Good Neighbor Podcast: Cooper City
Bringing Together Local Businesses & Neighbors of Cooper City
Good Neighbor Podcast: Cooper City
EP #310: The Peaceful Mind Factory with Ana Lopez Medrano
Ever caught yourself saying "What's wrong with you?" to yourself or others? That moment of awareness can be the beginning of profound personal transformation. Psychotherapist Ana Lopez-Madrano from The Peaceful Mind Factory joins us for a fascinating exploration of how our minds work and why understanding this "user manual" is essential for wellbeing.
Ana brings her unique perspective as a clinician who's practiced across multiple countries—from her birthplace in Peru to Spain and now Florida, where she's spent the last 15 years serving clients in both English and Spanish. With additional training in neuroscience, she offers rich insights into cognitive distortions—those automatic negative thought patterns that hijack our peace and distort our reality.
One powerful revelation: most of our stress doesn't come from what's happening right now. "We usually are not in stressful situations really at the present moment," Ana explains. "They are things that we trigger, usually recalling from the past or making assumptions about the future." Her practical mindfulness techniques showcase how simply engaging our senses can interrupt these harmful thought cycles and bring us back to the present—where we're usually quite safe.
The conversation busts open common therapy myths, particularly that therapy is only for those in crisis. Ana emphasizes that psychotherapy is for everyone seeking growth and self-understanding. "It's like having the option to receive a manual about how humans work," she points out. Understanding ourselves better inevitably improves how we relate to others, creating ripple effects of positive change.
Whether you're curious about mental health practices, struggling with relationship challenges, or simply looking to understand yourself better, Ana's compassionate, knowledge-rich approach offers valuable tools you can implement immediately. Listen now to discover how changing your relationship with your thoughts can transform your experience of life.
Give them a call at (786) 663-3983 or visit them on their website at https://thepeacefulmindfactory.com/. Give them a follow on instagram https://www.instagram.com/thepeacefulmindfactory/.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Jeremy Wolf.
Speaker 2:Well, hello, hello, friends, family, wonderful community. We are back for another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. You know my mind is often cluttered. I don't know about you guys, but there's a lot going on up here. Our guest today, Ana Lopez-Madrano, joins us from the Peaceful Mind Factory, so hopefully she could calm down all this noise that's bouncing around in my head. Ana, welcome to the show, Hi.
Speaker 3:Jeremy, how are you? Thank you for inviting me show.
Speaker 2:Hi Jeremy, how are you? Thank you for inviting me. Oh, it is our pleasure. And I know you're right down. I believe you're right down the road from us in Pembroke Pines, so you're really a good neighbor and we're happy to have you on the show. And I'm interested to learn all about what you do at the Peaceful Mind. So why don't we start there? Tell me a little bit about the Peaceful Mind, what you guys do, your mission, what types of services you offer for the community.
Speaker 3:Of course, I'm the clinical director and founder of the Peaceful Mind Factory. We are a psychotherapy practice. It's based in Florida, even if the address is in Pueblo Pines, but we provide services for the whole state and we also serve clients internationally and we focus on helping people with anxiety, depression, with relationship issues, life you can contact us and we do this in both languages, english and Spanish and our goal is to make mental health accessible and really personal, so people feel understood and supported, understood and supported.
Speaker 2:Very interesting. So you mentioned a word that I heard before, but I don't really know exactly what it is. You mentioned psychotherapy. Right, everybody's heard of therapy. Many people have heard of psychotherapy. There's all these different types of modalities within therapy, out there. What, specifically, is psychotherapy?
Speaker 3:Yeah, therapy is a word that we use to provide services of different type, like can be physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy different type of therapies, but psychotherapy is the one that we talk about the topic that that person would like to develop and understand. So that is, psychotherapy is talk therapy. We use different methods and strategies and techniques and it's related to psychology. That's why the name.
Speaker 2:Okay, Very cool. So before the show, you mentioned that you're from Peru and I was saying that my lovely wife is also from Peru. And the older I get I'm 40. What am I? 45 now I forgot how old I am. See, I told you I got a lot of clutter up in my mind. But the older I get, the more aware I get and the more open I am to increasing my communication skills and getting better. And I've been on a rocky road for a long time, mentally and with the relationship and everything, and I feel like I'm on the precipice, like I'm getting closer and closer. But I feel like I could actually use a little bit of help here. So I might just have to engage with you.
