The Ruthless Compassion Podcast - Tracey Yokas Creates

A Conversation with Dr. Marcia Sirota

People always ask Dr. Sirota, “Why Ruthless Compassion?” She uses the term because she has two fundamental beliefs. One is to be tough-minded and the other is to be kind.

Years ago, she had a colleague named Ruth. Ruth was always really tough and also extremely compassionate. Dr. Sirota started calling her “Ruthless” as a joke, and then she realized that Ruth perfectly embodied the concept of Ruthless Compassion.

I really enjoyed this conversation on many levels. In particular, in addition to “ruthless compassion,” Dr. Sirota and I dove into unreasonable expectations around a healing journey, around therapy and how long it can take to break ingrained patterns. One big reason we have unreasonable expectations about therapy is because we don’t talk about it enough.

So…let’s talk.

Ruthless Compassion

Dr. Marcia Sirota is a board-certified psychiatrist practicing in Toronto, Canada. She has more than 25 years of mental health experience and specializes in wellness, healing trauma, unblocking creativity, and supporting people to become kindness warriors.

She is the founder of the Ruthless Compassion Institute, which promotes empowerment and self-awareness. She is a podcaster, the author of 5 books, and an instructor of several online courses. Her most recent book is “Be Kind, Not Nice: How to Stop People-Pleasing, Build Your Confidence and Discover Your Authentic Self. In her spare time, she enjoys fiction writing, yoga, spoiling her cats, and working out.

Ruthless Compassion is a podcast about people who’ve turned their emotional shit into fertilizer.

Host, Dr. Marcia Sirota gets into it — with experts and regular folks — about the heavy stuff that gets in the way of what we want. Heavy stuff like addiction and mental health, isolation, and loneliness, difficult family and work relationships and the importance of self-care.

Dr. Marcia‘s approach is clear, human and accessible, which helps listeners turn their emotional shit into fertilizer.

Episode Highlights

I share, in part:

Why I decided to write a book, putting my family’s story out into the world for public consumption.
How doing my own work was key to developing a healthier relationship with my daughter.
How being a loving and nurturing parent can be not enough. Kids absorb their parents sense of self; we must model healthy ways of being.
Dr. Sirota’s definition of ruthless compassion and how it helps us connect and enable our ability to see truth without self-flagellation.
What it took for me to understand my stunted understanding of compassion.
How I learned to understand self-care and buck the belief that I needed to give more to be a good mother.
Why patience is a must on a journey like this.
Creativity’s role in my healing.