BUY THE BOOKS

Relationships 2.0

 

My Radio Show

On my radio show, Relationships 2.0, I interview guests who present their unique perspectives and expertise on topics that cover all aspects of relationships. The authors and experts I chat with offer advice and tips for understanding ourselves and others better.

 

The show airs Thursdays on:

 

87.9 FM – Colorado Springs, CO – 9:00 AM (PT)

AM 1520 / 99.5 FM – Las Vegas, NV – 8:00 AM (PT)

101.5 FM – Long Beach, CA – 8:00 AM (PT)

96.3 FM – Boulder, CO – 9:00 AM (MT)
90.3 FM – Milwaukee, WI – 10:00 AM (CT)
AM 810 / 87.9 FM – Macon, GA – 11:00 AM (ET)

94.7 FM – Pittsburgh, PA – 11:00 AM (ET)

AM 1640 / 102.1 FM – Lancaster, PA – 11:00 AM (ET)
AM 1630 / 102.1 FM – Tampa, FL – 11:00 AM (ET)

90.3 FM – Jacksonville, FL – 11:00 AM (ET)

 

 

If you missed the radio station broadcasts, you can download my podcasts from iheart radio or iTunes, or listen to the podcasts of my show that are posted on this page and the podcast archive page. Additionally, you can watch Relationships 2.0 by going to the video archive page.

 

If you would like to search for a past show using keywords, see my blog.

 

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday June 4th

My guest this week is Linda Graham author of Bouncing Back: Rewiring Your Brain for Maximum Resilience and Well-Being.


About the book:

Resilience is the ability to face and handle life’s challenges, whether everyday disappointments or extraordinary disasters. While resilience is innate in the brain, over time we learn unhelpful patterns, which then become fixed in our neural circuitry. But science is now revealing that what previously seemed hardwired can be rewired, and Bouncing Back shows us how. With powerful, time-tested exercises, Linda Graham guides us in rebuilding our core well-being and disaster-proofing our brains.


About the author:

Linda Graham, MFT, is an experienced psychotherapist in private practice in the San Francisco Bay Area. She integrates modern neuroscience, mindfulness practices, and relational psychology into her nationwide trainings. Her monthly Healing and Awakening into Aliveness and Wholeness e-newsletters are archived on www.lindagraham-mft.net

 

 

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday May 28th

My guest on Relationships 2.0 this week is Steve Flowers author of The Mindful Path Through Shyness: How Mindfulness and Compassion Can Help Free You From Social Anxiety, Fear, and Avoidance.

 

About the book:

Shyness often helps protect us from the judgments and resentments of others, but once you get in the habit of avoiding social situations, you can become stuck in a cycle of avoidance that can be difficult to escape. Ready to let go of shyness and make stronger connections with others? The Mindful Path Through Shyness shows you how.

 

This guide uses techniques from mindfulness-based stress reduction and cognitive behavioral therapy to help you cultivate awareness of your own thoughts so that you can act with more wisdom and compassion toward yourself. Over time, you will be able to free yourself of the old mental habits of self-consciousness and self-blame, and replace them with new habits that foster confidence and joy.

 

About the author:

Steve Flowers, MA, MFT has been deeply invested in meditation practice since 1974 and is in private practice online and at his Chico office specializing in mindfulness-based psychotherapy.

 

In addition, Steve conducts the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Clinic online and at Enloe Medical Center in Chico, California. Steve conducts numerous mindfulness retreats each year for the general public and up to six fully accredited retreats a year for physicians, psychologists, nurses and licensed mental health professionals. www.mindfullivingprograms.com

 

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday May 21st

My guest this week is Margaret Floyd, author of Eat Naked and The Naked Foods Cookbook. She will talk about the “devil in white”: sugar. We’ll look at how it’s hurting us, why it’s ubiquitous, and where it’s hiding in our diets in all its many forms. And most importantly, we’ll look at how to profoundly change our relationship with it so that we do not remain in its grip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday May 14th

My guest this week is Fred Lundgren, CEO of KCAA 1050 AM, discussing his vegan lifestyle after a heart attack.

 

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday May 7th

The guests this week are Carolyn Daitch, PhD and Lissah Lorberbaum, MA co-authors of Anxious in Love: How to Manage Your Anxiety, Reduce Conflict, and Reconnect with Your Partner.

 

About the book:

Healthy relationships require trust, intimacy, effective communication, and understanding. However, if you suffer from chronic anxiety you may have trouble dealing with everyday conflicts and tensions that can arise in relationships. No matter how committed you are, anxiety can leave you feeling distanced from your partner. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to overcome the anxiety-fueled reactions that keep you from achieving true closeness in your relationship.

 

Written by two experts on anxiety disorders, Anxious in Love offers easy-to-use techniques for calming anxieties and strengthening communication in your relationship. With this book, you will learn to stay centered when faced with conflict, understand your partner’s perspective, and become more independent. By changing the way you react to triggers and stress, you will be able to focus on enjoying time with the one you love, without anxiety getting in the way.

 

About the authors:

Carolyn Daitch, PhD, is a licensed psychologist and certified Imago relationship therapist. She is the author of Affect Regulation Toolbox and Anxiety Disorders: The Go to Guide for Clients and Therapists. She is also a contributing author in Clinical Pearls of Wisdom: 21 Leading Therapists Offer Their Key Insights and Ten Commandments for Couples. She specializes in treating anxiety disorders; trains health professionals internationally on hypnosis, anxiety disorders, affect regulation, and relationship therapy; and is the director of the Center for the Treatment of Anxiety Disorders in Farmington Hills, MI. Dr. Daitch lives in West Bloomfield, MI.

 

Lissah Lorberbaum, MA, holds a master’s degree in clinical psychology with a specialization in somatic psychology and treats affect dysregulation across a wide range of clientele. She lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.

 

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday April 30th

My guest this week is Tammy Nelson, PhD author of The New Monogamy: Redefining Your Relationships After Infidelity.

 

About the book:

Everyone has their own concept of what “monogamy” means—and most people assume their partners and spouses are on the same page. Couples may assume that they are monogamous, but never discuss exactly what the monogamy agreement means to them. What happens when this implicit agreement is broken? After infidelity, relationships can become strained as both partners lose trust and faith in each other. The New Monogamy offers a way out of these difficulties for couples struggling to stay together after infidelity. Couples make these implicit assumptions and agreements explicit so that each partner knows exactly what is expected of them in the future and what they can expect from their partner.

 

Author Tammy Nelson helps couples regain trust, romance, and intimacy after infidelity by redefining the monogamy contract. The new monogamy contract is an explicit relationship agreement created after the affair that allows each partner to openly, honestly, and safely share their desires, expectations, and limitations. This agreement does not create an open marriage, but rather, an open conversation wherein each partner can have a say in setting the ground rules for their relationship. The book first helps couples rebuild trust after the affair, then engages in a series of Imago dialogues based on questions about what each partner really wants in the relationship, not what you think you should want or what a partner wants you to want. The New Monogamy includes questionnaires, checklists, and candid questions for partners to ask that help welcome complete honesty and trust back into the relationship. Then, the book helps couples make an erotic recovery from infidelity by addressing erotic problems that may surface and offers advice for helping couples return to desiring and trusting one another. After an affair, it’s impossible to go back to the way the relationship was before, but this book offers the chance for a new beginning.

 

About the author:

Dr Tammy Nelson, is an internationally known speaker, a licensed psychotherapist and author with over 20 years experience working with individuals and couples. She is a Certified Sexologist, she holds a PhD in Sexology from the American Academy of Clinical Sexology, is a Board Diplomate in Sexology, is a Licensed Professional Counselor, a Registered Art Therapist, and a Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor as well as a Certified Imago therapist, a Certified Imago workshop presenter and an Advanced Clinician.

 

Tammy is the author of several books including Getting the Sex You Want; Shed Your Inhibitions and Reach New Heights of Passion Together and is also the author of What’s Eating You a workbook for young people with food issues.

 

Nelson leads workshops for couples in “Sex and Intimacy” and “Getting the Love You Want” workshops based on Harville Hendrix’s best selling book and his theory of Imago therapy.

 

Tammy teaches workshops and seminars around the world, and has worked with Eve Ensler (of the Vagina Monologues) in her Broadway production of “The Good Body”, where Tammy provided workshops in the “Red Tent” Installation in New York City along with the likes of Christiana Northrup and Isabella Rosellini.

 

She is the mother of four children; all in the teen years. She lives in CT and has a private practice where she sees couples and individuals.

 

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday April 23rd

My guest this week is Martin Antony, PhD author of When Perfect Isn’t Good Enough: Strategies for Coping with Perfectionism.

 

About the book:

It’s only natural to want to avoid making mistakes, but imperfection is a part of being human. And while perfectionists are often praised for their abilities, being constantly anxious about details can hold you back and keep you from reaching your full potential.

 

In this fully revised and updated second edition of When Perfect Isn’t Good Enough, you’ll discover the root cause of your perfectionism, explore the impact of perfectionism on your life, and find new, proven-effective coping skills to help you overcome your anxiety about making mistakes. This guide also includes tips for dealing with other perfectionists and discussions about how perfectionism is linked to worry, depression, anger, social anxiety, and body image. As you complete the exercises in this book, you’ll find it easier and easier to keep worries at bay and enjoy life — imperfections and all.

 

This book has been awarded The Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Self-Help Seal of Merit — an award bestowed on outstanding self-help books that are consistent with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) principles and that incorporate scientifically tested strategies for overcoming mental health difficulties. Used alone or in conjunction with therapy, our books offer powerful tools readers can use to jump-start changes in their lives.

 

About the author:

Martin Antony PhD is professor of psychology at Ryerson University in Toronto, ON, Canada.  He is also director of research at the Anxiety Treatment and Research Centre at St. Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton, ON, Canada, and president-elect of the Canadian Psychological Association.  He lives in Toronto, ON, Canada.  www.martinantony.com

 

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday April 16th

My guest this week is Betsy Prioleau author of Swoon: Great Seducers and Why Women Love Them.

 

About the book:

Swoon is a glittering pageant of charismatic ladies’ men from Casanova to Lord Byron to Camus to Ashton Kutcher. It challenges every preconceived idea about great lovers and answers one of history’s most vexing questions: what do women want?

 

Contrary to popular myth and dogma, the men who consistently beguile women belie the familiar stereotypes: satanic rake, alpha stud, slick player, Mr. Nice, or big-money mogul. As Betsy Prioleau, author of Seductress, points out in this surprising, insightful study, legendary ladies’ men are a different, complex species altogether, often without looks or money. They fit no known template and possess a cache of powerful erotic secrets.

 

With wit and erudition, Prioleau cuts through the cultural lore and reveals who these master lovers really are and the arts they practice to enswoon women. What she discovers is revolutionary. Using evidence from science, popular culture, fiction, anthropology, and history, and from interviews with colorful real-world ladykillers, Prioleau finds that great seducers share a constellation of unusual traits.

 

While these men run the gamut, they radiate joie de vivre, intensity, and sex appeal; above all, they adore women. They listen, praise, amuse, and delight, and they know their way around the bedroom. And they’ve finessed the hardest part: locking in and revving desire. Women never tire of these fascinators and often, like Casanova’s conquests, remain besotted for life.

