Honest Mental Health with Brian Curtis, PhD

9 Episodes

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#8 - Illuminate the Lighthouse

2025-11-2434:26

In this guided experiment, you'll begin learning and practicing the foundational skills of mindfulness: the ability to wake up from autopilot and connect more fully with your life, moment by moment. While aligning your behavior with your core values is essential to building a meaningful life, mindfulness helps you see clearly where you are and how you're moving through each moment, like turning on a light inside the lighthouse of awareness. Through this practice, you will: Strengthen your ability to observe the present moment without judgment Learn to focus and redirect attention (the "spotlight" of awareness) Explore your five senses, touch, sight, sound, smell, and taste, with openness and curiosity Increase emotion regulation, cognitive flexibility, and self-awareness Deepen connection with yourself and others This experiment introduces the "Observe" skill from Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and sets the foundation for more advanced mindfulness practices in upcoming episodes. As you practice illuminating your experience with awareness, you'll begin to notice what truly matters, and how to live more intentionally in alignment with your values, one moment at a time. Welcome to the experiment. Learn more at https://www.honestmentalhealth.com/

#7 - Measure Pleasure

2025-11-1714:17

In this guided experiment, you'll learn a surprisingly powerful method that's been shown to help people reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety, substance use, insomnia, and more, by focusing on one simple idea: Pleasure through measurement. You'll discover how to use daily monitoring (sometimes called a daily diary or tracking log) to increase awareness, motivation, and accountability for your values-based S.M.A.R.T. goals, the ones that truly matter to you. Through this experiment, you'll: Create your own daily tracking sheet ("lab notebook" style) Learn how to monitor meaningful behavior change Identify patterns that move you toward or away from your values Strengthen consistency, satisfaction, and long-term well-being This practice is at the heart of what helps many people move from insight into real, measurable change. By tracking what matters, we begin to see, and feel, our progress. Welcome to the experiment. Learn more at https://www.honestmentalhealth.com/ #Psychology #MentalHealth #Mindfulness #BehaviorChange #Values #ACT #DBT #CBT

#6 - Closing the Gaps with S.M.A.R.T. Goals

2025-11-0727:16

In this experiment, you'll take the values and insights from your previous work and begin turning them into real, lived change. You'll learn the difference between values (your ongoing direction) and goals (specific destinations along the way). Then you'll create one clear, realistic, meaningful S.M.A.R.T. goal designed to help close a specific gap between how you want to live and how you're currently living. This experiment supports you in taking the first actionable step toward a more honest, connected, and values-aligned life, one small commitment at a time. Welcome to the experiment. Learn more at https://www.honestmentalhealth.com/

#5 - Judge E and Judge F

2025-11-0719:23

In this guided experiment, you'll explore how judgments shape your emotional life, your relationships, and the ways you show up each day. You'll learn to distinguish between Judge E (evaluations—good/bad, should/shouldn't) and Judge F (facts—what is actually happening). You'll be encouraged to: Identify a meaningful "gap" from your values work Notice the judgments you direct at yourself Sort these judgments into evaluations vs. facts Practice replacing evaluative judgments with factual descriptions Discover specific, workable behaviors that support the life you want to live This experiment can reduce shame and self-criticism, increase clarity, and open the door to more compassionate, effective change. Welcome to the experiment. Learn more at https://www.honestmentalhealth.com/

#4 - Mind the Gaps

2025-11-0714:14

In this episode, you'll explore the space between the values that matter most to you and how you're currently living your life. Using your Core Values Hierarchy from the previous experiment, you'll learn a simple and powerful way to identify where your behavior is aligned with your values, and where meaningful gaps exist. You'll be guided to: Revisit your ranked core values Reflect on how important each value is to you right now Assess how consistently you're living by each value Identify the "gaps" (or "speed bumps") between intention and action This experiment is not about judgment, criticism, or pushing yourself into perfection. It's about clarity: An honest look at where your time, energy, and attention are going, and where you may want to gently redirect them. Noticing these gaps is the doorway to change. Once you see them clearly, even one small shift can begin to reshape how you move through your day, and how you live your life. Welcome to the experiment. Learn more at https://www.honestmentalhealth.com/

