The Voyage Cast: Real Talk on Marriage, Mental Health, & Emotional Growth
When life needs more than a session, we’re here to help beyond the office. Welcome to The Voyage Cast, a podcast for anyone seeking real guidance in relationships, emotional health, personal growth, and mental health news. Hosted by Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Eddie Eccker, this show offers therapy-informed insights for navigating the tough stuff like conflict, communication breakdowns, and disconnection in marriage or family life. 🎙️ Each episode covers topics like: 👉 Marriage repair and relationship tools 👉 Emotional intelligence and mental wellness 👉 Communication strategies that actually work 👉 Real-life stories and interviews about healing, change, and resilience 👉 Current news impacting & shaping our culture & the field of mental health Whether you’re facing challenges in your relationship, trying to break unhealthy patterns, want a roadmap for deeper connection and lasting love, or you just want to know what's going on - The Voyage Cast helps you stay the course. 🔔 Subscribe for weekly episodes and tools that go beyond the therapy room 🌐 Learn more at: www.vc.care
Episodes
Ever catch yourself reacting to a story in your head instead of the person in front of you? In this episode of The Voyage Cast, therapist and host Eddie Eccker unpacks how our brains fill in the blanks and how those mental shortcuts quietly shape our relationships, our culture, and our conflicts.
From a funny gas station encounter involving Spaceballs and a misunderstood license plate to the psychology of “cognitive mi...
Sometimes life doesn’t knock — it just walks in.
In this episode of The VoyageCast, Eddie shares a painfully funny and surprisingly spiritual story about being walked in on at a Starbucks bathroom… and how that moment of embarrassment opened up something deeper about vulnerability, control, and grace.
From the science of why embarrassment feels like physical pain, to the story of Adam and Eve’s first attempt at hiding, ...
Smart People Fall for Their Own Biases: Manipulation, Meaning, NLP, & Why Disagreement ≠ Dysfunction
Even the most intelligent minds can fall prey to their own blind spots. In this episode of The Voyage Cast, Eddie explores a recent post by one of his former professors that accused a public memorial of using “covert influence tactics.”
What starts as a critique of manipulation opens up into a deeper conversation about bias, authority, and how easily psychology drifts into ideology when it loses touch with philosophy. ...
Are you reacting to your spouse or to the ghosts of your past?
In this episode of The Voyage Cast, Ed unpacks the negative patterns that quietly erode love: criticism, contempt, defensiveness, stonewalling, untested emotions, and old wounds that still control the present. Drawing from John Gottman’s groundbreaking “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” psychology, neuroscience, and biblical wisdom, this conversation challe...
When RFK Jr. questioned Tylenol’s safety in pregnancy and autism risk, an old 2017 Tylenol tweet resurfaced, and the media firestorm began. MSNBC called it “reckless fearmongering,” Fox News compared Tylenol to “the next asbestos,” and HuffPost warned of “dangerous pseudoscience.” But what do these extreme reactions reveal about our culture?
In this episode of The Voyage Cast, Eddie unpacks the psychology of fear, why ...
In this gripping episode of Voyages Cast Top 3, Ed explores the growing psychological fractures shaping our world—from the global mental health crisis, to radicalization-fueled violence, to the slow collapse of digital discernment. These aren’t just headlines—they’re symptoms of something deeper: a culture losing its anchor in meaning.
We break down the UN’s latest mental health strategy, the tragic killings of Charlie...
We live in a culture full of quick hacks, viral reels, and endless online advice about love and relationships. But let’s be honest—most of it doesn’t stick. It feels good in the moment but rarely transforms the way we actually live, love, and connect.
In this episode of The Voyage Cast, Eddie Eccker, licensed marriage and family therapist, husband of 20 years, and guide for the messy middle of life, pushes past the noi...
In this episode of The Voyage Cast Top Three, Eddie breaks down the stories shaping mental health care in America — where headlines, codes, and cash collide.
- Why federal prosecutors dropped charges against AMA whistleblower Dr. Eithan Haim, and what his case reveals about silencing dissent.
- How the hidden CPT Editorial Panel — stacked with insurance executives — decides which therapy and psychiatric treatments “coun...
What do the Founding Fathers have to do with your marriage? More than you might think.
In this episode of The Voyage Cast, Eddie Eccker takes wisdom from Madison, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, and Hamilton—and shows how their words about duty, ambition, and friendship speak directly into modern relationships.
