Shows
The Love TheoristThe real cause of burnout & how to resist itThe real cause of burnout in the workplace can be summarised as failures of responsibility in the human services. These failures of responsibility by many actors in positions of authority in a hierarchy of service delivery have multiple unintended, and nevertheless seriously harmful, consequences. Burnout of front line workers is the most concerning symptom of systems’ failures. A system fails when the collectivity of all responsible actors are either acting in inadequate ways or failing to act when it is their responsibility to do so. Failures of responsibility create a cascading series of losses and harms down th...2025-06-2327 min
The Love TheoristBurnout is betrayalThere is a common misunderstanding that if you are burnt out you can’t cope, that you are weak, that you can’t do your job. Burnout needs to be re-defined so we don’t keep blaming ourselves when our workplace has betrayed us. In fact signs of burnout are not the end of your strength rather that you are needing all your resources to do your job in taxing circumstances. Burnout can be thought of as our bodies protesting when our hearts have been over-ruled or hurt too many times.In this podcast I suggest that by rec...2025-06-0921 min
The Love TheoristZen, helping and compassionate loveThese last months I have had the privilege of tutoring in two counselling courses which are about the nature of helping and the kinds of experience which cause people to seek out a counsellor, social worker or psychologist … and many other professions in the human services sector. We spent a lot of time looking at theories, models, techniques and resources to help people. I had an uneasy sense for most of the time that we weren’t considering the whole picture of what helping is about. I stood in front of my bookshelf one night puzzling over what was both...2025-06-0338 min
The Love TheoristSome inspiring ideas about emotions from Brene BrownI’ve had the beautiful book, Atlas of the heart by Brene Brown, sitting on my bookshelf for ages. I pick it up at times and find myself reading a section in depth or a quote in big print or just looking at the thoughtful pictures and diagrams. This is an inspiring book about the importance of connection through increasing our emotional language and building bridges with each other to know love. Lately I’ve been thinking about Brown’s book in relation to my work on building a theory of love to address issues of lovelessness caused by violen...2025-05-2133 min
The Love TheoristEmotions and tropical cyclone AlfredTropical Cyclone Alfred provides an opportunity, albeit unwelcome, to make some comments on my experience and gives me a chance to also comment on a concern I think needs some attention. As one of 4 1/2 million people in the direct line of threat as the cyclone approached the south east area of Queensland, my own experience is perhaps indicative of others, even though the impact directly on me and my home was limited to heavy rain. My main concern is that there is perhaps not enough credence given to the extreme, intense emotions people went through in the mainstream media...2025-03-1218 min
The Love TheoristEmpathy: A Key Love SkillI am interested in exploring the ethics and skills that should comprise a theory of love that can help us address all types of lovelessness and violence. I keep coming back to empathy as perhaps the most central skill for all of us. It was a skill I learnt about in my first year of undergraduate study as a social worker - then as now it was presented as a core communication skill in helping others. The word love wasn’t mentioned alongside empathy back then but I do think it is not possible to express love in safe an...2025-02-1526 min
The Love TheoristMaking meaning of loss and griefIn this podcast I want to share with you another dimension of my evolving theory of love which seeks to guide us in how to respond to peoples’ experiences of broken-heartedness. I proceed by sharing some ideas from Peter Marris’s 1974 book - Loss and change. His main argument is that the meaning we make of loss deeply affects how we negotiate bereavement. He suggests that for some of us we might not be able to make sense of what has happened to the extent our own ability to keep going is compromised. Marris refers to loss and change in o...2025-01-2418 min
Only Suits FansS6E4: Donna's Dirty DunkRecapping Season 6: Epsiodes 7 & 8! Y'all, this episode is just so wheels off that there's no other way to describe it than to just listen for yourself. Donna makes a Dirty Dunk! Both girls decide David Letterman would love someone to be Ham Fisted and their song parodies are on point! Maggie finds out she is really Cagney and Amanda is Lacey. Amanda thinks sushi restaurants smell like cleaning agents and she is NOT here for it and Maggie declares Malicious Prosecution is the name of her new improv troupe! Maggie finds out, that, after all these years, she...2025-01-1357 min
