The Broken Brain

Talking to Candice at Namaste Center for Healing, we were planning to do some nonsense throw away discussion about another topic, but we landed on talking about treatment for individuals with sexual offenses, pedophiliac desires, and compulsive sexual thoughts. Candice operates a preventative treatment program for those with invasive, unwanted sexual desires towards children. This is a difficult and controversial topic within the world of treatment, so give us a listen as we take a stab at it.

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy addresses increasing emotional stability, and the PLEASE skill is a viable part of increasing yours! This podcast mini episode comes from the audio to the YouTube Video on The BrokenBrain Podcast channel on YouTube.

Happy International Women's Day! Check out Google's video about living our dreams and empowering women all over the world. Listeners to the Broken Brain will be familiar with my ideal for equal rights for all people and my feminist philosophy, but I wanted to spend a few minutes plugging this international empowerment day and to encourage you to spend at least some time today reading tweets under the hashtag: #somedayiwill on Twitter.

I am privileged this episode to have been able to have a conversation with Ana-Maria Leonte, who plays Dasha Promenti in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Ana-Maria talks about this role and her life as an actress, model, and tech expert. She also discusses her passion for advocacy and humanitarianism, working with charities dedicated to equality and world peace, such as Generation Success and Peace One Day. If you are anything like me you will find her own story as compelling as any part of the new Star Wars movie. Make sure to check out Generation Success for their event on March 8th. Big thanks to Chris Revill of the Lets Chat with Revill and Friends Podcast for helping me to get into contact with Ana-Maria Leonte, and of course super-Star-Wars-Expanded-Universe sized thanks to Ms. Leonte for the generous contribution of her time to speak with me today.

Chris Revill of the Let's Chat with Revill and Friends Podcast returns to the show to vent and talk about the scandal that recently affected Brain Training giant Lumosity. We use this as a springboard to chat about pop neurology, brain training, our mutual dislike of positive affirmations, cure-alls in mental health, feeling your feelings, and of course (with us) an overdose of tangents and pop culture references...although I think we avoid any super hero references this time...

I give my take on a news story from last week all about a certain MRA website's jackass founder proposing pro-rape rallies across the world, and a certain Savoy Howe of the Toronto Newsgirls Boxing Club using her brilliance and courage to fight back. Originally I came across this story on nymag.com from writer Jessica Roy, and you should read her stuff.

Narcissism is a chronic and damaging form of self obsession. Ranked as one of the Personality or Trait Disorders by the DSM 5, NPD or Narcissistic Personality Disorder is an ongoing unhealthy survival strategies for life. Even though it can lead to obnoxious, self destructive, or even dangerous behavior. Far from the psychological death sentence that many people think it is, PD is subject to treatment and success, especially if the individual has awareness of their condition. Mike, Lee, and Dwight discuss these things and more on today's episode of The Broken Brain!

In the film Avengers 2: Age of Ultron, the characters are mostly superheroes who have magical, technological, or otherwise comic book enhanced powers. Despite this the main characters frequently refer to themselves as "monsters," throughout the story. We use this film as a backdrop to talk about self confidence and its relationship to self doubt. We all ride this balance constantly, and the direction we lean can determine our day-to-day choices. Michael Denniston from the War Machine vs War Horse to add some narrative, storytelling, and movie expertise to the discussion.

Answering listener questions with Lee Messersmith. We tackle your questions about PTSD, why some are more prone to it than others, how to handle people who think that Mental Health Diagnosis are fake, and (GULP) whether or not we have favorite clients. Want to hear your questions answered on the show? We do this whenever we have enough questions, so send them to us on Twitter @breakabrain or email me directly at dwighthurst@gmail.com

Blaine Hickman, LCSW, trains the Aspire group on individual and family therapy with LGBTQ individuals who struggle with either personal, family, or societal pressure related to issues of religious belief. Blaine is a specialist in the area of Depression & Anxiety related to faith crisis, religious intolerance, or personal rejection and shame related to sexual orientation, particularly with the LDS (Mormon) population. You can read his blog at http://somestufftoread17.blogspot.com/