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The SEEK Safely podcast is the official voice of the nonprofit organization SEEK Safely Inc, which advocates for ethics and accountability in the self-help industry, and empowers seekers to have safe and effective self-improvement journeys. Jean Brown and Dr. Glenn Patrick Doyle peel back the layers of the largely unregulated, multi-billion dollar self-help industry, discussing the patterns of exploitation and deception that pervade the industry and allow self-help gurus to thrive at the expense of their customers and followers. Along the way we’ll have discussions with people who care as much as we do about the self-help industry being held accountable for the promises it makes–and we lay out our vision of a world in which seekers are respected and protected.
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Dr. Doyle and Jean discuss some of the points of intersection between the self-help industry and climate change and environmental issues in general. How do these things relate, you might ask. The self-help industry is in many ways a reflection of larger patterns in the world and society. Some of the problems that have contributed to climate change are also seen in the self-help industry. But perhaps more interestingly, when we imagine a better future for both our environment and the self-help...
It’s time for SEEK’s annual fundraising push! We just finished up our annual SEEK Week fundraiser, which features a different live-streaming topic each night for a week. You can watch the recordings on our YouTube channel. And we're planning ahead for a second SEEK Summit and Empowerment Workshop. Find links on our website. Glenn, Jean, and Anne Peterson chat about these events: what to expect, why they’re important, and how you can get involved. And because this is the SEEK Safely podcast, y...
Glenn and Jean dive into the phenomenon of the celebrity turned self-help guru. As trust in traditional authorities breaks down, we turn to other sources, like celebrities. But what happens when a celeb with notoriety in one area starts talking up a self-help storm? It's a tale as old as self-help time... We get into Goop, The Biggest Loser and early 2000s weight loss culture (yikes), and even the celebrity to self-help to politician pipeline. Show Notes: To Watch: The Biggest Loser Doc...
Jean and Glenn talk guru origin stories—from the dubious to downright fantastical. Why do they do this? What is the point, and what could be the harm?
AI is suddenly everywhere it seems, and the self-help world is no different. A low-cost machine that can pump out a nearly endless string of word salad "content" to push on a willing audience? Perfect! Jean and Glenn chat about the implications of AI for self-help and how we are already seeing it wend its way into the industry and the wider mental health industry. Tony Robbins has created an AI Tony app! As a fun little experiment, Jean asks ChatGPT how it would go about creating an AI guru. ...
Glenn and Jean talk about the upcoming International Cultic Studies Association's annual conference in July, where Jean is presenting on behalf of SEEK for the third year in a row. Since 1979, ICSA has been building an international network of resources for cult survivors, educators, and researchers. SEEK's presence at the conference since 2023 has been about drawing a link between the self-help industry and cults. This year's conference focusses on the role of the media in the cult conversat...
Jean’s in her PJs. Glenn is wearing sweats. Because we’re all tired… In this episode, the podcast is checking in on how we’re all coping (or not) in this very busy, constantly “breaking news” era. It is precisely in these moments of uncertainty that the self-help world typically kicks it into overdrive. So beware! We also talk about this interesting development we’re seeing–the self-helpification of US government. And finally, we offer a few thoughts on how to manage in overwhelmi...
How do smart, motivated, successful people get pulled into spending thousands of dollars, many years, and lots of trust on a self-help program or teacher? Psychologist Dr. John Hunter applies the dopamine hypothesis to explain how these events may be messing with our brain chemistry in a way that puts us into a manic or hypomanic state. If you are curious about cults or if you’re a self-help person, this is a must-listen! Finally, we have a psychological explanation for what is actually going...
SEEK was surprised to learn of the death of James Arthur Ray on January 3rd, 2025, at the age of 67. Ray was responsible for the deaths of 3 people at his 2009 “Spiritual Warrior” Retreat in Sedona, Arizona, a crime for which he spent 20 months in prison. As this event was the genesis of SEEK Safely, Jean, Glenn, and SEEK Board Member and self-help industry expert Dr. Christine Whelan reflect on how his death fits into the arc of the self-help industry itself. As the Brown family said in it...
In November 2024, SEEK was proud to present the SEEK Safely summit, a day of reflecting, brainstorming, and imagining what a better, safer self-help world looks like. We gathered together self-help industry professionals to discuss tools for seekers and self-help practitioners, to find and facilitate more ethical self-help. In this episode of the podcast, Glenn and Jean chat with Anne Peterson, SEEK friend and author of “Is this a Cult” about her experience in Landmark, who facilitated the Su...
