.jpg)
Restoration Beyond the Couch
The Beyond the Couch with Dr. Lee Long podcast is intended solely for general informational purposes and does not represent the practice of medicine, therapeutic and psychiatric services, nursing, or other professional health care services. It also does not constitute the provision of medical, therapeutic or psychiatric advice, and no doctor/patient relationship is established. The information on this podcast and any materials linked from it are used at the user's own risk. The content provided through this podcast should not be considered a replacement for professional medical, therapeutic, or psychiatric advice, diagnosis, or treatment. It is important that users do not ignore or postpone seeking medical, therapeutic, or psychiatric advice for any health or mental health condition they might have, and should always consult with their health care professionals regarding such conditions.
Restoration Beyond the Couch
Mastering Your Storm: Dr. Debra Atkisson Shares Her Personal Experience in Psychiatry and Coaching, Discussing Strategies to Foster Resilience and Personal Growth
In this episode of Restoration Beyond the Couch, Dr. Lee Long sits down with Dr. Debra Atkisson, a seasoned psychiatrist and certified coach, to explore practical strategies for mental health and resilience. Drawing from over 20 years of experience and her upcoming book, Master Your Storm, Dr. Atkisson shares valuable insights into navigating challenges and fostering personal growth.
This enlightening conversation dives into actionable advice and empowering tips, offering listeners tools to enhance their mental wellness and live their healthiest lives. Don't miss this inspiring episode that brings expert guidance and fresh perspectives on mastering life's storms.
Welcome to Restoration Beyond the Couch, hosted by Dr Lee Long. In this episode, dr Long interviews Dr Deborah Atkison, a board-certified psychiatrist and professional certified coach with over 20 years of experience. Based in Fort Worth, texas, dr Atkison has dedicated her career to helping individuals live their healthiest lives. Has dedicated her career to helping individuals live their healthiest lives. She is the author of the upcoming book Master your Storm Insights from a Psychiatrist and Coach, which offers profound wisdom and practical strategies for navigating mental health challenges. Join us as Dr Atkinson shares her experiences in psychiatry and coaching. Together with Dr Long, they'll explore the intersection of mental health and personal growth, delivering actionable insights that you can apply to your own life. Your path to mental wellness starts here.
Speaker 2:Welcome, Dr Atkinson. It's so nice to have you with us. It's great to be here. Yeah, when we set this up, I got super excited because I remember the very first time I met you and it's I don't know I won't tell our listeners how long ago that was. It was decades ago, yes.
Speaker 3:Which have passed rather quickly, haven't they?
Speaker 2:Rather quickly, rather quickly, and some of us have weathered really well, yourself, and you too, and some of us have weathered really well yourself. Thank you too, thanks, but I remember you were working with I don't remember if it was a PHP or an IOP, for the little ones, as I call them and another psychiatrist had invited me to come for lunch to talk about restoration because it was brand new at the time. And you were. He, for whatever reason reason couldn't make it to the lunch. You were the the only psychiatrist that that showed up for the lunch and, uh, I think that there were some drug reps there to talk about the, the new, the newest, latest, greatest, yes, and you and I started talking, and we started talking about parenting and philosophies of things and our theoretical bents, and it was like an hour went by like that.
Speaker 3:It did.
Speaker 2:And since then it's like I feel like we've been fast friends we have. I just have been nostalgic lately and thinking back on that. It was just such a really cool. I just remember going home and telling my wife what a, what a great lunch that was and how cool it was to meet you, to have so much synergy and such. So anyway, thanks for all the years and thanks for being here.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you. And you know, I have to say I also get nostalgic about things and at that phase of my life when we met I thought great guy, great philosophy, he's a great therapist. I'm hoping we do more work together, which we did over the years. We went through the DBT training here with the whole team, got to know the team well, came over and we meet with you regularly.