 

Finally, Prioleau takes stock of the contemporary culture and asks: where are the Casanovas of today? After a critique of the twenty-first-century sexual malaise—the gulf between the sexes and women’s record discontent—she compellingly argues that society needs ladies’ men more than ever. Groundbreaking and provocative, Swoon is underpinned with sharp analysis, brilliant research, and served up with seductive verve.

 

About the author:

Betsy Prioleau is the author of Seductress and Circle of Eros and was a scholar in residence at New York University where she taught cultural history. She lives in New York City.

 

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday April 9th

My guest this week is Sheri Van Dijk, author of DBT Made Simple: A Step-by-Step Guide to Dialectical Behavior Therapy.


About the book:

Originally developed for the treatment of borderline personality disorder, dialectical behavior therapy, or DBT, has rapidly become one of the most popular and most effective treatments for all mental health conditions rooted in out-of-control emotions. However, there are limited resources for psychologists seeking to use DBT skills with individual clients. In the tradition of ACT Made Simple, DBT Made Simple provides clinicians with everything they need to know to start using DBT in the therapy room.

 

The first part of this book briefly covers the theory and research behind DBT and explains how DBT differs from traditional cognitive behavioral therapy approaches. The second part focuses on strategies professionals can use in individual client sessions, while the third section teaches the four skills modules that form the backbone of DBT: core mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. The book includes handouts, case examples, and example therapist-client dialogue—everything clinicians need to equip their clients with these effective and life-changing skills.

 

About the author:

Sheri Van Dijk, MSW, is a mental health therapist in private practice and at Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket, ON, Canada. She is the author of The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook for Bipolar Disorder, Don’t Let Your Emotions Run Your Life for Teens, and Calming the Emotional Storm, and is coauthor of The Bipolar Workbook for Teens. In September 2010, she received the R.O. Jones Award from the Canadian Psychiatric Association for her research on using DBT skills to treat bipolar disorder.

 

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday April 2nd

My guests this week are Rebecca Williams and Julie Kraft, authors of The Mindfulness Workbook for Addiction: A Guide to Coping with the Grief, Stress and Anger that Trigger Addictive Behaviors.

 

About the book:

Most addictive behavior is rooted in some type of loss, be it the death of a loved one, coming to terms with limitations set by chronic health problems, or the end of a relationship. By turning to drugs and alcohol, people who have suffered a loss can numb their grief. In the process, they postpone their healing and can drive themselves further into addiction.

 

The Mindfulness Workbook for Addiction offers readers an effective program for working through their addiction and grief with cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). Created by a psychologist who works for the Department of Veterans Affairs and a marriage and family therapist who works for Sharp Mesa Vista Hospital, this mindfulness training workbook is effective for treating the emotion dysregulation, stress, depression, and grief that lie at the heart of addiction. No matter the loss, the mindfulness skills in this workbook help readers process their grief, determine the function their addiction is serving, and replace the addiction with healthy coping behaviors.

 

About the authors:

Rebecca E. Williams, PhD, is a clinical psychologist specializing in recovery from mental illness and addictions. She received her master’s degree from Harvard University and her PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is currently the director of the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System’s Wellness and Vocational Enrichment Clinic. In addition, she is an associate clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, an adjunct faculty member at the University of San Diego, and coauthor of Couple Therapy for Alcoholism. She has a psychotherapy practice in San Diego, CA.

 

Julie S. Kraft, LMFT, received her master’s degree in marriage and family therapy from the University of San Diego’s School of Leadership and Education Sciences. She has provided counseling to veterans and their family members at the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System and has provided psychotherapy to individuals, couples, families, and groups in community settings. In her current position with Sharp HealthCare, she treats clients struggling with both addiction and mental health concerns. She lives and works in San Diego, CA.

 

 


Special Relationships 2.0 with Randi Gunther author of
Relationship Saboteurs

Occasionally there is an author who I would love to have on Relationships 2.0 but their schedule prevents them from being on my show live. Randi is one of those people. I didn’t want to miss an opportunity to hear her words of wisdom and bring them to you. She is an important voice on the topic of relationships. Here is the special recording of our conversation.

 

About the book:

Do you seek a healthy romantic relationship, but continue to find yourself repeating the same negative behaviors that may have ended your relationships in the past? Have you already identified destructive patterns, yet continue to repeat them despite your desire for a strong and lasting romantic relationship? If so, you are not alone.

 

Relationship Saboteurs is an easy-to-follow guide that will help you identify and end your relationship-destroying tendencies once and for all. The book explores the ten most common relationship-undermining behaviors and shows you how to overcome them. By understanding and addressing the patterns that erode romance, you can learn to stop sabotaging your love life and prepare yourself for the healthy romantic relationship you deserve.

 

About the author:

Dr. Randi Gunther is a clinical psychologist and marriage counselor practicing in Southern California. In her forty year career, she has accumulated over 100,000 face-to-face hours with individuals and couples. She has inspired hundreds of people in her workshops and lectures to go beyond their limitations and create successful relationships. A practical idealist, she encourages her patients to break the bonds of repeated negative patterns and to pursue new options.

 

“The creation of a long-lasting, wonderful relationship is not automatic or easy. Like any other important commitment, it can only continue paying dividends with a continuous re-investment of time, energy, and devotion. From the thousands of hours I’ve spent with couples and individuals, I have learned what skills and values successful couples practice that ensure their love will continue to regenerate. My books are an encapsulation of those principles.”

 

Dr. Gunther and her husband met when they were in their teens and have continued their mutual devotion for over fifty years. They feel that the principles and skills in this book are what have successfully guided them on their journey through life together.

 

She regularly shares her articles on Psychology Today Blogs and on Huffington Post, and can be reached directly by logging on to her web site, randigunther.com.

 

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday March 26th

My guest this week is Margaret Floyd, author of The Naked Foods Cookbook: The Whole Foods, Healthy Fats, Gluten-Free Guide to Losing Weight and Feeling Great.

 

About the book:

There’s nothing better than taking a bite of a delicious meal you’ve prepared, knowing that each ingredient is helping create a more gorgeous you! Eating “naked” foods—nutrient-dense, additive-free whole foods— helps you lose weight and vastly improves the way you look and feel. And with this book, it’s easier than ever to make naturally tasty naked meals you can feel good about eating and serving to others.

 

Written by Margaret Floyd, author of Eat Naked, and chef to the stars James Barry, The Naked Foods Cookbook includes over 150 gluten-free recipes for simple dishes that bring out the natural flavors and nutrients of fresh, whole foods. The benefits of eating naked are lifelong, and you can start seeing results within the week. So what are you waiting for? It’s time to enjoy the naked foods your body craves. Your body will love you for it, and you will love your body!

 

About the authors:

Margaret Floyd received her nutritional therapy practitioner certification from the Nutritional Therapy Association, was certified as a holistic health counselor by the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, and as a certified healing foods specialist. She is also certified by the American Association of Drugless Practitioners. She has a thriving private practice in Los Angeles, CA. Floyd’s work with clients is focused on shifting their diet to a naked diet through gradual changes to their lifestyle, cooking methods, shopping habits, and recipes. She shares her passion for food and good health by teaching her clients how to eat so that they can enjoy both.

 

James Barry is a graduate of the National Gourmet Institute of Health and Culinary Arts in New York. He has worked as a private chef for celebrities and is founder of Wholesome2Go, a healthy high-quality food delivery company currently serving the Los Angeles area. He is certified as a nutritional consultant through the Global College of Natural Medicine and as a certified healing foods specialist.

 

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday March 19th

My guest this week is Ellen Kanner, author of Feeding the Hungry Ghost: Life, Faith, and What to Eat for Dinner—A Satisfying Diet for Unsatisfying Times.

 

About the Book:

What do we turn to for both everyday sustenance and seasonal celebration? Food. Often, though, we’re like the hungry ghosts of Taoist lore, eating mindlessly, wandering aimlessly, and wanting more—more than food itself can provide. Ellen Kanner believes that if we put in a little thought and preparation, every meal can feed not only our bodies but our souls and our communities as well. Warm, wicked, and one-of-a-kind, Ellen offers an irreverent approach to bringing reverence into daily living—and eating. She presents global vegan recipes that call you to the table, stories that make you stand up and cheer, and gentle nudges that aim to serve up what we’re hungry for: a more vital self, more loving and meaningful connections, a nourished and nourishing world, and great food, too. Feeding the Hungry Ghost will challenge you to decide: keep reading or start cooking?

 

About the Author:

Ellen Kanner is an award-winning food writer of Huggington Post’s Meatless Monday blogger, and the syndicated columnist the Edgy Veggie. Her work has been published in Bon Appétit, Eating Well, Vegetarian Times, Every Day with Rachael Ray, and Culinate, as well as other online and print publications. An advocate for sustainable, accessible food, she has served on the Miami boards of Slow Food and Common Threads. She lives in Miami.

 

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday March 12th

My guest this week is Julie Fast, author of Getting It Done When You’re Depressed.


About the book:

Everyone knows that depression can lead to guilt, sadness, frustration, and in the case of 15-20% of people with depression, suicide. Because we live in a culture that rewards (and often worships) productivity, when a depressed person can’t meet the expectations of society, the depression becomes worse and a vicious cycle begins. The goal of Getting Things Done When You’re Depressed is to break this cycle.

Readers will learn:

  • How to prepare yourself mentally for working while depressed
  • How to structure your environment so you can work more easily
  • How to work with others
  • How to prevent depression

About the author:

Julie A. Fast, author of Take Charge of Bipolar Disorder: A Four Step Plan for You and Your Loved Ones to Manage the Illness and Create Lasting Stability, (Time/Warner 2006) Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder: Understanding and Helping Your Partner (New Harbinger Publications, February 2004), Get it Done When You’re Depressed (Penguin, 2008) and Bipolar Happens! (Grayson OmniMedia, 2012) is a critically acclaimed author, national speaker, and sought after expert in the field of bipolar disorder and depression. She is regarded as a mental health pioneer for her groundbreaking, comprehensive approach to treating bipolar disorder and depression using both mainstream and self created management strategies.

 

Julie is a family and partner coach for those who love someone with bipolar disorder (www.JulieFast.com), writes a column for BP Magazine (www.BPHope.com), is a bipolar disorder specialist on the Oprah and Dr. Oz website (www.ShareCare.com) and has a popular blog and awesome newsletter at (www.bipolarhappens.com).

 

You can find her on FaceBook at the Julie Fast Fan Page and Twitter @JulieBipolar.

 

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday March 5th

My guest this week is Marc Lesser, author of Know Yourself, Forget Yourself: Five Truths to Transform Your Work, Relationships, and Everyday Life.

 

About the book:
We all yearn for clear-cut answers to life’s problems, yet we rarely get them. Formulas fail and contradictions mount. In Know Yourself, Forget Yourself, executive coach and mindfulness teacher Marc Lesser shows that understanding and embracing the points where life feels most confusing, most contradictory can lead us to more satisfaction and joy.

 

Lesser provides clear guidance and simple practices for embracing five central paradoxes in life and navigating them to increase our effectiveness and happiness. Influenced by the revolutionary mindfulness and emotional intelligence trainings he helped develop at Google, Know Yourself, Forget Yourself is a profound book about cultivating the emotional skills to understand the right path through difficulties and challenges.

 

About the author:
Marc Lesser is cofounder and CEO of SIYLI: Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, a nonprofit company devoted to creating enlightened leaders worldwide. A Zen teacher and executive coach, Marc lives in Mill Valley, California.

