Psychodynamic Training: Understanding the Self with Tania Kalkidis

Craig: Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Healthy Business Lab Podcast, where we interview allied health professionals and business owners to share their expertise and knowledge. Today, I’m excited to welcome Tanya Kalkidis from Deep Mind Psychodynamic Training. Tanya, welcome!

Tanya: Thank you so much, Craig. Thank you for having me.

Craig: We had a pre-chat a little while ago, but I’d love you to share a bit about yourself and your background in psychology and psychodynamics, so listeners can get an overview of who you are and what you do.

Tanya: Hi, everyone. I’m Tanya. I graduated as a psychologist in the early ’90s, completing a mainstream clinical master’s program in Melbourne. I then had the opportunity to specialise in working with children and families. That second master’s degree had a psychodynamic focus, which gave me a deeper and broader understanding of the mind than I’d encountered in my initial training.

More recently, over the past 15 to 20 years, I’ve focused on supervision, training, workshops and conference presentations. I help psychologists understand the unconscious processes of the mind—an area that’s often missing from their training.

A couple of years ago, after avoiding social media for many years, I started creating short, effective training programs. I wanted to help psychologists move away from the pressure to manage and fix their clients, which can contribute to burnout and mental fatigue in the profession. That’s a brief snapshot of how I got to where I am today.

Craig: That’s a great summary. You’ve had some interesting stages in your professional career and in business. I’d love to hear more about that journey. How have you drawn on your own subconscious and psychodynamic work to navigate the path you’ve taken?

Tanya: That’s a wonderful question, and it gets to the heart of the issue. As therapists, it’s important that we do our own work, but that isn’t mandated in mainstream psychology training, even at a master’s level.

Without a deeper understanding of ourselves, it can be difficult to navigate what’s happening in the room—especially when behavioural interventions and strategies aren’t working. That’s when we can recognise that deeper processes may be at play, even if the person isn’t conscious of them.

I’ve been through three different therapeutic processes at different stages of my life. I continue to embrace being open to my own issues as I get older. As a supervisor, I encourage people to stay active in that work—through peer supervision or therapy—so we can keep examining what’s happening in the less-known parts of our psyche.

Craig: That’s so valuable. Practising what we preach is paramount. How has that inner work guided your transition from a traditional psychology approach into the real world of building a business?

Tanya: There are many layers to that. Hippocrates and the ancient Greeks understood the importance of knowing yourself. It’s at the core of what we need to do as mental health professionals.

I grew up in a very intellectual, academic family and went through training that was cognitively heavy. I tended to over-intellectualise things and didn’t make deeper inner connections when I was younger. There were blockages, defences and resistance.

The journey has been about making those internal connections and leaning more into the relational space. That means developing the skills to have direct, here-and-now conversations with clients. Neuroscience helps us understand how the brain works in layers and stores information. Even as time moves on, those networks can remain stuck. It’s not that we’re literally in the past; it’s that our interpretation of the past can remain wired into our brains.
Over the last five years, I’ve spent a lot of time researching attachment and neuroscience. That’s helped me understand myself and given me a new perspective on my work.

Craig: That’s fascinating. Many of our listeners run their own practices. How have you seen this play out for business owners personally, and then flow through into their practices and decision-making?

Tanya: The biggest piece is internal: being open to not knowing and becoming comfortable with it. That makes it possible to seek the support you need to grow in unfamiliar areas. For me, technology has been overwhelming. I didn’t think I was capable of learning it.

Developing an online training program for therapists meant opening up to areas where I felt less capable. Since moving into business, I’ve noticed that shutdown and difficulty thinking things through logically in those areas. The psychological equivalent is learning to tolerate not knowing, leaning into the discomfort, and seeking support so you can keep building skills.

That’s been the biggest transition for me in going online and developing content. For a long time, I thought it wasn’t an option because of those blocks.

Craig: I love that: being open to not knowing. People who are very intelligent can get caught in their heads. We learn, so we think we know—but coming full circle and recognising that this is a process in itself is important, isn’t it?

Tanya: It’s the biggest part of the process for me. I’ve also had to learn to manage the anxiety attached to it. Psychologists are good at learning intellectual information, but for me, the practical steps were connecting with the emotional side, developing competence in the room, and then taking that into business.

That leap has been significant. Business is a different domain. It needs structure, and now it also involves technology and AI. Opening up to that possibility has been the biggest part of my learning curve over the last two years.

Craig: Do you feel that learning is accelerating as the world changes so quickly?

Tanya: Definitely. I’m learning to reduce the overwhelm that comes with every new opportunity and skill. I’m nowhere near understanding technology, social media or AI as much as I could, but I’m working within my limits and stretching my window of tolerance.

When someone is too overwhelmed, they can’t take action. There can be paralysis. So, I try to go to the edge of my window of tolerance, push it a little further, and give myself the opportunity to gain more skills. It’s a balance between feeling comfortable learning and not becoming too anxious or overwhelmed.

Craig: I love that. In the financial space, overwhelm is often front of mind. I talk about helping people drop their shoulders so they can think. You’ve described that beautifully: being aware of our window of tolerance across different areas of life. For many people, business feels unfamiliar, so that window can be smaller.