Speaker 3:We've shared patients, have a very similar way of seeing things, which is really nice and did all kinds of extra learning about using nutrition better and ways we could help with that and about a holistic approach to mental health which is what a lot of this is that you're doing right now, which I am really excited about that you're helping people understand that everybody needs to look at their own mental health and needs to look at all the other areas of their life to have a truly holistic way of living life at its fullest and take care of yourself. And the other thing I'm going to say that I've come to appreciate over the years is connection, and so back in those days I would meet someone like I had a strong connection with you, which is continued not understanding. Maybe there are not coincidences and perhaps connections happen for a reason and then synergy happens with what people are doing and it goes on to better your community, to help better enrich people around you and helps enrich your own life. So I want to thank you for the connection.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's really cool. I appreciate that Right back at you, thank you. So you mentioned a lot of what you've been doing, a lot of what you've done, but you've been a child, an adolescent, an adult psychiatrist for just a little bit.
Speaker 3:A long time, a long time.
Speaker 1:A long time. Yes, sir.
Speaker 3:More than 30 years, we shall say I like that, we'll leave it there.
Speaker 2:But what I love about your zest and spirit is that you haven't just stuck in that lane, and so can you tell us all the other things that you've also done.
Speaker 3:So you know, I became a physician because I really wanted to help people, and I did. I was very blessed at a younger age to get in touch with the fact that I had been given certain interests and abilities that aligned well with my true spirit of wanting to be a helper. I'm a classic helper and that's what I want to do. I want to help people and so medicine was a great fit. It was while I was in medical school that I got in touch with mental health and how important and foundational it is. If you talk to a primary care doctor, they'll tell you a minimum of 30% of the patients who walk in my office every day from primary care they are coming for issues that are really related to their mental health, which all of us know.
Speaker 3:Anxiety and depression abound and it's not doesn't, sadly, appear to be getting any better, which we can have a whole talk about that.
Speaker 3:But that's what led me into that. But what I began to learn over the years in working with patients is that people everybody needs different approaches and people each individual is a very different person and we do get our experiences in working with people, so we have ideas of tools we can use to help them. But we have to really think about what each person's needs are. And that led me to realize I needed to grow my own skill set. So I made a decision after a very long number of years in private practice about 26 years in Fort Worth that I would step into the role of becoming a professional, certified coach. So I went to the TCU Medical Center. They recruited me there and I was a coach for the medical students for five years. During that period of time I became certified and today I do some work that is related to the practice of psychiatry and I do work related to coaching, and there's an area of intersection where those?
Speaker 3:two things are very important and very holistic.
Speaker 2:And I want to pause for a second and I want to make sure to point out one of the most phenomenal things that I think being a coach to physicians offers is. I know that I have heard from so many physicians that residency medical school is so and I'm just going to be really blunt here it's traumatic.
Speaker 3:It is very traumatizing.
Speaker 2:And that there's not-.
Speaker 3:And we sustain everyone in their training, accumulates a lot of macro traumas.
Speaker 2:Yes, which, by the time, you are a seasoned physician and have decades under your belt those traumas really do break forth.
Speaker 3:You've worked with a lot of physicians. Oh, I have.
Speaker 2:And it breaks my heart to think that these folks are going into this profession to be such a help to the world. I will talk about.
Speaker 3:That's why I did it with the med students, because I wanted to give back and I wanted to be able to help them. And today I still work with some physicians, residents and med students who reach out to me.
Speaker 2:I ran, I used to run with one of the, a person who was over residence for a certain school and a hospital and such. But one of the things that we would talk about on some of our longer runs were how hard it was for residents and just their mental health their mental hygiene just suffered so greatly and how this person's goal was to eliminate or to reduce. I was dumbfounded. Suicides for these individuals. And when you said to me hey, I'm, I'm going to be a coach for the medical school, I just, I just want you to know that my in my heart, I was just staying. I've been giving you a standing ovation ever since because this is such a a group of individuals that I think we need to protect.
Speaker 3:I cannot tell you how much I appreciate the fact that you're spotlighting that in our conversation today, because I do want to comment on that. So I loved being in my practice and today I still do a small amount of practice. I mean, I absolutely love working with patients and I think that's part of my own purpose that I will not walk away from.
Speaker 2:The world is so happy to hear that.
Speaker 3:And I do love it very much.
Speaker 3:But I also want to say that when the new medical school was being built here and I was approached by someone about the fact that they were going to develop a coaching program specifically for us to work with medical students, the more I learned about coaching, the more I realized this could be an answer for a lot of the issues that happen in health care across the board, especially with the physicians, because if they have someone who works with them in medical school residency and as young attendings, it can make an enormous difference in their life, which makes a difference within their own family, within community and then across the board with all of us, in their own family, within community and then across the board with all of us In medical school.
