Struggling with money, fitness or love? Try the 'Roots Method' by a Harvard psychiatrist to boost up your problem-solving skills

Many people try to fix one problem at a time. They work on saving money, getting fit or improving a relationship, but often end up facing the same struggles again. According to Harvard-trained psychiatrist Dr. Kavetha Sun, the reason may be that these problems are only the visible signs of something much deeper. In a recent Instagram video, Dr. Sun explained what she calls the "Roots Method", an approach that encourages people to address the emotional source of their struggles instead of only dealing with the surface-level issues.

Using the example of a tree, Dr. Sun said people often focus on the "leaves" instead of the "roots." The leaves, she explained, represent the individual problems in life, whether they involve money, marriage or fitness. But fixing each one separately may not solve the real issue.

She said: "I'm a Harvard-trained psychiatrist and today I'm sharing my famous roots method to solve any problem in your life. Let's go think of your mind like a tree. The leaves are the individual problems in your life might be your problems in your marriage. This one might be your problems with money and maybe this one is your problems with fitness. Now if this tree was actually in your backyard, you would not try to fix these individual leaves. That would be kind of silly instead. You would look at the trunk and the roots to see what the real problem is."


According to Dr. Sun, the same idea applies to mental and emotional health. Rather than constantly reacting to one issue after another, she believes it is more useful to understand the emotional patterns that keep repeating.

The Roots Method explained

Dr. Sun said the "trunk" of the tree represents behavioural patterns, while the "roots" represent buried emotions that continue to influence decisions and reactions.

She explained: "That's the same thing with your mind when we try to fix individual problems. We just go round and round instead. We want to look at the trunk, which is your patterns and the roots which is your feelings that you have buried."

She then outlined how the method works.

According to her, "We use the roots method. The R is to recognize a trigger before it actually happens in your body. Not afterward when it's too late. O is to open yourself to the root feelings underneath and there's a process to do that. Instead of reacting or suppressing the emotion. We stay present to it without drowning in it."

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A post shared by Dr. Kavetha Sun, M.D | Harvard trained Psychiatrist (@drkavetha)

Trusting your inner wisdom

Dr. Sun believes that once people stop avoiding or reacting to emotions, they become better connected to their own judgment.

She said: "When we do that. We naturally begin to tune into our inner wisdom. This inner wisdom is inside all of us. Even if you're not able to access it right now. It is there inside of you and only then do we speak."

Who is Dr. Kavetha Sun?

According to her LinkedIn profile, Dr. Kavetha Sun is a Harvard-trained psychiatrist and relationship coach. She developed the Secure Inside Out™ methodology and the Secure Love Protocol™, which focus on helping people heal core relationship wounds, break reactive emotional patterns and build secure attachments.

Her Roots Method follows the same idea. Instead of treating only the visible symptoms, it encourages people to work on the emotional causes that may be driving repeated problems across different areas of life.

Dr. Sun's approach is based on the idea that lasting emotional change comes from identifying and healing core emotional wounds rather than simply managing outward behaviour. According to her LinkedIn profile, her work focuses on helping people move away from reactive emotional cycles and build healthier, more secure relationships. Through her methodology, she aims to help individuals develop greater emotional awareness and respond to challenges with intention instead of automatic reactions.