Healthy Mind, Healthy Life

A gentle note before you listen:

This episode touches on trauma, family violence, and moments of mental health crisis. Lee shares her story with honesty and care, but if any of it lands close to home for you, please pause whenever you need to. There is no rush.

If you are struggling right now, you are not alone, and reaching out is not weakness. It is one of the most human things you can do.

India

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• KIRAN Mental Health Helpline (24/7, toll-free): 1800-599-0019

United States

• 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988
• Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741

United Kingdom

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Global

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If you are in immediate danger, please contact your local emergency number.

Whoever you are, wherever you are listening from, please know this: the world is better with you in it. Take your time. Reach out. Stay.

Some kinds of healing don't show up in books or productivity apps. They show up in a pair of eyes at the foot of your bed in the middle of the night, in a paw on your leg when your chest gets tight, in the quiet act of being known by something that doesn't need you to explain yourself.

Avik sits down with Lee Atherton, founder of Phoenix Rising SDSL, to talk about her psychiatric service dog Shadow, the hidden disabilities so many people carry behind a calm exterior, and the slow, honest work of rebuilding a life after trauma. A grounded, deeply human conversation about asking for help when help doesn't look the way you expected.

About the Guest:

Lee Atherton is a clergy person, coach, speaker, and international best-selling author. She is the founder of Phoenix Rising SDSL, a foundation dedicated to placing psychiatric service dogs with people living with PTSD and mental health disabilities. Her work draws from her own lived experience with Shadow, the service dog who helped her return to her life and her work.

Key Takeaways:

• Hidden disabilities are real. People can look fine from the outside while carrying severe PTSD, anxiety, or panic on the inside.
• Psychiatric service dogs do specific, trained work: interrupting night terrors, sensing rising anxiety, providing tactile grounding, and helping people re-enter spaces that had become too overwhelming to navigate alone.
• Naming what happened, even years later, is often heavier than the original event. Honesty is its own kind of brave.
• Family is not always the place trauma gets witnessed or believed. Building support outside the original system is sometimes the only way forward.
• Healing is not a straight line. Lee describes it as having come through, not having overcome. The hard days still arrive, and that is part of being human.
• The bravest thing a person can do is stay open to the form that support takes when it actually arrives.

Connect With the Guest:

• Website: https://phoenixrising-sdsl.com
• Email: lee@phoenixrising-sdsl.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lee-atherton-coachrev/

Episode Chapters:

Most of us have tried to think our way out of patterns we have been carrying for years. Journaling, talking it out, reading the next book. Sometimes it helps. Sometimes the understanding lands in our mind and the pattern still does not move. This episode is for anyone sitting with that quiet frustration.

Yusuf sits down with clinical hypnotherapist Deron Singh to unpack what hypnosis actually is, why the subconscious mind drives so much of what we call "stuck," and how a calmer, slower state can give us real control over the loops running in the background. Honest, grounded, and free of the stage-show clichés.

About the Guest:

Deron Singh is a clinical hypnotherapist, Rapid Transformational Therapy practitioner, and certified life coach. He is the founder of Truthful Soul Hypnosis and works with people on anxiety, low confidence, self-doubt, trauma, and the subconscious patterns underneath them.

Key Takeaways:

• Hypnosis does not take control away from you, it gives you more control over the automatic programs already running in your subconscious mind.
• The conscious mind cannot solve a problem that originated in the subconscious. Talking about a problem repeatedly can actually feed it rather than release it.
• Affirmations alone often fail because the conscious mind says one thing while the subconscious holds a contradicting belief, creating inner conflict rather than change.
• Real subconscious change happens when the body and mind slow down enough to feel safe. Surrender, not force, opens the door.
• You do not need to understand exactly how hypnotherapy works for it to work. Belief is not a prerequisite. Willingness is.
• Lasting change often comes through someone else's help. Reaching out is not weakness, it is part of the path.

Connect With the Guest:

• Website: https://www.deronsingh.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deronsingh/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deron_singh/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Deron_Singh
• Bio Site (all links): https://bio.site/deron.singh

Episode Chapters:

[00:00] Cold Open — Why Understanding a Pattern Is Not the Same as Shifting It
[01:30] Welcome and Introducing Deron Singh
[03:23] From Personal Trainer to Hypnotherapist: An Honest Origin Story
[07:08] The Biggest Misconceptions About Hypnosis
[09:46] Why the Root of the Problem Always Lives in the Subconscious
[15:00] Why Talking About the Problem Often Makes It Worse
[16:00] Inside a Session: What Hypnotherapy Actually Looks Like
[20:00] Who Can This Work For, and Closing Reflections

Content note: This episode contains discussion of childhood abuse, including physical and sexual abuse. Please listen with care. If anything brings up difficult feelings, consider pausing and reaching out to a mental health professional or support service in your country.

We talk a lot about mental strength, grit, pushing through, staying positive. But what if the strength we built around our pain is exactly what's keeping us from healing it?

In this episode of On Air Healthy Waves, host Yusuf sits with Dr. Robert Bleck, licensed mental health counselor and creator of Source Completion Therapy. From his own difficult childhood to decades of clinical practice, Dr. Bleck shares why coping is not the same as healing, why unhealed wounds always come out somewhere (as anger, addictions, phobias, or compulsions), and how his three-phase approach gently takes people from awareness, through reliving, to completion. This is a tender, honest conversation for anyone who has spent years managing pain they never had the chance to truly treat.

