Clear the air

For most of us, pain subsides fairly quickly as we recover from injury. For some, however, pain persists, making it challenging to return to our normal, full-functioning capacity. In some cases, chronic pain may develop due to stress, or even for unexplained reasons. However, due to the stigma and unconscious bias, individuals can feel too ashamed to ask for support or when they do, made to feel invalidated in their experience of chronic pain. The research shows that recovery and resilience are deeply social processes, and meaningful support can change someone’s ability to cope with pain.

Claire's bi...

What if leadership wasn’t just about authority, decisions, or overseeing tasks done, but about developing powerful interpersonal relationships to inspire and influence?
In this episode, we will explore how Relational Leadership focuses on cultivating trust and connection. We’ll share practical tips on how to build meaningful relationships and navigate complexity, thus transforming our effectiveness as leaders. Learn how to cultivate leadership that is both empathetic while maintaining a standard of high performance and accountability in your team.

Moira's biography:
Moira Mallon is an expert in seeing beneath the surface and getting to the heart of t...

Historically, the unspoken organisational culture meant that your personal issues and any mental health challenges you are experiencing were expected to stay at home. Today, it is increasingly accepted for employees to be more open about their mental health and wellbeing needs in the workplace. However, with the increasing prevalence and severity of mental illness in the community, this presents new challenges for HR and managers to know how to navigate these conversations empathetically while maintaining a focus on the organisation’s performance.

Barry biography:
In today’s episode, we want to focus on our HR audience, and...

“Fine” is the most frequently logged mood on the Clearhead platform, yet it often masks a deeper sense of stress, disconnection, or simply going through the motions. We often answer "I'm fine" without truly reflecting on how we're doing, especially when we're stuck in survival mode. 
In this episode, we explore what it really means to move beyond "fine." Unpacking the shift from surviving to thriving, drawing on the science of positive psychology to offer practical tools for building resilience and mental wellbeing, both in life and at work.

Suzy biography:
Dr Suzy Green is a Clini...

In an age overwhelmed by information, opinion, and polarization, the ability to think critically isn't just useful, it's essential. In this episode, we will learn how we can develop strategies to think critically and make smarter decisions, what it means to challenge assumptions, expose common thinking traps, and offer immediately usable strategies for clearer, more effective reasoning in everyday life.

Steve’s biography:

Steve Pearlman, Ph.D., is arguably the world’s foremost critical thinking expert. After founding the United States’ first academic department solely focused on researching critical thinking and how to teach people to do it...

As workplaces strive to become more inclusive, Autistic people are often misunderstood. However, when empowered they brings a unique perspectives and strengths that can greatly enrich a team. In today’s episode we will hear from an autistic person, Chanelle, share their lived experiences and from Larah what are the practical tools a workplace can implement to better support autistic individuals effectively —from recruitment all the way through to everyday communication and collaboration. 

Autism NZ’s biography:

Larah van der Meer: Larah is the Research and Advocacy Manager at Autism NZ. She is also an Adjunct Researc...

As workplaces strive to become more inclusive, Autistic people are often misunderstood. However, when empowered they brings a unique perspectives and strengths that can greatly enrich a team. In today’s episode we will hear from an autistic person, Chanelle, share their lived experiences and from Larah what are the practical tools a workplace can implement to better support autistic individuals effectively —from recruitment all the way through to everyday communication and collaboration.

Autism NZ’s biography:

Larah van der Meer Larah is the Research and Advocacy Manager at Autism NZ. She is also an Adjunct Resear...

Hormonal fluctuations are a normal part of a woman’s life—but for many, they can wreak havoc on our mood, cognition, and overall mental wellbeing. Despite the profound impact hormones can have on our psychological state, the conversation is often overlooked or misunderstood in the workplace.

In this episode, we're joined by Caroline Gurvich to explore the powerful connection between hormones and mental health across the lifespan. From PMS to menopause, Caroline will unpack how our biology affects our brain function, emotional regulation, and mental resilience.

Caroline’s biography:

Caroline Gurvich is a Clinic...

Change is inevitable and universal. Whether you’re moving countries, going through a breakup, experiencing a restructure at work, or living with grief, one thing is for certain: making big leaps can be daunting and anxiety-inducing if we aren’t ready to face them. However, it’s also important to recognise that change can also be huge opportunity to bring positivity into our lives, alongside hope, new experiences, and personal growth. In this episode, we are joined by change leadership expert Anne Bonney, who will share with us how we can embrace the discomfort of change and push through towards bigger...