Speaker 3:Today, things are better, but I can tell you that medical school is extremely traumatic. The individuals who are attracted to going into health care, and especially who go into medicine, are people who feel a strong sense of purpose, that they want to indeed be helpers, which, if you're that type of person type two on the Enneagram if you're that type of person, by nature you will often take care of other people before you take care of yourself. That can become a lethal combination for a doctor, because the amount of work, especially in medical school and residency, that you have to absorb and do is so enormous that it becomes impossible to do everything perfectly. That's the other component, and I think these principles apply to people in other work areas.
Speaker 2:I've seen it with attorneys.
Speaker 3:I've seen it with a very driven businessman that I've worked with as a coach. I've seen this across the board and in academics same thing. People who really want to excel and who are perfectionistic may often put their last, their needs, last on the list, and when that happens it's a perfect storm. If you add to that any genetic susceptibility for depression or anxiety or you heap on top of that other life stressors, then you have a storm that can lead people to really being at risk for such a suicide. Sad to say that I'm going to say this today, but in the epidemic of suicide we have in our nation, of all professions, physicians have the highest per capita number of individuals in a profession who commit suicide.
Speaker 2:Wow, so they've jumped the dentistry.
Speaker 3:They have. They're number one as far as professions and, interestingly, women psychiatrists, of which I am one. Women psychiatrists lead the list too, and I have many thoughts as to why that is. I think that female psychiatrists tend to be very nurturing and they tend to be even better or worse, however you want to think about that at putting people's needs high on the list and often will not take care of their own and will often ignore their own self-care.
Speaker 3:So as a coach, I learned a lot as I worked with medical students and that led me to doing some work with residents and I have now coached physicians. I can tell you, during the pandemic I was virtually you know, on Zoom, like all the rest of us, trapped in that box, but I was coaching doctors who were on the front line. I coached some emergency room doctors and hospitalists and the stories that I would hear about how they had to put on all of the equipment this is before we had the vaccine. If you all remember, doctors looked like they were aliens from outer space and all of that equipment to protect them. While they were in the room seeing the patient, how they had to be at their bedside and they knew they were the last human contact they would have before that person died and the incredible toll it took on that doctor as he or she was there with an iPad, helping this individual connect to the people they loved as they were dying. It was beyond traumatizing. And I know that during the pandemic there was so much acknowledgement about our doctors, our heroes, and, sad to say, we've kind of gone back to business as usual. You know now that we've emerged from the pandemic. But that leads me to a point that I want to make that I think we as a community can learn, related to what the pandemic taught us. We had a horrific time that was traumatizing.
Speaker 3:If you will notice, people don't really talk about it much anymore and if you go back and know I was not practicing medicine during the time of the Spanish flu, but if you go back to about 100 or so years, more than 100 years ago, if you go, look at the Spanish flu and that period of time, the same phenomenon happened. Many people died. It was horribly traumatic to everyone and that is, they finally emerged from it. People didn't really talk about it and process it, and the reason I'm bringing that up is because I think for doctors in their training. As you mentioned, there's a cumulative effect of traumas. I think for everybody there was an impact from the pandemic, even if you had no one who was close to you who was ill or died. You didn't get ill or die, but your whole life changed and there was a tremendous anxiety and worry.
Speaker 3:So the reason I bring this up is I just encourage everybody take a moment to sort of reflect about maybe life before the pandemic, life during the pandemic and life today. If you'll take a moment to do that, it will actually help you move forward and be, I think, be more productive and process whatever's going on and if you find there are things you really need to process, reach out. We know how great therapy is, we know how great coaching is, but we also know how great a support system is Family members, ministers, other people that you can talk to. So I do want to take a moment just to highlight that, because I'm running into that with patients today even who are really doing what I call limping along. They're functioning, but they're limping along, certainly not living their best life, and that's the thing I've always tried to be about, is I really want to help people live their best life.
