Overview - Recorded on 9/19/2025
This is a recorded live well-being session in which Dr. Bronce Rice, a host, interviews Sue Reid, a confidence coach, and Margaret Williams, an executive leadership coach. The conversation centers on the concept of the well-being equation and takes a deep, nuanced dive into the nature of sadness, distinguishing it from clinical depression and exploring its physiological, psychological, and spiritual dimensions.
Key Topics Covered
1. Introductions & Context
The host opens the session by welcoming viewers and giving a notable shout-out to the speaker’s mother, a retired math teacher.
Sue Reid introduces herself as a confidence coach and frames her work around helping people understand and improve their well-being.
The session is tied to Suicide Prevention Month, making the topic of sadness especially timely.
2. The Well-Being Equation
Sue presents a framework she calls “the well-being equation,” which integrates psychological, physiological, and spiritual components of health.
The conversation challenges the common conflation of sadness with depression, emphasizing that sadness is a normal, functional emotion.
3. The Shape of Sadness (Newsletter)
Sue mentions a newsletter called “The Shape of Sadness,” which explores how sadness manifests in thoughts, body, and movement/behavior, a three-part model.
4. Physiological Factors
Discussion of how seasons and light affect mood, specifically dark winters in places like Michigan and Alaska.
Recommendations around Vitamin D and SAD lights (light therapy) for managing low mood in winter.
Explanation of serotonin and dopamine; their role in mood, pain, and the “reward loop” that can drive unhealthy coping mechanisms.
5. Coping Mechanisms: Healthy & Unhealthy
The role of movement and exercise (e.g., brisk walks) in releasing brain chemicals and improving mood.
The healing qualities of nature, particularly the sea, are a restorative practice.
Discussion of unhealthy coping mechanisms: substance use, self-harm, shopping addiction, and how these work neurochemically (dopamine hits, pain distraction).
The discussion included how repetitive behaviors under stress become entrenched habits. Referencing included a self-injury and awareness and recovery non-profit organization SIRA).
6. Trauma & Its Role in Sadness
Exploration of unresolved trauma as an underlying driver of both sadness and self-destructive behavior.
Discussions of how trauma from childhood, including broken homes, abuse, and feelings of rejection around family events like holidays, can resurface, particularly in the winter/Christmas season.
The importance of understanding one’s own patterns and triggers for mental health management.
7. Depression vs. Sadness
Sue discusses dysthymia (persistent low-level depression) and distinguishes it from ordinary sadness and major depression.
The impact of anniversaries, seasonal triggers, and physiological changes in contributing to feeling low.
8. Suicidal Thoughts & Self-Harm
Sue shares personal and professional experience discussing suicidal ideation — the importance of recognizing warning signs and patterns.
Margaret shares a candid discussion about self-harm as an emotional release mechanism and the healing role of writing and creative expression.
9. Grief, Loss & Christmas
A deeply personal segment where Sue discusses grief around Christmas, specifically the loss of her father, regret, and the emotional weight of the holiday season.
Practical advice: honoring the deceased through rituals (e.g., modifying family recipes in memory of loved ones).
10. Anxiety vs. Sadness
Brief exploration of how anxiety and sadness overlap and interact, and how coaches/therapists work with clients navigating both.
11. Coaching vs. Therapy
Discussion of how coaching differs from coaching. Offering clients options and working within scope while addressing emotional needs.
12. Creativity & Sadness
The discussion touches on the link between creativity and sadness, and how artists and writers often draw on or process grief and melancholy through creative work.
Key Themes
Sadness is not the same as depression; it is valid and worth understanding
The body, mind, and spirit are interconnected in well-being
Trauma (often childhood-rooted) underpins much adult sadness and self-harm
Healthy coping (movement, nature, creativity) vs. unhealthy coping (substances, self-harm)
Seasonal and anniversary triggers are real physiological phenomena
Grief, especially around holidays, deserves acknowledgment and ritual
Thank you Richard Hogan, MD, PhD(2), DBA, Alicia Joyful, AnnMerle Feldman, Peter Mukherjee, Almost Dr.Karen Chambre, and many others for tuning into my live video with Sue Reid and Dr. Bronce Rice! Join me for my next live video in the app.