#3 - Building Your Core Values Hierarchy

2025-11-0711:00

In this episode, you'll take the next step in clarifying what truly matters to you by identifying your core values: The values that are most central to the life you want to live, and arranging them into your own personal values hierarchy. You'll be guided to: Revisit what emerged during the "Being Remembered" experiment Review the values you selected during "Discovering Your Values" Select the values that feel most important to you Rank these values from #1 to #10 to create your Core Values Hierarchy This process can be surprisingly powerful. When your values are clearly defined, and organized, it becomes easier to make decisions, navigate moments of conflict, resolve internal tension, and move with greater confidence toward the life you want to live. You'll also be invited to notice how different core values may sometimes come into conflict with one another, and how your new hierarchy can help you make choices that feel more authentic, honest, and aligned. This is not about being perfect. It's about being truthful, with yourself. Welcome to the experiment. Learn more at https://www.honestmentalhealth.com/

#2 - Discovering Your Values

2025-11-0715:14

In this episode, you'll continue the process of uncovering what truly matters to you by identifying your core values: The qualities that make life feel meaningful, grounded, and authentic. Using a guided exercise adapted from the Personal Values Card Sort (Miller & Rollnick, 2013), you'll explore 100 possible values and notice which ones genuinely resonate with you. Not the values you were taught you "should" care about, but the ones that feel deeply meaningful to the life you actually want to live. You'll be encouraged to: Listen for the values that feel personally important to you Pause the experiment when a value resonates Write those values in your lab notebook Reflect on what patterns you notice in the values you selected As you move through your day after this experiment, you'll begin noticing where these values show up naturally, and where your actions drift away from the life you want to live. This is an invitation to gently, gradually realign your daily behavior with your deepest commitments. This is not about perfection. It's about honesty, curiosity, and beginning again. Welcome to the experiment. Learn more at https://www.honestmentalhealth.com/

#1 - Being Remembered

2025-11-0714:29

In this episode, you'll begin exploring what it would mean to live a more authentic, values-based life. Rather than discussing values in the abstract, this guided experiment invites you to reflect deeply on the people who matter most to you, and on how you most want to be remembered by them. You'll be encouraged to: Identify the people you care most about Imagine how you would hope they describe the life you lived Write down their words in your "lab notebook" Reflect on what truly matters to you, and what does not This exercise can help clarify the difference between the things you think should matter and the things that genuinely do matter to you. It can also reveal small, meaningful shifts you can begin making today to move toward a life that feels more honest, connected, and fulfilling. This is not passive listening, it's an active exploration of who you are and who you want to be. Welcome to the experiment. Learn more at https://www.honestmentalhealth.com/

START HERE: Welcome to the Honest Mental Health Podcast

2025-11-0703:50

Welcome to the Honest Mental Health Podcast In this introductory episode, you'll learn what Honest Mental Health is all about, and why this podcast is different from traditional conversations about mental health. Instead of simply listening, you'll be invited to actively participate in guided experiments designed to help you get unstuck and move toward a life that feels more honest, meaningful, and fulfilling. We'll begin by exploring one simple but powerful question: Where in your life do you currently feel stuck? Whether it's emotional overwhelm, relationship struggles, unhelpful habits, stress, burnout, or uncertainty about your direction in life, this podcast offers practical, science-based tools to help you begin making real change. You'll learn how to use a personal "lab notebook" to reflect on your experiences, track your insights, and build new skills you can apply immediately in the laboratory of your daily life. This is not a substitute for mental health assessment or treatment, but it is a place to learn and practice deeply effective, science-based psychological skills in an honest, open, authentic, and human way. How would your life change if you were no longer stuck? If you were free to start moving towards the life you truly want to live? Let's find out together. Welcome to the Honest Mental Health Podcast.

#box-pro-ellipsis-176402796123429{-webkit-line-clamp:2;}Honest Mental Health with Brian Curtis, PhD

Honest Mental Health with Brian Curtis, PhD