The Thinking Mind Podcast: Psychiatry & Psychotherapy

Dr. Elaine Hunter  is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist who has worked with Depersonalisation and Derealisation Disorder since 1999. She has conducted research into improving psychological treatment of the condition and worked clinically to try to help many people with the condition. 

 In March 2019 she set up The Depersonalisation Clinic to allow her freedom to see a wider range of clients. She is a founding member of Unreal - a c...

This week Alex goes on the the Lively Minds Podcast to chat to hosts Will and Ellie. They take a deep dive into anti-depressants and SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors), which is the most commonly prescribed form of antidepressant in the UK.

They discuss what we know about the effectiveness of SSRIs, what we don't, and why there is so much debate about their use.

You can check out Lively Minds on Apple, Spotify and e...

Shreevatsa Nevatia is an independent journalist. He has worked as the editor of National GeographicTraveller, and has written for the NationHindustan Times, and the Mumbai Mirror and Outlook. He is the author of How to Travel Light: My Memories of Madness and Melancholia, which among other things describes Shreevata's experiences coming to terms with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder in his early twenties. 

Interviewed by Dr. Ale...

Dr Hugh Selsick is a consultant psychiatrist treating adults with sleep disorders, he has been involved in Sleep and Sleep Medicine for nearly 30 years. He has also founded and ran the Insomnia and Behavioural Sleep Medicine Clinic at UCLH, having worked for over a decade in the Sleep Disorders Centre at Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospitals. 

Dr. Selsick founded and chaired the Sleep Special Interest Group in the Royal College of Psychi...

Can Tony Robbins self-help course cure depression? Do people prefer ketamine or electroconvulsive treatment for depression and does preference matter? Today Alex and Anya break down mental health studies to deliver fascinating insights from research, discuss the difference between good and bad science, and understand how science can be (for better and worse) leveraged to market products. 

Tony Robbins Study:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih....

Today Alex discusses the question: is social media harmful for the mental health of young people? In this episode expect to learn:

 - Why human beings are vulnerable to information overload.

- What about social media and smartphone technology could be addictive or harmful?

- Super-powers or metaskills we should be cultivating in our children to deal with an AI driven world. 

- Recommendations around smartphones and social media for you...

Ari Tuckman PsyD, MBA, is a psychologist, presenter, author, With 25 years in private practice, he specializes in diagnosing and treating ADHD and works with individuals, couples, and families. 

Tuckman is the author of four books on adult ADHD and regularly contributes to ADHD-related publications 

As a popular expert and advocate, Tuckman has been widely quoted in major media outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Bos...

Dr Ben Underwood is Assistant Professor in Applied and Translational Old Age Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge and an Honorary Consultant Old Age Psychiatrist. His interests are in translational medicine in dementia, where he has been principal investigator (PI) for academic and pharma led clinical trials.

Today we discuss:

Trajectories of Common Mental Health Problems into Older Age, how mental health issues such as depressi...

Stefan Stern has been writing about management and leadership for over two decades. He has worked for the BBC, Management Today magazine and the Financial Times, He continues to write for the FT, the Guardian and other publications. 

He is Visiting Professor in management practice at Bayes Business School, City University, London. He was previously the director of the High Pay Centre, a think tank which focuses on the causes and con...

Robin Ince is a comedian, author, broadcaster and a populariser of scientific ideas. He is best known as the co-host of the BBC Radio 4 series The Infinite Monkey Cage with Professor Brian Cox. His new book Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal: My adventures in neurodiversity is out now. 

Interviewed by Dr. Anya Borissova and Dr. Alex Curmi - Give feedback here - thinkingmindpodcast@gmail.com Follow us here: Twitter @thinkingmindpod In...

Dr Alan Baban is a writer, psychiatrist and BPC registered psychoanalytic psychotherapist, and he is the Chair of the Art and Psychiatry Special Interest Group at the Royal College of Psychiatry. 

Today we discuss:

- What makes psychoanalysis different from other therapies

- Different unconscious drives people have 

- What a psychoanalytic session looks like

- The many benefits of free association 

- How art can help people understand th...

Alex discusses his relationship with alclohol, how and why he chose to go sober, as well as recent cultural trends around drinking and observations on how society deals with the problem of alcohol. He also discussed some tools and mindsets you could adopt in an effort to reduce drinking or any other undesirable habit. 

Dr. Alex Curmi is a consultant psychiatrist and a UKCP registered psychotherapist in-training.

If you would like to ...

Dr. Russell Ramsay is a co-founder of the Penn Adult ADHD Treatment and Research Program, and served as professor of clinical psychology in the department of psychiatry of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

He is author of many books on ADHD, his most recent book is Rethinking Adult ADHD: Helping Clients Turn Intentions into Actions (2020). In addition he has a popular blog on psychology tod...

Mary Morgan is an individual and couples psychoanalyst, Fellow of the British Psychoanalytical Society and Honorary Member of the Polish Society for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. She has written extensively in the field of couple psychoanalysis and teaches and supervises internationally. She is the author of ‘A Couple State of Mind: Psychoanalysis of Couples and the Tavistock Relationships Model’ .

In this episode we discuss:

 - How ...

Dr Livia Martucci is a consultant in perinatal psychiatry, and is the clinical lead for perinatal services in South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. She is experienced in assessment and management of many common and complex mental health problems including anxiety, panic, OCD, depression and other disorders such as Bipolar Disorder as well as psychotic illnesses, both in the perinatal period and more generally in men and w...

Dr Awais Aftab is a psychiatrist in Cleveland, Ohio and Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University. He is the author of Conversations in Critical Psychiatry - a 2024 Oxford University Press book, based on a series in the Psychiatric Times - https://www.awaisaftab.com/conversations-in-critical-psychiatry.html.  

He also writes Psychiatry at the Margins, a  substack newsletter exploring critical, phi...

Professor Brendan Kelly is a leading psychiatrist, author, and researcher. He is a Professor of Psychiatry at Trinity College Dublin and Consultant Psychiatrist at Tallaght University Hospital.  He has authored over 20 books, including, The Science of Happiness, The Modern Psychiatrist's Guide to Contemporary Practice and Resilience: Lessons from Sir William Wilde on Life After Covid. 

Among other things, in this episode we exp...

Professor David Taylor is Director of Pharmacy and Pathology at the Maudsley Hospital and Professor of Psychopharmacology at KCL. David is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology. Professor Taylor has been the lead author of the Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines since their inception in 1993. David has also authored over 375 clinical papers in journals such as the Lancet, BMJ, JAMA Psychiatry, Br...

Mentalisation-Based Therapy (MBT) is a structured, evidence-based psychotherapy designed to enhance a person’s ability to mentalise, especially in emotionally intense situations. It was developed by today's guests Prof. Peter Fonagy and Prof. Anthony Bateman for treating borderline personality difficulties (BPD) but has since been adapted for other mental health conditions, including anti-social and narcissistic personality di...