One of the most fascinating aspects of the mind is how most of what’s going on in it lies outside of our awareness. In this episode of the Being Well Podcast, Forrest and Dr. Rick explore the unconscious mind and the material we might find there. They talk about what the unconscious mind is, the purpose of the unconscious, repression, and what we can do to access, use, and release that unconscious material.

Key Topics:

• 0:00: Introduction
• 2:25: What is the unconscious mind?
• 5:35: Why material gets moved to our unconscious mind
• 8:45: Freud, Jung, and repression
• 14:25: Looking at repression through a developmental model
• 18:55: Bias, relational ‘scripts’, and what we can do about unconscious patterns
• 21:45: Interpreting dreams, and the limits of science
• 27:55: Examples of repressed material and how to uncover it
• 30:05: Rick’s first love story
• 34:20: Emotional release work you can do without a therapist
• 38:00: Distress tolerance
• 42:10: The body-based, non-cognitive nature of unconscious material
• 44:10: Sentence completions, automatic writing, and sand trays
• 47:00: Building self-worth, and creating a safe container
• 54:50: Teaching what you need to learn, and the importance of support
• 57:30: Including what’s left out
• 1:00:00: Recap