About the Guest:

Dr. Robert Bleck is a licensed mental health counselor, National Certified Counselor, former university professor, and psychotherapist in private practice in Plainview, New York. He is the founder of the Source Completion Therapy Center and the author of Give Back the Pain: Emotional Healing Through Source Completion Therapy.

Key Takeaways:

• Coping and healing are not the same thing. Mindfulness, exercise, and yoga help you function in the moment, but if the source isn't addressed, the pain quietly resurfaces in other ways.
• Unhealed emotional wounds always come out somewhere. They become what Dr. Bleck calls "diversions": addictions, phobias, road rage, obsessions, numbing, eating struggles, or chronic relationship patterns.
• Real strength isn't carrying the wound forever. It's having the courage to gently go back to where it started, with proper guidance, and complete what was left unfinished.
• Source Completion Therapy works in three phases: awareness (who hurt you), reliving (letting the feelings surface in a safe way), and completion (expressing what was done and how you felt about it).
• Healing is possible at any age. People in their 40s, 60s, even 80s have done this work. The body and the soul both keep the record until someone helps you put it down.

Connect With the Guest:

• Website: https://robertbleck.com
• Book: Give Back the Pain: Emotional Healing Through Source Completion Therapy on Amazon
• Practice: Source Completion Therapy Center, Plainview, New York

Episode Chapters:

There's a version of nice that's costing you. Your energy, your time, your sense of self, and sometimes your mental health. It's the version where you say yes when you mean no, where you make yourself smaller so others stay comfortable, where the word "no" sits in your throat like something you're not allowed to say.

In this episode of Healthy Mind, Healthy Life, host Yusuf sits with Danny M. Goldberg, serial entrepreneur, trainer, and author of a provocative new book on setting boundaries. The conversation isn't about being mean. It's about the psychology underneath chronic over-giving, the real mental health cost of being too agreeable, and how to start saying no in a way that earns respect instead of resentment.

About the Guest:

Danny M. Goldberg is a serial entrepreneur, trainer, and consultant with over 16 years of building businesses and leading large-scale professional training programs. He is the founder of GoldSRD and the author of a new book on setting boundaries, earning respect, and reclaiming your value.

Key Takeaways:

• The goal isn't to be liked. The goal is to be respected. When kindness gets mistaken for weakness, your self-worth quietly takes the hit.
• Boundaries are a dial, not a switch. Most situations only need Level 1: polite firmness like "that doesn't work for me" or "I need to think about it before I commit."
• Most people skip from zero straight to nuclear. Start with small, tactful directness in daily life and build the muscle gradually.
• The thought of conflict is almost always bigger than the actual conflict. Repetition is what makes you comfortable in uncomfortable situations.
• Ask yourself one honest question before agreeing: can I live with this decision? If the answer is guilt or resentment, the boundary needs to come up now.

Connect With the Guest:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dannymgoldberg/
• Website: https://goldsrd.com
• Personal site: https://dannymgoldberg.com
• Twitter: @DannyMGoldberg
• Book: Available on Amazon; signed copies available via GoldSRD.com

Episode Chapters:

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Disclaimer: This episode is produced for educational and informational purposes only. All views expressed by the guest are their personal opinions alone and do not represent the views of the host or Healthy Mind by Avik™. The Network does not verify, endorse, or assume responsibility for any guest statements. Nothing in this episode constitutes medical, legal, financial, or professional advice, please consult a qualified professional before making any decisions. Listeners are encouraged to engage critically and independently with all content do not consume blindly. Use this content as a starting point for your own reflection and research, not as a substitute for professional guidance. Third-party content is referenced under fair use for informational purposes only. Guest speakers are solely responsible for their own statements.

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Healthy Mind By Avik™ is a global platform redefining mental health as a necessity, not a luxury. Born during the pandemic, it's become a sanctuary for healing, growth, and mindful living. Hosted by Avik Chakraborty, storyteller, survivor, and wellness advocate.

With over 6500+ episodes and 200K+ global listeners, we unite voices, break stigma, and build a world where every story matters. Subscribe and be part of this healing journey.

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There's a quiet lie many of us carry. That it's too late. Too late to start, too late to change, too late to become someone new. If you've ever felt that, this episode is for you.

Avik sits down with William Thomas, who didn't lace up his first running shoes until he was 42. Years later, he became one of a small group of people to complete the Marathon Grand Slam: a marathon on every continent and the North Pole. This conversation goes beyond fitness. It's about identity, resilience, and how showing up for one honest first step can rewrite the rest of your story.

About the Guest:

Dr. William Thomas is a retired US Air Force lieutenant colonel, former university professor, and leadership consultant based in Singapore. He began running at 42 and went on to complete the Marathon Grand Slam, running on all seven continents and at the North Pole. He is the author of Cross the Lines: A Journey to Complete the Marathon Grand Slam.

Key Takeaways:

• Accountability is the bridge between intention and action. Telling people you'll do the hard thing creates the structure that keeps you moving when motivation drops.
• Running a marathon is more mental than physical. The deeper gift isn't fitness; it's the resilience and self-confidence that carries into every other challenge in life.
• Run the mile you're in. Big goals get accomplished through small consistent steps, not by obsessing over the finish line from mile five.
• Everybody needs an Ethan. Surround yourself with people who say "I think you can do this," not those who quietly count the reasons you can't.
• Backup plans aren't a sign of weak commitment. Multiple paths to the same goal protect you when life inevitably changes the route.

Connect With the Guest:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrWilliamThomas
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drwillthomas/
• Book: Cross the Lines: A Journey to Complete the Marathon Grand Slam on Amazon

Episode Chapters: