EP 196: What is Sports Psychology With Sean O’Connor

EP 196: What is Sports Psychology With Sean O’Connor

What is Sports Psychology With Sean O’Connor

Sports psychology is a practical skill that helps address athletes’ optimal performance and well-being. How can this be used? And what do you know about sports psychology? 

Traumas and repressed emotions can affect us in the long run. Some of us can handle these emotions well, while others displace them, creating more trauma, stress, fear, anger, resentment, depression, and anxiety.

How can people heal from this? Is there a way to work through these feelings? 

In this episode, we would like to introduce you to Sean O’Connor. Sean is a licensed mental health counselor (LMHC) at Peaceful Living Mental Health Counseling in Scarsdale, NY.

He specializes in sports psychology and trauma-informed counseling to help adults and athletes overcome anger, depression, anxiety, PTSD, and stress. 

To treat his patients, he uses a combination of EMDR therapy, mindfulness, meditative science, polyvagal theory for nervous system regulation, and neurofeedback when working with clients.

Sean loves working with athletes and survivors of past trauma to help them heal from the past, love the present, and have hope for the future.

Questions for Our Guest

The questions below are some we’d like to tackle. We often go off-topic, so we don’t expect to hit them all. If you have any ideas, please let us know.

Looking forward to our conversation!

These are the questions you had in Calendly. We’ll go off your questions and wherever else our conversation goes.

  1. Can you give us a little background about yourself?

2. How did you get into Sports Psychology & what is sports psychology?

3. How do Athletes cultivate their identity? 

4. What does it take to improve your mental health?

  • What is the simplicity of happy living?
  • What are some common stigmas in mental health?

5. How does holistic health play a role in mental health?

6. What is the Polyvagal theory?

7. What is the problem with the age of information? 

8. Martial arts

ENDING QUESTIONS

Before we end the show, we have one last question we like to ask all our guests. If you had the opportunity to have a Cup of coffee with anybody one last time, who would it be & why? 

Connect with Sean through his Instagram @peacefullivingcounseling Or visit their website at https://www.peacefullivingmentalhealthcounseling.com/. 

Do you want to know more about sports psychology? Click here for more 👇👇👇

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Introduction
02:11 About Sean O’Connor
08:41 What is the language of an Athlete
12:13 The most frequent problems that athletes face
15:35 What transpires when an athlete leaves their sport
17:37 How to guide struggling athletes
22:34 What are the traits of an athlete
25:27 How to overcome extreme pressure and performance anxiety
30:38 How to communicate to a person who is tense and fearful
36:02 How important is physical health to mental health
40:16 How to recognize danger and when it exists
43:25 How our emotions make our consciousness
48:18 The negative impacts of the modern age of information
52:31 What makes EMDR more efficient
58:43 How martial arts enhance both mental and physical health
01:08:03 How martial arts foster self-control
01:11:45 The significance of a warm community
01:19:48 What separates an elite athlete from the rest
01:22:13 Wrapping up the show

EP 195: Psychotherapy & EMDR with Stephanie Polizzi

EP 195: Psychotherapy & EMDR with Stephanie Polizzi

Psychotherapy & EMDR with Stephanie Polizzi

Psychotherapy & EMDR are therapies for many mental health issues, but what is it all about? What goes on during these sessions? 

Feeling anxious or stressed is something that we don’t want to feel. But unfortunately, we all go through this. Some of us have good coping skills, while others cannot deal with these negative emotions.

The bad news is that we will go through many stressful life situations. The good news is we can overcome the negative thoughts that cause us to be anxious. How can we do it? What steps should we take to rid ourselves of anxiety? And can psychotherapy & EMDR help? 

Our Guest

In this episode, we would like to introduce you to Stephanie Polizzi. Stephanie is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) at Peaceful Living Mental Health Counseling in Westchester County, NY.

She also works with teens and adults struggling with eating disorders, anxiety, trauma, behavioral challenges, and life transitions.

Stephanie is also a trained Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapist at a trauma-informed practice. She uses a combination of EMDR, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and other modalities when working with clients.

Questions for Our Guest

The questions below are some we’d like to tackle. We often go off-topic, so we don’t expect to hit them all. If you have any ideas, please let us know. Looking forward to our conversation!

These are the questions you had in Calendly. We’ll go off your questions and wherever else our conversation goes.

