Today we welcome Whitney Goodman, the radically honest psychotherapist behind the hugely popular Instagram account Sit With Whit. She is the owner of The Collaborative Counseling Center, a private therapy practice in Miami. Whitney has her own column in Psychology Today and has been featured in The New York Times, Teen Vogue, NY Magazine, Instyle, Good Morning America, and other publications. Her most recent book is called Toxic Positivity: Keeping It Real in a World Obsessed with Being Happy.
In this episode, I talk to Whitney Goodman about toxic positivity. A happy outlook in life is a strength; but when taken too far, it can backfire and work against us. Positivity stops becoming helpful when we deny the realities of hardship and trauma. Whitney believes positivity is not the panacea to our problems—it needs to be applied in the right time, place, and purpose. She shares with us ways on how to be supportive without being dismissive of our own well-being and of others. We also touch on the topics of authenticity, gratitude, hope, relationships, and work.
Website: sitwithwhit.com
Instagram: @SitWithWhit
Topics
- When positivity becomes toxic
- Pretending to be happy
- Do positive people always succeed?
- Changing toxic positivity
- Well-being > positive thinking
- Stop shaming yourself
- Realistic affirmations and organic gratitude
- How to complain effectively
- Ingredients of communication
- Discrimination with a smile
- A value-driven life
- It’s okay to just be
- Positive fantasy can be helpful
Hi Scott!
I’ve come across your podcast on Apple Podcasts and I believe that Dr John Demartini would be an ideal guest for your show.
Dr Demartini is an award-winning human behavior expert, author of ‘The Values Factor’, ‘The Breakthrough Experience’ and The Gratitude Effect’. He’s the host of ‘The Demartini Show’ podcast and you can find one of his latest podcasts to review here: https://demartini.fm/apple-podcast
If you’d like to listen to a podcast episode where Dr Demartini was a guest on a show, here’s the link to an episode on the Mindvalley podcast on the topic: How To Manage Distractions And Unleash Extraordinary Results Using This Productivity Tool. You can access the interview here: https://demartini.fm/mindvalley
Dr Demartini would love to give listeners some action points to help them expand to the next level of their empowerment.
He would also love to share his ebook with your audience to help them on their empowerment journey after the interview if you would love to have him as a guest?
I look forward to hearing from you.
Regards from Heidi and The Demartini Institute
I love how this episode mentioned how we often see “inspiring stories” that have to have a happily ever after ending where everything is fixed, and it reminded me of a memoir that I read where the author mentioned the book was denied publishing again and again from different sellers, because they didn’t see it as inspiring enough. They disagreed with the fact that the author’s paralysis wasn’t ever fixed and he never met and married the girl of his dreams. I’m glad they were able to find a publisher because for me, I loved how REAL he was and totally found the book inspiring in its own way. There’s beauty in being able to admit we all have problems and some of them are huge and traumatic, and it can be amazing to see the strength of people as they keep going anyways. It’s ok to just be!
https://www.amazon.com/Are-All-Paralyzed-Remarkable-Experiences/dp/1462123503