 

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday February 26th

My guest this week is Sherrie Mansfield Vavrichek, author of The Guide to Compassionate Assertiveness: How to Express Your Feelings and Deal With Conflict While Keeping a Kind Heart.


About the book:

Speaking up for yourself has benefits, but it has costs, too. Many people who struggle with assertiveness are paralyzed by worries that they’ll seem mean, petty, or that they will hurt the other person’s feelings. Even though they want to speak up, they may keep their true needs and opinions to themselves because of these fears—eventually building stress, resentment, and alienation. The Guide to Compassionate Assertiveness does not require that readers ignore the needs of others and focus solely on their own desires. Rather, this unique blend of cognitive behavioral therapy-based assertiveness training and Buddhist psychology helps readers practice assertiveness skills while caring deeply about the welfare of others.

 

This book helps readers develop a form of assertiveness that emphasizes collaboration, negotiation, and compromise. It focuses on speaking up for the benefit of others and speaking up for the relationship, not just one’s own needs. In this way, readers learn to assert their needs in ways that match their compassionate value systems. This book is the ideal assertiveness guide for those who are afraid of rejection, have a deep concern for how others perceive them, often feel judged by others, or have difficulty expressing their feelings and needs. Readers learn to apply assertiveness skills in all domains of their lives, including in romantic relationships, as parents, at work, and in social settings.

 

About the author:

Sherrie M. Vavrichek, LCSW-C, is a cognitive behavioral therapist and published author who uses mindfulness, meditation, and Buddhist philosophy in her practice and in her life. She is a senior staff member at the Behavior Therapy Center of Greater Washington, and has presented at national conferences on numerous mental health topics, including compassionate assertiveness. Vavrichek lives and works in the Washington, DC area.

 

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday February 19th

My guests this week are Scott Barry Kaufman and Glenn Geher, authors of Mating Intelligence Unleashed:  The Role of the Mind in Sex, Dating and Love.


About the book:

Psychologists often paint a picture of human mating as visceral, instinctual. But that’s not the whole story. In courtship and display, sexual competition and rivalry, we are also guided by what Glenn Geher and Scott Barry Kaufman call Mating Intelligence—a range of mental abilities that have evolved to help us find the right partner. Mating Intelligence is at work in our efforts to form, maintain, and end relationships. It guides us in flirtation, foreplay, copulation, finding and choosing a mate, and many other behaviors.

 

In Mating Intelligence Unleashed, psychologists Geher and Kaufman take readers on a fascinating tour of the crossroads of mating and intelligence, drawing on cutting-edge research on evolutionary psychology, intelligence, creativity, personality, social psychology, neuroscience, and more. The authors show that despite what you may read in the latest issue of Maxim, Playboy, Vogue, or GQ, physical attractiveness isn’t the whole story. Human mating draws on a range of mental skills and attributes—from the creative use of pick-up lines, to displays of charisma, intelligence, humor, personality, and compassion. Along the way, the authors shed new light on age-old questions, such as: What role does personality play in mating? Which traits are attractive—and which traits repulse? How do people really choose mates? How do men and women deceive each other? How important is emotional intelligence? Why do people create art—and does it have anything to do with sex? Do nice guys really finish last?

 

Since Glenn Geher coined the term Mating Intelligence in 2006, it has drawn a great deal of media attention, ranging from a Psychology Today cover story to articles in the New Scientist, the Washington Times, the Huffington Post, and elsewhere. Now, in Mating Intelligence Unleashed, readers will have the first full account of this revolutionary new approach to dating, mating, and love.

 

About the authors:

Glenn Geher is Chair of the Psychology and Director of Evolutionary Studies at SUNY New Paltz, where he won the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. Dr. Geher founded the NorthEastern Evolutionary Psychology Society (NEEPS) and is co-founder of the international Evolutionary Studies (EvoS) Consortium, funded by the National Science Foundation. He is particularly interested in how evolution can help us understand all facets of the human animal and his many publications help us move toward this goal. His work has been featured in many media outlets—ranging from Psychology Today to Cosmopolitan to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

 

Scott Barry Kaufman is Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychology at New York University and co-founder of The Creativity Post. An award-winning authority on intelligence, creativity, and the arts, he is co-editor of The Cambridge Handbook of Intelligence with Robert J. Sternberg and The Psychology of Creative Writing with James C. Kaufman. His work has been covered in media outlets such as Psychology Today, Scientific American, Mind and Men’s Health. Additionally, he blogs for Psychology Today, Huffington Post, Scientific American, and Harvard Business Review.

 

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday February 12th

My guest this week is Stanley H. Block, MD, author of Mind-Body Workbook for Stress:  Effective Tools for Lifelong Stress Reduction & Crisis Management.

 

About the book:

Chronic stress is a huge problem that has only gotten worse in recent years. The good news is that new research is emerging to help treat stress in more effective ways than ever before. Mind-body bridging is one of these new modalities. Shown to be effective in both clinical and research settings, the easy-to-use mind-body bridging system helps readers dramatically reduce their stress in one to three weeks. Mind-Body Workbook for Stress helps readers learn and practice exercises for detaching from painful thoughts and feelings and helping their bodies relax and let go of unconscious tension. In this resting state, body and mind can let go of stress and heal naturally. Readers also learn fast-acting mindfulness skills for dissolving stress whenever desired without needing to maintain a long-term meditative practice. The one-page assessments, worksheets, and activities in this book make it easy for anyone to develop their capacity to withstand and relax under stress.

 

About the Authors:

Stanley H. Block, MD, is adjunct professor of psychiatry at the University of Utah School of Medicine, and a board-certified psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. He is a consultant on the medical staff at U.S. Army and Veterans Administration Hospitals. He lectures and consults with treatment centers worldwide and is coauthor of Mind-Body Workbook for PTSD and Come to Your Senses. He and his wife, Carolyn Bryant Block, live in Copalis Beach, WA. Find out more about his work online at sleepstar.co and mindbodybridging.com.

 

Carolyn Bryant Block is coauthor of Bridging the I-System, Come to Your Senses, and Mind-Body Workbook for PTSD. She is also the co-developer of mind-body bridging and identity system (I-System) theory and techniques.

 

Andrea A. Peters is an educator certified in mind-body bridging. She guided the organizational development of mind-body bridging material.

 

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday February 5th

My guest this week is Nick Savoy, author of It’s Your Move: How to Play the Game and Win the Man You Want.

 

About the book:

 

MEN HAVE A GAME PLAN FOR PICKING UP WOMEN. NOW IT’S TIME FOR YOU TO MAKE YOUR MOVE.

 

In his popular Love Systems dating bootcamps, famed pickup artist and dating coach Nick Savoy has taught tens of thousands of men how to attract and seduce the women they desire. Now, after watching countless interactions between the sexes—and hearing what men really think about women, dating, and playing the game—Savoy is sharing his best-kept secrets and proven pickup tips with today’s single women.

 

HERE’S WHAT MEN WILL NEVER TELL YOU… UNTIL NOW.

 

Why he won’t return your calls. Why it’s too soon to send a text. Why you never seem to meet the right guy. What he really thinks about you and your BFFs. You’ll learn all this and more in this indispensable guide to the other side of dating. Discover how to:

 

  • Attract any man you want—even the one who ignores you—and avoid the nine fatal “attraction killers” when talking to him
  • Turn a guy who’s “just a friend” into something more
  • Use the “Instant Lie Detector” test to make sure Mr. Right is for real
  • Learn the shocking truth about what does and doesn’t matter to men about your looks, including six simple fashion tips
  • Initiate “The Talk”—without scaring him away

. . . and much more.

 

Whether it’s a one-night stand, second date, or long-term relationship, this is the ultimate book for helping women get what they truly want.

 

About the author:

Nick Savoy has been a professional dating coach for men and women since 2004 and is currently President of Love Systems—the largest and most successful dating coaching group. His “real world” methods have been endorsed by social scientists, and proven on the Dr Phil Show, ABC Nightline, Tyra Banks, and more.

 

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday January 29

My guest this week is Judith Ruskay Rabinor PhD, author of Befriending Your Ex After Divorce: Making Life Better For You, Your Kids and, Yes, Your Ex.

 

About the book:

If you are divorced, or are contemplating divorce, you’ve probably heard the diatribe: Divorce is messy. Divorce is a tragedy. Divorce will scar your children for life.

 

Befriending Your Ex challenges many of these destructive myths about divorce, and sets out to change the way we think about the process of divorce and its ultimate outcome. While divorce certainly can have negative effects upon children, when they occur, these effects are likely to result from a hostile and combative relationship between ex-spouses. This uplifting book reminds the reader that all divorces need not follow this unhappy script, and that ex-spouses can collaboratively co-parent and be a source of support, not only to their children, but to one another as well.

 

Author Judy Rabinor’s ability to write as both a divorcee and a psychologist gives her a unique perspective on the subject, and in the book she artfully and thoughtfully combines research, clinical practice, and the everyday reality faced by a divorced parent. As a guide for parents, this book is filled with practical exercises, suggestions and strategies for coping with anger, grief, and loss, as well as the myriad of day to day issues involved in co-parenting after divorce.

 

Story after story—including Judy’s own story—reminds the reader that once the emotional tsunami of divorce settles back down, exes can be connected and supportive to one another as they share a major joy: loving and raising children and grandchildren, enjoying the family they have created, and creating a new family unit to evolve in the wake of divorce.

 

About the author:

Judith Ruskay Rabinor, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist, author, speaker and consultant with offices in New York City and Lido Beach, Long Island She has more than three decades of experience working with individuals, couples, groups, families and training psychotherapists. After years of specializing in eating and body image, she has turned to her own journey, and become a pioneer in the collaborative joint-custody divorce movement.

 

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday January 22

My guest for this week is Alex Spence (rescheduled from November 6, 2012 due to KCAA 1050-AM election day coverage). He will be addressing the issue of our relationship with money. What is the difference between our money “story” and our financial reality. Each of us have a template for our beliefs about money. Is this working for us? What messages do we receive about money? What are our emotional reactions to information we receive.

 

About my guest:
Though much of Alex’s formal training and education had been focused on treating people who suffered from trauma, addictions, and dual diagnosis, his life was forever changed in March of 1999. It was at that time that Dr. Patrick Carnes, an expert in sex addiction, stated, “People are primarily obsessed with two things, money and sex, and we stink about talking about both of these topics.” Dr. Carnes’s statement resonated with Alex and has resulted in his fascination and continuous research about the importance of people’s many and varied relationships with money. In addition to reading books, articles, and insights from credible sources, Alex has been fortunate enough to establish relationships with families that are contending with the current, post 2008, reality of unprecedented economic scenarios. Through his training and practice as a Director of Financial Aid, Alex works with parents in an effort to help them determine value for their families as they negotiate difficult financial choices. Alex Spence currently serves as the Director of Financial Aid at Stevenson School.

 

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday January 15

My guest for this week is Tammy Strobel author of You Can Buy Happiness (and It’s Cheap):  How One Woman Radically Simplified Her Life and How You Can Too.

 

About the book:

Once, Tammy Strobel and her husband were living a normal middle-class lifestyle: driving two cars, commuting long distances, and living well beyond their means. Now they are living the voluntary downsizing — or smart-sizing — dream.

