What Working With the Rich and Famous Taught Him About Suffering | David Cornwell
· 1 h 35 min · S3 E6
Episode What Working With the Rich and Famous Taught Him About Suffering | David Cornwell
Some of the wealthiest people in the world can buy anything they want and still feel completely lost. David Cornwell has worked as a therapist to the rich and famous, and he says their suffering is very familiar.
Brian sits down with psychotherapist and meditation teacher David Cornwell for an honest conversation about addiction, identity, the nervous system and what it really takes for change to last.
David grew up in Ardglass, a small fishing village in the north of Ireland, working in fish factories from the age of nine. By his late teens there was alcohol, ecstasy, blackouts and a growing sense of being lost. Then, on his way to mass one Sunday at university, he stepped over a man lying unconscious in the street. That moment showed him how disconnected he had become. Soon after, a friend handed him a book on meditation, and the next day he walked into a Buddhist centre and felt, for the first time in years, that he had come home to himself.
What followed was 27 years of practice: a solitary retreat in a hut in the Pyrenees, a year living in a teepee in Ibiza, a decade teaching meditation in Istanbul, training in somatic experiencing, study at Oxford, and work at The Balance, a clinic known for treating some of the world's most famous and powerful people.
Brian and David explore why trauma can show up as freeze and dissociation as well as fight and flight, how the nervous system learns to settle itself again, and why recovery is less about stopping a behaviour and more about a shift in identity. David shares the one question he asks every client on day one, why so many men are waiting for a doctor to give them permission to stop drinking, and his concern about young people using cocaine at weekends.
Brian also opens up about his own recovery, and how David gave him language for what changed in him in detox: a gut feeling, a quiet knowing, and a body that went from enemy to friend.
This is a conversation about meaning, about the simple things we forget, and about the original meaning of mindfulness: to remember.
Season 3 of Change Is Possible is proudly supported by Turas Nua, helping people build skills and take the next steps towards employment, because with the right support, change really is possible. Learn more at Turas Nua
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Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:34 A fishing village childhood and a young man who felt lost
4:12 The moment David walked past someone in need
13:54 How freeze and dissociation made meditation feel safe
20:46 The road through Thailand, Ibiza and Istanbul
25:11 How the nervous system learns to release stress
41:20 Oxford, The Balance and sitting with the super rich
54:22 Why everything rests on the tip of intention
59:54 Recovery as a shift in who you are
1:07:10 What needs to change beneath the behaviour for it to last
1:19:26 Mindfulness as the practice of remembering
1:26:43 The power of breathing well, and where to find David
Spotify themes: Addiction and recovery, mindfulness, trauma and the nervous system, meaning and identity, men's mental health, wealth and happiness, meditation, breathing
Links in the notes 6
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