Most of us calibrate our view of the world according to our senses: what we see is what is real, and what we don’t see does not exist. Others feel an intuitive connection to what is, and some others just believe.

This week’s show is with Jamie Butler. Clairvoyant from birth, Jamie shares how she sees, hears, and feels the world around her. Watch the interview and share your comments on YouTube.

Watch the full show on Friday at: http://www.DrGabyCora.tv

Last week, a man from New Mexico was awarded twenty-two million dollars after he was found to have spent an extreme amount of time, and most of it in solitary confinement, after a DUI (Drinking Under the Influence). The man had a history of depression and mental illness, so the law enforcement officials at the jail feared he would hurt himself.

The lack of understanding of mental illness and particularly as people with mental illness commit a crime and are forced into the justice system, continues to pose a challenge for us all.

In my previous life as an ER doctor at DC General Hospital, I had the privilege to work with the under-served and several systems including St. Elizabeths’ Hospital, DC Jail, and the Forensic Hospital at John Howard Pavillion. During this time, it was everyday practice to evaluate people for voluntary or involuntary hospitalization, if they were a danger to themselves or others. Doctors would evaluate people after they committed a crime and would decide whether an underlying mental illness was the culprit behind the crime. We would determine whether or not someone who had travelled thousands of miles to visit the president of the United States posed a risk to the president’s safety and well-being. To do this, we would interact with a wide range of professionals, including: police officers, US marshalls, Secret Service agents, and more.

Watch the interview with Judge Steve Leifman, an Associated Administrative Judge of the Miami-Dade County Courts, and see the man behind the judge who has done so much to help those in need of mental health services as well as ensure that those who have committed a crime are judged within the proper channel.

Watch the full show with never-shown clips on Friday at http://www.DrGabyCora.tv

In a recent study with 46 adults with at least one gay parent, 28 out of the 46 spontaneously reported being more empathic and open-minded than other adults with straight parents.

Gay parents talk about teaching their adoptive children tolerance and understanding, and go out of their way to become foster parents or adopt children as they navigate complicated systems and adoption agencies.

Jesse Walters and David Traupman share the story of how Faith came to their lives and their challenges within government agencies when they tried to adopt a foster son years earlier.

Watch our daily clips on YouTube and leave your comments.

The full episode will be available on Friday at DrGabyCora.tv

We’re walking into 2012 and most Americans still taste recession. Perhaps they are dealing with:

• Loss of their job
• Loss of investments
• Loss of health
• Working more jobs and making less money
• Financial strains affecting their relationships

You want to let go of the past and yet recurring thoughts of the tough past couple of years keep popping up in your mind. What can you do to let go and start fresh, looking forward?

To explore a topic that’s especially relevant today as we approach the beginning of the new year, you’ll want to interview renowned coach, doctor, and therapist Dr. Gaby Cora. She has plenty to say about how people get stuck in past experiences that prevent them from finding love, work, and great opportunities in their future.

Dr. Cora will discuss and take call-in questions about:

• How to discover your limiting automatic responses to functioning in “worst possible scenario” mode
• How do you know when you are stuck in the past and how does this limit your career—and love—opportunities?
• Why it’s virtually impossible
 to keep a positive outlook on life, love, and work if negative thoughts of loss, revenge, and anger keep popping up in your mind.
• What are the five things you can start doing today to shed the old and start anew?

What are the five reasons why you should get your act together and live your life to the fullest—because you say so?

The Italian cruise tragedy raises several concerns starting from “who was in charge,” to “what was the contingency plan,” to “what was the multi-layered plan in case of an emergency.”

This is a terrible and shocking situation of great magnitude that forces all of us to take a serious look into our organization’s leadership structure, systems, and contingency plans.

There are captains and then there are leaders.

Captain Sullenberger’s heroic landing of US Airways flight 1549 in the Hudson river just three years ago plus two days is the exemplary example of critical thinking, solid experience, and outstanding leadership. In contrast, Costa Concordia Schettino’s cowering during the crisis leaves you scratching your head: even if he had the technical ability to steer a ship, how was he left in charge of such an enterprise?

What about you?

I usually get these questions during leadership consulting engagements and presentations on crisis management: what psychometrics can you use to predict who’s going to react positively during an emergency and who’s going to freeze? The simple answer is: there are no psychometrics you can use. However, you can use skilled common sense in your assessments:

1.    What’s your leader’s personality?

Don’t assume that someone who is high energy and type A personality will take over in a tough situation. If they’ve done that in the past, then you can predict they may do so again in the future. If they have never done it before, you can’t know if they will be able to take over in case of an emergency. On the other hand, don’t assume that if someone is calm and controlled, they won’t have the leadership skills necessary to face a tough situation. They may have the right template to do this.

2.    Past experience:

Have your leaders shown their leadership skills at work in past tough situations or have they stayed on the side? Have they worked effortlessly to resolve the problem or have they lost precious time in self-serving activities?