 

In this book Strobel combines research on well-being with numerous real-world examples to offer practical inspiration. Her fresh take on our things, our work, and our relationships spells out micro-actions that anyone can take to step into a life that’s more conscious and connected, sustainable and sustaining, heartfelt and happy.

 

About the author:

In Tammy’s words:  “I’m a full-time writer and photographer. I create ecourses that help students cultivate joy, beauty, and gratitude in their everyday lives and empower them to write more often.”

 

“I started blogging in late 2007 to become a better writer and to share my story. Blogging consistently improved my writing and it resulted in a book deal! My first print book is You Can Buy Happiness (and It’s Cheap): How One Woman Radically Simplified Her Life and How You Can Too.

 

I post articles regularly at rowdykittens.com.”

 

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday January 8

My guest for this week on Relationships 2.0 is Sophia Dembling, author of The Introvert’s Way: Living a Quiet Life in a Noisy World.

 

About the book:

This clever and pithy book challenges introverts to take ownership of their personalities…with quiet strength. Sophia Dembling asserts that the introvert’s lifestyle is not “wrong” or lacking, as society or extroverts would have us believe. Through a combination of personal insights and psychology, The Introvert’s Way helps and encourages introverts to embrace their nature, to respect traits they may have been ashamed of and reframe them as assets.

 

You’re not shy; rather, you appreciate the joys of quiet. You’re not antisocial; instead, you enjoy recharging through time alone. You’re not unfriendly, but you do find more meaning in one-on-one connections than large gatherings.

 

By honoring what makes them unique, this astute and inspiring book challenges introverts to “own” their introversion, igniting a quiet revolution that will change how they see themselves and how they engage with the world.

 

About the author:

Sophia Dembling writes The Introvert’s Corner blog for Psychology Today. Her previous books include The Yankee Chick’s Survival Guide to Texas, and she has published hundreds of articles and essays in magazines, newspapers, and websites.

 

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesdays December 25 and January 1

Christmas Day and New Year’s Day are KCAA-1050AM radio station holidays. Regular programming will be replaced with music on both of these holidays.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  Relationships 2.0 will return on Tuesday January 8th.

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday December 18

My guest for this week is Julie M. Simon author of The Emotional Eater’s Repair Manual:  A Practical Mind-Body-Spirit Guide for Putting an End to Overeating and Dieting.


About the book:

Despite our best intentions, many of us find ourselves routinely overeating at meals, snacking mindlessly, or bingeing regularly. As emotional eaters, we turn to food for comfort, soothing, distraction, and excitement. There’s a disconnection fueling our eating, robbing years from our lives, and we know it. We’re tired of restrictive diets that lead back to overeating, and we’re ready to try something different.

 

Therapist and life coach Julie Simon offers a new approach that addresses the true causes of overeating and weight gain: emotional and spiritual hunger and body imbalance. The Emotional Eater’s Repair Manual presents five self-care skills, five body-balancing principles, and five soul-care practices that can end overeating and dieting forever. You’ll learn to nurture yourself without turning to food, to correct body and brain imbalances that trigger overeating, and to address your soul’s hunger. Weight loss, more energy, improved health, and self-esteem will naturally follow.

 

About the author:

Julie M. Simon, MA, MBA, LMFT, is a licensed psychotherapist and life coach with more than twenty years of experience helping overeaters stop dieting, heal their relationships with themselves and their bodies, lose excess weight, and keep it off. A lifelong fitness enthusiast, she is also a certified personal trainer with over twenty-five years of experience designing exercise and nutrition programs for various populations. Julie Simon is also the founder and director of the Los Angeles-based Twelve-Week Emotional Eating Recovery Program, which offers an alternative to dieting by addressing the mind, body, and spirit imbalances underlying overeating. Her professional experience with and personal journey through childhood trauma, weight challenges, and body, brain, and spiritual imbalances led to the creation of the twelve-week program, which she has been running for twenty years. For more information and inspiration, you can visit her online at www.overeatingrecovery.com.

 

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday December 11

This week my guest is Kelly C. Allison, PhD, author of Overcoming Night Eating Syndrome: A Step-by-Step Guide to Breaking the Cycle.


About the book:

The statistics are powerful and alarming: perhaps as many as 6 million Americans suffer from night eating syndrome, or NES, an eating disorder which describes behavior patterns in which an individual obsessively consumes more than half of his or her daily caloric intake after eight o’clock in the evening. More significant is the further finding that more than 33 percent of morbidly obese individuals, persons who are 100 or more pounds overweight, are affected by this disorder. Experts agree that NES shares characteristics of not only eating disorders but also sleep and mood disorders. Sufferers tend to exhibit symptoms such as feelings of anxiety and guilt, insomnia, or interrupted sleep. Typical NES behaviors include absent appetite during the day, a consistent pattern of eating more food after dinner than during the meal itself, and recurrent episodes of waking and eating throughout the night. This book offers a step-by-step strategy for managing and overcoming this disorder.

 

From this book, you will first learn to identify the signs of NES, and then use journaling exercises to discover what automatic thoughts surround your night eating. Having identified the problematic behaviors, you will find out how to break these patterns with healthier food choices, more structured mealtimes, and a series of relaxation and visualization techniques.

 

About the author:

Kelly C. Allison, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Co-Director of Education at the Center for Weight and Eating Disorders. She received her B.A. from the University of Notre Dame in 1995 and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Miami University in 1997 and 2000, respectively.

 

Dr. Allison’s research interests include characterizing and treating the Night Eating Syndrome and the role of weight and eating behaviors on reproductive health. Dr. Allison is also the Director of Education at the Center for Weight and Eating Disorders, leading didactic seminars for pre-doctoral psychology practicum students and supervising their clinical work. She serves as a faculty mentor for undergraduate and medical student research projects. Dr. Allison also enjoys providing psychotherapy related to weight loss and disordered eating through the Stunkard Weight Management Program, and she provides pre-operative bariatric surgery psychological evaluations at Penn Medicine.

 

Dr. Allison is a Fellow of the Academy for Eating Disorders and a member of the Obesity Society and the American Psychological Association. She has published over 80 peer-reviewed papers and chapters, and two books.

 

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday December 4

This week my guest is Margaret Floyd, author of Eat Naked: Unprocessed, Unpolluted and Undressed Eating for A Healthier, Sexier You.


About the book:

  • Are you fed up with counting calories?
  • Confused by all the diet hype?
  • Want to eat delicious, real food and look and feel great?

Leading nutritional therapist Margaret Floyd’s Eat Naked will help you strip away the overprocessed, overpackaged, and overdressed junk food from your diet. It’s time to enjoy “naked” foods-whole foods that are fresh, organically grown, and prepared in ways that allow each food’s naturally delicious flavors to shine through. In this book, Margaret shows you how to choose the nutrient-dense foods that will make you look and feel so gorgeous, you’ll want to take it all off.

 

You’ll discover new ways to prepare foods without sacrificing flavor and learn practical tips for eating within your budget. Eat Naked includes easy recipes for all sorts of delicious things you can feel good about eating and making for others. Once you see how great you look and feel when you eat naked, you won’t want to eat any other way!

 

About the author:

Margaret Floyd is the author of Eat Naked: Unprocessed, Unpolluted, and Undressed Eating for a Healthier, Sexier You. She received her nutritional therapy practitioner certification from the Nutritional Therapy Association, was certified as a holistic health counselor by the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, and as a certified healing foods specialist. She is also certified by the American Association of Drugless Practitioners. She has a thriving private practice in Los Angeles, CA. Floyd’s work with clients is focused on shifting their diet to a naked diet through gradual changes to their lifestyle, cooking methods, shopping habits, and recipes. She shares her passion for food and good health by teaching her clients how to eat so that they can enjoy both. Visit her at www.eatnakednow.com

 

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday November 27

This week my guest is Sheri Van Dijk MSW, author of Calming the Emotional Storm: Using Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skill to Manage Your Emotions and Balance Your Life.


About the book:

When you have difficulties managing your emotions, it can feel like you’re losing control of your whole life. Anger, hurt, grief, worry, and other intense feelings can be overwhelming, and how you react to these emotions can impact your ability to maintain relationships, succeed at work, or even think straight! If you find it difficult to understand, express, and process intense emotions—and most of us do—this book is for you.

 

Calming the Emotional Storm is your guide to coping with difficult emotions calmly and responsibly by using powerful skills from dialectical behavior therapy. This method combines cognitive behavioral techniques with mindfulness practices to change the way you respond to stressful situations. By practicing these skills, you can stop needless emotional suffering and develop the inner resilience that will help you weather any emotional storm.

 

This book will teach you how to:

  • Establish a balanced life for an everyday sense of well-being
  • Let go of unwanted worries and fears
  • Become better at accepting yourself and others
  • Work through a crisis without letting emotions take over

About the author:

Sheri Van Dijk, MSW, is a mental health therapist in private practice and at Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket, ON, Canada. She specializes in the treatment of bipolar disorder and other psychiatric disorders using dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) and mindfulness practice. She is author of The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook for Bipolar Disorder and Don’t Let Your Emotions Run Your Life for Teens, and coauthor of The Bipolar Workbook for Teens. You can visit her online at www.sherivandijk.com.

 

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday November 20

My guest this week is Gary Kowalski. He will help us understand our relationship with animals as we discuss his new book Blessings of the Animals: Celebrating Our Kinship with All Creation.

 

About the Book:

Come into the Cathedral of the Earth to worship and to wonder…

 

  • Learn how the “swarm intelligence” of the common ant is inspiring smarter communication and transportation systems.
  • Discover what happens when a visionary artist travels to Africa to bury the portraits of 23 primates who died in a Philadelphia zoo.
  • Ponder how cultures as diverse as the Cherokee, Chinese, Egyptians, and ancient Hindus identified the night’s brightest star, Sirius, with a canine spirit guide.
  • Explore how meditation practice helps a Buddhist beekeeper fend off a disease that threatens most of the world’s beehives.

These true stories and many more will make you laugh, weep, and marvel at the amazing creatures who share our planet, from the earthworm to the elephant, all in Blessings of the Animals.

 

From the Author:

The word bless is related to our English word bliss, and both share a root with blithe, meaning merry, upbeat, cheerful, or exuberant. Don’t animals teach us about blessing, about joy? Not one is worried about the stock market. Not one is keen on governing the Animal Kingdom. None carries a passport or immigration papers because they don’t live in a state like Arizona or Texas that cares about such things. Animals live in a state of bliss.

 

As a parish minister, I’ve conducted dozens of interspecies galas over the years that are invariably a barking good time for all participants. Blessings of the Animals grows out of these celebrations. In this volume, you’ll learn about Worm Charmers and Dog Chapels (stories that will make you smile). You’ll also encounter avian heroes like the flock of swans who save a frozen goose, as well as human exemplars—from the ancient philosopher Diogenes to modern biologists like Rachel Carson—who turned to nature to find wisdom for the journey.

 

My hope is that Blessings of the Animals will add a grace note to your day, just as animals enrich our lives and make our our world whole.

 

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday November 13

This week my guest on Relationships 2.0 is Deborah Price author of The Heart of Money: A Couple’s Guide to Creating True Financial Intimacy.

