ShrinkChicks

This week on ShrinkChicks, Em and Jen talk about navigating the “what am I doing with my life” era, those moments when your path, career, or identity no longer feels as clear as it once did. Whether it’s a career pivot, life transition, or just a general sense of uncertainty, this stage can bring up doubt, anxiety, and a lot of second-guessing.

They explore the difference between burnout and being in the wrong career, how t...

This week on ShrinkChicks, Em and Jen explore healing your inner child and advice to give to the kid who lives within your adult self. They talk about why revisiting younger versions of ourselves can bring both compassion and anger, and how learning to care for your inner child can help break patterns that still show up in adult relationships.

Listener questions dive into projection and unresolved childhood pain, how to hol...

This week on ShrinkChicks, Em and Jen talk about why joy and anxiety often show up together, especially when something good is happening. When positive moments arrive, the nervous system can start scanning for what might go wrong, making it hard to fully relax or enjoy the experience.

They explore why happiness can feel vulnerable, why some people try to dampen joy to avoid disappointment, and how anxiety can act as protect...

This week on ShrinkChicks, Em and Jen continue their storytelling series where notable guests share the real emotional journey behind their success. Today’s guest is Nicole Pellegrino, content creator and host of the Long Story Short with Nicole Pellegrino podcast, who Em and Jen first connected with years ago when she was engaged and navigating the loss of her mother.

Now married and newly a mom, Nicole opens up about the ...

This week on ShrinkChicks, Em and Jen explore grief; not just the kind that follows death, but the many forms of loss that shape our lives. From pregnancy loss to complicated family relationships to the life you imagined but didn’t get, grief can surface in ways people don’t always expect or understand.

They talk through different types of grief, including anticipatory grief, ambiguous grief, traumatic grief, and disenfranc...

This week on ShrinkChicks, Em and Jen are joined by trauma therapist, parenting educator, and cycle-breaking advocate Maggie Nick (AKA Maggie with Perspectacles) to talk about the hidden cost of being the “good kid.” Maggie shares her own story of growing up as the easy, responsible child no one had to worry about, and how perfectionism, people-pleasing, and self-criticism often grow out of that role.

They unpack why being ...

This week on ShrinkChicks, Em and Jen wrap up their trauma response mini-series with a deep dive into the fawn response, the often-overlooked survival strategy rooted in people-pleasing and conflict avoidance. While many people are familiar with fight or flight, fawning happens when your nervous system moves quickly to smooth things over, keep the peace, and protect the connection.

They explore how the fawn response can loo...

This week on ShrinkChicks, Em and Jen continue their trauma response series with a deep dive into the flight response: what it is, how it shows up, and why it can feel so productive while still being avoidant. Unlike fight or freeze, flight often looks subtle in daily life: staying busy, overworking, changing the subject, scrolling, researching, or emotionally distancing when things feel intense.

They explore how the flight...

This week on ShrinkChicks, Em and Jen launch a new storytelling series featuring notable voices sharing the real emotional journey behind their success. First up: content creator, author, and host of Conversations with Cam, Cameron Rogers.

Cameron opens up about transitioning careers, building a brand in motherhood and mental health, and how becoming a mom reshaped her relationship with work. She shares how people-pleasing ...

This week on ShrinkChicks, Em and Jen continue their trauma response series with a deep dive into the fight response: what it is, why it develops, and how it shows up in everyday life. Often misunderstood and heavily judged, the fight response is a nervous system survival strategy rooted in mobilization, power, and protection.

They explore how fight can look like anger, defensiveness, control, irritability, or needing to wi...

This week on ShrinkChicks, Em and Jen break down the freeze response, one of the most misunderstood trauma responses. They explain how freezing is an involuntary nervous system reaction to overwhelming threat, often linked to trauma, and why so many people carry shame for something their body chose automatically.

They explore what freeze can look like in daily life (numbness, dissociation, procrastination, avoidance, shutdo...

This week on ShrinkChicks, Em and Jen are joined by one of their all-time favorite guests, Alexandra Solomon, licensed clinical psychologist, adjunct professor at Northwestern University, and host of the Reimagining Love podcast, for a conversation about healthy relationships and the patterns we carry from our families of origin.

Together, they explore why it’s so hard to break old dynamics even when you can name them, why ...

This week on ShrinkChicks, Em and Jen unpack a belief that keeps a lot of people stuck: the idea that you need to feel ready before making a big decision. They talk about why “ready” is not actually a feeling, and how waiting for certainty can quietly turn into avoidance.

They explore the difference between readiness and willingness, how to make decisions that align with your values (not other people’s opinions), and why cl...

This week on ShrinkChicks, Em and Jen are joined by Johanna Kulp, licensed therapist, speaker, and body image specialist, who helps individuals and families break free from diet culture and rebuild trust in their bodies. Johanna shares how her own eating disorder recovery shaped her work, and why so many of today’s “wellness” trends still keep people stuck.

They talk about raising kids in a world where diet messages are una...

This week on ShrinkChicks, Em and Jen talk about how to take things less personally…and why that’s harder than it sounds. After one of their posts went viral, they unpack why giving people the benefit of the doubt isn’t the same as abandoning boundaries, and how expectations, context, and insecurity shape what hits us the hardest.

They explore how self-knowledge makes it easier to stop internalizing everything, how comparis...

This week on ShrinkChicks, Em and Jen delve into a question that many people struggle with: How do I distinguish between anxiety and intuition?

They break down how each shows up (urgency versus steadiness, fear versus values, repetitive spirals versus one-time clarity) and how anxiety and intuition can sometimes be linked. Listener questions explore whether it gets easier to tell the two apart, how anxious people can learn ...

This week on ShrinkChicks, Em & Jen wrap up 2025 with a topic that might just be on all of our minds: Do I need therapy going into the new year? They talk about how tough this year felt for many people, how finances and burnout impact mental health care, and what “needing” therapy even means.

They answer questions about feeling lost professionally, the fear of crying in therapy, worrying that starting therapy will make ...

This week on ShrinkChicks, Em & Jen break down the pressure, guilt, and expectations that can make the holidays feel so overwhelming. Jen shares what it was like growing up without big holiday pressure, while Em talks about navigating the mental load of parenting and splitting time between families.

They delve into why holidays affect everyone differently, how media influences expectations, and why saying no can feel im...

This week on ShrinkChicks, Em and Jen dig into a topic that’s becoming impossible to ignore: Artificial Intelligence (AI) in therapy, including how it’s showing up in clinical work, where it can help, and where it crosses the line. They discuss AI’s usefulness for administrative tasks or late-night coping support, while exploring the risks of replacing human connection, losing touch with a client’s story, and handing sensi...