This week’s conversation is with Dr. Mark Goulston, a Board Certified Psychiatrist, a Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a former UCLA Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry.
Mark has specialized in psychotherapy for more than thirty years focusing on suicide prevention, death and dying, depression, anxiety, personality disorders, PTSD and marital therapy.
After a recent string of high-profile suicides in America, death by suicide is a topic that’s on a lot of our minds. Most of us are likely to know or love somebody who has been affected by a suicide.
Since September is Suicide Prevention Month, this is a good time to seek understanding about these tragic experiences.
You might be surprised by the global rate of suicide:
According to the World Health Organization, “Close to 800,000 people die due to suicide every year, which is one person every 40 seconds. Many more attempt suicide. For every person who commit suicide, there’s another 20 who attempted.”
My family has been impacted by suicide – I lost my uncle to this way of dying. Everyone who loved him dearly wishes we could have helped, but we couldn’t.
This conversation is about learning how to better connect with those in need – through listening, empathy and compassion.
“Part of my mission in life is to teach people how to listen to each other.”
In This Episode:
- The difference between a psychiatrist and a psychologist
- The path that led him to treating suicidal patients
- How he learned the right way to listen
- Why he had to change his approach to reach suicidal patents effectively
- The best strategies for talking to someone who’s suicidal
- What suicidal people are really searching for: a way out of the pain
- Why he’s on a mission to scale empathy
