mindful extend not just to managing depression but to all of life, including helping us to deal with life’s pain and disappointments that all of us...
Jun 08, 2022•36 min
My guest this week is therapist and author Dr. Carissa Gustafson, who wrote an excellent book called Reclaim Your Life: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in 7 Weeks (affiliate link). We focused on using ACT to treat depression, since this is the second installment of our series on effective ways to manage depression. As you’ll hear, ACT is a form of cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT, but it has a really different emphasis, especially in how we deal with the negative thoughts that are so common...
Jun 01, 2022•35 min
This is the first part of a four-part series on depression, and my first guest in the series is Dr. Steven Hollon. As you’ll hear, Steve is extremely knowledgeable about the current state of depression research, and he shares some mind-blowing findings that go against some of the core assumptions about depression, like that it’s caused by low serotonin. We also talk about how well medication and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) work to treat depression, and why therapy is so much better at pre...
May 25, 2022•42 min
My guest this week is Dr. Joel Minden. He’s back for our series finale in this 4-part series on effective ways to manage anxiety. This time we applied his 3-step program from his book Show Your Anxiety Who’s Boss (affiliate link) to managing fear and anxiety in OCD, panic, and worry, including examples from my own life in these areas. As I try to make clear in our discussion, many people experience more severe versions of what I describe, and there’s no quick and easy fix for overwhelming anxiet...
May 11, 2022•48 min
My guest this week is Dr. Joel Minden. He’s back for the third part of our four-part series on effective ways to manage anxiety, based on his book, Show Your Anxiety Who’s Boss (affiliate link). So if you’re dealing with a lot of anxiety, and are even feeling overwhelmed by anxiety, you’ll find a lot of guidance in this discussion for how you can find relief. We even talk some about how we can use humor to diffuse anxiety, and how Joel does that in his own life. As always I had a great talk with...
May 04, 2022•37 min
My guest this week is Dr. Joel Minden. He’s back for part 2 of our 4-part series on finding peace when we’re overwhelmed by anxiety. We’re talking again about the approach he describes in his excellent book, Show Your Anxiety Who’s Boss . This time we focus on effective ways to face our fears to move through anxiety and conquer the anxious avoidance that can really shrink our lives. As always, Joel offers super helpful insights for conquering your anxiety. I’m especially a fan of his “do it anyw...
Apr 27, 2022•40 min
My guest this week is Dr. Joel Minden, back for his fourth time on the podcast and the first of a four-part series on anxiety. All the techniques we discuss are drawn from Joel’s fantastic book, Show Your Anxiety Who’s Boss (affiliate link) . In this conversation we focus on effective ways to deal with anxious thoughts. As you’ll hear, Joel has some really helpful ways to get out of the anxious mental ruts we often find ourselves in. If you enjoy this conversation, be sure to check out the other...
Apr 20, 2022•38 min
My guest this week is Nick Davies, a professional coach with twenty years of experience in the corporate world. Nick and I spoke before on the podcast, back in 2020. This time we focused on the importance of awareness and goals if we want to make real changes in our life. Toward the end, Nick shared some really great insights about how to find the right path if you’re not sure how to get started. Get full access to Think Act Be with Seth Gillihan at thinkactbe.substack.com/subscribe...
Feb 23, 2022•40 min
My guest this week is Shane Claiborne, a sought-after speaker, beloved activist, and best-selling author. I had such a meaningful time talking with Shane and hearing his passion for connecting with other people and seeing through the false divisions that alienate us from each other, and really caring deeply for the most vulnerable among us. This conversation is for you if you’re a Christian, or you used to be, or you love someone who’s a Christian, or you hate Christianity, and especially if you...
Feb 09, 2022•49 min
My guest this week is Janine Kwoh, who has a new book called Welcome to the Grief Club . As you’ll hear, Janine has her own experience with heartbreaking grief that became the basis for this book. This conversation is for you if you’re dealing with your own loss of someone you loved, or if you want to learn more effective ways to help someone you love who’s hurting. I know there’s so much fear around saying the wrong thing, which can get in the way of really showing up for someone. Janine and I ...
Feb 02, 2022•47 min
My guest this week (for the second time) is Caroline Wright. Caroline has written a phenomenal book called Soup Club (affiliate link), and we talk in this episode about how food is so much more than calories and nutrients. It also feeds our spirits, and that may be especially true for soup. You’ll hear in our discussion how Caroline came up with the idea of an actual soup club, and why the recipes in her book are so successful, which I can vouch for personally. I think you’ll really enjoy our co...
