Using MDMA therapy to improve relationships and manage conflict
Bear Psychology Podcast
MDMA or 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine is a synthetic psychoactive medicine that alters mood and perception. It has been shown to be highly effective for treating trauma. Some studies have shown 71% to 86% of participants achieved clinically meaningful improvements, and about half no longer met the diagnostic criteria for PTSD. It is now being used to address relational conflict and improving relationships. The book Ecstasy for Couples was written to better understand this exploratory intervention and how couples are using MDMA to better understand each other and work on...
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Caring for patients with kindness and connection
Bear Psychology Podcast
This guide for mental health professionals offers an insightful, conversational approach to mastering empathic communication with clients. Dr. Douglas Flemons invites readers to join him in a dialogue that incorporates voices from clinical research and practice, philosophy (both Eastern and Western), neuroscience, and the arts. In his book, “Empathic Engagement in Clinical Practice,” Douglas explains the nuts and bolts of empathy and offers guidelines for how therapists can make sense of clients’ thoughts, feelings, and choices from inside their worldview. He also shows how the...
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The Strength to Serve: Mental Health for First Responders & Care Providers
Bear Psychology Podcast
First responders and healthcare professionals are trained to manage crisis — but repeated exposure to trauma, loss, and high-stakes decision-making can take a cumulative toll. Over time, this can lead to emotional exhaustion, sleep disruption, irritability, and disconnection — not because of weakness, but because the nervous system has been under sustained demand without adequate recovery. In this podcast, psychologist and author Tania Bielak, Ph.D. shares insights from her book The Strength to Serve, offering practical, evidence-based strategies to support mental health in...
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Addiction and the Journey to Enlightenment
Bear Psychology Podcast
Addiction isn’t just about pain—it can also be a call to something greater. The darkest paths can sometimes lead to the brightest truths by walking the path from suffering to self-discovery. In his book, “The Shadow of a Figure of Light: The Archetype of the Alcoholic and the Journey to Enlightenment” (2024) Cody Peterson explores the essence of Psycho-Spiritual transformation. Peterson looks at addiction as a pathway to wholeness. His book serves as both a guide and a mirror for those seeking to understand the hidden patterns behind self-destruction and the redemptive power...
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Using Polyvagal Theory for Healing
Bear Psychology Podcast
Listen to us as we discuss how you can rewire your nervous system for lasting calm, connection, and resilience with cutting-edge, polyvagal theory-based activities. Whether you have suffered a single traumatic experience or faced repeated difficult life events, you can be left feeling hypervigilant, irritable, and disconnected. Daily tasks like attending a work meeting or social gathering can feel overwhelming or even frightening. Most therapies for treating trauma require you to “revisit” your traumatic experience in potentially triggering ways. Best-selling author Dr. Arielle Schwartz...
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The Relationships Workbook for BPD
Bear Psychology Podcast
The Relationships Workbook for BPD - Bear Psychology Radio hosted by Dr. Anna Baranowsky with guest Dr. Daniel J. Fox. When intense emotions, fear of abandonment, or distorted expectations consume you, relationships can slowly erode, replaced by feelings of resentment and hostility. Unstable and high-conflict relationships are a hallmark of borderline personality disorder (BPD). In his book, “The Relationships Workbook for BPD”, Daniel J. Fox guides you step-by-step to help explore beliefs, behaviours and patterns that sabotage connection. Instead you learn how to repair relationships...
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Inner Growth for emotional healing
Bear Psychology Podcast
Many people associate the term "enlightenment" with images of a solitary figure sitting atop a distant mountain peak or a monk focused intently on meditation, but what does this concept look like when navigating our lives in today’s complex society? Enlightment, at its core, is about gaining awareness and awakening ourselves to the interconnected nature of existence. Dr. Steve Taylor, a renowned spiritual psychologist, has devoted his life to investigating spiritual awakening. His previous bestselling books provided case histories of dozens of people who experienced profound shifts in...