Speaker 2:After this and the fact that you're from Peru, my wife's from Peru, this could potentially be a match made in heaven, so this whole meeting could be serendipitous. I'm interested to learn a little bit more about your professional journey that led you into this field, Are you? I know for some they find their way later in life. Others they pursue their passion early on, from when they're a child. What does that look like for you? Is this something that you were always fascinated by growing up. How did you end up where you're at today?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I started this journey because I always have been fascinated by the human mind and the way that we connect with ourselves and others. But I began my career as a psychologist in Spain. Then, because I was born in Peru, I also did my license in Peru. That's why we provide international services as a company and because we have a team in different countries, Also now in Colombia. And then some 15 years ago, I moved to the US because my husband was relocated from Spain and I had to reveal everything from zero new licenses, new communities. So it was a big challenge, but I need to be able to do it for culturally sensitive bilingual therapy. That inspires me to create the peaceful mind.
Speaker 2:So how long have you been here? So you mentioned born in Peru to Spain. How long have you been here in the US, more specifically locally here in the community in Pembroke Pines?
Speaker 3:In the U US 15 years. I arrived to Doral. I was living in Doral for during the first five years I was working there with different companies also, so to learn how these type of services were provided in this country. So I lived the first five years in Doral and then the following 10 years in Pembroke Pines. So I'm 15 years here in the US, in Florida.
Speaker 2:Love it, love it here in the US, in Florida. Love it, love it. So many people out there, I think, have a resistance to the idea of getting help, especially through therapy. Right, people, our egos often blind us and we especially if it's something that deals with being vulnerable, right and emotional, and even more so for men. I know this is something like going back for me.
Speaker 2:I was never open to any of this and the older I get, the more open I am to this. What would we? I want to speak to folks out there that maybe are in that position, that that are having issues but are just reluctant to actually reaching out for help, for professional help, and kind of like bust some myths and misconceptions that people have. What would you say to somebody out there like that that is very skeptical or maybe not skeptical is the right word but they're just resistant to going to get help even though they're dealing with these issues, whether it's anxiety, relationship, because we're all human beings, we all have problems, right. We're out there to kind of pull the veil down and say to them it's okay to get help sometime and to be vulnerable and to be emotional.
Speaker 3:Yes, the situation is that there is a big myth is that therapy is only for people who are broken or going through a crisis. The truth is that therapy is for everyone. It's a space to grow, understand yourself and make your life more meaningful. Another misconception can be therapists just listen. Actually, we help, we guide, we challenge each person and support the people to create a real change. Of course, that change is internal, but we guide each person, using their personal experiences to help them and guide them to do the changes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, challenging, helping people challenge certain beliefs that they hold. Because another thing that I I'm so hyper aware now, another thing that I'm noticing now more than ever and I had this conversation with my wife the other day is that many of the beliefs that I hold in my head that I truly I would die on the sword because of some of the things that I've thought in my head, I'm coming to realize that they're not even true. And what that's done is it's opened again. It's opened me up to being I guess I don't know what the word I'm looking for, but it's just it's opened me to be more, to receive more and to be more empathetic and just understand other people's perspectives.
Speaker 2:You know, last, last night I was, I did something silly, anna, I don't even know what it was at this point, but it was something stupid, whatever and I found myself. I walked into the kitchen and I told myself I don't know if I said it out loud, but I definitely said to myself what's wrong with you? And I immediately caught that, because I know that's not the way you want to talk to yourself. And one of the practices that I've come across is, when you recognize that is to stop and ask yourself, hey, would I talk to my children that way, or my wife that way? And I asked myself that question my children that way or my wife that way?
Speaker 2:And I asked myself that question and the answer was, when I said, would I talk to my children, my children, that way was that I actually had said that to my children before.
Speaker 2:Not always, but from time to time. I've actually told them what's wrong with you, and not not in a hateful or spiteful way. Just again, these are my own problems that I'm mirroring off. And it really hit me and this goes back to this idea of being hyper aware right now Like not only did I catch it myself, but I also recognized in that moment that that's something I've been programming my own children for, and these are programs I've been running on for since I've been a child myself and I'm so fortunate and so grateful to be aware enough to be able to catch that. And now, even just telling you this story and telling everybody the story now is reinforcing this type, reinforcing to not engage in this type of behavior, and it's this type of work that I've been on that's just also fascinated me with the human mind and this whole progress the journey that we're on. I'm blown away by this topic, truly am.
Speaker 3:Yeah, blown away by this topic Truly am. Yeah, we usually have some unhelpful or unhealthy thoughts. We call them in psychology, cognitive distortions, cognitive distortions. Cognitive distortions are that type of unhelpfulful thoughts that lead. You said that you need to cut that right because you know, because of your experience in life, you know, that that can be a trigger of other group of negative thoughts and then behaviors right, like to say something to others or project that or even treat yourself with more self-criticism and that is not a good way to lead, like your daily journey.
Speaker 3:So we teach everybody about the cognitive distortions, identify some reactions the emotional reactions, physical reactions, the thoughts, the behaviors. It is the way that we connect with others, things that we say or avoid saying, things that we do or avoid doing. But in therapy you learn that type of a cognitive distortions, like a more professionally cold or that type of unhealthy thoughts that will be triggers of all those group of reactions that will never finish in a good way. So we teach everybody to identify them and how to change that, because they are constantly with us and we can identify them in ourselves and in others. So to know how to deal with them and cut them. So avoid any negative reaction.