Speaker 2:I love that and I boy, I second that. I think that I was just talking with somebody earlier this week who is was trying to to figure out how to engage their partner who had lost a family member, a parent, and they were like I don't know how to bring it up, and it was like that's sort of the thought behind most traumatic experiences we think we should just push them off to the side, and I don't think it's ill-intended, I think it's the opposite. I think we don't bring it up because we think I don't want to cause them harm or bring pain to them. Pain's already there. I know that when I lost my I lost both of my parents five weeks apart, almost 18 years ago, and I felt like a pariah after that happened because people didn't want to bring it up, they didn't want to make me sad. Well, guess what? I already was sad and there was still that space in me that that if you brought it up and I was in a happy moment, I have enough internal bandwidth to be able to interact with something sad and still have a happy moment as well. And I think that you like what you're saying.
Speaker 2:With the pandemic, it's or or or, anything like let's not forget these things, let's we don't have to sit in the negative, but we certainly do need to understand where we are with it. You know, I mean the term intrapersonal understanding or intrapersonal perceptual understanding is something that is very important to me in my career. It's because intrapersonal for those of you listening is because I know you're very familiar with this is the understanding of self how do I interact with something? And I think that we've lost that. We cover over things. We don't know how to sort that through, we don't know where we are with something and therefore we become very reactionary instead of responsive, and it impacts our interpersonal understanding, or our interpersonal perceptual understanding, which is how I relate to you. That's the we. What is our interpersonal?
Speaker 3:And I also think if you don't have that good interpersonal understanding, you can misinterpret others, other people, and that impacts your interpersonal relationships with others. You don't interpret their intention or their motive or what they're trying to do in the relationship. Yes, you project your own under the things you don't understand about yourself and they're not resolved onto them A hundred percent. And so you're completely, a hundred percent correct. You've got to start with that good internal understanding. And that's where I think mindfulness comes in as a foundation, because you have to be, whatever form of therapy you're doing or whatever you're doing, to take care of yourself. Mindfulness has to be a foundation, it has to be.
Speaker 2:That self-awareness, I agree with you. And to your point, I think you know DBT, which is something that we do a lot of, and that we go back together doing the training together. That was a long training. It was a long time ago.
Speaker 3:Wasn't that almost three years by the time we did it all? Because we had to do the study together for over a year. We had to see a certain number of patients together and meet a certain number of times, and then we went through a couple of weeks of very intensive training and exam.
Speaker 2:And we did. And what's so crazy is that and I don't know if everybody realizes this I don't think they do that as a group. There were some people that were in our final training that did not graduate. Yes, you remember they had that ceremony for us where you had to go quietly and mindfully, look into everybody's eyes and offer gratitude only with a gaze that was intense, offer gratitude only with a gaze that was intense. Yes, that was intense. But DBT is, to your point, is very foundationally based on mindfulness and understanding. That sense of mindfulness and everything is built on top of that. That's the base layer and I think it's that, like, like you're bringing in, is that intrapersonal understanding. And you look at our culture and how a lot of things are misunderstood, and my hypothesis I'm not, I'm not certain, I'm curious in this area, but my hypothesis is that we are missing the intrapersonal perceptual understanding in our world. Therefore, we really miss each other 100%.
Speaker 3:I'm going to comment on that. I think that that is the key right there to one of the reasons why we have so many issues in our country with mental health, because I'm going to be the first person to say I wouldn't live anywhere but America. I love America and my family has been here since the 1600s helping build this country, literally build it. Farmers, construction workers, police officers, ministers, teachers I mean, I am from people who have helped build America and I love America, so that's something I know we share in common. But, that being said, I think, because of the way our culture is here in America is we always have taken the position of we're moving forward, we're building things, we're excelling, and there isn't a moment of hitting the pause button. Whenever something does come up, it's like well, I mean, I'm also a fifth generation Texan, so you know, we know what we think here in Texas. You just pull yourself up by your bootstraps and you keep on going Right.
Speaker 2:So especially in West.
Speaker 3:Texas, especially in West Texas, and so and I you know there's a lot of good things about the strength and resilience that comes with that attitude, but the only thing I would say is that I think, even if you're a tough, strong person, before you pull those bootstraps up, take a moment to just hit the pause button and acknowledge what's going on with you, what you're dealing with, and give yourself a little bit of self-compassion and kindness in the moment. One of the things I did with the medical students that I want to comment on and this is an exercise that I think can be extrapolated to anything anyone is doing when I had young medical students who were interacting with patients who were significantly ill for the first time, I'll never forget one who today is in training to be an emergency room physician, and she will be an amazing one. But I remember when I began working with her, she was an extremely empathic young woman, very kind, very empathic and very caring, and she came to me and said I need to talk about this because I don't know if I'm going to be able to be a doctor. I said well, let's sit down and talk. What has happened? She said I have a patient I've been following as part of my experience and this patient has developed a very severe terminal medical illness and because I had a rapport with the patient.