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The Power of Psychoanalysis
Bear Psychology Podcast
From alleviating recurring nightmares to finding oneself by discovering your family’s secret past, psychoanalysis is a turbulent but rewarding form of psychotherapy. Sigmund Freud was the founder of psychoanalysis establishing it in the 1890’s. The approach includes a focus on the unconscious mind, dream interpretation and talk therapy for addressing mental disturbances. Psychoanalysis continues to be a valuable path for gaining inner freedom from a host of mental struggles. In her book, “Untangling: A Memoir of Psychoanalysis” Joan Peters takes us through her journey of...
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Divorce and New Beginnings
Bear Psychology Podcast
Using Self-Compassion practices after divorce can help both parents and children. Divorce and/or separation is a stressful but quite common experience for both parents and children. Children often carry guilt, shame, and anger along with many other big feelings that parents often feel ill-equipped to address. In her book, “Two Times as Much Love” Eileen Beltzner tells the story of Alexander, a third-grader struggling with the emotional aftermath of his parents’ divorce, and his journey toward self-understanding and personal growth. Beltzner uses engaging storytelling and...
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Schizoid Personality Disorder and a life of challenge
Bear Psychology Podcast
Blair Sorrel shares her journey of living with Schizoid Personality Disorder and learning to accept and love herself. She undercovers further elements of her life growing up in a family of origin where she experienced ridicule leading to low self-worth, social anxiety and a debilitating fear of authority figures. She explores a home life with “poor parenting” which undermined her academic and career disappointments. She reflects on the importance of nurturing caregivers to allow the flourishing of Intelligence and genetics toward success. In her book, “A Schizoid at Smith: How...
info_outline"The most terrifying thing is to accept yourself fully" – Carl Jung
We'll start by recognizing that we are much more than the surface image we present to others while at the same time exploring why for many, we guard our interior world so very carefully, in fear that others will see us for who we really are.
It begs the question – Who and what are we really guarding from others, and why? We will discuss what happens when these facades break down, and what we can see more clearly. By breaking down barriers within ourselves we can give permission to see our vulnerabilities, our strong emotions, our deep desires and our drives.
When these deeper drivers create problems in our lives, it can create a cycle where we feel an instant dread or hate towards what lies deep inside ourselves. What kinds of relationships do we create if we see something in others that we despise only to discover it within ourselves? This is your Shadow.
You are MORE than these barriers to YOU... Recognizing the deeper layers of who you are and the unconscious drivers in your life, allows your true personality to shine through.
From a psychological point of view the Shadow is a part of your personality (an unconscious part) that we resist recognizing or admitting to. This is the part of us that would say "not me, I didn't do it, or I hate it when others do it" whatever "it" is. The Shadow will likely be something that someone in our life is telling us we are guilty of that we do not want to know or see. This "it" might be perceived as positive by some, and negatively by others.
By integrating this "it" and knowing how it exists within us, can free up of much of our own inner battles. If we wish to grow in our self-understanding, we should know how the Shadow lives within us so we can either embrace it or work with the impulse to hide it as it surfaces with a full recognition of the power it has in our responses or reactions.
In our day-to-day world, we often trade on platitudes such as "it will be Ok; don't worry; get over it". These superficial responses often find us feeling alone and misunderstood. This is especially the case when we feel what is deeper within us pushing to the surface for the breathing space letting us face and witness our Shadow.
Opening the door to this journey to meet our Shadow may be our biggest step towards growth. While it is filled with fearful self-examinations that we may want to continually reject, we are being propelled to look beneath the surface time and time again to meet who we truly are.
Links & Resources:
Shadow Work Journal – by Jessica Cross (2015): https://bit.ly/2zftl5p
Shadow Work Guide – by Scott Jeffrey (2017): https://bit.ly/2WU1Rv0
Dr. Gerald May – "The Dark Night of the Soul" 2005: https://bit.ly/2ZshcVn
Psychology Today: https://bit.ly/3eaLiAK
Carl Jung and the Shadow – The mechanics of your dark shadow: https://bit.ly/36x2Rsg
Jordan Peterson in integrating the shadow: https://bit.ly/2zrqRAJ
Emerald – Shadow Work Explained – Jungian Psychology: https://bit.ly/2ZuTVlF
Ernest Becker –Immortality Projects & his famous book The Denial of Death: https://bit.ly/2XiDsOI