ShrinkChicks

On today’s episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen share their expertise on how to repair after a rupture in our relationships a.k.a. how to make up after a fight, disagreement, or argument. They discuss why rupture is inevitable in all of our relationships, why being "right" doesn't matter, why tit for tat can be harmful, how to hold onto ourselves when the other person is dysregulated, whether...

This week on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are talking all about emotional boundaries, starting off by defining emotional boundaries and where to begin when setting them. They discuss separating our emotions from others' emotions, how to recognize when you need to do so, and the importance of tone and context. Emmalee and Jen answer your questions like: how to set emotional boundaries when working...

On today’s episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen answer one of our most popular listener questions: how to ask for what you need! They discuss why it can be so hard to ask for what you need, how to begin learning what you need, and give us tangible steps to do so. Emmalee and Jen share how they learned what it was they needed through trial and error, why our childhood experiences can play a big...

On today’s episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are joined by one of The Therapy Group's wonderful therapists, JoAnne Hanson, LMFT! JoAnne is not only a therapist but also an energy healer. Emmalee and Jen talk to JoAnne about WTF energy healing is, her journey to becoming an energy healer, integrating energy healing into traditional talk therapy, what it was like for JoAnne growing up as a hi...

On today’s episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen cover the topic of rejection. They start the episode off by addressing a listener question that asks “how to get over rejection?” The hard truth is that rejection is inevitable - and so they give us all tangible ways to learn to deal with rejection and the feelings that accompany it. Emmalee and Jen discuss rejection’s connection to shame and emb...

This week, Emmalee and Jen talk about their bread and butter: couples therapy! As Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists, couples therapy is one of their favorite topics to demystify. They start by discussing the stigma behind couples therapy and why they wholeheartedly believe in it - from both sides of the couch - because relationships are  hard!!  They talk about when a couple should seek out...

On today's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are joined by their wonderful Astrologer, Natalie Levin! Natalie shares her expertise with us and starts off with some Astrology 101. She explains what a birth chart is (i.e. sun, moon, and rising signs) and why some people don't feel aligned with their astrological sign. She then does a deep dive into Emmalee and Jen's charts, individually, and...

This week on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen cover one of your most requested topics: expectations. They discuss expectations in our romantic relationships, friendships, and with our family members as well as grieving unmet expectations and change and how to categorize this type of grief. They talk about how magical thinking and toxic positivity can play a role in our expectations, realistic vs. unr...

On today’s episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen have the pleasure of sitting down with Mac Stanley Cazeau, LMHC ( @talk2mac_therapist ) to talk all about relationships, communication, infidelity, and affair recovery. Mac owns a private practice called  Therapy is for Everyone  and primarily works with couples recovering from an affair. He shares his insight with us on how to communicate our ne...

At the end of every episode, Emmalee and Jen always say: "to grow yourself, you gotta know yourself" but what does that really mean? This week on ShrinkChicks, Em and Jen break down their tagline and explain where to start when getting to know yourself. They discuss specific questions to guide us on this journey, how indecisiveness plays a role in knowing ourselves, internal self vs. external self...

This week on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are joined by Kail Lowry and Vee Rivera, hosts of the Baby Mamas No Drama Podcast! If you watched Teen Mom 2, you know that Kail and Vee’s relationship started off rocky, but today, Emmalee and Jen learn about their journey from hating each other, to co-parenting, to hosting a podcast together. They discuss the effect that being on reality TV has had on t...

On today's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen dive into one of their most requested topics: Jealousy! They start off by discussing jealousy as a controversial emotion, the difference between jealousy and envy, why jealousy is a very normal emotion, and the reaction to jealousy vs. the emotion of jealousy. Emmalee and Jen each share the last time they felt jealous or envious and why. They rec...

