Louise Eyrie

So I have developed a pretty thick skin around it about who to listen to and who not to listen to and when to listen and when not to.

But look, I'm often amazed at the number of very talented people who I speak to on the Sunday session who will say that they've got imposter syndrome.

They don't feel like they belong.

They don't feel like they should be there, that they're not capable of doing a job or that they're currently doing things.

I find that sad that, you know, like negative thoughts or sort of self-criticism and things could stop people from doing things, trying new things or having the confidence to do things.

We've got the perfect person to help us out today.

Kyle MacDonald is a registered psychotherapist with over 20 years clinical experience across both public and private mental health services.

Kyle is hugely passionate about educating the public around mental health and emotional well-being, as well as being a vocal advocate for improving our mental health services.

He's chair of the Psychotherapy Board of Aotearoa New Zealand, an author, a columnist for the New Zealand Herald, and he is a colleague of mine at Newstalk ZB as co-host of the Nutter's Club every Sunday night.

Kyle, welcome.

Thank you so much for being with us.

Basically, we wanted you to give us a bit of a hand because as we get older, we say that we give less fucks about what people think about us.

And yet, I think negative comments and criticism still can hit a nerve with us.

Yeah, good point.

I've said this to you a lot over the years, and I say it to my kids all the time, especially maybe when they were learning to drive and maybe someone would be very aggressive or quite rude to them or do something stupid.

I say to them, you just do not know what is going on in that car.

You do not know what kind of day that person is having.

This could be the worst day of their life.

And I think that is really important to remember.

But I remember one kid turning around and sort of looking at me and going, what if it's not?