 

About the book:

Money issues have long been the number one cause of relationship disharmony and divorce, yet when it comes to identifying and changing unhealthy money patterns and behaviors, many couples feel helpless. Money coach Deborah Price has taught thousands of people how to work together to resolve money conflicts and create a financially empowered future. In these pages, she presents strategies and tools for creating financial intimacy while learning to communicate about money issues calmly and reflectively, rather than reactively. With inspirational stories and practical techniques and exercises, this book will help you and your partner:

 

  • learn the language of financial intimacy and talk about money in a healthy and empowering way
  • recognize and change unhealthy money patterns
  • identify which of the eight money types apply to each of you and understand the impact they have on your life, your relationship, and your finances
  • build a mutual sense of financial security and confidence
  • work through setbacks and challenges to make your relationship stronger than ever before

 

About the author:

Deborah Price is the Founder and CEO of The Money Coaching Institute, which provides money coaching and training to both individuals, couples and corporations. A former financial advisor for over twenty years with firms such as Merrill Lynch, Mass Mutual, AIG and London Pacific Advisors, Deborah left the financial industry to pioneer the field of Money Coaching.

 

Coping with money issues, both practically and psychologically, continues to be a major life struggle for millions of people and yet, there is very little help available. As a result, people often manifest money patterns, beliefs and behaviors that prevent them from experiencing their full financial potential.Deborah has developed a unique, step-by-step coaching program that helps clients move beyond barriers to their personal and financial success.

 

As a result, client’s experience renewed hope, confidence, and enhanced financial success. Through education and awareness, Deborah is committed to empowering others around money, both personally and practically. She is the author of Money Therapy an Money Magic: Unleashing Your Potential for Wealth and Prosperity; and Start Investing Online Today. She has appeared on numerous radio and television shows throughout the United States and is considered a leading expert in her field. She resides in Northern California with her family.

 

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday November 6

Relationships 2.0 did not broadcast due to KCAA-1050AM election day special programming

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday October 30

My guest this week is Brooks Palmer, author of Clutter Busting Your Life:  Clearing Physical and Emotional Clutter to Reconnect with Yourself and Others

 

About the book:

Over the course of his career helping people let go of things they no longer need, Brooks Palmer has been struck by the many ways that clutter affects relationships. In these pages, he shows how we use clutter to protect ourselves, control others, and cling to the past, and how it keeps us from experiencing the joy of connection. With insight-prompting questions, exercises, client examples, and even whimsical line drawings, Palmer will take you from overwhelmed to empowered. His gentle guidance will help you to not only clear clutter from your home but also enjoy deeper, more authentic, and clutter-free relationships of all kinds.

 

About the author:

In his ten years of Clutter Busting in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City, Brooks Palmer realized the intense emotional connection most people have with material possessions, and that internal clutter must be addressed before external clutter can be discarded. He created his Clutter Busting method to help people let go of those things they no longer need and to open the doors for new possibilities.

 

Brooks Palmer’s Clutter Busting business took off by word of mouth when people began calling, usually out of sheer desperation. He has since been featured in The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Business Journal and Daily Candy, and on Living Live, Chicagoing and the CBS Channel 2 Nightly News. Brooks travels between Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City, working with clients and offering seminars on getting rid of the clutter in our lives. He lives in Chicago.

 

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday October 23

My guest this week is Joe Messina. He is a political radio talk show host. We are going to discuss how to have productive conversations with friends and family about politics. With less than three weeks until the Presidential election it’s time to learn some healthy communication skills for these heated topics.

 

About Joe Messina:

Joe Messina began his radio career after being asked to fill in for a show host who cancelled short notice. Joe grabbed a Democrat and Republican and, being the “agitator” he can be, stirred it up!

 

After that, he was asked to do a one hour weekly show that quickly turned into a two hour show, then three hour show.

 

Now Joe can be heard daily across the airwaves and over the internet on several stations. He has loyal listeners in 42 states and 38 countries, and the list keeps growing!

 

Joe is a no-nonsense, conservative realist. He is not interested in “what if?” or “we could have!” He is interested in hearing both sides and has no problem taking on taboo issues with real questions looking for real answers. Race, religion, racism, and politics are all open season for topics on the show.

 

Joe has had several successful businesses and has held several executive positions with Fortune 1000 companies. He has been asked to teach business ethics classes for several organizations over the last 8 years.

 

Joe has been actively engaged in community, church and very involved in politics for well over a decade and has enjoyed a reputation of being a man of integrity and ethics.

 

Joe’s goal for the show… Make sure that anyone listening can understand the conversation and walk away with new and useful information using clear simple English. No political speak. No double talk. Just REAL facts… REAL words… REAL conversation.

 

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday October 16

My guest is Julie Fast, co-author of Loving Someone With Bipolar Disorder: Understanding and Helping Your Partner.

 

About the book:

Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder is a first of its kind book—written specifically for the partner of a person with bipolar disorder. If you have a loved one with bipolar, you know how disruptive and straining this disorder can be to your relationship. You may experience feelings of fear, loss, and anxiety as well as a constant uncertainly about your loved one’s ever-changing moods. This book is designed to help you overcome the unique challenges of loving someone with bipolar disorder. With the supportive and helpful information, strategies, and real-life examples contained here, you’ll have all the tools you need to create a loving, healthy, and close relationship.

 

Find out how to:

• Identify which coping approaches work and which do not
• Recognize and transform a “bipolar conversation”
• Use new strategies to help manage episodic crises
• Survive the financial turbulence manic spending may cause
• Deal with problematic sexual issues
• Increase closeness and stability in your relationship

 

About the author:

Julie is the author of Take Charge of Bipolar Disorder: A Four Step Plan for You and Your Loved Ones to Manage the Illness and Create Lasting Stability, (Time/Warner 2006) Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder: Understanding and Helping Your Partner (New Harbinger Publications, February 2004), Get it Done When You’re Depressed (Penguin, 2008) and Bipolar Happens! (Grayson OmniMedia, 2012) and is a critically acclaimed author, national speaker, and sought after expert in the field of bipolar disorder and depression. She is regarded as a mental health pioneer for her groundbreaking, comprehensive approach to treating bipolar disorder and depression using both mainstream and self created management strategies.

 

Julie is a family and partner coach for those who love someone with bipolar disorder (www.JulieFast.com), writes a column for BP Magazine (www.BPHope.com), is a bipolar disorder specialist on the Oprah and Dr. Oz website (www.ShareCare.com) and has a popular blog and awesome newsletter at (www.BipolarHappens.com/bhBlog).  Julie was diagnosed with rapid cycling bipolar disorder II in 1995 at the age of thirty-one, after she had unknowingly lived with the disorder for over fourteen challenging and chaotic years.

 

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday October 9

My guest this week is Leslie Sokol, PhD co-author of Think Confident, Be Confident for Teens.

 

About the book:

Confidence is like a magnet that attracts people to you and helps you get closer to reaching your goals. When you believe in yourself, you send the message that you have the brains, ability, and talent to handle whatever life sends your way. And the truth is, you do!

 

Think Confident, Be Confident for Teens shows you how to tap into your self-esteem so you can be yourself in every situation, no matter how awkward you feel or scary that may sound. The fun exercises and tips in this confidence-coaching workbook will guide you past feelings of self-doubt and encourage you to believe in yourself, strengthen your friendships, and meet every challenge head-on.

 

  • Recognize and overcome the self-doubting thoughts that bring you down
  • Grow your confident thoughts into confident actions
  • Enjoy a full social life and attract new friends
  • Feel smarter at school and build on your extracurricular talents

This book has been awarded The Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Self-Help Seal of Merit — an award bestowed on outstanding self-help books that are consistent with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) principles and that incorporate scientifically tested strategies for overcoming mental health difficulties. Used alone or in conjunction with therapy, our books offer powerful tools readers can use to jump-start changes in their lives.

About the author:

Leslie Sokol, Ph.D., a licensed psychologist, is Senior Faculty, past Director of Education and one of the principal instructors with the internationally acclaimed Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy in Philadelphia. She has taught cognitive therapy to professional and para-professional groups, nationally and internationally, on such topics as: depression, anxiety, personality disorders, stress management, psychosis, substance abuse, and couples’ problems. In addition to her roles at the Beck Institute, she maintains a private practice in a primary care setting in the Philadelphia area. In her role as Chairman of Behavioral Science in the Family Practice Department at Mercy Suburban Hospital, she taught psychiatry to family medicine residents for twenty-two years. She continues to serve as the staff psychologist in the cardiac and physical rehabilitation departments.

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday October 2

My guest is Cindy Ariel, author of Loving Someone With Asperger’s Syndrome.

 

About the book:

If you’re in a relationship with someone who has Asperger’s syndrome, it’s likely that your partner sometimes seems cold and insensitive. Other times, he or she may have emotional outbursts for no apparent reason. And in those moments when you can’t understand each other at all, you both feel fed up, frustrated, and confused.

 

The behavior of people with Asperger’s can be hard to understand and easy to misinterpret, which is why it’s so important to learn more about your partner’s condition. The tools presented in Loving Someone with Asperger’s Syndrome will help you build intimacy and improve the way you and your partner communicate. Filled with assessments and exercises for both you and your partner, this book will help you forge a deeper, more fulfilling relationship.

 

This book will teach you how to:

• Understand the effect of Asperger’s syndrome on your partner
• Practice effective communication skills
• Constructively work through frustrations and fights
• Establish relationship ground rules to help you fulfill each others’ needs

 

About the author:

Cindy N. Ariel, PhD, is a Philadelphia psychologist with over twenty years of experience working with individuals and couples, many of whom have Asperger’s syndrome. In 1992, she cofounded Alternative Choices, an independent group psychology practice that specializes in helping families with special needs. Ariel coedited the book Voices from the Spectrum.

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday September 25

This week on my radio show I will be discussing the book that I co-authored with Matthew McKay, PhD and Avigail Lev, PsyD, ACT for Interpersonal Problems:  Using Mindfulness, Acceptance, and Schema Awareness to Change Interpersonal Behaviors. I will be discussing the book with Maarten Aalberse PsyD, a clinical psychologist and ACT therapist in Lyon, France.

 

About the book:

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Interpersonal Problems presents a complete treatment protocol for therapists working with clients who repeatedly fall into unhealthy patterns in their relationships with friends, family members, coworkers, and romantic partners. These clients may blame others, withdraw when feeling threatened, react defensively in conflicts, or have a deep-seated sense of distrust—all interpersonal problems that damage relationships and cause enormous suffering.

 

This book presents an acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) approach—utilizing a schema-based formulation—to help these clients overcome maladaptive interpersonal behavior. First, clients learn how schema avoidance behavior damages their relationships. Second, clients face “creative hopelessness” and practice new mindfulness skills. Third, clients examine what they value in their relationships and what they hope to gain from them, and translate their values into clear intentions for acting differently in the future. And lastly, clients face the cognitive and emotional barriers standing between them and values-based behavior in their relationships. By learning to act on their values instead of falling into schema-influenced patterns, clients can eventually overcome the interpersonal problems that hold them back.

 

About my co-authors:

Matthew McKay, PhD, is a professor at the Wright Institute in Berkeley, CA. He has authored and coauthored numerous books, including The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook, Self-Esteem, Thoughts and Feelings, When Anger Hurts, and ACT on Life Not on Anger. His books combined have sold more than 2.5 million copies. McKay received his PhD in clinical psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology. In private practice, he specializes in the cognitive behavioral treatment of anxiety and depression.