As the saying goes, “Love is a verb,” and healthy relationships require intention, attention, time, and care. However, from our Clearhead data, we can see out of all of the people on our platform who said they were struggling with mental health challenges due to personal reasons, “General Relationship Struggles,” “Family Difficulties,” and “Partner Difficulties” were the top 3 issues people were dealing with. To help us grasp a greater understanding of what a fulfilling relationship should look like, how we can find them, and more importantly how to maintain them, our expert guest today is Serafin Upton.

Serafin’s biography:
...

Sleep is at the very centre of our wellbeing. Getting a good night's rest is crucial for both the body and mind, allowing us to repair, reset, and be ready for whatever the day throws at us. In this session, we'll be joined by sleep specialist Dr. Michael Breus to learn about the relationship between sleep and mental health and unpack how to set ourselves up to have a good night's sleep, every night.

Michael’s biography:

Dr. Michael Breus, Ph.D., is a double board-certified Clinical Psychologist and Clinical Sleep Specialist who has been in pr...

0:00 - Intro
2:30 - Why did Darren get involved in the ADHD community?
3:15 - What is ADHD?
5:00 - What shouldn't you do if you think you or your child has ADHD?
6:00 - What is the first step to get diagnosed?
9:45 - What is the role of online companies that make it easier to get ADHD medication?
12:05 - What are some common ADHD medications?
16:20 - What is the genetic component behind ADHD?
19:00 - How to you tell your employer that you have ADHD and ask for extra support
22:30 - What to do if...

The human brain is an incredibly complex organ. We are all wired to process emotions, thoughts, and behaviours differently due to a range of factors, including our genetics and the environment. Sometimes, individuals develop serious mental health disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, or are considered neurodivergent, with neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism or ADHD. Learning how to understand the way that these experiences shape us is crucial to our overall wellbeing, which is why we are joined by our expert guest, Marie Bismark, to unpack all the nuances behind diagnosing mental health disorders and the best ways to...

Over the last 5 years, hospital visits related to eating disorders has doubled, and those being diagnosed are getting younger and often presenting with a more serious condition. The reasons for why someone develops an eating disorder is a complicated process with biological, psychological, genetic and social-cultural factors at play. It is also important to acknowledge that it is also a long and difficult process when supporting a loved one on their recovery journey.

In this episode, we will hear from Genevieve Mora as she shares her personal journey to recovery and her advice for any individuals dealing with...

Have you ever been in a conflict with someone and came out feeling like a victim? Or do you find yourself in dysfunctional relationships where communication between each other is difficult? Whether at work or at home, you might find yourself trapped in the dreaded Karpman drama triangle. In psychology, it is used to describe a cycle where we can find ourselves in one of these 3 common roles the "victim," "persecutor" or "rescuer." In this episode, our guest David Emerald Womeldorff will dive into how you can learn to escape the Drama Triangle and feel more empowered in your communication...

Life is full of ups and downs, and it can be easy to let the bad things that are happening to you result in negative emotions that completely take over. Have you ever felt out of control with your anger or had very intrusive thoughts? Or you have been thinking about how you can better regulate your emotions? If so, this is the episode for you! Our guest today is Dr Cristian Conte, who will share with us some simple techniques behind anger management to help you calmly cope with the trials of everyday life, which can make a world...

Parenting is one of the most difficult yet rewarding jobs in the world. While raising children to be the best versions of themselves is exciting and fulfilling, the hours spent worrying about their wellbeing and their future can take a huge toll. This is why it’s important to understand your children the best you can, so you can spend more time feeling confident about how to guide them, and less time feeling stressed.

In this episode, Dr. Ann-Louise Lockhart will join us to discuss the highs and lows of parenthood and how to help your children thrive, ev...

Sport: It is about so much more than just physical fitness. It is also excellent for your mental health and can provide you with a sense of belonging and community through being part of a team. This is why is it important that everyone has access to being able to play a sport, regardless of their gender or sexuality. In today’s episode we will delve into the benefits of playing a sport, but also what we can do to make it more inclusive for the LGBTQ+ community.

Our guest today is Jason ball, one of the first op...

Menopause is a significant life transition that 50% of the population goes through, but often is not talked about enough, especially in the workplace. Aside from physical symptoms, menopause can also have a big impact on your mental health. In this episode, we’ll be learning what is menopause and how to manage it both in your personal and work lives.

Dr Linda Dear MBBS, FRNZCGP, BA (Hons) Psychology, DRCOG, NCMP.
Linda is a specialist GP and Menopause Doctor, trained in the UK and based in New Zealand. She currently runs a private menopause clinic called Menodoctor and se...

Addiction is a major global issue. While it may be seen as ‘part of our culture’ to use alcohol or even recreational drugs to unwind and celebrate important milestones, substance abuse often goes unnoticed until it has already taken a toll on our relationships, safety, and mental health. Whereby, the Alcohol and drug foundation states that 1 in 3 adults drink alcohol at levels that put them at risk of alcohol-related disease or injury. In this episode, we’ll be unpacking how and why people become addicted to substances, and what we can do to help people overcome addiction.

