Being Well with Forrest Hanson and Dr. Rick Hanson - Rick Hanson, Ph.D., Forrest Hanson

Latest Episodes:

10 Skills We Can't Live Without: Part 1 Nov 01, 2021

Show notes

Dr. Rick and Forrest Hanson explore which key inner strengths and psychological skills they truly feel like they couldn’t live without. In the first of two episodes dedicated to this topic, they talk about benevolence, patience, curiosity, self-regulation, and grit.

Watch the Episode: Prefer watching video? You can watch this episode on YouTube.

From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Our holiday sale is going on now, and podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 for another 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.

Key Topics:

0:00: Introduction

3:00: What do you take with you?

4:15: Benevolence.

8:10: Patience.

12:15: What helps us learn how to wait?

16:40: The value of “asking the question.”

17:30: Curiosity.

22:30: Self-regulation.

28:30: Regulation enabling exploration.

32:30: Grit.

40:50: Recap

Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link.

Sponsors:

From Boston Globe Media comes a new podcast, TURNING POINTS, a show about navigating mental health. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Find the new CBD+ performance gummies and the whole dosist health line-up today at dosisthealth.com. Use promo code BEINGWELL20 for 20% off your purchase.

Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!

Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription.

Connect with the show:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Healing Your Attachment Wounds with Dr. Diane Poole Heller Oct 25, 2021

Show notes

Dr. Rick and Forrest Hanson focus on two of our most important subjects, attachment wounds and traumatic experiences, with a longtime therapist, trainer of therapists, and world-class expert on attachment theory: Dr. Diane Poole Heller.

About our Guest: Dr. Heller focuses on using somatic, or body-based, approaches to help people resolve the painful experiences and negative patterns that hold us back. Her work on adult attachment has created a path for adults with childhood attachment injuries to develop the secure attachment skills that lead to more connected and fulfilling adult relationships.

Key Topics:

2:30: What is attachment, and why should we care?

4:45: Secure attachment.

7:50: Avoidant attachment.

12:30: The potential for movement toward secure attachment.

16:00: Ambivalent (or anxious) attachment.

20:45: Disorganized attachment.

24:15: Somatic approaches to attachment wounds.

29:50: Allowing the body to move out of threat.

34:10: Secure attachment skills.

38:55: Repatterning ourselves.

47:20: Becoming more secure in connection.

50:30: Three questions to help calm relational activation.

55:45: A message to your younger self.

56:45: Recap

Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link.

Sponsors:

From Boston Globe Media comes a new podcast, TURNING POINTS, a show about navigating mental health. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Find the new CBD+ performance gummies and the whole dosist health line-up today at dosisthealth.com. Use promo code BEINGWELL20 for 20% off your purchase.

Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!

Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription.

Connect with the show:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Building a Better Relationship with Yourself Oct 18, 2021

Show notes

The most important relationship we have is with ourselves. You’re the only person you’ll be around every minute of every day for the rest of your life. And, unfortunately, that relationship is often our most difficult one. Today Dr. Rick and Forrest Hanson explore how we can become better friends to ourselves, and learn to like ourselves more.

Watch the Episode: Prefer watching video? You can watch this episode on YouTube.

Key Topics:

0:00: Introduction

2:20: What does it mean to “like ourselves?”

5:20: Why don’t people like themselves?

11:50: Giving yourself the same breaks you give others.

14:10: Regulating impulses.

19:15: Does “liking ourselves more” make someone narcissistic?

24:30: What supported Rick in liking himself more?

29:00: Seeing yourself clearly.

32:30: The IFS model and the caring committee.

36:30: Our nurturing parts.

39:10: A practicing of being for yourself.

45:10: Recap.

Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link.

Sponsors:

From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.

From Boston Globe Media comes a new podcast, TURNING POINTS, a show about navigating mental health. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Find the new CBD+ performance gummies and the whole dosist health line-up today at dosisthealth.com. Use promo code BEINGWELL20 for 20% off your purchase.

Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!

Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription.

Connect with the show:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to Create a Relationship That Lasts Oct 11, 2021

Show notes

How can we create relationships that last? On this episode of Being Well, Dr. Rick and Forrest Hanson lean on Rick's 35+ years of couples counseling experience to explore how we can build relationships that are loving, healthy, enjoyable, and reliable. This includes learning the structure of most relationship problems, how to make vulnerable communications, and how to stay open to change.

Watch the Episode: Prefer watching video? You can watch this episode on YouTube.

Key Topics:

0:00: Introduction

2:15: What issues brought couples into therapy most often?

4:50: The structure of most relationship problems.