3.    How do other members of your leadership perceive them?

People intuitively want to revolve around someone they know will stay cool, remain focused, and resolve the problem if crisis arises. Observe this.

4.    Discuss possible scenarios

Role-play and create special scenarios where you can openly discuss what you would do in different situations. Although this discussion will not be identical to what people may do in “real life,” this will give you a clear idea.

5.    Plan:

Nothing beats planning ahead.

Schettino probably never thought his ship would ever tilt. Sullenberger probably never thought he’d need to land his plane on water. The difference was Sully was ready.

ExecutiveHealth.com’s Leading Under Pressure: Strategies to Avoid Burnout, Increase Energy, and Improve Your Well-Being (Career Press, 2010.)

Different Lives, Different Cultures, Different Experiences

Catherine and John Graves’s story describes the challenges of being the sole-caregiver to a spouse with a life-threatening disease: a glioblastoma, or brain tumor.  This article describes how she struggled with his personality changes as the frontal lobe location of the tumor affected Graves’ affect, cognition, and judgment. Catherine describes becoming anxious, depressed, and with post-traumatic stress after his death. Caregiver burnout is not unusual in these cases. Instead of post-traumatic stress, this is a constant stress situation that tends to be under-recognized and under-treated.

My interview this week is with Ana Contigiani Gospodinoff and her husband, Victor. Ana went to the emergency room after having a horrible headache. She was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer with metastatic dissemination to the brain, lungs, and kidney, among others. She was given forty days to live. This was back in 2008.

How do we go about making life and death decisions? How does our culture affect our decision-making process? How do our doctors’ beliefs affect their medical decision-making process? How do we keep our hopes high? And how does our healthcare reality affect what we choose to do?

Watch our daily clips at http://www.YouTube.com/DrGabyCora

Watch the final and full episode in English and Spanish this Friday at http://www.DrGabyCora.tv

Sixteen percent of our US population is Hispanic and yet, what does this number even mean? We are constantly asked about our race: White, African-American, Asian, and at one point, Hispanic was added to the palette of colors as if being Latino or Hispanic were purely an ethnic or cultural characteristic.

While language is a unifying factor for Hispanics, it is a matter of culture that brings them together. Thirty years ago, Hispanics were depicted as exotic characters with heavy accents and colorful attires. Today, Hispanics have become more immersed in our US culture and you may not even tell there is any accent at all.

Join me in Dr. Gaby’s Take as I discuss diversity and Hispanics: watch my interview with advertising and marketing expert, Maverick Linda Lane Gonzalez. Linda shares her story of how one of her ancestors and one of our US legends bridged the US and Hispanic cultures more than a hundred years ago.

Watch the full episode this Friday at: http://www.DrGabyCora.tv

The unemployment rates for the newly graduated class of 2010 was 9.1%. Unemployment rates are even higher in young adults without a college degree. Plus, two thirds of these graduates are in debt.

Most of us go to undergraduate and graduate schools to seek knowledge and a greater opportunity at a professional career. However, experience is a must if we want to stay competitive. The more we can intuitively align our knowledge and experience with a clear vision of our future, the greater potential for success.

Watch Episode 4 of Dr. Gaby’s Take: Make Life Interesting, as I interview Jason Liebross, who went from unemployed newly grad to sports social media entrepreneur. Enjoy!

Watch the full episode–with additional, never seen clips–at http://www.DrGabyCora.tv on Friday.

I just watched the latest Mission Impossible and was fascinated to see how easily Brad Bird, its director, created a story that engaged the audience. The unbelievable stunts and visual effects added to an amazing experience masterfully crafted for the viewer. Who would have guessed this was the director’s first action movie?

Creativity and Innovation come just like that. The beginning of the twentieth century brought airplanes, automobiles, and the radio while the end of the twentieth century brought us spaceships, satellites, computers, and amazing gadgets that hint at innovation to come. And yet, the creators’ mastery of combining the latest in technology with the ultimate experience is what truly impacts upon our lives.

Join me in our third episode of Dr. Gaby’s Take on Creativity and Innovation and the exclusive interview with Patrick Meyer, a sought after business thought leader and founder of the Villanova Innovation, Creativity & Entrepreneurship Center.

Years ago I shared with my friends how I decided to prescribe birth control pills to my daughter, who would have otherwise needed to wait three months to see a doctor. My friends were stunned. Although their sons and daughters were in their late teens and, their parents assumed, they were sexually active, none of my friends had had an honest conversation suggesting ways to protect the kids from both sexually-transmitted diseases or pregnancy.

As committed parents who want to raise well-grounded, smart, and self-sufficient individuals, we spend more time teaching them good manners, the benefits of great education, and the wonders of competitive sports. The big question is: why are parents not talking more about sex with their kids?

My daughter and I were discussing this recently. She thought this video would help many teens as much as our conversation helped her.