Jan 26, 2022•44 min
My guest this week is psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Reid. We focused on how to fix insomnia, which Jenna and I both treat in our clinical practices. I’ve also been through years of poor sleep due to my health struggles, so I know firsthand what a drag it is when you just want to sleep but aren’t able to. Jenna and I discussed the best ways to get good sleep, and the downsides of many of the common sleep medications. The great news is that most people get a lot of benefit pretty quickly from a sleep ...
Jan 12, 2022•50 min
My guest this week is Dr. Stephen Schueller, who’s been working in the field of digital interventions for the past fifteen years. I’ve been really interested in this area because of my own work with a mental health app called Bloom , so I was excited to talk with Stephen about his experience and perspective. One of the coolest things from our conversation was thinking about how to really get the most out of digital interventions—not just trying to recreate the standard therapy experience through...
Jan 05, 2022•50 min
My guest this week is empath and author Signe Myers Hovem, who recently wrote The Space in Between: An Empath’s Field Guide (affiliate link). I was familiar with what it meant to be an empath before this conversation, but Signe does a lot to explain what the experience is actually like. Interestingly there are many people who don’t realize that they have empathic sensitivities, as well as people who think they’re empaths but really haven’t developed those abilities. We also discussed how to dist...
Dec 22, 2021•51 min
My guest this week is Gary Pilarchik, author of the excellent new book The Modern Homestead Garden (affiliate link). Gary hosts The Rusted Garden channel on YouTube which guides viewers through all the steps in growing your own food. I love Gary’s no-nonsense, low-stress approach to gardening, and wasn’t surprised to learn that he had a background as a mental health therapist. His understanding of human psychology really comes across in his gardening videos, and in our discussion. I know you’ll ...
Dec 15, 2021•57 min
My guest this week is Dr. Ilia Delio. We had a great conversation based around her fascinating new book, The Hours of the Universe: Reflections on God, Science, and the Human Journey (affiliate link). Ilia has such an interesting background as both a scientist and a theologian, and she’s integrating these disciplines in ways that can breathe new life into issues of both science and faith. As you’ll hear, this is much deeper than trying to “reconcile” science and religion. I loved this discussion...
Dec 08, 2021•47 min
My guest this week is Dr. Alice Boyes, author of the forthcoming book Stress-Free Productivity (affiliate link; available March 2022). Alice was a guest on the podcast all the way back in episode 11, and as always she shares some great ways to improve your life. Alice has a powerful way of bringing together things that we might think of as opposites—especially self-care and productivity. She shares a lot of the practices that she finds most helpful herself, and she also explains why self-compass...
Dec 01, 2021•50 min
My guest this week is Jennifer Shannon, author of the new book, The Monkey Mind Workout for Perfectionism (affiliate link). Jennifer and I explored what perfectionism is, which may be different from what you think. It includes all the ways we rigidly hold ourselves to unrealistic standards. Jennifer offers many simple and effective ways to let go of perfectionism, which you’ll hear about in this episode. When we’re able to let go of our perfectionistic impulses, we can experience less stress and...
Nov 17, 2021•45 min
My guest this week is Pamela Seelig, author of the recent book Threads of Yoga: Themes, Reflections, & Meditations to Weave into Your Practice (affiliate link). Pam and I talked a lot about the healing and stress relief we can find through yoga, and also about the deeper spiritual elements that are available through the practice. I appreciated thinking with her about the intersections between yoga and religion, especially the Christianity I grew up in. We also discussed why savasana, or the ...
Nov 03, 2021•49 min
My guest this week is Shelly Tygielski, author of the recent book, Sit Down to Rise Up: How Radical Self-Care Can Change the World . Shelly is doing some really remarkable things, though she insists that anyone can do the things she does if we’re just willing to show up as ourselves and take some risks. What she’s doing is even more remarkable when you hear about the illness that she’s had to deal with for the past twenty years or so. But then again, our struggles often make us who we are, and l...
Oct 27, 2021•56 min
My guest this week is Dr. Kristin Kobes Du Mez, author of a recent book called Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation . We explored the definition of an “evangelical,” which apparently I was for the first half of my life (without realizing it), and themes of a patriarchal, male-centered, even toxic masculinity that pervades many evangelical circles. We also considered how it is that evangelical Christianity became so wrapped up in notions of patriot...
Oct 13, 2021•1 hr 16 min
My guest this week is Amanda Gilbert, author of the recent book, Kindness Now: A 28-Day Guide to Living with Authenticity, Intention, and Compassion . As Amanda and I discussed, we could all do with a little more kindness right now—for ourselves, for others, for the world. She introduces the traditional Buddhist heart practices known as the brahma-viharas : loving-kindness , compassion , appreciative joy , and equanimity . The practices she offers will help you to be more resilient in the face o...
Oct 06, 2021•1 hr 6 min
