Breaking the Stigma w/Mayim Bialik and Jonathan Cohen

May 8, 2025·1 hr 12 min·5 clips

Mayim Bialik explains why she once dismissed energy healing as 'crazy' and what changed her mind.

Mayim begins with a real reversal. When Jonathan wanted to talk about energy and less conventional healing, her scientist training made her push back on the whole thing. Then life made the picture messier. Personal exploration, along with medical situations Western science could not fully support or explain, moved her toward methods she once would have rejected. She is not turning against science. She is widening the frame a little, while still treating Western medicine and Western rationalism as useful. They just no longer feel like the whole map. The conversation keeps circling the question of what people need when symptoms, emotions, and family patterns do not fit neat explanations. Parenting makes that question concrete. Mayim says children do not learn to regulate by being left alone with big feelings. They learn through connection with the adults around them. Boundaries still matter. She pushes back on the idea that attachment means letting children do whatever they want, because limits can stay clear without becoming punishment. That distinction matters. A child can hear that a behavior has to change and still know that their feelings will not cost them the relationship. Her examples stay close to home. During difficult years around eight, ten, eleven, and twelve, staying nearby might mean sitting on the edge of a bed while a child refuses comfort. Simple in theory, much harder in the room. A parent may want to cool off, check a phone, or leave the tension, but the work is to stay present without trying to crush the feeling. The host receives the idea warmly. He calls the approach beautiful, then opens it into a larger thought about boundaries, brains, and how differently people receive what others carry. The ending stays unfinished in a good way. Instead of forcing a final answer, the host leaves the deeper question on the table: inner quiet, nervous system boundaries, and how much care for others depends on knowing what is happening inside ourselves first.

As heard by us

A thoughtful conversation about boundaries, connection, and parenting.

Mayim Bialik and Jonathan Cohen frame the episode around moving beyond the limits of Western medicine and Western rationalism, then bring that idea down to the daily reality of parenting.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a calm, smart conversation that moves from neuroscience and Western medicine into everyday parenting.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from The Psychology Podcast