Healing trauma and reclaiming joy with Dr MaryCatherine McDonald

Welcome to episode 223 with Dr MaryCatherine McDonald, who is a research professor and life coach who specialises in the psychology and philosophy of trauma.

Her work focuses on thinking critically about how we understand, define, and heal from traumatic experiences.

Her newest book, The Joy Reset is a ground breaking, accessible guide to identifying the key ways trauma prevents joy and hope, with strategies for healing.

In this episode I’m joined by MC to chat about her research in to trauma and how things look different when we use both a psychological and a philosophical lens.

We chat about misunderstanding joy and the different forms this emotion can take and we talk about how joy interacts with trauma and the research and that informs this work.

MC also guides me through the neuroscience of The Hope Circuit and The Fear Circuit and breaks down the 6 thieves of joy and what we can do about them and we discuss how all of this relates to trauma and recovery.

We also chat about the nervous system, cultivating kindness, why some people resist joy, overidentifying with trauma and why it’s so important to imprint ‘tiny little joys’ every single day.

This is a fascinating conversation about the complexities of trauma alongside small, actionable steps to change your relationship with it and the science and research to back it up.

You can connect with Dr MaryCatherine and join her in imprinting a tiny little joy everyday this year on her social channels @mc.phd

Find out more about all aspects of her work at www.drmcmcdonald.com

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Thanks for listening!