Speaker 2:So, on that topic, what are some useful tricks or tips that you can give to our listeners that, again, maybe they're not ready to get therapy, Maybe they're just they're hearing this, they're having problems? What are some tools or tricks that you can use at home in the moment, in your daily life, Like I know, for me some of the things that I do breath work is huge. Like breathing even just short, like if I'm stressed out and I'm behind the desk, I'm having a moment, like if I just get up and take a minute and just do some breathing or even some exercise, things like that. What are some things that you've found are very useful for your patients and then just the general public out there, to help them kind of de-escalate when they get into a stressful situation?
Speaker 3:Correct. We usually are not in stressful situations really at the present moment. They are things that we trigger, usually recalling from the past or making assumptions that something that will be happening in the future. But in the present moment we are constantly in those times and we trick our brain, or our brain trick us, because we react like that. Those things are happening in that moment. So something that I recommend is to use mindfulness, is to be present in the moment and using the senses. The present is the only time that you can use your senses, so touching something, describe that to yourself. That's why breathing works. Also because we need to focus on the breathing. It's something that we usually usually do, so we focus on breathing in and out and make that self-description of breathing, and that help us to be focusing on the moment.
Speaker 3:We are just safe breathing so it touching is something that helps describe that, something that we can see with our side or listening right to look and be more open to describe the sounds that we have on in our surrounding, like, for example, the ac. But doing that, those descriptions, we disconnect from that, the projection of the events, that from the past and the future that we are in having that moment. So we avoid many triggers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. We're like when we get hijacked by negative thoughts, we're like a dog chasing our tail. We're so focused on that and all it really takes is just to train your attention somewhere else. Like how many times this has happened to me so many times where I'm like so worried about something and I'm consumed by it and then like I forget what it is that I'm worried about in that moment, like it escapes me, and then I'm, like I get more stressed out, trying to remember what it was that I was worried about, and I realize how comical the whole thing is. And it's all about just where I'm training my attention. The world could be falling down around you, not literally, physically, but if you just focus on something else, all that shit goes away, exactly.
Speaker 3:Correct. It's one trigger and we start with one unhealthy perspective and then we have many reactions and we start having like a tunnel vision about that, but the thing is that a lot of thoughts is starting to popping up, so at the end, after some minutes or some hours or days, we don't know which one was the main trigger. That's why it's important to come to therapy to learn how we work. It's like having that, the option to receive like a manual about how the human work and knowing that we will know about the others also so we can help to guide others to have a better experience, because at the end, we are connect. We we need to uh, to connect. We need to connect with others and have communication in any type. So it's better to do that in a peaceful environment instead of one that makes us feel alert and stress us out Without any need, maybe because we are not in risk usually.
Speaker 2:It's all about communication, and even if you don't have another person to communicate to, you're still communicating with yourself, right? The stories that we tell ourselves, the things we reinforce in our own mind, are so powerful. Probably the most important thing, right, is how you talk to yourself. So it all starts from within and that's how you show up to others, you know outside.
Speaker 3:Exactly because we create our life, we create our event. If we are thinking about something, that's what we project to our brains, so our brain reacts based on what we are projecting. So it's really important. Thoughts are really important, but knowing how we work is essential. It's like you receive a device but you don't have any instruction. So you are trying to use that with experience, right, making errors, mistakes, and we repeat that. But the thing is that we are so complex and we have a lot of things to explore in ourselves. So imagine with others, that is another level of system. So having that information is really important for everybody.
Speaker 2:A hundred percent. So, anna, it is Friday. Getting ready for the weekend. Tell me, what do you got planned for the weekend? What do you like to do for fun when you're not working? I usually would like to spend time with my daughters. How many daughters you got I?
Speaker 3:have two daughters how old Twenty-three? She's also a biologist. She's a biologist and she's studying to be a doctor, a medical doctor, an MD, and the youngest one is 12 years old and she's starting seventh grade. So they usually would like to spend time together, and when they are not having any activity together, so my husband and I would like to join them. So I usually spend the time with my family or reading, learning new things. I love to learn.
Speaker 2:You and me both. Let me just tell you I was at NSU yesterday for a Chamber of Commerce luncheon event that they had there and I was walking around I was talking to a colleague and I said I wish I could go back to college because when I went to school, when I was younger, I didn't study, I didn't really study or learn anything. All I did was I had a social life and I partied and I had a great time. Mind you, study or learn anything, all I did was I had a social life and I partied and I had a great time, mind you. But now that I'm 45, like if I went back to college, all I would do would be I'd be like the most model student ever. I'd be the one sitting in the front of the class engaging with the professor going home studying. Yeah, the older I get, the more I love learning. It's just part of the journey, exactly correct.