Speaker 3:When they learned that that was the diagnosis, I was in the room with the attending doctor. The patient had said when my family comes in here, can you also be in the room while I talk with my family about this, with the doctor? And that was part of her learning experience. So she was in the room and she said this has haunted me. It has haunted me. You know. She called me Coach Deb, that's what they call me. Because this has haunted me. Coach Deb, that's what they call me because this has haunted me, coach Deb, because I have carried this with me. And she had these big, dark, haunted looking eyes and I said to her let's take a moment together about why it's haunting you.
Speaker 3:So we talked that through and then I said to her do you realize that your presence was helpful and supportive? She wasn't really able to see that and as we talked I said your purpose as a doctor is to try to help a person get well. When you have a situation where that cannot happen, what is your next purpose as a doctor? She said to be compassionate, to be kind, to give them support and to alleviate suffering. I said do you feel you did that to give them support and to alleviate suffering? I said do you feel you did that? She said yes, I said so. In that moment, were you your best for that person? She looked at me with this awakening realization in her eyes and she said I was. I said so. You did what you were meant to do.
Speaker 3:So what I would encourage you to do going forward is when you are with a patient, I want you to be who you are because you bring healing in the interaction. You bring those things. But when you step out of that room and close the door, I'm going to ask you to pause outside the door before you go to the next patient, I want you to reflect on what you did in the moment and that you brought in the moment what you needed to bring for that patient, and then I want you to however, it will work for you. I want you to release, release it, and so what we worked out together is what she was literally going to do is think about that. She was simply going to open her hands like this, to release it mindfully and take a breath, and then she would go pick up the chart for the next patient. So I asked her to practice that and she practiced it and she came when she graduated.
Speaker 3:We talked right before she graduated. I got to be there and walk in with the group. As they did that. She said I carry that with me and I use it as a tool. And she said, honestly, I don't think there's any way I could go into emergency medicine if I didn't have that way of coping. And she said it doesn't take long at all, but it keeps me from becoming depleted and keeps that big sack on my back, full of the burdens of what I've been dealing with all day from getting bigger and bigger. It keeps my load lighter. Dealing with all day from getting bigger and bigger, it keeps my load lighter. And so I would encourage anyone with whatever they do daily, to remember some sort of practice like that to help them be present in the moment, be who you are, utilize those gifts, use your purpose in that moment, but then allow it to go, because that way you're able to go on and continue to serve your purpose.
Speaker 2:I think that's so well stated, so well stated. I have conceptualized that with some professional athletes that I work with that.
Speaker 2:They have to turn the page or they have to shut it out, and the damage that shutting it out does to them and to their families is really significant. And it's like you build a silo that you can put it over here and you can. You can rest that stuff in the silo, but at the end of the game or at the you know, the turn of the quarter or the end of the inning, you really do have to, to your point, open that silo and mentalize or go through that the whole letting that go. Otherwise you're going to shut yourself off and you lose a sense of interpersonal perceptual understanding. Therefore, you don't have the ability to perceive others and experience as well.
Speaker 3:Besides the cumulative effect that carrying that around does, it begins to warp your self-perception. So if you don't momentarily let your brain think through and process and release, what will happen over time is you will begin to feel you're carrying around with you a lot of what Failures, you're carrying around a lot of things that didn't go the way they should, and I think that begins to really impact people negatively. I think in our culture we do strive for perfectionism All of us do. I think you and I have been guilty of that too right. We set high standards and high goals we want to reach, and what's ironic to me is that when people actually do reach those goals, they don't take a moment to celebrate, because you know I talk about using that moment to release things. You also should allow yourself, when you reach a pinnacle or you've met a goal, to take a moment and celebrate it, even if it's just an internal celebration of I made that goal. This is pretty great and whatever the way you look at things, I know that for myself. When that happens for me and I take that pause, I say thank you, thank you, god, for letting this happen, thank you, and when I do that, it's like that begins to help as well your own sense of purpose and ability. I'm going to, I'm going to really kind of have a free association here and move into imposter syndrome, because I actually think this is one of the things that could help people with imposter syndrome Exactly.