  1. Can you give us a little background about yourself?
  2. How did you first get involved with therapy? What made you want to become a psychotherapist? 
  3. Your primary focus is on adults, teens, and children, specifically those with eating disorders, anxiety, and challenging behaviors; what made you go down that path?
    • How does a teen with an eating disorder act?
    • What does an anxious teen look like?
    • What are some challenging behaviors teen show?
    • Is there a core reason why teens exhibit those problems (eating disorders, anxiety, challenging behavior)? Where do these issues stem from, or what is the teen looking to solve with those behaviors?
    • Do these issues mainly come from trauma or some issue the persona has with society or their parents?
  4. How do you figure out the core issue with children or teens going through these difficult times? Do you talk to them, and they eventually open up and speak about it?
  5. Once you figure out the problem, how do you solve it? How do you take the teen with an eating disorder and show them how to solve whatever they are going through correctly, or how do you make the teen with challenging behavior content with their situation?
  6. What is EMDR, and how does it work?
    • Have you found success with it, or is it an approach you take when other things fail?
    • What does an EMDR session look like?

ENDING QUESTIONS

Before we end the show, we have one last question we like to ask all our guests. If you had the opportunity to have a Cup of coffee with anybody one last time, who would it be & why? 

Catch or connect with Stephanie through her socials via:

Instagram: @peacfullivingcounseling

Website: https://www.peacefullivingmentalhealthcounseling.com/ 

Stephanie about: https://www.peacefullivingmentalhealthcounseling.com/stephanie 

Learn more about psychotherapy and EDMR by watching the full episode here 👇👇👇

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Introduction
01:48 About Stephanie Polizzi
03:18 How therapy helped Stephanie
05:10 The patients’ common problems
06:46 What is EMDR
10:10 What takes place during an EMDR therapy session?
13:19 How does an eye movement fix our suppressed body
18:42 How Stephanie went about studying eating disorders
20:58 The reasons why people have an eating disorder
23:02 The common issues that adults and teenagers have
25:16 How to approach someone with an eating disorder
28:21 Indications that a patient is benefiting from the treatment
32:30 What to do if you’d prefer not to see a therapist
35:40 A determination to improve yourself
39:59 Contemplating positive aspects
44:47 Understanding when to seek help
48:27 The negative implications of sickness labeling
53:16 The lack of expertise in managing eating disorders
58:52 A healthcare system that will benefit us
01:04:56 The gains of mental health awareness
01:08:10 Wrapping up the show

EP 194: Noninvasive Positive Pressure Ventilation with Aurika Savickaite

EP 194: Noninvasive Positive Pressure Ventilation with Aurika Savickaite

EP 194: Noninvasive Positive Pressure Ventilation with Aurika Savickaite

Noninvasive positive pressure ventilation is a recognized alternative in managing selected cases of acute respiratory failure.

It is a form of mechanical support where positive pressure delivers a mixture of oxygen and air through the respiratory tree using a noninvasive interface. It could be through standard ICU ventilators or portable devices.

Now, if this is something new to you and you want to learn about NPPV, this episode is for you. 

For this episode, we would like to introduce you to Aurika Savickaite. Aurika has worked as a registered nurse and patient care manager at the University of Chicago Medical Center’s Medical Intensive Care Unit.

She was also involved in successfully testing the helmet ventilator in the ICU at the University of Chicago during a three-year trial study.

In the episode, we focus on the benefits of helmet-based noninvasive positive pressure ventilation on patient outcomes. 

QUESTIONS FOR GUESTS

The questions below are some we’d like to tackle. We often go off-topic, so we don’t expect to hit them all. If you have any ideas, please let us know.

Looking forward to our conversation!

These are the questions you had in Calendly. We’ll go off your questions and wherever else our conversation goes.

  1. Can you give us a little background about yourself?
  2. What is Noninvasive Positive Pressure Ventilation (NIPPV), and what are some typical examples of this you see at the hospital?
  3. What made you decide to be involved in creating helmet-based ventilation?
    • What exactly is it? 
    • Can you explain the product and how it works?
  4. How does helmet-based ventilation compare to our current noninvasive positive pressure ventilation? 
    •  What is the cost difference?
    • Can it lead to fewer intubations? 
  5. How have the helmets been working out in New Zealand? 
  6. You’re a problem solver at heart. Are there any other things you are working to improve? Inside or outside of the healthcare setting? 

ENDING QUESTIONS

Before we end the show, we have one last question we like to ask all our guests. If you had the opportunity to have a Cup of coffee with anybody one last time, who would it be & why? 

