Conversations: Psychology & Relationships
Episodes
When a sea change collides with messy midlife
03 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For journalist Kate Halfpenny, moving to a beachside town during Melbourne's lockdowns seemed like the perfect way to unwind and escape her huge mort...
Situationships, risks and growing pains — Jemma Sbeg on surviving your 20s
13 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From relationships and loneliness, to indecision and burnout, Jemma Sbeg is your guide to navigating your 20s, and looking back on that decade with a...
Loneliness — it's not only you
26 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Loneliness is a universal experience, for each of us at some point in our lives. Journalist Ros Thomas travelled the world to investigate, and find t...
Transforming trauma with Dr Gabor Maté
27 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The renowned physician discusses the role of trauma in our lives, showing up as addiction, chronic disease and mental illness — and how recognising...
Gus Worland on the men who made him and Australia's male suicide epidemic
25 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Two of the most important men to Gus Worland departed his life in shocking and unexpected ways. Gus' grief led him to dig deeper into what it means t...
From Yugoslavia to Australia — Jelena Dokic on tennis and the truth
08 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Jelena Dokic overcame adversity, poverty and violence to rise to the top of the tennis world. Years later, her revelations about her father's abuse s...
The Indigenous psychologist doing things differently - From the Pilbara to Perth and beyond
30 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Tracy Westerman grew up in the Pilbara, where suicide and mental health issues have deeply scarred Indigenous communities. So this Nyamal woman de...
Changing prisoners' minds with Vedic meditation at Rikers Island
18 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Joh Jarvis was a high-flying boss when grief from a terrible loss began to overwhelm her. She tried therapy, exercise and healthy eating. Then she fo...
The psychedelic revolution — how MDMA mended Rebecca's mind
30 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
While struggling with PTSD, social researcher Rebecca Huntley chose an unconventional and underground path to healing — MDMA therapy.Rebecca Huntle...
The secret psychosis of a first-time mother
03 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When psychologist Ariane Beeston started having delusions after the birth of her son, and hallucinating that he was a dragon, she had to learn how to...
Trichotillomania (compulsive hair pulling) and me
31 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As a teenager Adele Dumont started pulling out her hair from the root.Eventually she created a bald spot the size of a 20-cent piece at the crown of ...
The ladder out of depression with psychiatrist Ian Hickie
16 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Professor Ian Hickie has spent decades trying to understand clinical depression. Where does it come from? What role do genes play? And most importan...
Penny Moodie's compulsive and compelling life
25 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Penny grew up consumed by catastrophic thoughts and developed habits to try to ward off impending doom. It turned out she had been living with obsess...
Craig Hamilton's three lives
28 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Coalminer turned broadcaster Craig Hamilton was in his 30s when he had a psychotic episode on Broadmeadows train station. In the aftermath, his life...
Lessons from the world's longest study on happiness: Dr Robert Waldinger
25 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Robert Waldinger on what it takes to live a happy life. Robert Waldinger has spent most of his working life trying to understand the secret to hum...
Mandy Nolan: embracing the 'weird freaky girl'
01 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Mandy Nolan didn't fit in as a child, in the country town where she grew up. But later in life, her differences became her superpower (CW: discusse...
How memory works
30 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Over her many decades as a practising psychiatrist, Veronica O'Keane developed a fascination for our memory, how it functions in the brain, and the ...
Is there a cheating gene?
06 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Once journalist and author Kate Legge recovered from the news her husband of 30 years was cheating on her, she uncovered four generations of infidel...
Dr Koppe's new life and understanding of PTSD
03 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Hilton Koppe on how his life as a soccer-obsessed country GP changed forever when he became a patient himselfHilton Koppe grew up knowing his paren...
Suicide survivor Oceane Campbell
14 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Oceane was 18 when she attempted to take her own life. After a painstaking climb back into life, 20 years later she is a midwife, a writer and a moth...
Maggie Dent — raising strong girls
09 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Guiding daughters to become confident young woman in an age of smartphones and early sexualisation is tough. The parenting expert says in this comple...
Jason Om shines a light on his family secrets
14 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When journalist Jason Om turned his skills towards his own family story he began to understand the real story of his perfectionist Buddhist Cambodian...
Sian Prior: reckoning with childlessness
01 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sian Prior with the story of the years of longing and loss which marked her quest to become a mother, and what happened when she found herself childl...
Nourishing the heart
24 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Psychiatrist Dr Warren Ward treats patients who are severely ill with eating disorders. Understanding the mystery of human nature has driven him sinc...
