Pro Climber Talks about Facing Fear and Managing Risk- Hazel Findlay

Therapy in a Nutshell

Therapy in a Nutshell -Emma McAdam

Mental Health, Education, Health & Fitness:mental Health, Self-improvement, Health & Fitness

4.8 • 658 Ratings

🗓️ 27 June 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Learn the skills to Regulate your Emotions, join the membership: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/membership Check out Hazel's Program here: https://www.strongmindclimbing.com/ I love climbing because there's an amazing intersection of mental and physical skills, and it pushes me every time I go out. Today I get the incredible blessing to interview one of my favorite climbers- Hazel Findlay! I've been watching Hazel in climbing films for at least a decade, she's an incredibly strong, but also wise climber, who has pushed the limits of the sport. She's the first British woman to climb E9 6c - one of the hardest and simultaneously dangerous grades in climbing, but she doesn't have a death-wish, she makes careful intentional choices about how she goes about climbing. Today we talk about anxiety, calming the body, self talk, the ego, and why Utah is amazing! Looking for affordable online counseling? My sponsor, BetterHelp, connects you to a licensed professional from the comfort of your own home. Try it now for 10% off your first month: https://betterhelp.com/therapyinanutshell Learn more in one of my in-depth mental health courses: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com Support my mission on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/therapyinanutshell Sign up for my newsletter: https://www.therapyinanutshell.com Check out my favorite self-help books: https://kit.co/TherapyinaNutshell/best-self-help-books Therapy in a Nutshell and the information provided by Emma McAdam are solely intended for informational and entertainment purposes and are not a substitute for advice, diagnosis, or treatment regarding medical or mental health conditions. Although Emma McAdam is a licensed marriage and family therapist, the views expressed on this site or any related content should not be taken for medical or psychiatric advice. Always consult your physician before making any decisions related to your physical or mental health. In therapy I use a combination of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Systems Theory, positive psychology, and a bio-psycho-social approach to treating mental illness and other challenges we all face in life. The ideas from my videos are frequently adapted from multiple sources. Many of them come from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, especially the work of Steven Hayes, Jason Luoma, and Russ Harris. The sections on stress and the mind-body connection derive from the work of Stephen Porges (the Polyvagal theory), Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing) Francine Shapiro (EMDR), and Bessel Van Der Kolk. I also rely heavily on the work of the Arbinger Institute for my overall understanding of our ability to choose our life's direction. And deeper than all of that, the Gospel of Jesus Christ orients my personal worldview and sense of security, peace, hope, and love https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist/believe If you are in crisis, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or your local emergency services. Copyright Therapy in a Nutshell, LLC

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to another episode of the Therapy in a Nutshell podcast. I'm Emma McAdam and I'm a licensed marriage and family therapist.
0:07.0	And this podcast is all about taking the life-changing, but usually kind of complicated topics of therapy and boiling them down into simple, easy-to-understand concepts that you can use in your daily life.
0:18.6	If you find today's episode as helpful to you, please pass it on to someone else who could benefit from it as well.
0:23.6	Each podcast episode comes from a corresponding video you can find on the Therapy in a Nutshell YouTube channel.
0:28.6	Also, these podcasts are educational and don't replace the advice or direction you may be receiving from a therapist or other health professionals.
0:36.6	Now please, enjoy the episode.
0:39.0	When you go to the gym for the first time, you don't try to lift the heaviest weights.
0:43.4	You know that you have to start with lighter weights and then you slowly incrementally
0:47.8	add those weights.
0:48.9	And if you don't lift any weights, you don't get stronger, but equally if you lift two
0:52.6	heavy weights, you get injured. And in really simplistic terms, the same is true of the mind.
0:58.0	If you don't challenge yourself at all and you never step outside your comfort zone,
1:04.0	you will not get any braver.
1:06.0	You will not be more courageous in the context of that thing that you're trying to get braver at. But if you go, okay, well, I just need to go and do the scariest thing, and then, like, that will, like, take away all my fear.
1:18.6	Right.
1:19.6	I mean, that's going to be equally bad because that's basically going to be talking about, because you are one of the bravest climbers I've seen, you do these amazing ascents that also involve risk.
1:43.1	And so today we're going to be talking about that
1:44.6	relationship between performance and fear and also decision making, like how we make
1:50.4	decisions when we're having emotions. So that's what I'm curious to talk with you about. My
1:57.1	audience is not a climbing audience. Would you be able to describe to my audience a little bit, like give an example of a climb you were on where there was some significant risk involved and the decision making that you made?
2:11.9	Okay, here's an obvious one because there's actually a video about it as well.
2:15.1	So if people are interested, they can check it out.
	...

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