Speaker 3:I have seen so many people and worked with so many people who are high achieving, who don't take that moment to say the marker happened, I've reached this marker, I've got to this milestone. That doesn't mean maybe there isn't another mountain for me to climb, but I've reached this one. Thank you, I did it. This is great. And in that moment, whoever you want to thank, have gratitude.
Speaker 3:I know for me, because of where I sit in my own spiritual and faith life. I always believe that nothing is possible for me without God, and so I take a moment to lift up and thank him, and then I also say to him I know this would be possible without you and I want you to show me whatever you want me to do next, because that's where I believe my own path has come from. Other people as they look, whatever their faith tradition, they need to think about that, and also I also take a moment to think about the people I know who've helped me get there and I have a moment of gratitude for them Because I really believe that if people could do that, that will begin to internally going back to where you are the intra-psyche. Go back there. That will internally begin to strengthen and reinforce the traits and gifts that you have, to where you don't carry around the imposter syndrome.
Speaker 2:Right, and I love how you're saying that because it takes us to a point of purpose of purpose. You know, you and I talked before we started rolling about the whole idea of the blue zones.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:And you were saying some really neat things about that.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, now here I am in my West Texas voice, I will do the best I can to pronounce it. That concept of ikigai that the Japanese have I-K-I-G-A-I, and that whole purpose is seen within a lot of the blue zones. I know in Okinawa, one of the blue zones, ikigai is alive and well and what that basically is is the sense of purpose, but they have refined it down to the things that you are gifted or can do and that you're interested in and that bring you joy in doing and what your community and world needs. So if you were to circle those Venn diagrams and bring that together, if the nucleus of that is Ikigai. And so in Okinawa, for instance, they have a high number of people who live to be 100 years old, for instance, they have a high number of people who live to be 100 years old, and it is believed that, of course, as is in common with all the blue zones, people eat healthier, they exercise more, they have connections with other people and a sense of community.
Speaker 3:You know, this is a whole thing. Going on in America today is the epidemic of loneliness. That's another whole topic we can talk about, but that's going on. But they have a sense of connection and with others. But then they have their purpose, their reason for living. You can talk to somebody in their nineties over there and you will find they're continuing to follow their purpose. That doesn't mean people's purpose doesn't change over time.
Speaker 2:Right, I think about parents, you know, and this in our culture tends to rest more heavily on mothers, yes, where mothers often feel, when their kids are leaving the nest, so to speak, what's their purpose? Even working mothers feel that way, and I know dads do too. But I think there's a different connection with mothers and I think that, yeah, like we mothers, purposes can shift.
Speaker 3:I hear this and I see this, and I'm going to say to any mother who's empty nesting out there I've done that too, so I know what that's like. But what I'm going to say is that all of the skills that you developed as a mother to safely shepherd a person all the way to adulthood, that is no small feat. That is a monumental task, very monumental, you know. Congratulate yourself that you were able to get an adult to the point they were able to successfully leave. That's a huge accomplishment. You work yourself out of a job when you're a mother, so to speak, but it also means you've succeeded. That's right. Those same skill sets are incredibly helpful and I would encourage you to find a way to use those for your purpose. Moving forward, mentoring other women is extremely important. I do that today. I mentor some women who are professionals, women who have reached out to me and asked me to do that, which has been a great honor for me and has also given me more purpose and has helped me reflect and think more about things too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that the whole concept of Ikigai makes so, you know, dovetailing that into the whole intrapersonal perceptual understanding If you don't know who you are, you don't have a connection to your purpose. And I think, I think it's just so important that we understand more about who we are, we understand what our purpose is, we understand, you know why are we here.
Speaker 3:Right, you know I do want to take a moment as to why I wrote this book. We've talked about that, so I don't consider myself a major writer and when you read the book you'll as both a psychiatrist and a coach, I have learned something that I know. I've experienced it, you've experienced it. We've all experienced things where we have, at different points in our life, we have a storm and when the storm happens, we often don't know how we will face it. I briefly comment on this.
