Good Enough Shrink
We are child psychiatrists practicing in the Los Angeles area on a mission to demystify psychiatry and mental health. The title of this podcast is a tribute to the psychoanalyst, Donald Winnicott, and his concept of the "Good Enough Parent.” This is the idea that the imperfect but sufficient provisions of a parent will build a resilient child in an imperfect world. We want to empower children and parents to embrace their strengths and flaws, and know that you are good enough.
We want to emphasize the power of holding difficult emotions from the lens of attachment theory. Attachment theory is based on the idea that humans need a social bond with another to survive. This bond, when it is “good enough”, serves as a secure base from which a child can explore the world. When this attachment is disrupted, it can lead to emotional issues, and sometimes full-blown psychiatric disorders. This is where therapists and psychiatrists come in.
This podcast is for the curious adults, parents, family members, mental health professionals and trainees. So we hope you join us in this adventure to explore science and mental health from a developmental perspective.
Good Enough Shrink
How to Communicate When You are At Your Worst - The Secret of Validation
Hello listeners! In this episode, I bring together neuroscience and everyday life to present tips on how to communicate when you are feeling at your worst. Whether you are in an argument with your partner, a power struggle with your kid, or a disagreement with friends/coworkers, these concepts are universal and work in any situation. So if you feel like you are constantly in conflict with people, as life goes, take a listen!
Topics discussed:
- What we do when we run into conflict
- Neuroscience:
- Default Mode Network
- Frontoparietal Network
- Salience Network
- How to calm down and practice the embodied mind
- What is validation?
- How exactly do we validate
- How to place a boundary
Sources:
Yeshurun, Y., Nguyen, M. & Hasson, U. The default mode network: where the idiosyncratic self meets the shared social world. Nat Rev Neurosci 22, 181–192 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-020-00420-w
Marek, S., & Dosenbach, N. U. F. (2018). The frontoparietal network: function, electrophysiology, and importance of individual precision mapping. Dialogues in clinical neuroscience, 20(2), 133–140. https://doi.org/10.31887/DCNS.2018.20.2/smarek
Schimmelpfennig, J., Topczewski, J., Zajkowski, W., & Jankowiak-Siuda, K. (2023). The role of the salience network in cognitive and affective deficits. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 17, 1133367. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2023.1133367
Have questions for us, or feedback about our podcast? Send us a message!