Tanya: Absolutely. My window of tolerance was very small when it came to technology, business and finance. They all seemed to sit in the same “no-go zone.”

Growth means leaning into our weaknesses and recognising that our minds are capable of learning. When you think you don’t understand something, don’t know it, or aren’t interested in it, you can shut down before you’ve had a chance to think about it.

If you can manage your emotions and give your brain the opportunity to learn, you may discover that you’re capable of more than you thought. I realised my brain could learn about finance, business and technology; I’d simply never given it the opportunity.

Craig: It’s like putting on a different set of glasses and seeing things through a new frame. You can expand your window incrementally, a little at a time.

Tanya: For example, I never really understood that economics was essentially about social psychology and human behaviour on a large scale. Suddenly, economics became more interesting because it was about people and how they behave.

Craig: Exactly—it’s about how people behave, what they consume and what they buy, and how that connects to marketing.

Tanya: And that’s connected to marketing.

Craig: It’s amazing when you break business down. From the financial side, the numbers are there, but what underpins financial decisions is human emotion and behaviour. The numbers are the output.

Tanya: That’s what a healthy business is about, isn’t it? A healthy business is one where you’re not anxious and overwhelmed. Being healthy means managing those emotions while opening yourself up to learning.

Craig: I love that. It comes back to being open to not knowing—and finding a basic first step. As you’ve opened up your own windows and leaned into them, what experiments have you tried in business that have helped you grow?

Tanya: I don’t think I experimented for a long time. I was comfortable continuing to do what I was doing. Experimentation really started when I took on more consistent teaching and supervisory roles. But the biggest change has been moving out of the therapy room and into the online space.

The ideas and teaching aren’t all new, but I’ve had to understand the gaps in mainstream psychology: What are people looking for? What are they hungry for? What can I offer that’s useful? And what are the best ways to reach them? That’s involved experimenting with business development, how I offer services and how I can reach more people.

Craig: What’s your process when you have an idea for a new framework or opportunity? Are you structured, or do you build as you go?

Tanya: I took an eight-week online training program that walked me through setting up and developing online training programs for therapists. I followed that blueprint.

Without it, I wouldn’t have known where to begin. Following the steps helped me create a platform, a concept, a way of developing and packaging programs, and the IT support I needed.

Craig: I’m glad you used the word “blueprint.” It sounds like the blueprint gave you a starting point, and then you developed it in your own style. As you roll it out, do you review, refine and check in with yourself?

Tanya: Yes, but it also means stepping into unfamiliar areas again, like marketing. As a solo mental health practitioner in a therapy room, you might rely on a few referrals and local doctors. The marketing landscape for allied health has changed. There are more providers, both qualified and unqualified, and more ways to reach clients.

I research what’s already available, look for gaps, and try to fill them. That’s ongoing. I also look for people who know more about business than I do. I know the content, but I don’t know every other aspect of business, so I need to find and work with people who have that expertise.

Craig: That’s great. We like to talk about the transformations people see as a result of their work. What comes to mind when you think about those transformations?

Tanya: It’s a beautiful word, and it’s at the heart of why we do this work. The biggest transformation I see is helping mental health professionals move from feeling burnt out, fatigued, overwhelmed and anxious.

I don’t see it as a personality problem so much as a training problem. If these ideas were part of mental health training from the beginning, people might have a different approach and attitude. Some people feel they’re about to leave the profession because of the load they carry and the way they’ve been trained. Helping them develop a different understanding of the mind and personality development—and seeing them realise they can stay in the profession—is extremely rewarding.

The burnout among mental health professionals, and the state of mental health in the broader population, is deeply concerning.

Craig: That’s one reason we created this podcast: to talk about sustainable businesses and practices, and personal health. We need business owners and teams who aren’t burning out and still love what they do, so we can keep serving the community. It’s powerful to help people shift from “I can’t do this anymore” to “I still want to do this, and I can.”

Tanya: That’s the most inspiring part for me. There’s also a significant intersection between psychology and philosophy. It’s not only about removing pressure from mental health workers; it’s about understanding that we don’t control what other people do. We can only control what’s happening in our own minds, if we know how to do that.

We have no control over how other people behave. Even with the best intentions and strategies, someone may not want to stop doing something harmful or change a behaviour that’s detrimental to them.

There’s a deep question about what it means to let go. Even for people who aren’t therapists, the control we think we have over our lives is much smaller than we may realise.

Craig: That’s a thoughtful point to end on. I encourage listeners to reach out to Tanya if this conversation has prompted questions or reflection. What’s the best way to connect with you?

Tanya: My website is deepmindpt.com, and you can also email info@deepmindpt.com. I’m efficient at getting back to people and prioritise connection, which reflects how I work. I’d be happy to speak with anyone who wants to explore something Craig and I discussed.

Craig: I can attest to that. That’s how we connected—we started a conversation and quickly arranged a chat. I recommend reaching out to Tanya to continue it. Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us today, Tanya.

Tanya: Thank you, Craig, and thank you for all you do to keep business healthy. I wish you all the best.

Craig: Thank you. Keep listening, like and subscribe, and we’ll see you next time. Catch you later, everybody.