Episode #223: Coaching vs. Therapy, Self-Worth, and Raising Emotionally Aware Kids with Dr. Shivana Naidoo

Summary 

If you’ve ever gotten the A+, the promotion, the passed board exam… and felt good for maybe two days before sprinting toward the next thing, this episode is for you.

This week I’m joined by Dr. Shivana Naidoo, a child and adult psychiatrist I met at a women physicians conference, where her talk hit me so squarely in the heart that I tracked her down afterward and asked her to come on the show. We get into the chase, that hamster wheel so many smart, overachieving women are running without even noticing, because the running has become who we think we are. Shivana shares the moment she realized the system was never going to hand her the credit she was waiting for, and the small, slightly rebellious thing she did about it.

About Dr. Shivana Naidoo: 

Dr. Shivana Naidoo, MD is a double board certified Adult Psychiatrist, and Child-Adolescent Psychiatrist, who aims to help her patients and community to know better, do better and feel better. She is the creator/host of the podcast Thinking It Through with Dr. Naidoo- Child Psychiatrist and the founder of DoBetterMD  her telehealth private practice.  She greatly enjoys working with female professionals and overachieving teens in her practice.  She is currently an Attending at the Bradley REACH Virtual Partial Psychiatric Hospital Program, and is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.  She also serves as the Lead Psychiatrist for the Pediatric Mental Health Care Access Program, an initiative to support primary care providers to address the current mental health care crisis in the state of Arizona. In 2025, she was inducted as a Distinguished Fellow of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. In February 2026, she was chosen as a speaker for the Women Physician Wellness Conference Climb in Cayman Islands.  She is a proud New Yorker who has relocated to Chandler, Arizona.  When she is not working as a physician, speaker or podcaster, she enjoys reading stories to her 2 boys, writing songs, and playing guitar.

Learn more about the Restore Retreat: https://burnstressloseweight.com/retreat

Dr. Shivana Naidoo podcast: https://www.dobettermd.com/podcast 

Connect with Dr. Shivana Naidoo on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.shivana.naidoo/

What You’ll Learn from this Episode:

• The “window” reframe that shifted how Shivana saw her own power at work.
• The advice that let her walk into a tense conversation with her boss without apologizing, and why so many of us say sorry for simply taking up space.
• The real difference between coaching and therapy from someone trained in both.
• “Mom School,” cheese slices, and the playful way she’s teaching her boys to flip a negative thought.
• The question a friend asked her that she still can’t fully answer: what would actually make you feel satisfied?

Listen to the Full Episode:

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Featured on the Show:

• Learn more about the Restore Retreat by clicking here.
• Get the Body Reset Mini Course by clicking here.
• Take the Stress Quiz by clicking here.

Download the full transcript here.