Kenenth’s biogra...

Everyone has their own challenges to face, but have you ever considered yourself to be an obstacle in your mental health journey? Whether you are aware of it or not, it’s easier than you think to find yourself ‘in your own mental prison,’ letting certain doubts and beliefs hold you back from your full potential. In this webinar, we are joined by Dr. Paul Wood, who will help us learn how turn our post traumatic stress into post-traumatic growth.

Paul’s Biography:

Dr. Paul Wood, best-selling author of bestselling author of “How to Escape from Prison” an...

There are lots of studies that show innovation is unlocked when you have a diverse workforce that brings together individuals with unique perspectives, knowledge, and experiences. However, if we are not equipped with the right tools to foster diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace, we risk continuing to disproportionately affect underrepresented communities by failing to construct a safe psychosocial environment for everyone.


In today’s webinar we will speak with Meghna Majmudar from Ready Set to discuss the trials that underrepresented communities face in the workforce, and the practical, actionable steps we can take to create an...

Most people would like to know how to become a high performer, or at the very least more confident and less self-critical. However, the secret habits and quiet discipline to build the resilience required in becoming the best is not always easily understood. Whether it is imposter syndrome or self-sabotage that is preventing us from unlocking our true potential, there are simple steps we can take to overcome our brain’s inherent bias and limitations in the face of failure.

To help us unpack the psychology behind high performance and consistently enter a state of flow, even for th...

There is never a good reason for bullying and sexual harassment to exist in the workplace. Due to fear of repercussions towards the victims, these cases are rarely reported with only 1 in 4 cases estimated to be reported. Shockingly, the perpetrators of these negative behaviours often don’t realise they are at fault and the bystander effect means that their behaviour never gets challenged. Additionally, minorities in the workplace tend to be disproportionately affected by this. The first step to creating a psychologically safe workplace for everyone is to understand why and how these negative interpersonal behaviours at work occur and fo...

It can be hard to stay positive when you are facing adversity, and it can be even harder to learn how to pull yourself out of a rut and start building positivity into your daily life. This session covers how you can stay optimistic and pick yourself up when you are down no matter how big or small the trials that you face are.

Suzy's biography:

Today’s guest is Dr. Suzy Green. Suzy is a Clinical Psychologist and the Founder of The Positivity Institute, a organisation dedicated to the research and application of the science of...

Self-confidence, self-esteem, and self-actualisation. Have you ever wondered how you could develop more self-love and less imposter syndrome? We scale the pyramid of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to discuss what you can do to quieten the inner critic that makes you feel like you aren't good enough, and unpack how to reduce the constant need to seek external validation from others.

About Marco: Today’s guest is Marco Sander, a German psychologist and author who has coached more than 400 people worldwide on a 1-on-1 setting. He is prolific at creating mental wellbeing content on youtube with almost 70k fo...

Every day in the news, we hear about how divisive countries have become. In the workplace, relationship conflict is one of the most common issues individual employees and managers struggle with. Of course the holy grail we are all working towards is developing highly effective and collaborative teams to unlock innovation and productivity in the workplace. Here to tell us the secrets to making this happen through better understanding the different personality types out there is Dr. Stephanie Schoss!

About Stephanie:

Stephanie is a Chairwoman of her own business psychology company and Director at Switzerland’s HS...

Employees are increasingly expecting their employers to create workplaces that prioritises their wellbeing and provide them with free mental health support. We also see governments all around the world, especially Australia, introducing legislations that enforce the creation of psychologically safe workplaces. With all these changes coming, we speak to our guest Rachel King who unpacks what all these changes mean for employers.

About Rachel:

Today’s guest is Rachel King who runs the company Human Risk Management, where she is dedicated to sharing her knowledge with boards, CEOs and their teams to help them meet their le...

Relationships; we can’t live with them, and we can’t live without them! Yet our expectations for our romantic partners can be unrealistically high. We expect our partners to be our best friend, our trusted confidant, our passionate lover, the father/mother of our children, our financial security, our sense of identity and the ultimate source of our happiness. No wonder more than 50% of marriages end in divorce, as we have pretty much set our partner up for failure! How do we get past this?

Steven's biography:

Today’s guest is Steven Dromgool, the Clinical Direct...

It’s the first week back for most people in 2023 and it sure feels hard to kick start back into the new year. For some its due to the overhang of being burnt out last year and for others the New Year serves as a cyclical marker of time during which the break gave us a bit of time to reflect and re-evaluate whether we are living our best lives that is consistent with our values. It is this search for meaning and purpose that we will delve into today.