The Love TheoristFrom my bookshelf: Love stories by Trent DaltonAs 2024 draws to a close I wanted to share with you my current reading as it encapsulates so much about what love is and isn’t and how everyone has a love story to tell if we would only listen. The author, Trent Dalton, creates an inviting space for passer-bys on a street corner in Brisbane city. He sits at a little table with an old fashioned type writer and a spare seat beside him, the sign propped against the table says “Sentimental writer collecting love stories”. As someone passes or spontaneously sits down beside him, he asks “do you have...2024-12-3122 min
The Love TheoristPutting love (back) into social workYou might be surprised to know that love is not part of social work as shown by its absence in official documents about social work’s values and social justice mission. This is not to say it is not integral to how some social workers practice but there is little research-based evidence of love in social work. This podcast puts the argument that love is needed for social justice to matter. Further, that social workers’ professional integrity can be enabled by adopting a love informed ethical positionality to address oppression (injustice) of all kinds.I conducted a syst...2024-12-1337 min
The Love TheoristWhen workplace culture is a breeding ground for scapegoatingThe podcast brings a focus to indications that a workplace culture may be creating conditions of unsafety and unfair behaviours. The example of scapegoating is about one worker being targeted in the team at any point in time. They will be bullied by usually the supervisor or manager, and this builds into a pattern of other workers mobbing with persistent micro-aggressions until the person is sacked or resigns or goes on sick leave. If this is happening it is a serious indication that the workplace is not working. Typically once one person has been bullied out of the team...2024-11-1728 min
The Love TheoristGossiping and back-biting at workAn interest in love and nonviolence brings me to the focus in this podcast on the issue of bullying in the workplace. Whatever form bullying takes it is violence and most workplaces have policies backed up by occupational health and safety legislation that makes it unacceptable behaviour. It is about lovelessness as a power strategy to gain favors with the boss, survive in an unsafe workplace and so on. The example of gossiping or back-biting involves often hidden micro-aggressions against an absent colleague. While commonplace, the harm cannot be over stated. For example, reputational harm occurs when a person...2024-10-1931 min
The Love TheoristWhen burnout is caused by broken-heartednessThis podcast is an exploration of the potential of love to assist social workers and other practitioners in understanding their own wounded hearts. Thus, the focus in on the practitioner and how we can become exhausted and depleted at work. This is typically called burnout. I suggest that while this term is popular and conveys a sense of what is happening, it does not consider the deeper causes of burnout. Broken-heartedness has many causes and ways of being experienced. When feeling burnout because of deep heart wounding it needs a different order of self care and responses from your...2024-10-0413 min
The Love TheoristSocial work and loveAs a social work educator it is important to think deeply and carefully about the values and ethics that guide my teaching. The next generation of social workers at universities are wanting to know how to make a difference in the world. They tell me their main motivation is helping people who have experienced trauma, loss and injustice. Just what might really help people is what social work degrees are all about. For me, the ethic of love, which has informed all the great nonviolent social and environmental movements across the planet, is a central part of helping people. 2024-09-1414 min
The Love TheoristBroken-heartedness and Social Work, Part 2This is a second discussion of broken-heartedness and social work where more detail is provided in how to think deeply about the causes of broken-heartedness and ways to respond to it. Social work knowledge and skills, when aligned with a love ethic, can inform a wide range of love practices. In turn these love practices align with nonviolence and doing no harm. The power of love in professional practice can challenge, resist and change the use of violence and lovelessness. Minority status groups’ experience of injustice can show as stigma and discrimination, possibly even as blaming them for the is...2024-08-2828 min
The Love TheoristBroken-heartedness and social workAs a social worker, I have often worked with people who describe their experiences as being broken-hearted or heart-breaking. For many years I failed to recognise this recurring language in peoples’ stories. This is a podcast that defines broken-heartedness and explains how I regard broken-heartedness as a crucial tool for social workers to build our understanding of the depths of harm and loss the people we engage with may be experiencing. Specifically, broken-heartedness is a socio-emotional phenomenon that goes beyond the medical diagnosis of ‘broken-hearted syndrome’. In medical terms this syndrome is occurring when extreme stress damages the mu...2024-08-2027 min
