Preview Mode Links will not work in preview mode

crushing doubt


Jan 31, 2021

On this week’s episode of Crushing Doubt, we explore how doubt affects the decisions we make, including some of the biggest ones of our lives. I focus on the concept of groupthink, which is the term in psychology and pop culture for what happens when we can’t maintain our own stance in the face of so many people thinking differently. This is a key factor in getting better from mind body issues, given that the vast majority of society does not understand it as I do, but we also touch on how it affects our career paths, who to marry, whether or not to have kids, and more. Doubt must be let in first, but then we must steer clear from becoming awash in it.

My guest today is Dr. John Stracks, an Integrative Family Physician, Assistant Clinical Professor of Family Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago. John is also an advisor to Curable, one of the key apps involved with chronic pain, and he interviewed yours truly this past July for their podcast Hope For Healing, which you can find on Youtube if you search the title and my name. John is a very key ally in the field for me, as we see eye to eye on so many things, from how to treat a mind body issue all the way to how we need to tackle the systemic issues that threaten to hold back our progress. He and I voice our thoughts on how we can make our treatments more specific and effective in working with patients and our hopes to collaborate in the future.

The podcast closes as we zoom (forgive the pandemic pun!) in on the doubt column and how to apply action steps to this arena. I focus on some of the key aspects of fighting doubt, including the paramount importance of rejecting any theories that rely on a high degree of randomness. We can do better and I will show you why we MUST! I also explore issues around the timing of symptoms and what it can reveal that can add to our certainty about a mind body symptom. Lastly, I turn my attention to some questions from our viewing and listening audience, as we explore Erik Erickson’s developmental concepts as they relate to doubt and how it fits in with the name of our show, as well as the definition of trauma and how it relates to mind body living.