The Enneagram is a personality classification system based on the work and theories of Carl Gustav Jung. 

What is the Enneagram

In early 2023, Brett and I discuss 10 lessons from 2022. https://www.wellandgood.com/best-advice-from-therapists/  

The Best Advice from 2022

Attachment styles play a huge part in successful and enjoyable relationships. But most of us do not even know what our attachment style is.    https://www.verywellhealth.com/insecure-attachment-5220170

Understanding Insecure Attachment

A current buzzword in psychology and also society at large is, entitled child. But before that psychology had a word for those who saw themselves as wonderful and that was narcissism. Are these separate concepts or just opposite sides of the same coin?     https://awarenessact.com/narcissistic-children-are-raised-by-parents-who-do-these-8-things/?fbclid=IwAR1wcd8eu0xHxiY3nW24f3mZ9Dr7zxmg2jo9jwcULvBPhqIt1lcKoDXwJts  

Are There Narcissistic Kids?

Happy New Year to you and your loved ones from us at Psych with Mike. This is a revisit of a conversation that Brett and I had on making resolutions that work. Enjoy and the best of luck in the new year!

How to Create Resolutions You Can Actually Stick With

It's been a long two years. Over this holiday season, many of us may be re-evaluating our behavior in the hopes of making better choices and improving our physical and mental health in the new year. But to do this effectively we need to know what behaviors we may have fallen into that are not the healthiest for us.   https://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbradberry/2016/07/26/10-troubling-habits-of-chronically-unhappy-people/?sh=33018b6b70f3

Habits of Unhealthy People

All of us have past trauma that affects us in the present. It is cliche to hear someone say "you have to let it go". But how do you do this?   https://www.berkeleywellbeing.com/letting-go.html    https://unfoldingtheuniversewithin.com/the-art-of-letting-go-of-the-past/  

The Power of Letting Go

Relationships are at the core of being a healthy human being.  We develop attachment styles as a result of our experiences early in our lives. One of these attachment styles is avoidant attachment. Today we discuss the characteristics of this attachment style and how it impacts our relationships.     https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-clarity/202206/what-is-avoidant-self-attachment  

Avoidant Attachment Style

As better ways of exploring the way our brains are connected become available, we are mapping these connections with greater precision. Does a better, more comprehensive map of the way areas of the brain operate make psychology more of a "hard" science?    https://neurosciencenews.com/amygdala-emotion-20969/  

The Neurology of Fear and Anxiety

We all have heard someone accuse someone of being passive-aggressive. But how many of us really know what that means or how to identify the behavior?     https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/25/the-3-biggest-signs-of-passive-aggressive-and-childish-behavior-harvard-body-language-expert.html    

The Language of Passive Aggression

Therapy and mental health are recognized as being in epidemic-like short supply. With the pandemic and political division, people are finding their mental health has taken a big hit over the last couple of years. And yet there is growing dissatisfaction among therapy devotees and unequal availability of therapy services across socioeconomic domains.   https://www.wired.com/story/therapy-broken-mental-health-challenges/

Why Therapy Sucks

As we move beyond the pandemic we are seeing a significant increase in the number of persons who express that they are feeling lonely. What are the factors that are contributing to this besides the isolation of the pandemic?   https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/understanding-ptsd/202207/how-childhood-trauma-can-lead-adult-loneliness

The Epidemic of Loneliness

We could all use a little boost to our self-esteem. You're welcome!  https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/18/want-to-sound-and-feel-more-confident-ditch-these-11-phrases-from-your-vocabulary-say-psychologists.html 

Self Talk to Boost Your Confidence

Studies indicate that the human attention span has significantly shortened since the rise of social media. Why is it getting so hard for us to focus our attention?     https://www.ranieriandco.com/post/changing-attention-span-and-what-it-means-for-content-in-2021    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/apr/16/got-a-minute-global-attention-span-is-narrowing-study-reveals  

What is Happening to the Human Attention Span?

Enlightenment, self-actualization, and, mindfulness are ideal states of being that we are all striving for. But what is the neuroscience that supports the idea that enlightenment is a real phenomenon that has beneficial effects?    https://bigthink.com/the-well/neuroscience-of-enlightenment/  

The Neuroscience of Enlightenment

Should you go or not go to Thanksgiving? Are you the one tearing the family apart when you identify familial dysfunction? Good questions.  https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/brothers-sisters-strangers/202206/how-family-estrangement-echoes-across-generations  

The Psychological Consequences of Family Estrangement

Sure your therapist has framed pieces of paper on the wall, but how do you truly know if your therapist is any good?   https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/get-out-your-mind/202209/how-tell-you-have-good-therapist    

How to Know if Your Therapist is Any Good

Sometimes a child's parent goes beyond the stereotypical defaming of the other parent. When this happens we have to think of this process as similar to the type of programming associated with a cult.     https://www.familylawpleasanton.com/blog/2020/10/the-8-symptoms-of-parental-alienation/  

