TPS #79: Is it an Addiction? With Dr Karen Faisandier

The Primal Shift

Today we have Karen Faisandier joining us from Wellington, NZ.

Karen is a born and bred NZ’er, mother of two, and Director of a private psychology practice based in the Wellington CBD.

While she is a conventionally-trained clinical psychologist specialising in addiction, her interest in nutrition in health care led her into the study of nutritional and environmental medicine and its application to psychology.

Karen is passionate about forging an “integrated” and ancestral approach to individual adult psychological assessment and treatment. This involves the evidence-based application of nutritional, nutraceutical, and ancestrally oriented lifestyle interventions so as to assist people to understand, prevent, and recover from psychological distress.

We chat with Karen about:

• Karen’s interest in addiction
• How Karen came to make her Primal Shift
• Integrating an ancestral and ACNEM approach into her clinical practice
• The impact of caffeine on sleep, the stress response, nutrient absorption and other behaviours
• Karen’s research and professional experience with drug addiction
• What the main underlying factors are that can create addictions are
• Sex addiction, should it be an addiction? And what the prevalence of different sexual behaviours is
• Is it an addiction? Ask does it cause distress and impairment for someone and does it cause a loss of control?
• Attachment theory of addiction
• Is there such a thing as sugar addiction?
• How gut health and nutritional deficiencies can affect into addictions
• Can addiction shift from one thing to another? Alcohol to sugar
• Anxiety and depression
• Allergies and intolerances
• Psychoneuroimmunology
• Practical approaches people can take to strengthen their mental health – diet and identifying any deficiencies and intolerances, reducing stress
• When to seek professional support

Links:

• Karen’s clinical psychology clinic in NZ: The Integrative Practice
• Ecology Skincare