Dr. Mark Goulston on Suicide Prevention

Dr. Mark Goulston joins Brian Levenson on this week’s podcast. Dr. Goulston works as a psychiatrist, but also has been a high stakes crisis psychiatrist, FBI hostage negotiation trainer, and he coaches founders to become CEO’s. He has helped traumatized people heal and thrive in addition to surviving and coping. This conversation is deep, and it’s a conversation about suicide and how we can prevent suicide in the future.

In this episode, they discuss how he came to be interested in the medical world, and his story about depression in medical school (5:45), how his life changed when he was kicked out of Medical School (11:00), what mentors mean to him (15:00), what drew him to being a suicide specialist (16:00), where his ability to connect with people comes from (19:00), about how people die from despair as opposed to depression (22:30), why he was drawn towards helping people prevent suicide (24:00), what helping people does for him (27:40), his thoughts on mindfulness (34:20), on being a first class “noticer” and two magical tricks to stop any argument (40:30), what he believes about suicide, advise for people who are thinking about suicide, and how we can be helpful to people having suicidal thoughts (49:00), what he thinks depression wise is going on with our society today (58:15), a magical tip that he’s given men when in an argument with their wife (1:02:00), and the best quote he’s ever heard (1:05:30).

Thanks to Dr. Goulston for coming on the podcast, and I encourage you to check out his website at http://markgoulston.com/. You can also find Dr. Goulston on twitter @MarkGoulston and we encourage you to check out his pinned tweet where he connects people who have been impacted by suicide. He has also written several top-selling books such as “Talking to Crazy,” and “Get Out of Your Own Way,” which we encourage you to check out.

Lastly, if you liked this episode and/or any others, please support us at Patreon or follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers.

Thanks for listening.

-Brian