The Love TheoristNeedlessly eating our Kin feeds the wealthy elitesThis is the second part of chapter 3 called ‘Eco injustice’ from my book, Broken-heartedness: Towards love in professional practice. Like some of the other chapters, it is very difficult to read for the tragedies it describes. Here my personal experiences with other animals who are used by humans required of me an ethical re-set as an adult towards non harming of all animals. As the daughter of a farmer and hunter and a citizen of a society that is prejudiced against other animals, it was a slow awakening that species injustice has profoundly disturbing impacts.Issues that comp...2024-05-0452 min
The Love TheoristEco injustices highlight the wicked problems of our timesThis is a reading of chapter 3 called ‘Eco injustice’ from my book, Broken-heartedness: Towards love in professional practice. It is the first part of a big chapter which relates how my personal and professional experiences intersected with a growing awareness of harm and injustice against Nature. In so doing I show an aspect of what is called a wicked problem where Australia’s economy is dependent on large scale mining of natural resources - ie Nature - and many peoples’ livelihoods, including my own family, and many communities’ viability are also dependent on big miners. The costs are borne by the env...2024-05-0452 min
The Love TheoristEco justice to extend social justice concerns about people to other animals and NatureThis is a reading of chapter 7 from my new book, Broken-heartedness: Towards love in professional practice. It is published by Revolutionaries which is a small independent book company that promotes ideas and ways of being for a more loving and peace filled world. This is a perfect fit for me as I show in this chapter how desire for peace and love necessitates the upholding of a key moral principle of the equal moral worth of all kinds of beings. As a social worker for many years, I’ve been almost totally focused on social justice for social groups wh...2024-05-0438 min
The Love TheoristHow to practice with love, nonviolence and eco-justiceThis podcast focuses on the end section of the Chapters 5, 6 and 7 respectively entitled, ‘Love’; Nonviolence’ and; ‘Ecojustice’ from my book Broken-heartedness: Towards love in professional practice. These end sections give a range of examples of how to practice love, nonviolence and eco-justice. Many of the ideas and ways will be familiar to listeners. In this sense I aim to affirm and cheer you on for what you are already do, who you already are in the world. I also provide insights into how my understanding of broken-heartedness asks something more of the power elites and privileged people and organisations. When power...2024-05-0424 min
The Love TheoristA theory of revolutionary loveThis is a reading of chapter 8 of my new book Broken-heartedness: Towards love in professional practice, published by Revolutionaries. Here I draw the threads of the book together to provide a succinct statement of a theory of love. The theory is revolutionary because it explains how anti-oppressive ethics and critical analyses of society can lead to actions for peace, justice and love for all beings. Both individual and collective actions that are love ethic informed can address the unrecognised epidemic of broken-heartedness. The podcast is dedicated to two women - Courtney Morison and Miriam Merten - who...2024-05-0454 min
The Love TheoristA love ethic is premised on nonviolenceThis is a reading of Chapter 6 entitled - ‘Nonviolence’ - from my new book, Broken-heartedness: Towards love in professional practice. It stands as a testimony to the power of love and shows how love and nonviolence can be drawn upon to address violence of all kinds. Nonviolence first and foremost is about not being violent, which requires a critical analysis of how power is used. As I have argued in the earlier chapter on violence, harm can be hidden in contexts where people believe they are being helpful and caring. This is one of the hardest type of harm to r...2024-04-0133 min
The Love TheoristTerrible travesties of justice undermine patient careThis is a reading of the second part of chapter 2 called ‘Violence’ in my new book Broken-heartedness: Towards love in professional practice. In the earlier part of the chapter, I explored the idea of dominance hierarchies (ie pecking orders) and how they can involve vertical and horizontal violence. This is where people hurt people in workplaces such as mental health facilities which are supposed to be about care of the patients. I now bring the focus onto what can happen to people who are mental patients in what Bloom calls trauma-organised systems of care. Again my commentary is informed by y...2024-03-2238 min