Speaker 3:Yeah, first, when I finished school, I started right away. After two weeks I started studying for MD and then I switched to psychology and then I went back to MD and because I would like to make many things but then at the end I finished doing. But then at the end I finished studying psychology and then I'm a neuroscientist also. Then, in pandemic, someone contacted me a university contacted me to refresh and do the recertification for the post-bacc for the basic sciences for us to continue studying for as a medical doctor. So I did that. But then I returned to psychology. So no, I said no, let me focus on on one career. And then, yes, because I really like to know and continue receiving education, constantly having different certifications, and I study by myself, right, self-study.
Speaker 3:But yes, I'm always open to learn not just about neuroscience or psychology, but I want to know, and I really enjoy to learn about other communities and different traditions, to know about the human being, and that's something that opened me a lot of curiosity, because I really like to know. I'm doing a PhD, I'm finishing my thesis Good for you, yeah, but I'm constantly doing something.
Speaker 2:I can tell Anna.
Speaker 3:Now, yeah, but I can tell, now I'm thinking that it's the time to share the knowledge. That's the transition that I'm in during this. I'm 43. So I'm in this change now to try to educate others. I'm also a professor in a university, so it's something that I really like.
Speaker 2:So 23-year-old daughter and 12-year-old daughter. I have a 13-year-old daughter that is going into her final year of middle school. Being that you've already been through this movie before you have an older daughter, Any words of wisdom, any advice you can give me as my daughter really enters into those formidable teen years?
Speaker 3:Yes, so my oldest daughter was so easy to manage.
Speaker 3:So that's, that's a point for me I'm jealous yeah, exactly mine's a handful no terrible 10 years so, but it's something that I I I always keep in mind, and especially now that I have the the option to, to to guide my youngest one that is 12 years old. So something that I think that I can get from that knowledge that I received from the oldest one is like we need to respect that they are another person. They must have experiences, good and bad, because that's life we learn from. The idea is to learn from the bad and repeat the good.
Speaker 3:So I try to be a support, right and be open to listen and no judge. Just give my recommendation, give my advice. If that person is open to receive it and to apply it, she will do it. I just offer my advice, but no saying that it's the absolute response or truth for everything, because I'm here also learning, I'm living. This is my only life. So I'm just sharing my experiences, based from my point of view, and if that works for her and she can try, or listening for her, what is the plan to that she is? She would like to, to apply for the daily life challenges.
Speaker 2:So yeah, so what? What are the things that? One of the things I've learned in dealing with the kids is that I mean, it's just not just kids. This goes for pretty much any form of communication with another human being. You can't, you can't tell people something and expect them to just buy into it. Right, you have to help them discover it on their own. You have to ask them questions to get them to open up, to get them to acknowledge what it is you're trying to communicate. So the light bulb goes off in their mind like oh wow, I never thought about it like that. And that's when it really sets in. Not half the time you're telling your kids this, that and the other, and they're like they're looking at you with this blank face. They're not listening. It's just like in one ear out the other ear. So I've got a lot better at having these types of conversations. It is a work in progress.
Speaker 2:I like to say it is a work that will never be completed and I will be working on it until the day I die. I know that for sure. So, anna, before we wrap up here, why don't you tell our listeners the best way to connect with you? Anybody out there that is going through it that's having some issues, remember, you're not broken. We're all human beings, we're all flawed creatures and sometimes we need help. So for anybody out there that is in that place, what's the best way to reach out to connect with you? I know you mentioned your address earlier, but please give us maybe your website, your phone number, social media, whatever you want to give out to listeners so they can connect with you, correct?
Speaker 3:We have a website that is wwwthatpeacefulmindfactorycom. Or. They can email us also at thatpeacefulmindfactorycom. Or they can email us also at thatpeacefulmindfactory at emailcom, or call us, send a text message to 786-663-3983. And we are also on Instagram and Facebook at that Peaceful Mind Factory.
Speaker 2:Wonderful. We will, of course, drop a link in the description below to all of your contact information so folks can get more information and learn more and reach out for help whenever it is needed. Anna, thank you so much for joining us. It was a pleasure getting the opportunity to meet you, always fascinated to learn about what folks are doing in the community, and I really do appreciate the work that you are doing. So thanks for being on the show.
Speaker 3:Thank you, jeremy, for having me with you today, and you make me feel good to share the information about the Peaceful Mind Factory.
Speaker 2:Thanks, glad to hear it. All right everyone. Thank you so much for tuning in and we will catch you all next time on the next episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. Everyone, take care, have a wonderful day, stay blessed.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Cooper City. To nominate your favorite local business to be featured on the show, go to GNPCooperCitycom. That's GNPCooperCitycom, or call 954-231-3170.