 

Avigail Lev, PsyD, is clinical supervisor at the Berkeley Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies Clinic. She specializes in couples therapy and treating mood disorders and interpersonal problems.

 

Foreword writer Steven C. Hayes, PhD, is University of Nevada Foundation Professor of Psychology at the University of Nevada, Reno. He is author of hundreds of scientific articles and many books, including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Relational Frame Theory, and Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life.

 

About Maarten Aalberse:

Clinical psychologist of Dutch origin living in France since 1995

Has co-lead professional trainings in « Unitive Psychotherapie » (Body-oriented approaches, Gestalt, Guided Imagery), in « A Healing Relationship with Shame in borderline and narcissistic processes » and « Graceful Means, felt gestures and bifocal mindfulness ».

Inspirations for his more recent work are derived from NeuroCognitive Behavior Therapy, Grovian Metaphor therapy and especially ACT.

 

Co author, with Jacques Fradin, of ” “L’Intelligence du Stress”, , 2008,
Co-editor & co-author, , of «Von der Energetischen Psychologie zur Bifokale Achtsamkeit» (“from energy psychology to bifocal mindfulness”), DGVT-Verlag, 2012

 

What he brings to ACT are client-generated metaphors, interventions based on S. Porges’ “polyvagal theory” and mindful gestures, for enhancing balance and flexibility/ creativity/ purpose.

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday September 18

My guest is Steve Flowers, author of Living with Your Heart Wide Open: How Mindfulness and Compassion Can Free You from Unworthiness, Inadequacy, and Shame.


About the book:

 

Everyone is subject to feelings of unworthiness and inadequacy and sometimes these feelings can become your very sense of self and dominate everything you do.

 

Living with Your Heart Wide Open offers a way to free yourself from this prison of shame though gentle and wise guidance in mindfulness and self-compassion practices as embodied within Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) training.

 

The way we talk to ourselves is often unkind and filled with self-judgments. These overly harsh self-criticisms can make us feel unworthy and incomplete. What if what you really need is not higher standards for yourself, but greater self-compassion? In Living with Your Heart Wide Open, you’ll discover how mindfulness and self-compassion can free you from the thoughts and beliefs that create feelings of inadequacy and learn to open your heart to the loving-kindness within you and in the world around you.

 

Based in Western psychotherapy and Buddhist psychological principles, this book guides you past painful and self-limiting beliefs about yourself and toward a new perspective of nonjudgmental awareness and acceptance of who you are, just as you are. You’ll receive gentle guidance in mindfulness and compassion practices that will lead you away from unproductive, self-critical thoughts and help you live more freely and fearlessly, with your heart wide open.

 

About the author:

 

Steve Flowers, MA, MFT has been deeply invested in meditation practice since 1974 and is in private practice online and at his Chico office specializing in mindfulness-based psychotherapy. Steve is also the author of The Mindful Path Through Shyness: How mindfulness and acceptance can free you from shyness, social anxiety and avoidance.

 

In addition, Steve conducts the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Clinic online and at Enloe Medical Center in Chico, California.

 

Steve conducts numerous mindfulness retreats each year for the general public and up to six fully accredited retreats a year for physicians, psychologists, nurses and licensed mental health professionals.

 

www.mindfullivingprograms.com

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday September 11

My guest is Susan Kuchinskas, author of The Chemistry of Connection: How the Oxytocin Response Can Help You Find Trust, Intimacy, and Love.

 

About the book:

 

When you make love, cuddle with a partner, or have coffee with close friends, a powerful brain chemical called oxytocin floods your body with feelings of contentment and trust. This natural love drug, produced by the hypothalamus, is responsible for human bonding in both platonic and intimate relationships, and is the key to many of the psychological differences between men and women. In The Chemistry of Connection, you’ll learn easy ways to increase your natural supply of oxytocin to establish deeper connections with family, friends, and romantic partners.

 

You’ll discover:

 

• The power of the cuddle hormone in relationships
• How sex and love are deeply entwined for both women and men
• The chemical differences between lust, romance, and love
• How to raise children who trust and love in a healthy way

 

About the author:

 

Susan Kuchinskas is a journalist with 15 years’ experience and thousands of published articles on science, technology and culture. She writes regularly for WebMD, and her work has appeared in a wide variety of technology, business and consumer publications, from Art & Antiques to Time to Wired. While researching a magazine article, she became fascinated by the oxytocin response, because it explained so much about her life and relationships. As she wrote the book, she tracked research and news about oxytocin in her blog, Hug the Monkey, which is now recognized as one of the most authoritative sources for information on oxytocin on the web.

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday September 4

My guest for Tuesday September 4th is Lucie Hemmen. I am really excited about our chat because we will be discussing a subject that is very close to my heart–parenting a teen girl. It is a joy and a challenge to raise a teen girl. Lucie’s book, Parenting a Teen Girl:  A Crash Course on Conflict, Communication, and Connection with Your Teen Daughter, is a great contribution to this important topic.

 

About the book:

 

It’s not easy to be a teen girl, and it’s definitely not easy parenting one. Parents everywhere struggle to respond appropriately to challenging behavior, hit-or-miss communication, and fluctuating moods commonly exhibited by teenage girls. More than previous generations, today’s teen girls face a daunting range of stressors that put them at risk for a range of serious issues, including self-harming behaviors, substance abuse, eating disorders, anxiety, and depression. Is it any wonder that parents are overwhelmed?

 

Parenting a Teen Girl is a guide for busy parents who want bottom-line information and tips that make sense—and work. It also offers scripts to improve communication, and exercises to navigate stressful interactions with skill and compassion. Whether your teen girl is struggling with academic pressure, social difficulties, physical self-care, or technology overload, this book offers practical advice to help you connect with your teen girl. Parents and teens alike can enjoy a positive connection once common parent-teen pitfalls are replaced with solid understanding and strategies that work.

 

In this book, you will learn how to:

 

• Maximize your teen’s healthy development
• Understand what underlies her moods and behavior
• Implement strategies for positive results
• Communicate effectively about difficult issues
• Enjoy and appreciate time with your teen daughter

 

About the author:

 

Lucie Hemmen, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist with a private practice in Santa Cruz, California.  She is also an author with her first book, Parenting a Teen Girl:  A Crash Course on  Conflict, Communication, and Connection with Your Teen Daughter which was released on August 1, 2012. For the past 20 years, Lucie has worked with individuals of all ages as well as couples and families.  In addition to working with issues such as depression, stress, anxiety, trauma, and grief, Lucie is committed to promoting healthy teen development by working with teens, their parents, and their communities.

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday August 28

My guest this week is Stan Tatkin. He was on my June 5th show discussing his book Wired for Love. I have asked him back to discuss sex in long-term relationships. Is it possible to maintain or re-ignite an exciting sexual relationship with your long-term partner?

 

About Stan:

 

Stan Tatkin, PsyD, MFT, is a clinician, researcher, teacher, and developer of A Psychobiological Approach To Couples Therapy® (PACT) which integrates neuroscience, infant attachment, arousal regulation, and therapeutic enactment applied to adult primary attachment relationships. He maintains a practice in Calabasas, California, and runs a bi-weekly clinical study group for medical and mental health professionals and training programs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boulder, Seattle, Austin, and New Jersey.

 

Dr. Tatkin received his early training in developmental object relations (Masterson Institute), Gestalt, psychodrama, and family systems theory. His private practice specialized for some time in the treatment of adolescents and adults with personality disorders. Over the last decade, his interests branched out toward psycho-neurobiological theories of human relationship, integrating principles of early mother-infant attachment with adult romantic relationships. He speaks to professional audiences on subjects of couples therapy and preventative psychotherapy through early intervention with infants, children and their parents. He has published several articles on the psychobiology of couples’ therapy and is currently training therapists on his unique approach to couples work using attachment theory, neuroscience, and principles of arousal and affect regulation.

 

Dr. Tatkin was a primary inpatient group therapist at the John Bradshaw Center where, among other things, he taught Mindfulness to patients and staff. He was trained in Vipassana meditation by Shinzen Young, Ph.D., and was an experienced facilitator in Vipassana. He was also trained by David Reynolds, Ph.D., in two Japanese forms of psychotherapy, Morita and Naikan.

 

Dr. Tatkin was clinical director of Charter Hospital’s intensive outpatient drug and alcohol program, and is a former president of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, Ventura County chapter.

 

In addition to his private practice, he teaches and supervises first through third-year family medicine residents at Kaiser Permanente, Woodland Hills, through which he is an assistant clinical professor at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Department of Family Medicine. He is also adjunct faculty for Antioch University, Santa Barbara Graduate Institute, and California Lutheran University.

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday August 21

This week’s show is in memory of our beloved dog Mac who died on May 3rd, a month after his diagnosis with inoperable pancreatic cancer. His life ended too soon and our family experienced tremendous sadness and loss. It is this sadness and loss that inspired me to seek out someone who could discuss the important role that pets play in our lives and why their loss is so painful.

 

This show is also dedicated to our dog Lucy (Mac’s constant companion for over 8 years) and our cat Eddy. And the newest member of our family, Doug.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am pleased to have author and Reverend Gary Kowalski on my show to discuss his book, Goodbye, Friend: Healing Wisdom for Anyone Who Has Ever Lost a Pet.

 

About the book:

 

The loss of an animal companion can be a painful, wrenching experience. In Goodbye, Friend, Gary Kowalski takes you on a journey of healing, offering
warmth and sound advice on how to cope with the death of your pet. Filled with heartwarming stories and practical guidance on such matters as taking care of yourself while mourning, creating rituals to honor your pet’s memory, and talking to children about death, Goodbye, Friend is a beautiful and comforting book for anyone grieving the loss of a beloved animal.

 

About Gary:

 

Reverend Gary Kowalski is the author of bestselling books on animals, nature, history and spirituality. A graduate of Harvard College and the Harvard Divinity School, his work has been translated into German, French, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese and Czech and been voted a “Reader’s Favorite” by the Quality Paperback Book Club. Whether investigating the emotional lives of animals, de-mystifying faith of America’s Founding Fathers, unpacking the Bible or pondering the frontiers of modern physics, Gary’s work centers on the connection of spirit and nature… acknowledging our kinship with each other and with a universe that is passionate, evolving and alive. Visit his website at www.kowalskibooks.com.

 

 


 

Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday August 14

 

I am pleased to have as my guest this week Anjali Sastry, author of Parenting Your Child With Autism: Practical Solutions, Strategies, and Advice for Helping Your Family

 

About the book:

 

Amid a bewildering range of treatments that promise to alleviate or even cure autism, even the leading researchers can’t predict what will work for your child. As a parent, you are in a unique position to become the practical expert on your child’s needs and strengths. Parenting Your Child with Autism will equip you with family-tested and science-based approaches for meeting the challenges ahead.

 

You’ll learn how to:

 

  • Get a diagnosis and navigate the health care and educational systems
  • Make sense of your child’s treatment options
  • Tap into expert opinions and your own observations to find a treatment program that works
  • Become your child’s best advocate and build a better family life

 

About Anjali:

 

M. Anjali Sastry has two sons on the autism spectrum. Drawing on her doctorate in management, she researches and teaches systems thinking and health care delivery at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management.

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday August 7

I am excited to have as my guest Ken Solin, author of Act Like a Man: Really There’s Hope Men Can Change.

 

About Ken’s Book:

 

Men can—and do—change. And Act Like a Man invites you to eavesdrop as eight guys help each other identify, examine, and move beyond their dysfunctional behavior as partners, fathers, and friends.