Jean and Glenn chat with India Oxenberg, author, producer, and activist whose escape from NXIVM is documented in the Starz series “Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult.” India was an executive producer on the series. India also shares her story in her memoir, “Still Learning.” The conversations focusses less on the sensationalist aspects of her cult experience, and more on the self-help nature of NXIVM as an organization, and what attracted India to the group in the first place. More about I...
In this episode, Dr. Doyle and Jean return to the underlying discussion of the self-help industry and the flaws within it that drive SEEK Safely’s mission. It was after Kirby Brown’s death at the 2009 Spiritual Warrior retreat that the Brown family discovered some of the rot at the core of this multi-billion dollar industry. This drove the family to found SEEK Safely, recognizing that the impulse to seek is not the issue—it’s the unethical, unregulated self-help providers that are the issue a...
Previously on the Podcast, Anne Peterson introduced her new memoir, "Is This A Cult?" about her many years of involvement with Landmark. Anne joins the podcast again to discuss the response to her memoir, including a flood of messages from other ex-Landmarkians saying "same here!" Anne also shares what she's learned since her book launch that has given her even more clarity about her own experience and what needs to happen going forward to create a more ethical self-help industry. SEEK is e...
Here is Part 2 with Brit Barkholtz. Brit Barkholtz is a licensed clinical social worker specializing in trauma and eating disorders, active in the Twitter therapist community as The Caffeinated Therapist. Brit shares her take on MLMs, self-help exploiting trauma, “culty” stuff, and Taylor Swift as a tool of trauma recovery. This episode is Part 1 of 2. To Read: Brit’s thoughts on The Tortured Poet’s Department on HuffPo PESI To Listen To: SEEK Podcast Episode on MLMs SEEK Pod Episode on T...
Brit Barkholtz is a licensed clinical social worker specializing in trauma and eating disorders, active in the Twitter therapist community as The Caffeinated Therapist. Brit shares her take on MLMs, self-help exploiting trauma, “culty” stuff, and Taylor Swift as a tool of trauma recovery. This episode is Part 1 of 2. To Read: Brit’s thoughts on The Tortured Poet’s Department on HuffPo PESI To Listen To: SEEK Podcast Episode on MLMs SEEK Pod Episode on Trauma Taylor Swift, The Tortured Poet...
Bypassing is, essentially, avoidance. It's something we all do from time to time as a response to something unpleasant in our lives. But sometimes bypassing can cause us to go too far, putting off challenge for later that we'd be better off dealing with now. And sometimes in the self-help world, bypassing is either encouraged or deeply embedded in the thought system being pushed. Dr. Glenn highlights how spiritual bypassing, emotional bypassing, and reality bypassing are all especially danger...
Continuing our conversation with Anne Peterson, who has decades of involvement with Landmark, one of the original large-group awareness training (LGAT) companies, including experience producing a breakthrough leadership program developed for Landmark's founder, Werner Erhard. She tells her story in her memoir, “Is This A Cult: Confronting the Line Between Transformation and Exploitation.” This episode is Part 2 of 2. Listen to Part 1 if you haven’t already! To Read: https://isthisacultbook.c...
Anne Peterson has decades of involvement with Landmark, one of the original large-group awareness training (LGAT) companies, including experience producing a breakthrough leadership program developed for Landmark's founder, Werner Erhard. Millions (3.5 million, according to Landmark's press packet) have passed through its trademark Landmark Forum training, many of them having positive experiences. But after her many years of working with Landmark as a facilitator and program producer, A...
This episode is a throw-back to our annual fundraiser, Kirby Jam, in October 2023. We had live-streamed on a different topic each night, and on this night, Monday, October 16th, we discussed our effort to pass self-help consumer protection legislation. Dr. Glenn, Jean, and SEEK Founder Ginny Brown talk about why we feel the legislation is necessary, what our effort has looked like, and the bill that we are hoping will make it to the floor in the New York State Legislature in 2024. (And ...
Our resident self-help geeks, Dr. Doyle and Dr. Christine Whelan, along with Jean, talk about self-help books that aren’t self-help books—that is, books that were not written to be self-help books but have been adopted into self-help culture, or society at large, as self-helpy how-to life manuals. Some are about other aspects of mental health and wellness, some are memoir or autobiography, some are straight-up fiction, but somehow they either took on a self-help life of their own, or have bee...
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