Marriage isn’t about two perfect people. It’s about two imperfect humans drafting their own constituti...
The Voyage Cast | Top 3 Mental Health News
For decades, we’ve been told that psychology and self-improvement alone are enough. But what if resilience — real healing, real flourishing — requires something more?
In this episode of The Voyage Cast, Ed breaks down the top three stories in mental health and why they matter for your life:
🧠 The Neuroscience of Spirituality
Research from Lisa Miller (Columbia University) and An...
Don't Believe Everything You Feel: Emotions, Truth, and Marriage in a Culture of Emotional Reasoning
Do your emotions ever feel like the ultimate truth? In this episode of The Voyage Cast, host Eddie Eccker, LMFT, unpacks why our feelings are powerful signals, but terrible dictators. Drawing on years of clinical experience, Ed explores how emotional reasoning shapes marriages, friendships, and even our culture online.
You’ll hear:
- Why emotions matter—but don’t always equal reality.
- How couples get stuck in the “purs...
In this episode of The Voyage Cast Top Three, Eddie Eccker unpacks three powerful stories shaping the future of mental health:
- Meta’s AI scandal — How Facebook’s chatbots crossed the line into dangerous intimacy with children and vulnerable adults, and why loneliness makes simulated connection so risky.
- AI and grief — The surreal case of Patricia Oliver speaking with an AI recreation of her son, Parkland victim Joaq...
Why do so many couples stay stuck in the same painful patterns—even when they say they want change? In this episode of The Voyage Cast, Ed unpacks the hidden force called secondary gain: the subtle rewards we get from staying in dysfunction.
From avoiding conflict by scrolling on your phone, to blaming your partner so you never have to look in the mirror, to clinging to comfort, finances, or social image—the payoffs of...
The Voyage Cast Top Three
In today’s Top Three:
- Illinois becomes the first state to mandate mental health screenings for all students — but with Big Pharma fingerprints on the test, is this protecting kids or feeding a system that overdiagnoses and overmedicates?
- Two cancer drugs show shocking potential in reversing Alzheimer’s in mice — could hope for memory restoration finally be on the horizon, and what does that ...
Resentment & Release, Part 3: Living Beyond the Offense — Practical Steps to Reclaim Your Story
In this final installment of the Resentment & Release series, we turn from understanding and forgiveness to the hardest part, actually moving forward. Resentment may have shaped your story, but it doesn’t have to define it.
We’ll explore:
- Why living beyond an offense is more than “forgiving and forgetting”
- The psych...
Forgiveness is often misunderstood—and for many, it can feel impossible. In Part 2 of Resentment & Release, we explore why letting go can feel like losing control, why grief and anger are valid parts of healing, and why forgiveness is never about excusing harm or staying in unsafe situations.
This episode features the extraordinary real-life story of Mary Johnson, a Minneapolis mother whose only son was murdered. A...
Part 1 of 3: The Prison We Build — Understanding Resentment
What if the thing keeping you stuck isn’t what they did, but what you’re still carrying?
In this powerful first episode of The Voyage Cast, host Eddie Eccker unpacks the quiet captivity of resentment, how it forms, why it lingers, and what it’s secretly costing you. This isn’t just about anger. It’s about identity, pain loops, and the emotional armor we wear wh...
Why do so many women struggle with feeling “not enough”? In this episode, Ed explores the often unseen but powerful influence of the father-daughter relationship—how a father’s presence, absence, or emotional availability can shape a daughter’s self-worth, attachment style, and even her view of God.
We unpack the psychology of the father wound, what the research says about a father’s influence on daughters, and how thi...
In this episode of The Voyage Cast, Eddie sits down with licensed marriage and family therapist Dupre’ Rouse, LMFT — author of Kingz & Queenz, Army veteran, trauma specialist, and founder of the Belief Center for Family Therapy.
Together, they unpack the deeper emotional patterns that sabotage relationships and explore how individuals and couples can heal through vulnerability, emotional safety, and practical tools...
When Love Feels Like a Threat: Healing Anxious Attachment
What if the ache you feel in love isn’t insecurity, but a survival response?
In this episode of The Voyage Cast, Eddie unpacks the painful reality of anxious attachment: when love feels more like holding your breath than exhaling. From the spiral of “Do they still care?” to the deep nervous system wiring behind your need for reassurance, this conversation peels b...
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