What if part of the drive that built your company began as a childhood defense mechanism?
In this episode of Supra Insider, Marc Baselga and Ben Erez sit down with Dr. Gillian O’Shea Brown, a psychotherapist, complex trauma specialist, and NYU adjunct faculty member whose second book, Psyche’s Awakening, comes out in September. Founders started finding her without her ever setting out to work with them, and she explains what she has noticed in that rare window into a guarded mind: that success often functions as a thermostat for psychological safety, and that the goalpost tends to keep moving even after the exit.
They explore whether healing your wounds costs you the edge that got you here, what a gut feeling actually is and how Gillian connects intuition with nervous-system regulation, and why some companies rely more on process and less on intuition as they scale. Gillian also walks through how she helps people find the patterns underneath their behavior, using questions Marc and Ben put to her about their own lives.
If you’re a founder wondering what’s underneath your drive, an operator trying to build somewhere that feels psychologically safe, or anyone curious how childhood patterns show up at work, this episode is for you.
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In this episode, we covered the following topics:
* (01:49) How founders became Gillian’s clientele without her ever setting out to attract them
* (05:19) Success as a thermostat of psychological safety, and what people chasing chips actually want
* (10:33) What surfaces after the exit, when the goalpost moves and you’re finally alone with yourself
* (12:14) Marc’s fear that healing costs you your edge, and sublimation from Phelps to Schwarzenegger
* (14:25) Listening for your “I am” beliefs and mapping your psychological Achilles heel
* (23:16) What a gut feeling actually is, and why intuition needs a regulated nervous system
* (29:49) Why companies trade intuition for process as they scale
* (39:43) Ben’s origin story, and how Gillian reframes the work he does now as a corrective experience
* (43:04) Is a wound ever fully healed? The scar tissue metaphor and repetition compulsion
* (48:37) Marc brings up their worst argument, and Gillian names it as an abreaction
* (54:08) How to find your own wounds, plus the erotic-emotional map
* (58:39) On choosing a partner: don’t mistake contention for passion
* (1:04:11) Gratitude Corner: Gillian thanks her daughters Genevieve and Juliet, and her husband Grant
* And more!
Links:
* Pre-order Psyche’s Awakening: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/psyches-awakening-dr-gillian-oshea-brown?variant=44639204999202
* Gillian’s website: https://www.drgillianosheabrown.com/
* Gillian’s Substack: https://drgillianosheabrown.substack.com/
* Gillian’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.gillianosheabrown/
* Gillian’s TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dr.gillianosheabrown
* Dr. Gillian O’Shea Brown: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drgillianosheabrown/
* Marc: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbaselga/
* Ben: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benerez/
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