Links: 

Website:
https://www.helmetbasedventilation.com/ 

YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO8Tfe2OXZuRdNIblSZIZyQ/videos 

Infographics: https://www.helmetbasedventilation.com/post/infographic-comparison-bubble-helmet-hood-niv-face-mask-invasive-mechanical-ventilation 

Online training course:
https://www.helmetbasedventilation.com/online-course 

Links to two articles mentioned in the podcast:
https://annalsofintensivecare.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s13613-022-01069-7
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0964339722001380

Learn more about Noninvasive Positive Pressure Ventilation in this full episode 👇👇👇

TIME STAMPS:

00:00 Introduction
02:15 About Aurika Savickaite
04:35 How does a ventilation helmet look like
08:28 The cons of using the facemask
12:07 Why does a patient needs positive pressure ventilation
17:55 The advantage of using the helmet interface over the facemask
25:39 Helmet interface has lesser chances of intubation
30:14 Is there a noise issue with the helmet?
33:50 How has the helmet helped the world
38:38 Embracing Innovations to improving patient care
43:31 To much technology is not always better
48:16 Improving patient care should start with nurses
55:25 Other things that interest Aurika
01:01:12 Wrapping up the show

EP 193: The View From The Abortion Clinic With Patrice D’Amato

EP 193: The View From The Abortion Clinic With Patrice D’Amato

The View From The Abortion Clinic With Patrice D’Amato

The view from the abortion clinic paints a different story. It’s where decisions are made, often for a good cause. But can women have an abortion without being judged? That is the real question.

What is Abortion? 

Abortion is defined as a procedure to end a pregnancy. It is also known as the termination of pregnancy through medications or surgical procedures. All around the world, 73 million induced abortions take place each year.

Among 6 out of 10 or 61% of these abortions, are unintended pregnancies, while the remaining 21% ended as induced abortions. All abortions are 45% unsafe, and 97% occur in developing countries. 

Unsafe abortion is one of the leading but preventable causes of maternal morbidities and deaths. It also affects the physical and mental health and financial and social burdens of many women in many communities. 

As nurses, what can we do to help women who want to go through an abortion? Do we have the right to refuse to take care of patients who went through an abortion based on moral objection? And when will abortion be normalized in our society?

These are the questions we must answer. 

Our Guest for Today’s Episode

In this episode, we would like to introduce you to Patrice D’Amato. Patrice is a nurse, educator, and author of a new book, The View from the Clinic: One Nurse’s Journey in Abortion Care.

She has practiced nursing in various settings in her 38-year nursing career, including med/Surg, critical care, nursing education, and women’s health.

After earning her Master’s degree in Adult Health, she worked as an NP in several abortion clinics and 20 years later returned to the field while writing her book about her experiences.

QUESTIONS FOR OUR GUEST

The questions below are some we’d like to tackle. We often go off-topic, so we don’t expect to hit them all. If you have any ideas, please let us know.

We are looking forward to our conversation!

These are the questions you had in Calendly. We’ll go off your questions and wherever else our conversation goes.

  1. Can you give us a little background about yourself? 
  2. Working in healthcare for over 30 years, what have you seen over time? 
    • How has nursing evolved or changed?
    • Have you seen a more significant connection to the mind/body/spirit approach vs. just medical treatment?
  3. How was it working in an abortion clinic?
    • How has it changed over time?
  4. Did your perspective or opinion change on abortions while working with them?
  5. Was it hard for you to work in that setting? What made you gravitate toward it? 
  6. One of the counterarguments for legalizing abortion has been its potential intent to be used as a contraceptive. Were there any “frequent fliers”?
  7. Did you get the opportunity to find out why women are getting abortions? If so, what was the most common reason?
  8. You wrote a book titled; The View from the Clinic: One Nurse’s Journey in Abortion Care. What made you decide to write it?
    • What do you outline or focus on in the book?

ENDING QUESTIONS

Before we end the show, we have one last question we like to ask all our guests.

If you had the opportunity to have a Cup of coffee with anybody one last time, who would it be & why? 

Links: 

Book: www.theviewfromtheclinic.com 

To watch and learn more about abortion, click here for the entire episode 👇👇👇

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Introduction
01:58 About Patrice D’Amato
04:28 How has nursing evolved or changed?
06:50 How was it working in an abortion clinic?
11:03 Thoughts on abortion
11:47 What is a medical abortion
13:04 How a surgical abortion procedure looks
15:52 Perspective on abortion
18:02 Spirituality and abortion
21:20 How Patrice deals with guilt
24:16 Relief after an abortion
26:41 abortion and the patient’s mental health
29:16 Cases of abuse and unwanted pregnancy
31:21 The future of abortion
34:48 The fetus worship
40:37 Probirth v.s Pro-life
42:12 Generational traumas
46:11 Rewiring your system
48:58 Wrapping up the episode