Parental Alienation Syndrome

Have you ever wondered what is the most important question in psychotherapy? No spoilers here just check out the conversation!    https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/insight-therapy/202209/the-most-important-question-in-therapy   Transcript:  you're listening to psych with Mike for more episodes or to connect with the show with comments ideas or to be a    0:07  guest go to www.psychwithmike.com follow the show on    0:12  Twitter at psych with Mike or like the Facebook page at psych with Mike now    0:18  here's psych with Mike welcome into the site with Mike Library this is Dr Michael Mahon and I am here with Mr Brett Newcombe hello the uh psych with    0:26  Mike Library window is open that's a new way to start yeah I mean I    0:32  guess people could walk by and ask for ice cream but you can either look in the window or jump out yeah whichever you    0:37  want whichever you feel is how do you feel about that I I feel really good about it I'm the point is that it's it's    0:45  very nice outside and after the summer that we've had in St Louis I am really    0:53  glad that the weather is milder it's been a beautiful week yeah so uh we    1:01  don't even need to get into global warming because that's because that's a crazy kind of divisive    1:07  topic but uh it was really hot this summer yeah and it's hard still hot in    1:14  major sections of the country and the world yeah it and and when you look at what's been going on in India uh in a    1:21  third of the country underwater that's I can't even conceive of what that would    1:27  be like yeah so anyway so I'm glad that we're going to get some milder temperatures I am uh a feared that the    1:37  Farmer's Almanac is predicting a tremendous amount of snow in the St    1:44  Louis area for this winter so we'll see how how that works out yeah    1:50  so how are you today I'm doing well you don't want to talk about anything we were talking about before the before we    1:56  started this do you no okay because there's been lots of stuff going    2:03  on there is always always interesting in doing therapy people come in and it's    2:08  like there's always going on lots of stuff going on yeah so    2:14  um when you were doing therapy I think that    2:19  uh probably each individual person doing    2:26  therapy has their own style obviously yes yeah    2:34  and probably most people would have a different answer to this question but    2:39  what was your favorite or most important question in therapy    2:52  how are you this week and what would you like to talk about so what's hot what's Burning uh in your    3:00  mind your Mentor slash hero um    3:05  blanking on his name yellow yeah Irving yallum uh uh his intro question was what    3:14  hails so in all of his books that's how he would start out all of his therapy    3:20  sessions what what else what else yeah um which I always found pedantic and    3:28  beatnik like yeah but uh but yeah I mean he always wore the bl

The Most Important Question in Therapy

Sometimes it is important to try and re-focus our perspective. A great deal of anxiety is about the privilege we enjoy because of the place we live. Trying to understand that concept can help us consider how the perspective of the world at large. Refocusing is an essential tool for reducing anxiety.    https://forge.medium.com/panic-is-a-luxury-c4330107b80a   Transcript:  you're listening to psych with Mike for more episodes or to connect with the show with comments ideas or to be a    0:07  guest go to www.sitewithmike.com follow the show on    0:12  Twitter at psych with Mike or like the Facebook page at psych with Mike now    0:18  here's psychic welcome in Insight with Mike Library this is Dr Michael Mahon and I'm here    0:24  with my good friend and colleague Mr Brett Newcombe I love it when you say that which part good friend or colleague    0:30  both because it gives me some identity yeah well I I am very aware    0:38  um that there was a period of time where I was an experiment for you    0:44  Oh I thought I kept that better hidden oh no you used to tell me that all the time I don't know how how you thought it    0:51  was hidden when you used to say that you used to say like those words to me well you're just really an experiment well I    0:57  mean if if you were feeling anxiety about that it's exactly what I wanted you to feel because anxiety can be a    1:03  motivator yeah and I was trying to motivate you well I was if you don't turn your sound machine you're going to    1:08  fail I was initially reluctant to believe that you would care enough about    1:14  me to want to be my friend well and I understood that and you said well there were reasons why but I'm in a period of    1:20  my life where I'm trying to be a better person and I'm using that I can bring    1:25  along as an opportunity to try and yeah I promise a turd yeah yeah and I was    1:31  like oh no thanks that's wonderful okay now you're making me anxious yeah so so    1:38  uh do you get anxious a must it's part of the human condition    1:43  yeah but I don't know that anxiety is a part of the human condition and this is why I say that because    1:50  where even if there are other uh psychological conditions that may be    1:58  actually linked to some kind of chemical imbalance or some neural processing I    2:04  don't think things I I've always believed anxiety is a thought disorder and so if you can correct the thought    2:13  disorder then you don't have anxiety so what I mean by that is that anxiety generalized anxiety other than the    2:19  fear-based anxieties I believe we should make a distinction between fear-based non-fear-based anxieties okay say more    2:26  so fear-based anxieties which are like post-traumatic stress disorder things like that those actually are ways in    2:33  which the brain processes information incorrectly so instead of the cortex    2:39  which is the area of your brain where rational thought lives processing informati

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