Mental Health Hour

In episode 12, Caitriona and Kayla are joined by Siobhan Murray psychotherapist, author and

corporate speaker specialising in burnout. Siobhan shares her own personal story of burnout. Other

topics discussed include wellbeing, alcohol dependency, prevention, imposter syndrome and

returning to college as a mature student plus lots more. Siobhan is author of her book “ The Burnout

Solution:12 Weeks to a Calmer You”.

Books:

In episode 11, Caitriona and Kayla are joined by Niamh Fitzpatrick clinical psychologist, author, and previous agony aunt on The Anton Savage Show on Today fm. Niamh, Caitriona and Kayla discuss loss, grief, taboo’s around grief, death, the admin of grief, IVF, suicide bereavement and lots more.

Working as a psychologist since 1991 Niamh’s passions lie in two areas achieving optimum mental health and optimum performance. As an accredited sports psychologist Niamh works with top performers to maintain high performance.

Niamh is also the author of a book titled “Tell me the truth about loss: a psychologist’s personal story of loss, grief and finding hope”. In 2017, Niamh’s life changed forever overnight after her beloved sister Dara died in a helicopter crash. Life as Niamh knew it changed forever with her marriage ending a short time later. In her book Niamh speaks in a real and honest way about loss of all types and grief.

Book recommendation:

“Tell me the truth about loss: a psychologist's personal story of loss, grief and finding hope”

In episode 10, Caitriona and Kayla are joined by Karen Sugrue sociologist, psychotherapist, lecturer, activist and feminist to discuss Mother’s Day, gender roles, dual roles and biases.

Quote cited

“Those who do not do hands-on caring are free to advance their material and social status and enjoy more leisure • It is women’s unwaged care labour that frees men to be market citizens, political citizens and cultural citizens in ways that enable them to use their power, their money and cultural prestige to dominate women”- (Lynch, 2009)

Book recommendation:

In episode 9, Kayla puts Caitriona in the hot seat to speak about her research topic of childhood trauma. What is trauma? How can it impact us? Is it a death sentence? Caitriona states that Ireland’s fire fighting approach is not good enough. Action is needed now and it must start by training professionals to look inwards.

Discussion includes: intergenerational trauma, trauma informed care, trauma literacy, relationships, protective factors, one good adult, ACE’s, the need for action now to prevent issues in 20 years time and lots more.

Quotes mentioned

Daniel Siegal defined it as “A trauma can be defined as an experience that threatens our physical survival or one that disrupts our sense of meaning”- Dan Siegel

Peter Levine describes trauma as “not something that happens to us but rather what we contain inside of us in the absence of an empathetic witness (Levine, 2010)

“ Yehuda and her team found that Jewish people who had experienced the holocaust , and their children shared similar genetic patterns. Specifically they found epigenetic tags on the very same part of the gene in both parent and child. It was attributed the the trauma the parents had experienced”. – cited in: It didn’t start with you by Mark Wolynn.

Links to resources/articles mentioned

- Levine, P. (2010) In An Unspoken Voice: How the body releases trauma and restores goodness, Calafornia: North Atlantic Books.

In episode 8, Caitriona and Kayla are joined by Karen Sugrue - sociologist, psychotherapist, lecturer, activist and feminist to discuss relationships, sex, gender stereotypes, and societal expectations .

Discussion includes the difference between being alone and being lonely, challenging stereotypes, societies sexual scripts based on gender, Valentines Day and lots more. 

Some special mentions to some wonderful people doing wonderful work throughout the episode. You'll find their work or their Twitter handles below!

Links to resources mentioned

This episode discusses suicide and harmful content online. Listener discretion is advised. 

In episode 7, Caitriona interviews Kayla about her current postgraduate research which focuses on pro suicide websites. Having immersed herself in these spaces Kayla reveals what she has learnt to date, how her time in these spaces has revealed something unexpected and the role her research will play in informing frontline services and policy makers to prevent people entering these spaces moving forward.

Quotes mentioned

In episode 6, we speak about professional self-awareness. How a lack of self-awareness may not only impact the professional, their work but also their clients/service users. We discuss the balancing of roles within a professional’s life and how additional stress in one area can place undue pressure on the rest.

Caitriona highlights the importance of reflecting on our own trauma histories and attachment styles as professionals. Other aspects discussed include vicarious trauma, secondary trauma, trusting your gut and the bodies alarm system.

Today's quote “How my actions, words and emotions affect myself and others” was tweeted to @MentalHealth_Hr by- Siobhan Murray (@Twistingthejar) motivational speaker and thought leader.

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