The Love TheoristAbout an ethic of love to counter an ethic of dominationMy new book, Broken-heartedness: Towards love in professional practice, is available now. To make it as accessible as possible I am sharing chapters from it as podcasts. This offering is chapter 5, entitled “Love” and is one of 3 chapters which outline the main ethics needed to build a theory of love. These 3 interlinked ethics are: love, nonviolence and eco justice. Earlier chapters of the book have provided an account of my personal and professional life as it has involved experiencing or witnessing broken-heartedness. The root causes of broken-heartedness are lovelessness, violence and eco-injustice. The absence or denial of love for mino...2024-02-1257 min
The Love TheoristBroken-heartedness and why it is a justice issue requiring loving actionsThis podcast is a reading of the fourth chapter of my new book by the same name, Broken-heartedness. I outline how I came to realise that the idea of broken-heartedness encapsulated so many experiences over my career and personal life. When heart-ache occurs it can take many forms and intensities. People can die of broken hearts. Animals can die of broken hearts. Nature shows us many examples of human activity that undercuts her ability to sustain life on the planet. Certainly it is a weighty chapter that builds upon the preceding ones which showed how lovelessness caused...2024-02-0539 min
The Love TheoristMy first hand experiences of violence at home & workThis is a sharing from my new book - if interested you can purchase it on this linkhttps://revoltbooks.com/The podcast is a reading of the first section of Chapter 2, entitled Violence. This term is very complex and means different things to different people. The chapter starts to unpack how I understand what violence means, starting with my childhood experience of domestic violence. I then move on to explore the issue of violence as it is expressed in dominance hierarchies such as mental health systems. This podcast focuses on the vertical and horizontal...2024-01-2836 min
The Love TheoristBroken-heartedness is caused by lovelessness due to violenceMy new book is now available for purchase. If interested, please go to https://revoltbooks.com/You might prefer to listen to large parts of it in these episodes. I add extra commentary at times but endeavour to stay close to the original book text. In this reading, I share about my experiences as a young girl and how I now understand much of my childhood as being about broken-heartedness caused by lovelessness. I suggest that where there is violence then there is lovelessness, one is the breeding ground for the...2024-01-2233 min
The Love TheoristBroken-heartedness: Towards love in professional practiceMy new book is now available for purchase. This is so exciting for me as its the culmination of what I have learnt from being a social worker for nearly fifty years. It interweaves my pertinent personal and professional experiences with a critical analysis of some of the wicked socio-political issues of our time. The purpose of this exposition is to show how I’ve come to understand love as multi-faceted ethics and capacities to address the causes of broken-heartedness. Lovelessness is the main cause of broken-heartedness. When people, other animals and Nature experience lovelessness it takes a range of...2024-01-1129 min
The Love TheoristMichael Burbank on love, community and connectionMichael Burbank is a mental health lived experience trainer. He speaks of his own life lessons from his journey through heartbreak and loss to a compassionate and relational approach to his teaching. The people he engages with in the classroom will go on to help others who grapple with their lives being interrupted by mental ill health. The podcast begins with a poetic statement from Michael that sets the scene for a grounded, insightful philosophy of love and relationships being at the centre of community. Through connection with others love is felt and heartbreak can be healed....2023-11-1949 min
The Love TheoristI shall not hate: A Gaza doctor's journey on the road to peace and human dignity by Izzeldin AbuelaishAt the time of writing his book in 2012, Dr Izzeldin Abuelaish, was a Palestinian physician who specialised in infertility issues caring for both his own people in Gaza and Israeli people. When Israeli soldiers killed his daughters and a niece, he chose not to hate but to dedicate his life to peace and justice. His story at the time was a powerful call for ceasing war and violence through love, forgiveness and justice. It remains relevant today.Abuelaish has been referred to as the Martin Luther King of the Middle East. Fourteen years after the loss of...2023-11-0435 min
The Love TheoristYes vote about justice for First Nation People - A conversation with Jonathan LinkJohnathan Link is a descendant of the Kuku Yalinji Tribal clan group from the Daintree River region in far North Queensland. He also has connections to Marble Bar in WA through his grandfather and family ties in Minjerribah (Stradbroke Island).Johnathan grew up in Brisbane. He is a father and grandfather. Johnathan’s mental health career started in 2003 with the Royal Flying Doctor Service in Cairns and is currently working for Queensland Health on the Gold Coast with the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Health Service. He explains why a yes outcome in the referendum is a moral ba...2023-10-0952 min
