Fire in The BellyA Pause is a Purpose - Interview with Clinical Psychologist Dr. Malie Coyne
Today Pete speaks to Dr. Malie Coyne, a clinical psychologist living in Galway and working with children, teenagers and parents. She is also a mother, lecturer and author. Malie is very passionate about promoting wellbeing and increasing awareness of mental health issues, which she achieves through her advocacy work, public speaking and print, radio and TV contributions.
Listen in today for an insight into child psychology, anxiety, passion and much more.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Malie always said if she was going to write a book it would be focused around children and parents as that’s where her interest has always lied. Malie also suffered with anxiety as a child and so wanted to help those children and parents dealing with this.
- Malie believes in compassion based therapy, which is an eastern blend of therapies. She used this approach in her book ‘Love In, Love Out’ which was released in July.
- The most important thing about the book for Malie, is the amount of people it helps, this was always her purpose.
- Anxiety can have both a genetic component as well as environmental factors. 15% of children are born with a more anxious temperament but life events and parenting can have a large impact on child anxiety.
- It’s really important that we assess how we react to our children, a lot of these responses are automatic and we don’t even think about doing them.
- Fire in the belly for Malie means passion. Her fire comes out a lot when she is teaching and helping others. She also thinks what is the point of doing anything if you don’t have that fire in the belly for it!
- Humans have the ability to see into the future and look at the past. Which inflates our feelings of threat. Being anxious is about feeling threatened.
- Finding the balance between connections with other people, what you do each day and your drive can be very healing. You can still be driven whilst being kind to yourself and others.
- 90% of brain development happens before a child is three. Malie believes that we need to focus more on infant mental health for this exact reason.
- People do not learn when they are threatened. Malie tries to educate and teach others in a compassionate way. She also tries to share parts of herself so other people see her as the human she is.
- Malie is continuously learning and does so in many ways. Through courses, through clients, reading, podcasts, and even through her family and children.
- Passion can sometimes lead to stress for Malie because she says yes to a lot of ‘maybes’ when following it. It can lead to feeling of overwhelm for her.
- Malie believes that pushing is not the only way to get what you want. Often there can be a spiritual side to getting to where you want to be. It’s important to not tie all of your self worth to the negative things that sometimes happen. The universe has a plan and there is a reason things happen.
BEST MOMENTS
“To every child and grown-up child who feels anxious out there, this one’s for you. I’ve been there, it’s really hard and I’m holding your hand. I hope this book gives you a voice and gives you justice”
“There weren’t many books on how a parent feels in response to their child’s anxiety and how they might address that and look at that first before they respond”
“My passion has somehow exuded from me and somehow been contagious to them”
“There is a moment of awareness before you react with your kids”
“It’s no surprise I began a helper as I felt it was my job, as I got older I learnt you don’t have to bring stuff home with ya”
“Eventually the stack has to come down”
“It was us against the world”
VALUABLE RESOURCES
Subscribe to Fire In The Belly Podcast on Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fire-in-the-belly/id1499375061)
ABOUT THE GUEST
Dr Malie Coyne
A Clinical Psychologist, Author, N.U.I.G. Lecturer and an active member of the Mental Health Advisory Panel for the A Lust for Life charity. Malie is very passionate about promoting wellbeing and increasing awareness of mental health issues, which she achieves through her advocacy work, public speaking and print, radio and TV contributions.
