Episode 187: The Key to Real Personal Development

Let's go beyond pop psychology and explore the path to authentic human flourishing! In this episode, Dr. Greg explains how to distinguish between good psychology and pop psychology. Also, find out why "attachment parenting" actually creates self-sabotaging anxiety.

Discussed in this episode:

• How to distinguish between good psychology and pop psychology, and why that matters for human flourishing;
• Dangers and benefits of pop psychology;
• Most theories of the entire world of psychology are either atheist or agnostic;
• How psychological adjustment interplays with spiritual growth;
• Understanding the difference between spirituality and religion;
• "Attachment parenting" as a fad of pop psychology;
• Understanding what secure attachment actually is, and why attachment parenting causes self-sabotaging anxiety;
• How anxiety responses differ between men (fight, flight or freeze) and women (connect or reject);
• Can we pray away our anxiety?
• Genuine inner peace as a mark both of spiritual growth and of psychological adjustment;
• What does it mean to be self fulfilled? To be satisfied?
• How defense mechanisms block our deep desires and our understanding of identity;
• The dire consequences of not grounding our experimental perspective in revealed truth;
• Insider access to a lecture from the Spirituality concentration of our Certification training program!
• A Catholic mental health professional's goal is not symptom reduction or to reduce suffering; instead, the goal is to increase peace.

Resources mentioned or relevant:

• Spiritual Passages: The Psychology of Spiritual Development by Fr. Benedict Groeschel;
• Learn more about our Certification program (CPMAP): CatholicPsych Model of Applied Personalism
• The Jeweler's Shop by Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II)
• Person and Psyche by Kenneth Schmitz
• The Spiritual Child by Lisa Miller
• Need help? Schedule a free consultation with someone on our team to discuss how we can support you
• Sign up for Being Human, our weekly newsletter, to stay up to date on the exciting developments at CatholicPsych
• Visit our website to read the CatholicPsych blog, shop in the CatholicPsych bookshop, or discover other resources we have available
• Download The Integrated App for access to free audio exercises, courses, prayer resources, and more
• Become a member of the Integrated Life Community to get access to every course Dr. Greg has created, plus the opportunity to participate in Integrated LIVE's - weekly, Mentor hosted Q&As covering topics like boundaries, communication, trauma, forgiveness, and more!
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Contact us! Have a topic or a question you would like Dr. Greg to address on the podcast? Want to give some feedback about this episode? Email us at [email protected] - we would love to hear from you!

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