The Love TheoristPeter Hogg on bell hooks, & love in practicePeter is a social worker and community development practitioner at Nambour Community Centre. Peter works directly with community members to facilitate connection, relationship and participatory action. He integrates his inclusive approach into his work with some of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable people in our communities, reflecting his belief that community-driven responses are crucial to a just society.Peter describes his practice as ‘based on the concepts of the love ethic and connectedness. Love is the underpinning value of how I try to be in the world – love defined not as emotion but as holding all beings in po...2023-09-261h 04
The Love TheoristA conversation with Lisa King on finding her invisible sun This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thelovetheorist.substack.com2023-08-251h 04
The Love TheoristWallea Eaglehawk in conversation on revolutionary love and BTSThis is the first episode of my sub-series called Revolutionary Love Stories. I am interested to know what other people think about love and how it guides their work. I am joined in this episode by Wallea Eaglehawk who is the CEO of book publishing company Revolutionaries, author of Idol Limerence, and also is my daughter. We talk about all things love, revolution, and BTS. You can find out more about Wallea and her work by visiting her website www.walleaeaglehawk.xyz and reading BTS Not Guaranteed at www.walleaeaglehawk.substack.com. ...2023-05-2055 min
The Love Theorist16 | Mother Nature is speaking, but there is a deafening silenceThis podcast gives an account of Dr Dyann Ross' experiences from a childhood of mining impacts on her family, other people, places, and Mother Nature. Filtered through her own connection with or disconnection from Mother Nature, sometimes referred to as the environment, this podcast details devastating, compounding losses and harms that extend far beyond human communities. You will hear the story of Mother Mango Tree as part of this personal yet very political account. The podcast is dedicated to Mother Mango Tree and all her relations, including us all. This is a public episode. If you...2023-03-261h 10
The Love Theorist15 | Revolutionary love at work: Ways to reduce and stop coercion and seclusionI've previously argued that the use of seclusion and restraint in Mental Health facilities is a moral wrong even though it is legally sanctioned. It is very harmful to the person who is secluded and coerced and can increase, not reduce, violence on the ward. This offering explores best practice research for how to act to stop the use of these restrictive practices. I identify 5 ward-based strategies for enabling systems and workplace cultural change and a community-based approach called Open Dialogue. There is a wide path for practitioners and anyone who wants to practice with revolutionary love w...2023-03-0952 min
The Love Theorist14 | Resisting the legacy of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's NestThis podcast focuses on my continuing concern about the harm caused by restrictive practices of seclusion and restraint in public mental health facilities. I start by highlighting the influence of societal norms that can stigmatise people with a lived experience of mental illness. I do this by referring to Ken Kesey's book, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. It was written in 1962 at the height of the total institutional approach to mental health care. Excerpts from the book show echoes of violence over the decades that are still occurring in contemporary mental health facilities.Then I want to ac...2023-02-2752 min
The Love Theorist13 | Writings on an ethical life by Peter SingerA theory of love needs to be inclusive of all beings, all our Kin, because our well-being and liberation is interconnected with others in the tapestry of who Nature is. Even so, from an ethical view, other animals have the right to be and to live by virtue of their own 'isness', not by virtue of their use value to humans. Peter Singer is credited with starting the other animals' liberation movement with his book, Animal liberation (1975). For this reason alone his writings are important. In this podcast, I read some excerpts from his book "Writings on an ethical...2023-02-1947 min
The Love Theorist12 | When care turns to tortureDr Dyann Ross in this podcast argues that the restraining and secluding of mental health patients is a moral wrong. The problem of violence involved can be understood as torture according to the international convention on cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. That seclusion occurs in the name of care makes it one of the most troubling examples of what is demanded of society. A theory of love needs to be able to help us understand such issues and guide us in responding with love, nonviolence, and justice. This is a public episode. If you would like...2023-02-1042 min