Speaker 3:In my book, one of the major important points in my life was when I was in my last year of training as a child psychiatrist. I was a very physically healthy woman. I ran five miles a day, but I developed non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. So that was a major storm I had to face in my last year of challenge having cancer, working through that and that was a very long time ago, might I add. But it was during that time that I was able to fortunately use and lean into some of the coping skills that I had going through that. But it also I developed more resilience going through that process as well, and it gave me pause to know this is a major storm. I've had other storms in my life, we all have had them. Your storm doesn't identify you, that's right. Your storm helps you as you go through it and grow.
Speaker 3:The reason I wrote this book is because, as a coach, what I was beginning to realize when I worked with people, I might want to give them some sort of field work or assignment to work on between sessions. I would look for certain things and I couldn't find them. So what I've written here is a guide that could be helpful for anyone, I think from age 15 and up. That has to do with if there's a reason you're reaching out to try to figure out something about yourself. The first part of this book talks about why did you pick the book up? It talks about what you need to do is find your why, which is your purpose. That's right.
Speaker 3:The book talks about very basic tools that you begin with, which is basic mindfulness skills, and each chapter, which is between five and ten pages, is followed with a couple of pages of questions. So it's a book workbook where you simply read the question, write the answers and move on. It's for you, and so you find a mindfulness exercise you do. Then you develop intention. What do I want to do? What am I trying to accomplish? And then you need to look at a phase of evaluation where you look over all areas of your life and figure where do I need to start. And then I have going into this, each one talking about physical, emotional, psychological, intellectual, financial and spiritual health. Those are the areas I've asked you to look at each one and you decide which of those do I need to do the deepest dive into.
Speaker 3:Then the book talks about how do you have some coping skills when you're dealing with stress, and then it talks about how do you develop resilience. It talks about action and accountability and then, literally the last three chapters is helping you build. You start out with building a plan. You come back in 30 days and look at what you wrote. Did I follow it? What do I need to tweak to make it better? You tweak it and then the last thing you do is this is what I think will work. I can keep this in play as I move forward to three months and beyond, because, guess what? We know that if we work on something for three months, we're probably going to get some measurable results that will help us move forward. So it's a guide. At the end of the book. Each section has references to different books that you can go to and other resources to help you if you want to take a deeper dive into something, so I put this together for that purpose and I hope that it helps some people.
Speaker 2:You know, one of the things that I love about all the things you just said is something that I think is a real marker of who you are, is that if I can't find it, I'm going to go make it. And I love that. I love that Because, like you said, you know, at the beginning of all this you said I'm a helper, I'm a true helper. Two on the Enneagram, and I think you really are, and that is quintessentially who you are. If, if it's not out there, then I'm going to go find. If it's out there, I'm going to go find it. If I can't find it, I'm going to create it, and I would say that, yeah, where, where can people pick this up?
Speaker 3:So I just did the final grammatical edits and I have been working with Dr Dale Okuduru with White Coat Publishing on this project and a big shout out to him because he's a great guy who also lives his purpose and has a great Christian walk himself, so I've been very appreciative of having made that connection with him, and so the final grammatical edits were just done. This will actually be able to be found by November the 1st, online at Amazoncom. You'll be able to pick it up in paperback form.
Speaker 2:Fantastic and the book is called Master your Storm.
Speaker 3:Master your Storm Insights from a Psychiatrist and Coach.
Speaker 2:I mean what a valuable, what a valuable piece. I mean that that having all well, having highlights of your wisdom I don't think the, I don't think any library could hold all your wisdom, but I think having the highlights of your wisdom in these areas, you know, in one place I think, is a fantastic offering. So thank you for taking the time to do that.
Speaker 3:Well, I appreciate that and you have been a part of this journey as well, because I've talked with you about concepts with this before, which has been very helpful and made me reflect a lot as I went through the process.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you for that. I uh, I, I, you know.
Speaker 3:I do want to comment on that. I do want to take a moment, because the whole thing you're doing here with Restoration Beyond the Couch I am so grateful you're doing it, because it takes all of your years of experience and working with people and what you've observed, but also what you've integrated in some of the research you did in getting your doctorate related to using therapy to help people, help them explore their internal self, their intraself, and you've put all this together. But the thing that I really like about what you're elevating about it, which is where we speak the same language, is the holistic approach. You must look at everything and then figure out. There are going to be areas that I have strengths, but there's also areas that need to be shored up, and there's not a thing wrong with shoring things up. It just makes you stronger and better as a person and better able to live into your purpose. So I'm really hoping that this podcast reaches a lot of audiences, because I think it's something that everybody could gain from.