Clearhead has launched our free AI tool to he...

Michael Bungay Stanier a Rhodes Scholar, is at the forefront of shaping how organizations around the world make being coach-like an essential leadership competency.

He founded Box of Crayons, a learning and development company that helps organizations move from advice-driven to curiosity-led. They’ve trained hundreds of thousands of managers to be more coach-like and their clients range from Microsoft to Salesforce to Gucci. His book The Coaching Habit is the best-selling coaching book of this century, with over a million copies sold. In 2019, he was named the #1 thought leader in coaching.

His latest book How to...

**Trigger warning.** This episode contains content on suicide and mental health distress. If you need help please reach out to your free available mental health helplines or reach out to Clearhead for support if your employer uses Clearhead as your EAP provider.

Today we are looking at what we can do to improve the mental resilience of those in the construction and manufacturing industry where the pressures of the jobs are really high. We also understand that it has traditionally been very hard to reach the stereotypical blue collar worker as due to the stigma they feel the...

Since the pandemic we have seen a collective trauma and loss of the lives we used to live and the people we love. We also see people struggling to know how to support those coping with disruption, challenge, change and loss.

Today’s guest is Dr. Lucy Hone, best-selling author and Adjunct senior fellow at the University of Canterbury, who’s work is regularly featured the Guardian, Washington Post, BBC, CBS, ABC and more. Regarded as a thought leader in the field of resilience psychology, tragic circumstances forced Lucy to focus more closely on grief when her 12-year-old daug...

Today’s topic is about Burnout, which is clearly on the rise. The stress of the pandemic compounded by the stress of constant availability through remote work has led to burnout and prompted many to reorganize priorities. Whether it is the Great resignation of 2020 or the viral Tik Tok trend about Gen Z’s quiet quitting. They are all a symptom of an underlying global trend that I will unpack today with our guest, Suzi McAlpine, and ensure we provide you with practical tips you can implement in the organisations that you lead.


About Suzi:
Suzi is a...

Our guest Niki Harré is a professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Auckland. Her recent research projects have focused on sustainable communities, positive youth development and political activism. She is the author of over 70 research articles, several books and hundreds of talks globally.

If you find yourself regularly overwhelmed by the doomsday media coverage on climate change then this episode is the one for you.

In this episode, we really dive deep into answering the following thorny questions.

1. What is climate anxiety and does it only affect young people?
2. H...

Professor Robert Waldinger is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and Zen practitioner. He is the Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and directs the Harvard Study of Adult Development, the longest-running studies of adult life ever done. With 22 million views, his TED talk is one of the most viewed talks of all time.


If you have ever struggled with loneliness, building new social connections or maintaining positive relationships in your personal life or at work, this episode provides very practical steps you can take to address these challenges.


In this episode, we really dive deep...

Dr Missy Wolfman is a clinical psychologist and a mother to twin girls. Being a mum to young kids, she knows how hard it can be for parents - the struggle is real! Her psychology practice offers assessment and therapy for kids, teens and adults with special focus on maternal mental health and neurodevelopmental issues such as ADHD and ASD.

In this episode, we dive deep into answering the following thorny questions.

1. How do I know if my child has ADHD or Autism?
2. Who should I speak to in order to find out if my...

Dr Missy Wolfman is a clinical psychologist and a mother to twin girls. Being a mum to young kids, she knows how hard it can be for parents - the struggle is real! Her psychology practice offers assessment and therapy for kids, teens and adults with special focus on maternal mental health and neurodevelopmental issues such as ADHD and ASD.

In this episode, we dive deep into answering the following thorny questions.

1. What is the difference between perinatal depression, antenatal depression, postnatal/postpartum depression?
2. What are the 3 signs to look out for in your mood...

Helen Duyvestyn is a registered nurse with over 15 years of experience in mental health. Helen holds an Advanced Diploma in Nursing (Mental Health), an advanced Cert in Nursing and a Masters in Health Science (MH). She has completed training with ACNEM https://www.acnem.org/ (Australasian College of Nutritional and Environmental Medicine) and is a member of AIMA https://www.aima.net.au/ (Australasian Integrative Medicine Association).

In this episode, we dive deep into answering the following thorny questions.

1. How changing your diet can cure your depression.
2. How the food you eat helps make enough...

Our guest today is Michelle Cooper who trained as a registered nurse before spending the next 15 years transforming safety culture and implementing systems in workplaces across New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Turkey.

She spent 5 years working for one of New Zealand's largest employers, Foodstuffs, to drive a culture of Health and Wellbeing before venturing out with her own consultancy to help small to medium-sized employers improve their safety systems and culture.

In this episode, we deep-dive into answering the following thorny questions.

1. How does employee wellbeing relate to company culture?
2. What is...