Inspiration from the Couch

When should we be silent? When should we speak up? What happens when we overshare? Today, we’re talking all about communication! We examine when silence is beneficial vs. when it feels oppressive. We touch on how social media affects how people communicate and can add to environmental “noise.” We also talk about the other end of the continuum—oversharing—how it happens, why we do it, the consequences of it, and how to handle being ...

Are you a “good girl”? Or have you felt pressure to be “good”? All three of us definitely answer YES to these questions! Today, we’re talking about what makes a good girl, exploring how this looks both when we’re younger and as we age. We examine the connection to shame and guilt, which keep us trapped in the good girl role. We identify cultural factors and conditioning that plant the seeds for and reinforce the good girl identity....

Have you ever experienced a wake up call? Even if you’ve never literally received a phone call to wake you up, have you ever had something happen in your life that “woke you up” to a particular situation? In today’s episode, we talk about wake up calls we’ve experienced personally, and we touch on various events that have served as cultural wake up calls on a larger scale. We end the episode by discussing what can happen when we ig...

We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Ramani Durvasula to the couch today! She is a licensed clinical psychologist and author of several books including It’s Not You: Identifying and Healing from Narcissistic People. We begin this episode with a conversation about how Dr. Ramani defines narcissism as a personality style and what kind of red flags to look out for in our relationships. We discuss the intersection of narcissism and self-aban...

What in your life do you dread? How do you experience dread? What’s the point of dread? How do we make our dread go away?  We dive into all these questions in today’s podcast. Jamie, Avery, and Lucy share their own experiences with dread, and we explore the different ways dread can show up (e.g., Avery’s dread is more anxiety based, and Lucy and Jamie’s dread is more like “I don’t wanna do this!”). We explored the overlap among dre...

Jamie, Lucy, and Avery have found self-compassion to be incredibly helpful in their own lives and in the lives of their clients. In this episode, we talk specifically about how we use self-compassion as parents. We’ve found self-compassion to be especially useful in parenting situations where we are feeling judgment for ourselves or our kids, during transitions, when we are in conflict or feeling irritable, when we need a break, wh...

Avery, Jamie, and Lucy are so excited to interview mother-daughter relationship expert, Hilary Truong, MA, LPC! Hilary is a leading voice on keeping mothers and daughters in relationship through the teenage years and beyond. Join us as we discuss what people get wrong about the mother-daughter relationship, what moms and daughters most need from each other, the unique pressures we face as moms, and helpful strategies to repair the ...

In this episode, we discuss resentment-how it feels, what kinds of situations may cause it, and what we can do about it. Resentment is defined as a negative feeling in response to a perception of unfairness or being mistreated. We discuss various negative feelings that come up when we’re experiencing resentment and talk through some examples of situations that have made us feel resentful in our own lives. Resentment can make us fee...

In this episode, we revisit the topic of adult connection and the importance of adult friendships. We review the mental health benefits of social connection (hint: it’s more important than diet and exercise for longevity!). We talk about the advantage of the friend role as compared to other roles. We also discuss what it takes to be a “good friend” and what to do if a friendship becomes unhealthy. Lastly, we provide some advice for...

In today’s episode we talk about the parts and pieces of ourselves that we’ve lost along the way. Some of these might be aspects of ourselves we’re glad to be rid of (like people pleasing or caring about what other people think), whereas there might be other facets of ourselves (like seeking adventure or having/feeling fun) that we’d like to reclaim. We explore how this comes up in our lives and the lives of our clients, driving fa...

Perseverance and grit are great to teach our kids but when is it appropriate for them to quit or change directions? In today’s episode, we talk about all of the complicated reasons that we may pressure our kids to stay with things longer than what’s good for their well-being (including our “own stuff” as parents!). We talk about why quitting can be courageous and how you can assist your kids in taking ownership over that. We give p...

Today’s episode is all about fostering financial literacy in our teens and young adults. We start with some of the main financial related concerns we hear from kids during and after college, and we work backwards, highlighting specific tools and skills we can teach our kids before they leave home. We explore methods of payment, tipping, budgeting, and allowance/income. We also talk about natural opportunities to grow these skills, ...

We sometimes forget that one of the most effective things we can do as parents is to simply get out of our kids' way. In today’s episode we talk about the importance of allowing our kids to face natural consequences. We touch on issues that can make it difficult for us as parents to take a step back, and we review specific strategies to help us “get out of the way.” We talk about specific life skills that are easier for our ki...

In today’s episode, we focus on disappointment, a feeling most of us don’t name or talk about enough. We explore what makes disappointment a harder emotion to acknowledge, highlighting the tendency to quickly detour to anger, judgment, shame, or embarrassment. We discuss our own experiences with disappointment. We talk about how disappointment often presents, including the thoughts, feelings, and body sensations that tend to accomp...

It’s our 100th episode! We mark the occasion by talking about milestones and taking a walk down memory lane. We discuss the different lessons we’ve learned along the way and relive some of our favorite moments on the podcast. We talk about some of the struggles and disappointments we’ve faced along the way too. 

One of our favorite parts of doing the podcast is getting to hear from our listeners and we’d love to hear from you! Drop ...

Today, Jamie, Lucy, and Avery discuss the often misunderstood emotion, envy. In short, envy can occur when someone has something or is doing something that you want for yourself! It often involves some sort of social comparison, usually with people who are similar to us in some way. We talk about the difference between envy and jealousy and why envy often feels “worse.” We share our own experiences with envy, a universal emotion, a...

Love is on our mind as we’re preparing for Valentine’s Day, and today we’re talking about self-love. While we may not be super-fans of the terminology (something about the phrase kind of gives us the ick), but we do actually do love the concept. In this episode, we define “self-love” as loving ourselves unconditionally and taking care of ourselves the way we would someone we love. We touch on the beautiful book The Body is Not an A...

Today’s episode was listener inspired! In this podcast, we talk about what it’s like when the trajectory of our lives is out of sync with what we imagined or expected. We see this during transitions and turning points (whether they are expected or unexpected). We discuss some of the major developmental tasks that we undergo throughout our lives and what it’s like to feel not quite in step with our peers. We also talk about how stor...