A rebel on the legal bench
03 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
David Heilpern with stories of drama, crime and heartache from his 21 years as a country magistrate (CW: references to drug use and sexual assault)Fo...
The life of Dr Norman Swan
30 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How a boy from Glasgow named Norman Swirsky grew up to become Australia's most famous doctor
Taming the Black Dog, and burnout
22 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Gordon Parker is the founder of the Black Dog Institute, which works to remove the stigma around depression, mental illness and bipolar disorder. For...
Meet Ash Barty's mindset coach — Ben Crowe
01 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How does Ben Crowe get elite athletes to the top of their game? What he asks footballers, surfers and tennis players to do seems counter intuitive, a...
A wild mother and her loving son
25 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ianto Ware with the story of growing up in the suburbs of Adelaide with his radical feminist lesbian mother Dimity
Jodi and the people with possibilities
18 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
'Love on the Spectrum' star Jodi Rodgers on her life as a sexologist and relationship counsellor for people with Autism, and her unexpected chapter i...
Steve Biddulph and the lightbulb moment
16 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Parenting educator and retired psychologist Steve Biddulph was in his 50s when a chance conversation over lunch shifted almost everything about how h...
Enron, schizophrenia, the Bowls Club and me - the life of Glenn Jarvis
05 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Glenn was working at Enron in London when his mental health began to unravel. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and lost nearly everything. Then a...
The green suitcase and the secret family
27 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Betty O'Neill's father disappeared when she was a baby. Decades later, inside a tiny apartment in the Polish city of Lublin she opened a green suitca...
The male midwife working in remote Arnhem Land
26 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Midwife Christian Wright with tales of emergency evacuations and surfing with crocodiles while working in remote Indigenous communities in Arnhem Lan...
Philippa Perry says yes to feelings
04 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Philippa's parents wanted her to move in the 'right' circles, so they sent her to a Swiss finishing school. Instead she became a debt collector, went...
Maggie Dent - helping teenage boys grow into good men
07 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Maggie grew up around boys, then raised four sons of her own. Now she helps parents understand the changes teenage boys are going through as they cro...
The dark Lithgow childhood of Rampaging Roy Slaven
31 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Comedian and writer John Doyle was raised in a mining town in a music-loving Catholic family. Behind closed doors, his family life was often turbulen...
Reframing identity through motherhood and marriage with Glennon Doyle
26 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Glennon made a big name for herself in the US as a ‘Christian mommy blogger’ with her candid and often hilarious writing when she fell wildly in ...
The healing power of dogs
20 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Kate Leaver became fascinated by the curative qualities of dogs after her Shih Tzu Bertie helped her through her darkest days
This anxious life: Dr Mark Cross
05 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Mark is an experienced consultant psychiatrist who also suffers from Australia's most common mental health condition, anxiety. His direct insight hel...
Finding the erotic in everyday life with Esther Perel
07 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Esther is a therapist who spent years studying intimacy, monogamy and sexuality. She became the world's most well-known expert on modern loveWhen Est...
Psychotherapy on the couch
30 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Demystifying the art of talk therapy and the complex relationship between therapist and patientPsychotherapy, also known as 'the talking cure', is ba...
More than kindness: compassion and its uses
27 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Paul Gilbert on how our brains are wired for inner conflict and possible cruelty, and what to do about it
An extreme treatment for depression
08 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Helen Elliot was working as a psychologist when she became so ill she was held in a locked psychiatric ward
How to spot a psychopath and toxic people
24 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Understanding and managing the psychopaths in our midst at work and at homeDavid Gillespie is a former corporate lawyer and investor and the author o...
Elizabeth Gilbert's keys to a big, creative life
08 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Liz is probably best known for her international best-seller Eat, Pray, Love.
Jessica Grisham: helping hoarders let go
17 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Jessica Grisham is a clinical and research psychologist at the University of New South Wales.
Journalist Jill Stark addresses problem drinking in the most personal way
21 Feb 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Broadcast date: Thursday 21 February 2013
Tony Attwood and the truth of Asperger's Syndrome
17 Jun 2011
Contributed by Lukas
Tony has done more than anyone to take us to the truth of what Asperger's really is
Ross Fitzgerald on the dangers of drinking, and woodblock artist Cressida Campbell
01 Sep 2009
Contributed by Lukas
Ross Fitzgerald hasn't touched alcohol for many years now. But it has been on his mind a lot recently, having co-written a fascinating account of alc...