Keith Kurlander, CEO of Higher Practice, discusses his 5 go to personal development gurus for times of stress and windows into healing and transformation. He breaks down the similarities and differences between each one, when and how they can be excellent resources for you and your clients, and top books and videos to watch if you’ve never encountered them before.  Even though the personal development and self-help field are vast, it does contain a number of teachers and thought leaders that can be highly useful in your own life and in the office.

When you think about personal development and self-help gurus who come to mind? Do you think of mindfulness teachers, psychology experts, or coaches? Also, what issues do you think are valid for the self-help arena? Can mental health problems be solved there?

Keith will talk about different thought leaders who focus on personal development and how it relates to money, career, mood, presence, fear, courage, and purpose. There are gems in this field if you know where to look for yourself and your clients.

Keith Kurlander, CEO of Higher Practice, gives 5 steps to building an email list of over 1,000 subscribers. He covers the basics of list building techniques for practitioners who’ve never tried before, as well as more advanced techniques for seasoned bloggers and vloggers. List building is a great way to reach a wider audience of people, get your voice heard around important topics in the mental health space, and also nurture potential clients who may want to work with you.  

Some clinicians shy away from collecting emails, writing blogs, sending newsletters, and getting their voice heard. The amazing thing about the online sphere is you can literally access tens of thousands of people without standing directly in front of them if you know how to. All of the wonderful skills and ideas you have about living a better life can be shared with so many people with just a little effort and the right type of focus.

Keith will discuss how to use opt-ins properly on clinician websites so they actually convert to new email leads, different types of giveaways so you have something of value to offer people who are giving you their email address, and some of the best ways to drive traffic to your landing pages and website so you can get over 1,000 subscribers in a short amount of time.

Ken Falke, Founder of the EOD Warrior Foundation, discusses life as a Navy bomb specialist and how it led him on a path to helping veterans with psychological trauma from explosive devices. He shares his intimate understanding of what it’s like to hold one of the most dangerous jobs in the military and the therapeutic resources needed for these people.  

With up to thirty-percent of veterans suffering from PTSD symptoms it’s clearly a crisis that needs to be addressed. As discussed in the episode, the military does an excellent job in training service members on active duty and how to regulate the mind and body while on the battlefield. However, where services seem to fall short is in the aftermath.

When things go “wrong” and a service member needs support for psychological trauma their options are very limited to modalities that don’t show high levels of efficacy or patient follow-through. Ken will share about another way of working with veterans who suffer from PTSD. The model he and his team developed relies heavily on coaching techniques and post-traumatic growth orientations.

Keith Kurlander, CEO of Higher Practice, explores the intricacies of working with clients who present with highly complex mood disorders. Often it’s assumed that it will take years to help someone out of a serious treatment-resistant form of anxiety, depression or bipolar state, however, there are a number of interventions that can have a great impact, especially if they haven’t been tried before.

Keith will discuss specific sleep hygiene techniques such as supplement cocktails, blue-light wavelength sensitivities, regulation of temperature, and exercise routines to combat hyper and hypo-insomnias. He presents an overview of the Adverse Childhood Study performed by Kaiser and its relevance to complicated clients, and also covers innovative interventions that most clients haven’t tried.

Most importantly, he presents a framework for the psychology of the stuck client and how to work with it.

Dr. Chris Lowry explores his cutting-edge research on the interplay between the diversity of microbiome in the gut, and mental and physical health. He is currently researching an injectable form of M. vaccae, which can act as an inflammatory reducing agent in the body, in turn, reducing symptoms in conditions such as PTSD. He points out how living in overly-sterilized nations reduces our exposure to “old friends” and what this means for the future of our health.

Due to a decrease in exposure to a diversity of microbiome found in soil, plants and animals, people’s overall physical and mental health are compromised. Often, medicine addresses illness in a reactive manner without treating the underlying condition. Psychiatric symptoms are no different. One place that is often overlooked is the gut and its interplay with the mind. Dr. Lowry is going to explore this interplay, as well as offer some tips on how to address this issue in a simple manner.

Keith Kurlander reveals his personal story about drinking the psychedelic Ayahuasca in Ayahuasca churches in the US and abroad. He explores why the use of this medicine is gaining traction across the world, but also the cautions of where things can go wrong. Keith will describe how this “medicine” potentiates both healing and illness in the individual user through the mechanisms of presence and dissociation.

This is the second episode on the use of Ayahuasca. As a psychedelic, Ayahuasca use is spreading rapidly, and, therefore as clinicians it is important to have a basic understanding of its implications. The concept of presence and dissociation is often overlooked when discussing the use of psychedelics. One way in which psychedelics act is by dissociating the user from their baseline associations with reality. In this manner, dissociation can expose the user to aspects of their subconscious that are normally obscure.

However, this is a cautionary tale. Dissociation is a powerful mechanism in the brain. One of its main biological functions is psychic protection. In this episode, Keith will explore the possible protective aspects that occur through psychedelic dissociation on Ayahuasca and why it’s so important to integrate any psychedelic experience fully. Any psychedelic experience that hasn’t integrated runs the risk of deeply fragmenting the psyche.

Keith Kurlander, CEO of Higher Practice, goes into the details of 3 productivity habits that transformed his productivity and mindset. These relatively simple practices are fairly easy to put into place and can literally change the way you practice counseling, grow your business, and achieve stable mindsets for a highly productive day.

Productivity and efficiency are often terms that show up in corporate America or the coaching culture. Rarely, do we discuss these terms in therapy circles in regards to mood stability and mental health. However, productivity habits when done “right” often minimize negative coping patterns that result in addictions, dependencies and mood fluctuations. When productivity is defined as engaging in tasks that are most meaningful and purposeful we can “hack” our behaviors to optimize our brain to stay on task in a clear and balanced way.

In this episode, Keith shares 3 productivity hacks that has helped him stay on task, focus with more clarity as a clinician, and achieve as a mission-oriented entrepreneur. By using these hacks for yourself or your clients, you can also achieve more results in less time while feeling energized at the end of the day.

Keith Kurlander, CEO of Higher Practice, talks about his experience of working with therapists across the world and why there is a fee ceiling in private practice. He discusses why many therapists choose to also pursue a career in coaching as a way to no longer have a fee ceiling that often doesn’t reflect the value of their services.

Coaching is a natural extension of therapy. It offers many techniques to getting short-term results with clients that are sometimes difficult to achieve in depth psychotherapy and even CBT models. In addition, high performers often gravitate toward coaches over therapists to achieve their goals in areas of their life such as career, finances, relationships, and mental and physical well-being.

In this episode, Keith breaks down the details of why so many therapists are making this transition, how it is advantageous when working with clients nationally and internationally, and ways of overcoming the fee ceiling in the one-on-one therapy model.