12:30: Giving your partner what they need.

15:30: What differentiated couples that improved from those that didn’t?

21:15: Skills that increase the chances of building a good relationship.

21:45: Loving vs. liking.

25:00: Deliberately activating feelings of “liking.”

27:00: Getting “on the side” of the relationship.

31:10: How to make a vulnerable communication.

39:15: Openness to change.

43:40: Three red flags in relationships.

46:00: Practices to deepen your relationship with your partner.

54:30: Recap

Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link.

Sponsors:

Find the new CBD+ performance gummies and the whole dosist health line-up today at dosisthealth.com. Use promo code BEINGWELL20 for 20% off your purchase.

New Day from Lemonada just premiered on September 15th - listen wherever you get podcasts.

Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!

Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription.

Connect with the show:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Unwinding Anxiety and Addiction with Dr. Jud Brewer Oct 04, 2021

Show notes

In one of our favorite conversations, Dr. Jud Brewer joins us to explore the habit of anxiety, mindfulness practices to heal addiction, and what we can learn from the brains of the world’s most advanced meditators.

About Our Guest: Dr. Jud is a psychiatrist, neuroscientist and New York Times best-selling author. He’s the director of research and innovation at Brown University’s Mindfulness Center, where he also serves as an associate professor, as well as the executive medical director of behavioral health at Sharecare Inc.

Dr. Jud is also the author of The Craving Mind and Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind.

Watch the Episode: Prefer watching video? You can watch this episode on YouTube.

Key Topics:

2:00: What got Jud from psychiatry to studying mindfulness?

5:45: Addiction and the structure of habits.

10:15: Mindfulness as a treatment for addiction.

14:00: Liking without wanting.

19:45: Habit formation and reward-based learning.

24:00: Awareness, and honoring your experience.

26:15: Curiosity.

28:10: The “habit” of anxiety.

32:00: Anxiety’s habit loop.

34:45: The true purpose of worrying.

39:00: Generalized vs. acute anxiety.

41:00: Anxiety and performance.

46:20: Practices for unwinding from anxiety.

54:45: Learning from the brains of experienced practitioners.

1:03:30: Recap

Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link.

Sponsors:

Find the new CBD+ performance gummies and the whole dosist health line-up today at dosisthealth.com. Use promo code BEINGWELL20 for 20% off your purchase.

New Day from Lemonada just premiered on September 15th - listen wherever you get podcasts.

Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!

Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription.

Connect with the show:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Debunking Self-Help's BIGGEST Myths: No Pain No Gain, Hedonic Adaptation, and Meditation Sep 27, 2021

Show notes

In the second of two episodes, Dr. Rick and Forrest Hanson explore common self-help myths and misconceptions, including ones related to hedonic adaptation, "no pain no gain," and meditation.

Watch the Episode: Prefer watching video? You can watch this episode on YouTube.

Key Topics:

0:00: Introduction

2:30: Misconception #1: People can’t really change in lasting ways/Hedonic adaptation stops people from becoming happier.

17:00: Misconception #2: No pain, no gain. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

27:50: Misconception #3: You can only meditate by sitting quietly on a cushion.

41:15: Misconception #4: I can heal myself all on my own. Relying on a therapist means something is “wrong” with me.

50:00: Misconception #5: All therapy is talk therapy. It’s really cognitive and top-down.

57:45: Recap

Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link.

Sponsors:

Find the new CBD+ performance gummies and the whole dosist health line-up today at dosisthealth.com. Use promo code BEINGWELL20 for 20% off your purchase.

New Day from Lemonada just premiered on September 15th - listen wherever you get podcasts.

Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!

Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription.

Connect with the show:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Self-Help's BIGGEST Misconceptions: Therapy, Trauma, and Resilience Sep 20, 2021

Show notes

As mental health and the psychological sciences have gone increasingly mainstream, so too have some common misconceptions and misunderstandings. In the first of two episodes, Dr. Rick and Forrest Hanson explore some of the biggest misconceptions related to therapy, trauma, and what it means to be "resilient."

Watch the Episode: Prefer watching video? You can watch this episode on YouTube.

Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Membership includes expanded show notes and transcripts of the episodes.

Key Topics:

0:00: Introduction

2:10: Misconception #1: "Personal growth is narcissistic."

5:05: The social value of individual growth.

10:25: Misconception #2: "Well-being is all about individual effort."

18:50: Misconception #3: "Therapy is for people who are messed up."

23:00: Misconception #4: "If I go to therapy, I'll become dependent on it."

30:00: Misconception #5: "If I go to therapy, it'll destabilize me or mess me up."