The Love Theorist11 | Love of Country, Anne PoelinaIn this week’s From my bookshelf, I am talking about the writings of Anne Poelina. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thelovetheorist.substack.com2023-01-2645 min
The Love Theorist10 | The Art of Loving by Erich FrommJoin me in this supplementary segment called From my bookshelf wherein I share books that inspire me and my work. This week I am talking about The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thelovetheorist.substack.com2023-01-171h 08
The Love Theorist9 | Love is the answer, violence is the problemHi, Dr. Dyann Ross here! I’m the love theorist! It's really good to have you with me today. I'm wanting to make another set of fairly full on comments, about how I'm thinking at the moment about what's important to consider in building a theory of love. For a theory of love to be relevant to you and everybody else who might want to draw on it for some guidance, it needs to be quite nuanced and quite layered, and at the same time, readily accessible for you, in your every every day, every night situation tha...2023-01-1056 min
The Love Theorist8 | Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne SimardJoin me in this supplementary segment called From my bookshelf wherein I share books that inspire me and my work. This week I am talking about Finding the Mother Tree: Uncovering the wisdom and intelligence of the forest by Suzanne Simard. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thelovetheorist.substack.com2023-01-0447 min
The Love Theorist7 | Bonus: True Love by Thich Nhat HanhI wanted to end the year with this look into Thich Nhat Hanh’s book True Love: A practice for awakening the heart. Thank you to everyone who has listened, read, and subscribed to The Love Theorist in 2022. I’m looking forward to sharing more of my ideas, theories, experiences, and more with you in 2023. See you next year! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thelovetheorist.substack.com2022-12-3138 min
The Love Theorist6 | From my bookshelf: I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King Jr.Join me in this supplementary segment called From my bookshelf wherein I share books that inspire me and my work. This week I am talking about I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King Jr. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thelovetheorist.substack.com2022-12-2931 min
The Love Theorist5 | Love and Eco-justiceHi! Dr Dyann Ross here with you! I’m The Love Theorist!The topic today is about how love is required for justice to matter. This is a big statement and I aim to unpack it by introducing the idea of eco-justice and tying it closely to the idea of love as a commitment to contribute to justice issues. Wherever there is violence or lovelessness, there is an issue of justice because someone, a group, a community, a species has been harmed or their rights to peaceful co-existence have been intruded upon. Eco-justice or ecological justice is an...2022-12-2156 min
The Love Theorist4 | From my bookshelf: Idol Limerence by Wallea EaglehawkJoin me in this supplementary segment called From my bookshelf wherein I share books that inspire me and my work. This week I am talking about Idol Limerence: The art of loving BTS as phenomena by Wallea Eaglehawk. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thelovetheorist.substack.com2022-12-1822 min
The Love Theorist3 | Gandhi on love as nonviolenceHello, Dyann here, Dr. Dyann Ross, I’m the love theorist! It's good to have you with me. I'm talking today on love and nonviolence as part of the bigger project that I'm engaged in, with this podcast series, of building a theory of love for us all. The first set of podcasts involves me talking in relation to some of my favorite authors who have deeply influenced my thinking about love so far. Going forward I will actually have some conversations with people as well, which I'm really looking forward to, as part of co-creating a the...2022-12-1421 min
The Love Theorist2 | Brokenheartedness – The absence of loveWelcome and overviewHi everyone, it’s Dr. Dyann Ross here, the love theorist. I'm very pleased to be talking with you and hope you're well and keeping safe and doing something positive and kind for yourself today and somebody else if you can, as well.I wanted to talk to you about the idea of love and how the lack of love can be heart-breaking. And especially if that lack of love is related to an experience of injustice or trauma caused by someone hurting you. That is, the topic is about understanding love fr...2022-12-0620 min
The Love Theorist1 | I am The Love Theorist: On love and bell hooksIntroducing the origin story of how I came to be The Love Theorist and bell hooks' revolutionary work on love. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thelovetheorist.substack.com2022-11-2221 min