Today on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen explain the term "Radical Acceptance," which comes from a therapeutic modality called DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy). They discuss the difference between radical acceptance and invalidating our feelings, how to work towards this kind of acceptance, building up our distress tolerances, how many of us were taught to resist our emotions, toxic positivity, wh...

This is ShrinkChicks 100th episode!! Thank you to all of the listeners - both old and new - for helping the show get to this point! Today, Emmalee and Jen reflect on this exciting milestone and laugh about the things that have changed over the past two years. They then answer your questions in a fan favorite, Q&A style episode. These questions include: how to mentally prepare before having kid...

This week's episode combines Emmalee and Jen's love for therapy and the Disney movie, Encanto, by discussing how Encanto so perfectly depicts family systems. Emmalee and Jen tell us about common, family roles we take on like the “caretaker” or the “scapegoat," how these roles can serve us and be reinforced externally, the story your family tells about you vs. what your story actually is, how traum...

Today's episode of ShrinkChicks is a follow up to the episode from a few weeks ago: Does Sibling Rivalry Ever End. There were so many sibling/birth order specific listener questions, so Emmalee and Jen wanted to answer them for you, today! Some questions and topics they discuss include: can sibling birth order affect you outside of the family dynamic? Why siblings can be so competitive with one an...

This week on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are joined by one of their amazing clinicians, Katie Bongiorno, LMFT, to talk about her new e-course: Achieving Authentic Balance in Your Body. They start off by telling the story of how Katie was hired at The Therapy Group (hint: it involves her dog) and then they dive into her e-course (launching TOMORROW) all about body image and learning to reject die...

On today's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen talk all about sibling relationships. They discuss birth order, sibling conflict, only children, reconnecting with your siblings as adults, favoritism and so much more. Emmalee and Jen are both the youngest siblings in their family's of origin and they share some insight into what it was like growing up with older brothers. Dear Em & Jen answ...

Why do we lie? On this week's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen dive into the topic of lying and why people - including us - lie! They discuss different kinds of lies, lies the two of them have recently told in their personal lives, prosocial vs. antisocial lies, when lying becomes self-betrayal, the shame that can come with lying, how to evaluate our intentions behind a lie, and so much mo...

Today on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen talk all about being alone, their love for it, and ways to become more comfortable with it. They discuss the various benefits of being alone, finding a hobby as an adult, codependency vs. interdependency, the choice to be alone vs. it being circumstantial, what happens if you get too comfortable being alone, avoidance, and so much more! This week's Dear Em &a...

Fellow therapists, therapists in training, those wanting to become therapists: this one's for you! On today's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen discuss their post-graduate journey to licensure, imposter syndrome, and therapist's "firsts." They answer your questions re: worrying about clients when you're off the clock, feeling guilty for charging a client due to a late cancellation, taking c...

This week on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen dive into the topic of family dynamics and boundaries and how to navigate them during the Holiday season. Specifically, they discuss the difference of dynamics in our family of origin vs. our in-laws/partner's family, the transition out of our family of origin, expectation setting, and family traditions and rules that may be different from what we’re used...

Today on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen sit down with the hosts of the Pillow Talks Podcast, Vanessa & Xander Marin, to talk all about sex. Vanessa is a licensed psychotherapist with 20 years of experience in the sex therapy field and Xander’s a regular dude who’s been married to a sex therapist for over a decade. They start by normalizing the idea of scheduling sex and explain why it can be re...

On this week's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen sit down with one of Jen’s best friends, Jason Abel. Jason starts by telling embarrassing stories about Jen from growing up, which you don't want to miss. Then, Jason shares his story of coming out as a gay man at age 24 to Jen - the first person that he told. He explains his thought process in telling Jen, how he told his parents, their reac...

Today on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen dive into the topic of forgiveness by explaining the definition of forgiveness and the stages that come along with it. They discuss why forgiveness is for us and not for the other person, the parts of forgiveness that they struggle with, the difference between anger and resentment, and how that resentment can build up (and sometimes explode) if not addressed....