Scaling Empathy Part I with Paul Chen, Cofounder & CEO of Flourish Tech & Dr. Karen Yeh, Clinical Psychologist, Founder of Feeling Good Whole Health Center
The Most Important Thing
Most people can significantly improve their relationship skills, which are trained, not born with. You can learn how to handle tricky relationship challenges by practicing with others in role plays regularly, like you would go to a gym to become physically fit.
If someone close to you is feeling depressed or anxious, Flourish can help to train you with the skills of empathy in order to support this person.
About Paul Chen
Paul Chen (陈扬洋) was born in Chengdu, China, and immigrated to Norfolk, VA, as a teenager. Paul is the CEO and cofounder of Flourish Tech, a Silicon Valley venture-backed startup seeking to become the world’s best platform for mental and emotional fitness. Paul is also a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, nominated by former Secretary of State Dr. Condi Rice.
About Dr. Karen Yeh
Dr. Karen Yeh, Psy.D., is a clinical psychologist with nearly 20 years of experience. In her practice, she has seen the power of empathy work for many individuals with relationship problems. In 2010 she started her training with Dr. David Burns, Stanford psychiatrist and bestselling author of Feeling Good: A New Mood Therapy, to specialize in his cognitive self-help approach to mental health. Dr. Yeh established a center in Fremont, CA, in 2014 to train other therapists and serve the larger community through public education programs and direct clinical services through in-person and teletherapy private sessions. Feeling Good Whole Health takes a holistic approach to psychotherapy, addressing patients’ mind, brain, body, and soul health, to support the work of cognitive behavioral therapy. Dr. Yeh holds a Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology from CSPP Alliant International University, an Ed.M. in Counseling & Consulting Psychology from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a B.S. in Biology from MIT
About Flourish
Flourish Tech is building the world’s first expert guided peer coaching community to help people sharpen their relationship skills. Our methodology is evidence-based and comes from research at Stanford University. You can build and deepen trust with others by practicing role plays that simulate real life relationships.
Episode Overview
In this episode, I begin my two part discussion with Paul Chen and Dr. Karen Yeh on the mental health crisis in America. One in four Americans suffers from clinical depression, the rate of anxiety and depression amongst young children is rapidly on the rise, most adults report feeling stressed or burnt out. How did we get here? What are some of the causes behind this mental health crisis in America and what are some common misconceptions? Can technology be refitted as a tool to help us as individuals and society thrive mentally, emotionally and spiritually?
My Favorite Quotes
“It would be a crime for me to say that we can’t make this better; as a founder, it’s in my blood to be optimistic. It’s not naïve to say that things can be better, but it certainly won’t happen if we do nothing about it.”
“As psychologists, it’s not a rockstar model, we can’t reach 10,000 people with one go. We have to work closely one on one with the patients and the family.”
“As a business-person, I love stigmatized industries because that means most people don’t dare to touch them. But if there’s actually fundamental reasons for why changes need to happen and you’re daring enough to get into some of these stigmatized fields then opportunities are tremendous.”
“Mental health will be as normalized as physical health”
“Lacking motivation is a SYMPTOM of depression, not a choice that a depressed person makes.”
“How do we help them understand? It’s empathy”
“We can see a physiological basis for depression, but that doesn’t mean that medication is the best solution for it. We haven’t yet gotten to a point where we understand what depression or anxiety is. To some extent, you can say the brain is still a black box.”
“When it comes to medication, we don’t know the answers.”
Episode Breakdown
00:00 – America’s Mental Health Crisis
10:00 – Children’s mental health
20:00 – Parenting in the social media age
25:00 – Where do we go from here?
30:00 – The growth of the mental health industry
35:00 – The stigma of mental health
Episode Links
Paul’s Info
Dr. Karen’s Info
Flourish
Other Resources & References
Feeling Good Whole Health Center
The State of Mental Health in America
Marc’s Info:
Marc Weinstein, host of the Look Up! Podcast is a public speaker for corporations, universities, and conferences. Click here to view past talks and to book Marc
Look Up! Patreon Community
Look Up! Website
Marc's Instagram
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