(Continued from previous episode, #168)
Dr. Glenn Doyle is a licensed psychologist, and founder and clinical director of The Doyle Practice in Washington, DC.
Dr. Doyle founded The Doyle Practice because he wanted to branch out from the way traditional psychotherapy works, and wanted to utilize therapy that was active, research-driven, and solution-oriented.
He got into the field in a rather non-traditional way, starting off college as a music performance major– he wanted to be a rock star. However, about halfway into my freshman year of college, I dropped out, mostly due to the fact that he was desperately depressed.
For the next few years, Dr. Doyle was on stage, performing at dinner theaters and other venues, singing, dancing, and playing piano. That whole time, he was devouring every book he could find on how and why people got depressed– and how they got better. He didn’t want to take a pill, nor did he think the answer would be found in lying on a therapist’s couch for decades describing my dreams and my relationship with his mother.
Finding a lot of research that was confusing and contradictory, he decided to focus his research on what made the difference between people who were happy and people who were not– and wanted the conclusions he drew to be based on research, not just anecdotes. What he found was a body of psychological research that proved, overwhelmingly as it turns out, that the patterns of thinking and self-talk of people who were depressed were substantially different than those of people who were not depressed. As it turns out, the thinking of people who are depressed are almost always significantly distorted– depressed people talk to themselves in ways that just aren’t true, that put negative spins on every event, and that chip away at a person’s self-esteem bit by bit. The good news is that the research also shows that, once people become aware of these distorted patterns of thinking and practice “talking” to themselves in a different way, those patterns can change– and with those changes in thinking and self-talk come massive changes in mood and behavior.
Using these techniques, Dr. Doyle changed almost everything in his life. He lost seventy pounds; he started college over and burned through a bachelor’s degree in two and a half years, got into grad school and earned a Master’s and Doctoral degree, and procured a job in one of the most upscale private psychotherapy practices in Washington DC, as well as a job in one of the most exclusive PTSD treatment centers in the country; and significantly changed his approach to and success with dating.
Dr. Doyle believes that there are HUGE differences in thought patterns and mindsets between the way people who lead inspired, successful lives and those who don’t. Once we can learn to identify and disrupt those old, distorted patterns of thinking, we can replace them with new, reality-based, empowering ways of thinking. The skills involves are simple– but the trick is learning which skill to use in which situation, and then practicing them time and time and again. And this skill set is what we discuss on this episode of the PickUp Podcast.
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