 

There’s nothing special about these guys—other than their commitment to becoming better men—and everything they accomplish, the man in your life can accomplish, too. All it takes is the honesty to admit that things aren’t working and the desire to turn them around.

 

Well, not quite all. Women have a role to play, too. Men who have the courage to change all need the support of a woman committed to her own growth and that of her relationship. If you’re with a man but want more emotional intimacy or are still looking for a man who can meet you on your emotional level, this book is for you.

 

About Ken:

 

For twenty years, author and lecturer Ken Solin has worked with men to move them beyond the issues that limit their lives. Divorces, sharing kids, single parenting, relationships, dysfunctional boyhoods, anger, depression, anxiety and other issues that affect men have been successfully dealt with.

 

Both men and women follow Ken since he deals with issues that affect both, particularly in relationships.

 

Before devoting himself to this work, Ken enjoyed a successful twenty-five year career as an entrepreneur, financing high-tech companies and wineries. He raised two sons as a single father and lives in California.

 

“What I’ve learned over two decades is that there are no shortcuts for healing the emotional wounds that hold men back in every aspect of their lives. The ‘work’ is men helping each other by listening to each other’s stories, and responding from their own experiences in similar situations. Judgment and advice are meaningless. When a man shares his feelings with other men, he is expressing his absolute truth.”

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday July 31

I am pleased that I will have as my guest Raychelle Cassada Lohmann, the author of The Anger Workbook for Teens, and a National Board Certified Counselor and a Licensed Professional Counselor in the states of NC and SC.

 

About Raychelle’s book:

 

In The Anger Workbook for Teens, an anger management counselor offers forty-two activities and exercises adolescents can do to examine what makes them angry and learn to communicate their feelings more effectively. The activities also teach coping skills that help young readers handle anger-provoking situations in healthy ways.

 

Between family life and the pressures of school, there’s no doubt that it’s stressful being a teenager. But if they’ve noticed they are beginning to take out their frustrations on the people they love most—their parents, brothers or sisters, and friends-it may be time to make a change. The Anger Workbook for Teens shows them effective skills to help them deal with feelings of rage without losing it.

 

By completing just one ten-minute worksheet a day, they’ll find out what’s triggering their anger, look at the ways they react, and learn skills and techniques for getting their anger under control. They’ll develop a personal anger profile and learn to notice the physical symptoms they feel when you become enraged, then find out how to calm those feelings and respond more sensitively to others. Once they fully understand their anger, they’ll be better prepared to deal with their feelings in the moment and never lose their cool.

 

About Raychelle:

 

Raychelle Cassada Lohmann, MS, LPC has worked in middle school and high school settings as a professional school counselor. She has done extensive research in anger management and specializes in individual and group counseling for anger management. She is an active member of the American Counseling Association, American School Counseling Association, SC Counselors Association, and SC School Counselors Association.

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday July 24

My guest for this week is Michelle Skeen…  yes, I will be host and guest! I will also have a close friend of mine on my show (I will reveal his name at the beginning of the show). Over the last month, I have been having frequent conversations with people about the subject of my book The Critical Partner. It has become clear to me that there are many people who feel trapped in the role of the “critical” partner and they truly want to end the toxic role that they play in their relationship. So, I will be discussing the primary schemas that trigger this behavior as well as the alternative coping strategies that can help them move on from their maladaptive behavior.

 

More about The Critical Partner

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday July 17

This promises to be a fun show.  My special guest for my radio show on July 17th is Charlee Ziegler.  She is a matchmaker for the new dating service TAWKIFY.

 

About Tawkify:

 

Tawkify is the newest way to meet someone . . . using the oldest method in the world. Tell us your interests and what you’re looking for, and we (actual human beings) will personally match you. (We know! So old-school!) Then at 10pm (EST) / 7pm (PST) – we’ll let you know – when your phone will ring. Answer it. It will be the person we hand-picked for you. It’s thrilling! It’s scary! It’s provocative! It’s audacious! It’s brilliant! It’s archaic! It’s romantic!

 

About E. Jean and Kenneth, the founders:

 

E. Jean Carroll writes the Ask E. Jean column in Elle magazine. Incredibly it’s the longest, currently-running advice column in American publishing. She has six million readers. E. Jean was a writer for Saturday Night Live, a contributing editor to Esquire, Outside, and Playboy. Her TV show on MSNBC was called—what else?—Ask E. Jean. She founded, with her sister, Cande Carroll, the breakthrough dating site, GreatBoyfriends.com (where women recommend their ex-boyfriends to each other) and which has been profiled in The New York Times, Newsweek, The Washington Post, the Miami Herald, the LA Times, Men’s Health, Details, etc., and has been seen on The Today Show, The Early Show, Oprah, constantly on CNN, FOX, etc.

 

After two glasses of wine, E. Jean estimates that what with her column, her book, Mr. Right, Right Now, her coaching site, Dating: E. Jean, her YouTube Channel, and her television appearances, she has helped more people find enticing mates than any advice columnist in history.

 

Kenneth Shaw was most recently the principal imagineer at One Kings Lane. He began his career at Microsoft, and moved on to become the bashful firebrand who created My Purity Test, one of the most popular Facebook apps of all time. He also created the Elle magazine Facebook App. He graduated from Stanford in ’07—he’s a geek, a black belt in Hapkido, and possesses such a sunny disposition he makes a basket of puppies look depressed.

 

Computer Verses Human:

 

So the question is:  Who’s better at making romantic matches? Kenneth and E. Jean? Or computers?

 

“Please,” says E. Jean. “I’m an admirer of the big dating sites and they all use computers, but come on. Computers don’t get jokes. A computer can’t tell the difference between someone playful, someone weird, someone mean, and someone stupid. Kenneth and I are just waaaaaay better at picking up on wit, kindness, irony, warmth and wisecracks in people’s answers. We can tell at a glance if someone is lovable. And we beat computers all to hell when judging sexual charisma displayed in photos. Kenneth Shaw and I make better matches than computers do.”

 

About Charlee, matchmaker and go-between:

 

Charlee Ziegler is a life coach. Charlee started as a go-between at the age of six, when at sleepovers, whenever there was trouble, she created reconciliations by getting the kids to talk it out together in the bathroom while she mediated.

 

Split between a very conventional upbringing in suburban Arizona with her dad and a bohemian lifestyle in New York City with her actress mother, Charlee straddled two worlds and longed for unification. Often, when relatives had trouble in love, she intervened.

 

Between stints at Bennington College (E. Jean wrote her recommendation—Ed) Mills College, NYU, and St. John’s College, Charlee traveled and had many adventures.

 

Once when she was trying to find the bathroom in a Parisian bar, a man stopped her and said in a thick accent, “You have what we call an overture of emotion,” and then stoically walked away. Stunned by this announcement, and not really sure what it meant, she felt it had something to do with her destiny in life.

 

She’s still not sure what it’s all sussed up to be, but she’s always believed that true love was possible between people and that the life of the heart used the love of another to express it’s entire reason for being. The cosmic dimensions of relationship and the eternal struggle for love and, at times, crowning achievement of claiming it, for almost every individual in an entire planet of people enchants, baffles, and inspires her.

 

Married with a five-year-old daughter, Charlee investigates every aspect and dimension of love, marriage, and family and finds it to be a mysterious, beautiful, and epic saga.

 

For more information go to www.tawkify.com

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday July 10

I am happy to announce my guest will be Kaitlin Bell Barnett, journalist, blogger and author of Dosed: The Medication Generation Grows Up, which examines what it’s like for young people to come of age taking psychiatric drugs that alter emotions, behavior and identity in a society that at once encourages and criticizes the use of psychopharmaceuticals.

 

Kaitlin writes about mental health at The Huffington Post and about young people’s experiences of medication at My Meds, My Self, a blog at the psychology website Psych Central. I also review books for several psychology and mainstream outlets.


About Kaitlin’s book:

 

Over the last two decades, we have seen a dramatic spike in young people taking psychiatric medication. As new drugs have come on the market and diagnoses have proliferated, prescriptions have increased many times over. The issue has sparked heated debates, with most arguments breaking down into predictable pro-med advocacy or anti-med jeremiads. Yet, we’ve heard little from the “medicated kids” themselves.

 

In Dosed, Kaitlin Bell Barnett, who began taking antidepressants as a teenager, takes a nuanced look at the issue as she weaves together stories from members of this “medication generation,” exploring how drugs informed their experiences at home, in school, and with the mental health professions.

 

For many, taking meds has proved more complicated than merely popping a pill. The questions we all ask growing up—“Who am I?” and “What can I achieve?”—take on extra layers of complexity for kids who spend their formative years on medication. As Barnett shows, parents’ fears that “labeling” kids will hurt their self-esteem means that many young children don’t understand why they take pills at all, or what the drugs are supposed to accomplish. Teens must try to figure out whether intense emotions and risk-taking behaviors fall within the spectrum of normal adolescent angst, or whether they represent new symptoms or drug side effects. Young adults negotiate schoolwork, relationships, and the workplace, while struggling to find the right medication, dealing with breakdowns and relapses, and trying to decide whether they still need pharmaceutical treatment at all. And for some young people, what seemed like a quick fix turns into a saga of different diagnoses, symptoms, and a changing cocktail of medications.

 

The results of what one psychopharmacologist describes as a “giant, uncontrolled experiment” are just starting to trickle in. Barnett shows that a lack of ready answers and guidance has often proven extremely difficult for these young people as they transition from childhood to adolescence and now to adulthood. With its in-depth accounts of individual experiences combined with sociological and scientific context, Dosed provides a much-needed road map for patients, friends, parents, and those in the helping professions trying to navigate the complicated terrain of growing up on meds.

 

Kaitlin explains:


I got interested in the topic of young people spending their formative years on medication after reading a case study on the topic several years ago by The New York Times’ mental health columnist. At that point, I was 25 years old and had been taking various medications, mostly antidepressants, for anxiety and depression since I was in high school; I had been contending with the underlying psychological conditions for several years before that. Until reading that column, I had thought I’d had a relatively uncomplicated experience with pharmaceutical treatment. For me, the medication had seemed to make my apathy, boredom, despair and panic vanish where introspection and therapy had failed to make any inroads.

 

But the more I thought about it, I realized that psychiatric meds do alter one’s personality in fundamental ways, and that when taken in childhood and adolescence, as one is trying to locate a sense of self, they must inevitably affect one’s developmental trajectory. I decided to embark on a project interviewing my peers about their own experiences taking medications for a variety of psychiatric conditions ranging from panic disorder to ADHD to bipolar disorder. The result was Dosed.

 

blogs.psychcentral.com/my-meds/

www.huffingtonpost.com/kaitlin-bell/

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday July 3

My guest will be Karen Kropf, who is the author of Raising Teens With Sexual Self-Control: A Parent’s Survival Guide

 

Karen discusses her book:

 

Mom… Dad… Can We Talk?

 

There is an abundance of evidence which proves the strategies of well-meaning people trying PREVENT teens from being sexually active has produced exactly the opposite result. That’s why this book was originally titled “Did You MEAN to Raise a Sexually Active Teen?”

 

But very few people seem to be aware of the proof, or that the methods educators and parents have been using since the 1960s DON’T WORK.