Speaker 2:Thank you for that. I think it's something that everybody could gain from. Thank you for that. The heart behind this is that you know there's recently been a book that's written that says that you know, mental health has been, or mental health practice has been, part of the demise of our culture, and I just think that it's only partially accurate that it's when mental health practice is wallowing like a pig in mud in all of your negative thoughts and feelings.
Speaker 2:Yes, that is not a positive thing for people in our culture is that we would just settle in and just wallow around in all of our hurts and pains. But there's a sense in mental health that it's like, yes, we have to acknowledge them, like we've talked about in this time together. We do have to acknowledge them because they're part of what we've experienced, but we acknowledge them, not to live with them. But just like you were saying to this beautiful soul that's now moving on to be an amazing physician, is that we open our hands and we allow those to go. We, you know, in some of our practice we call that willing hands is that we openly let that go so that we can be more positive and experience the good things in life as well and, like you said earlier, we crystallize the positive instead of moving past it. Yes, we crystallize the positive and I hope what I hope for every listener that ever engages with this podcast is that you will see that there is hope. Our tagline here at Restoration is celebrating restored freedom.
Speaker 2:Yes, and that's our hope is that you would have a life worth living such that you could celebrate restored freedom. Yes, we look at the varying different areas of our lives, just like in your book. It's where. Where have we fallen short not to live there, to understand what to build upon such that we could then have a life worth living to celebrate our restored freedom?
Speaker 3:I absolutely love that, and I believe the other part of that that just goes hand in glove is you can have a part in choosing what defines you and your life.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, yes, yes, and I think your community is a part of that. That helps you see who you are. It's so funny because I work out at a gym that does not have mirrors and people think, well, why don't you have a mirror? Because I need to see what I'm doing, to check my form. Well, the heart behind that is you have to ask somebody will you be my mirror for me? And that's the heart behind it. That's the owner of the gym is a good friend, um, shout out to EnduroLab. But it's that's part of the heart behind that is we're not going to have mirrors in the gym because I want you to rely on your community.
Speaker 3:What a great concept.
Speaker 2:And then a neat concept and so that we would be the mirror for one another. And it's interesting because one of my peers in my workout, one of my workout groups, she was saying to me I couldn't figure it out, I didn't have a mirror I needed. And she said but then, when this other peer in the group slowed down and really talked me through it, I finally got it, because we were mirroring for each other what we were doing. And I thought to myself yes, and that's the heart behind the purpose is that we have a community to mirror back to us what we're doing, because I frankly believe that we were given the physical to understand the metaphysical.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:And it's a lot of metaphor.
Speaker 3:This could be another conversation one day, but it's about all the work that is happening in terms of physics, of understanding all the different realms of possibility. Yes, and it relates to mindfulness, dreams, other things along those lines. All of that, yes.
Speaker 2:And that is a whole conversation. It is a whole conversation that I can't wait to have, Because that's part of where my geeking out has moved me to and to be continued.
Speaker 3:To be continued.
Speaker 2:yes, Well, I just want to say again, Dr A that's how I've always referred to you, Coach Deb as they refer to you, or Dr Atkinson, as your patients may refer to you is that I just want to say thank you again for taking time out of your schedule to come and sit with us, and sit with me and talk to us about just a sliver of your wisdom, Just a sliver of your wisdom.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much for asking me and let me just say I appreciate your phrase sliver of wisdom, but it has to do with life experiences and it just has to do with the connections with other people, what I've learned from other people, including you, so keep carrying on. This is great work, thank you.
Speaker 4:If you found value in our discussion and wish to uncover more about the fascinating world of mental wellness, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast. Stay tuned for our upcoming episodes, where Dr Long will continue to delve into empowering therapies and strategies for mental wellness. Your journey to understanding and embracing mental health is just beginning and we're excited to have you with us every step of the way. Until next time, keep exploring, keep growing and remember to celebrate restored freedom as you uncover it.
.png)
.png)