34:45: Misconception #6: "People use the word 'trauma' too much. These days EVERYTHING is a 'trauma.'"

43:50: How we define what is and isn't stressful.

48:10: Recap

Sponsors:

Find the new CBD+ performance gummies and the whole dosist health line-up today at dosisthealth.com. Use promo code BEINGWELL20 for 20% off your purchase.

New Day from Lemonada just premiered on September 15th - listen wherever you get podcasts.

Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!

Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription.

Connect with the show:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dealing with PMDD with Elizabeth Ferreira Sep 13, 2021

Show notes

Premenstrual dysphoric disorder, or PMDD, is a severe form of premenstrual syndrome that includes severe anxiety, depression, and feelings of shame. It affects 5-10% of women, and most don't even know they have it. On today's episode, Forrest is joined by his partner Elizabeth Ferreira to explore what PMDD is, how to know if you might have it, effective practices for managing PMDD, and how to create a happy, healthy, fulfilling relationship alongside it.

About Our Guest: Elizabeth is a graduate student studying somatic psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies. If you'd like to hear more from Elizabeth and learn about somatic psychology, she's just started a YouTube channel!

During this conversation we focused on psychological and lifestyle change-based interventions for PMDD. Not everyone has a life that allows them to make these changes, and in addition to these practices many people need significant medical intervention to feel relief. Treatment options range from oral contraceptives and SSRIs to chemical menopause or even a full hysterectomy and oophorectomy.

Some of these interventions come with significant side effects, and this podcast episode is no replacement for consulting with a physician. To learn more about medical options, check out the links below:

The International Association for Pre-Menstrual Disorders

IAPMD Facebook Support Group

Watch the Episode: Prefer watching video? You can watch this episode on YouTube.

Key Topics:

0:00: Introduction

2:00: What’s PMDD?

4:45: Diagnostic criteria for PMDD.

8:20: Challenges of awareness around “invisible” problems.

10:00: The experience of a PMDD episode.

15:15: Practices that help PMDD.

27:05: Externalizing PMDD.

29:45: Therapy and PMDD.

33:30: Accepting your needs.

39:30: Dealing with shame and isolation.

44:45: Continuing to meet the challenge.

49:00: Partnering someone with PMDD.

54:45: Recap

Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link.

Sponsors:

Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!

Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription.

Connect with the show:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Avoidance: How to Stop Procrastination and Worry Sep 06, 2021

Show notes

Dr. Rick and Forrest Hanson explore what "avoidant behavior" is, common forms it takes, and what we can do to limit its unhealthy aspects.

Watch the Episode: Prefer watching video? You can watch this episode on YouTube.

Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Membership includes expanded show notes and transcripts of the episodes.

Key Topics:

0:00: Introduction

2:10: Approaching, Avoiding, and Abiding

4:25: Common Forms of Avoidance

7:30: The Costs of Avoidance

11:30: Situational Avoidance

13:40: Cognitive Avoidance

15:30: Emotional Avoidance

16:45: The True Function of Worrying

23:05: Somatic Avoidance

27:40: Useful Aspects of Avoidance

30:45: What Helps People With Their Avoidant Behaviors?

34:30: What We Do vs. What We Are

38:30: Bounding the Problem

40:50: Anticipate Blocks

42:00: Active Coping, and Critiques of Positive Psychology

46:50: An Exercise for Fighting Avoidance

49:40: Recap

Sponsors:

Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!

Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription.

Connect with the show:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Deconstructing Yourself with Michael Taft Aug 30, 2021

Show notes

What goes into making "a self," and how can we bring together the many aspects of who we are? Today Dr. Rick and Forrest Hanson talk with meditation teacher, bestselling author, and podcaster (and their good friend) Michael Taft about moving from the spiritual to the secular and back again, ego dissolution, and how we can deconstruct ourselves.

About Our Guest: Michael is a meditation teacher, bestselling author and neuroscience junkie. He’s been practicing meditation for over 35 years, and is the author of several books, including The Mindful Geek.

Watch the Episode: Prefer watching video? You can watch this episode on YouTube.

Key Topics:

0:00: Introduction

1:30: Michael’s journey from the spiritual to the secular to back again.

5:00: LSD, yoga, and Shinzen Young

8:30: Reconciling the spiritual and the secular.

15:45: What is “deconstructing yourself?”

20:45: Ego dissolution and panic.

25:00: “Spiritual emergencies” and cautions around mindfulness.

29:20: Psychedelics and seeing the ego as an object.

31:00: Practices that help people see the empty nature of the self.

34:00: Key teachings for life’s long road.