 

I’ve spoken to hundreds of parents who were completely unprepared for the anarchy of adolescence. They usually sought me out when things were on fire. Navigating an unexpected pregnancy, reeling from an abortion decision, dealing with sexual infections, or obsessive behavior.

 

In every single case, those parents had put off the training THEY needed to guide their child through the minefield of adolescence. “Hoping for the best” is not a strategy. These weren’t bad parents. They just kept thinking they had more time.

 

If what you were looking for was a book that would guide you through “The Talk” – the one where you sweat bullets for months, finally arrange that special weekend, Mom takes the girls, Dad takes the boys, you lay it all out, pray they don’t ask any tough questions and then hope to God you never have to discuss it again – this is NOT that book.

 

If you were looking for a book that explains how to convince a teen to use protection consistently and correctly, this is NOT that book. That book does not exist. Teens use condoms the way they clean their rooms. Always have and always will. You are fooling yourself if you think otherwise.


I wrote Raising Teens With Sexual Self-Control: A Parent’s Survival Guide because I didn’t want to watch another generation of teens fall for the same misconceptions and outright lies their parents had. It’s written so that each chapter can stand alone – in case you’re not the kind of person to read a book cover-to-cover, although I hope you will. I invite you to dive in somewhere and let me earn the right to coach you.

 

About Karen:

 

Karen Kropf is both the program developer and one of the founders of the organization Positively Waiting! She began exposing sex, love and relationship MYTHS in 1998, while volunteering at a local pregnancy center. In 2003, she and a team of enthusiastic adults began offering free public school presentations promoting delayed sexual activity.

 

www.positivelywaiting.com

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday June 26

Susan Tschudi is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and adjunct professor at Pepperdine University and the author of Loving Someone with Attention Deficit Disorder. After counseling many couples where one partner has Attention Deficit Disorder, she realized that there were many resources available for the partner with ADD but very few existed that directly addressed the frustrations and needs of the non-ADD partner. Drawing upon her clinical experience and personal experience (her husband has ADD), Loving Someone with Attention Deficit Disorder fills the gap for the non-ADD partner by normalizing feelings, acknowledging the specific challenges involved and offering hope for the future.

 

About Susan’s book:

 

Your partner’s attention deficit disorder (ADD) may not seem like a big deal at first, but eventually, the dynamics surrounding his or her impulsivity, forgetfulness, distractibility, and restlessness can really strain your relationship. You don’t want to act like a parent, yet you may feel like you can’t rely on your partner to get things done. Loving Someone with Attention Deficit Disorder is your guide to navigating a relationship with someone with ADD so you can create healthy boundaries while remaining sympathetic to your partner’s symptoms.

 

An essential resource for every couple affected by ADD, her book will help you:

 

• Understand medication and other treatments
• Recover quickly when your partner’s symptoms frustrate you
• Establish personal boundaries to avoid excessive caretaking
• Identify and take care of your own needs so you can feel more relaxed

 

www.newharbinger.com

 

————————————————————————————————————–

Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday June 19

My guest will be Christine Kniffen, LCSW, who is the author of The Art of Relating: A Primer for Love. Christine offers answers and solutions to your relationship dilemmas to help you move forward and achieve a great relationship.

 

About the Book

 

Divorce rates in America present a sobering picture. It is estimated that 50% of first marriages, 67% of second and 74% of third marriages end in divorce. People just aren’t getting it right. Time is ticking. In this crazy world, now more than ever, we need help in how to navigate the arena of love and achieve successful relationships.

 

In The Art of Relating: A Primer for Love, psychotherapist and relationship coach Christine Kniffen, LCSW offers readers a real how to when it comes to handling just about every aspect of relationships. Are you on the fence wondering if you should stay or go? Do you find that you continually lose your identity in relationships and want to know why? Do you have a pattern of gravitating to the emotionally unavailable, but don’t know how to stop it? Do you have trouble getting your needs met and can’t understand why? For just about any relationship situation that you find yourself in, The Art of Relating will help to show a clear path forward, while explaining why you have been struggling so hard up to this point.

 

According to Kniffen, “Everyone can have a great relationship and need not settle for crumbs. In the areas of self-esteem and relationship expectations, most of us require some tweaking to get what we want. Instead of wasting energy feeling bad about your love life, why don’t you try doing something about it and begin educating yourself on what is really required to have a great relationship? Then, you can finally begin to recognize the person who can actually give it to you.”

 

Whether you are tired of the dating merry-go-round or want to improve your current relationship, The Art of Relating will guide you through the typical relationship land mines and teach you how to reach the top with the one you love.

 

More About Christine

 

Christine Kniffen, LCSW is a psychotherapist who received her master’s degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Christine works in private practice specializing in Relationship Coaching and couples counseling.  She is a columnist for The Healthy Planet magazine, presents workshops on a variety of topics, is a paid lecturer and currently hosts The Art of Relating on Blog Talk Radio.

 

www.ChristineKniffen.com

TheArtofRelatingBook.com

 

Listen to Podcast

 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday June 12

Shawn T. Smith, PsyD, is the author of The User’s Guide to the Human Mind:  Why Our Brains Make Us Unhappy, Anxious, and Neurotic and What We Can Do about It.


Shawn’s book is about living with our minds when our minds are driving us crazy. It’s about understanding what the mind is doing, why it is doing it, and how we can live our lives anyway. It is about honestly appreciating what our minds give us? even the thoughts and feelings that we do not want? and gently taking the reins when our minds are blocking our way.

 

Shawn describes his book:


Part 1 looks at ways in which the mind speaks to us, and how to gain distance from our own thoughts and feelings so that we can respond to them with more insight and freedom.

 

Part 2 discusses how to move forward when the mind wants to protect us from things that we want, but that the mind sees as dangerous.

 

Part 3 deconstructs some of the underlying mechanisms that keep us mired in unproductive behaviors. When we can observe what’s going on behind the scenes, we have the power to make our own choices rather than following the impulses of the mind.

 

Finally, Part 4 discusses the proper care and feeding of a human mind so that we can reduce the power that it holds over us.

 

Throughout this book, I refer to the mind as if it were a separate entity. Of course it isn’t separate, but if your mind is like my mind, it can certainly seem that way. The brain (the physical structure that gives us a mind?we’ll explore the distinction in chapter 2) is built in such a way that most of its functions and drives lie outside our control, just as the bulk of an iceberg lies beneath the water’s surface. But just because most of the brain’s functions and drives lie outside our control, that doesn’t mean that our minds are working against us. To the contrary, their purpose is to keep us safe. I hold two assumptions that will serve as a foundation as we explore the mind’s pursuit of safety.

 

First, different parts of the brain can act on different contingencies. That means that even when we realize we shouldn’t eat an entire box of cookies, some part of our mind believes it would be useful to do so.

 

Second, the unwanted thoughts, feelings, memories, and compulsions of our mind exist for a reason, even when we face something as trivial as a cookie. A well-functioning mind knows that salt, sugar, and fat are rare commodities?or at least they were rare in the primitive environment. That’s where our brains grew up, and the circuitry that we developed to survive in a younger and more challenging world continues to drive us to this day. Better eat that cookie while you can, says a well-oiled, survival-driven mind, the opportunity may not come again! Because they constantly “worry” about our survival, I call our minds “worry machines.” But they are worry machines with a very important purpose: they are here to help us? whether we like it or not.

 

They can be annoying, to be sure. They can mislead us and can even cause pain, but their quirky behavior, to borrow from computer programming parlance, is almost always a feature of the software, not a bug in the program. However abnormal your mind may seem to you, it is probably functioning as it should. But I don’t want you to take my word for it. Instead, check my words against your own experience.

 

Throughout this book, I invite you to do exercises and experiments designed to illuminate your mind’s surreptitious attempts to continually direct your behavior in ways both subtle and gross. When we can see what the mind is up to, we can then gain the freedom to respond according to our higher values rather than allowing subconscious processes to direct us. Instead of letting our minds drive us crazy, we can learn to harness, and even appreciate, the mind’s naturally protective tendencies.

 

For more information about Shawn T. Smith go to www.ironshrink.com

 

Listen to Podcast

 

—————————————————————————————————————

Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday June 5

Guest: Stan Tatkin, PsyD, author of Wired for Love: How Understanding Your Partner’s Brain and Attachment Style Can Help You Defuse Conflict and Build A Secure Relationship.

 

Wired for Love challenges partners to experience their relationship in a totally new way. Partners will learn how to engage positively as a couple to help each other feel safe and secure by following the relationship exercises suggested in this exciting new book. In clear, concise language, Tatkin describes the ways that partners can understand and become experts on one another. He suggests building a ‘couple bubble’ wherein each partner is the most important person in the other’s life, the one individual on whom the partner can always count.

 

Tatkin’s model, based upon neuroscience, attachment and moment-to-moment arousal, helps couples keep their bonds fresh and alive. Among the messages interspersed throughout this book are:  finding ways to become experts on one another, knowing the three or four things that make a partner feel good, spontaneously making the partner feel happy and loved, avoiding the things that make the other feel bad, managing one another’s highs and lows, knowing what to do when things go awry, learning how to fight fair and have a win-win relationship that reduces stress.

 

This is a book written for partners who want to be in a thriving relationship, but is also an excellent primer for psychotherapists who want to help their patients engage in and maintain successful relationships.”

For more about Dr. Tatkin go to www.stantatkin.com

 

Listen to Podcast


 


Relationships 2.0 on Tuesday May 29

My guest was Joe Messina, host of The Real Side with Joe Messina.

 

Listen to Podcast


 


“Coach on the Couch with Dr. Michelle Skeen”

I was fortunate to co-host a radio show with “Coach” Ron Tunick for several months that we called “Coach on the Couch with Dr. Michelle Skeen.” Below are the archived podcasts.

Listen to Podcasts:

March 28, 2012

Listen to Podcast

1st Hour: Listen to PodcastWendy Behary author of Disarming the Narcissist discussing narcissism and empathy

2nd Hour: Listen to Podcast – Bart Magee, Director of Access Institute in San Francisco discussing bullying


March 22, 2012

Two hour live interview

Listen to Podcast

1st Hour: Listen to Podcast

2nd Hour: Listen to Podcast


March 15, 2012

Two hour live interview

Listen to Podcast

1st Hour: Listen to Podcast

2nd Hour: Listen to Podcast

 

March 8, 2012

Two hour live interview

Listen to Podcast

1st Hour: Listen to Podcast

2nd Hour: Listen to Podcast

 

March 2, 2012

Two hour live interview

Listen to Podcast

1st Hour: Listen to Podcast

2nd Hour: Listen to Podcast

 

March 1, 2012

Two hour live interview

Listen to Podcast

1st Hour: Listen to Podcast

2nd Hour: Listen to Podcast

 

February 23, 2012

Two hour live interview

Listen to Podcast

1st Hour: Listen to Podcast

2nd Hour: Listen to Podcast

 

February 16, 2012

Two hour live interview

Listen to Podcast

1st Hour: Listen to Podcast

2nd Hour: Listen to Podcast

 

February 9, 2012

Two hour live interview

Listen to Podcast

1st Hour: Listen to Podcast

2nd Hour: Listen to Podcast

 

February 2, 2012

Two hour live interview

Listen to Podcast

1st Hour: Listen to Podcast

2nd Hour: Listen to Podcast

 


Copyright © 2024 Michelle Skeen Inc. All rights reserved.