The Honest Psychologist

This week the docs take on the topic of ruptures and repairs in therapy. What if your therapists misunderstands you? Says something that upsets you, disagrees with you, challenges you? When should you call it quits and when should you try to work it out. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit honestpsychpod.substack.com...

This week, Whitney is re-reading a classic parenting book that has been helping parents understand their children for decades: Raising Your Spirited Child by Dr. Mary Sheedy Kurcinka. We talk about our own personalities and tendencies, where diagnosis fits in, whether this book should be considered evidence-based, why we think the book has stood the test of time, and more. Dr. Kurcinka’s website:...

This week the docs are inspired by this post by Alex Falcone who says the love languages are a scam. Is there any evidence behind the concept of 5 love languages? Does that matter if it’s helpful to people? If it’s helpful, why is it helpful? And how should people think about expressions of love and caring in their own relationships? This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with oth...

This week the docs couldn’t be more honored to welcome Dr. Edmund Sonuga-Barke, a psychologist and research scientist who has been focused on ADHD for the past 35 years. He tells us where things stand in the field right now, the ways he has diverged from his colleagues on how ADHD is understood and discussed, viewing ADHD as a set of traits on a continuum rather than a diagnosis or disorder, his a...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit honestpsychpod.substack.com This week the docs are letting our listeners in on the trickiest parts of our jobs doing adult ADHD testing. We cover how genetics factors in, the role of childhood development, hidden criteria in the diagnostic manual that are frequently overlooked, other conditions that can mimic ADHD and the false binary o...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit honestpsychpod.substack.com This week, after a DWTS-related cold open, the docs want to clarify what this term has always meant in the field of psychology and child development and how online videos are re-interpreting? this idea. Could you live independently if you lacked object permanence? After the subscriber break: how we went from...

This week the docs get candid about what it’s like to be psychologists in a world where everyone has something to say about psychology. We talk about what happens when popular conversations get diagnoses wrong, how culture shapes the way we understand mental illness, how and why psychology is such a popular topic and feels like it belongs to everyone, resisting the urge to “well, actually…” everyo...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit honestpsychpod.substack.com Paige is on vacation this week, so Whitney is flying solo…and summer is taking its toll on her. Have you been feeling forgetful, disorganized, or like you’re hanging on by a thread? You’re not alone. In this episode, Whitney breaks down executive functioning, what it is, why it’s much more than being organize...

In another what-we’re-thinking-about-this-week episode, the docs revisit the topic of the Big 5 Personality factors, also known as the Five Factor Model of Personality. Where do you fall on a continuum for each of these traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and (the unfortunately named) neuroticism? Could variations in this set of universal traits do a better job of exp...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit honestpsychpod.substack.com This week the docs go deep on concept creep. We look at work by Australian researcher Nick Haslam that questions how expanding definitions of harm-related concepts have influenced our perception of worsening mental health. From his most recent article, linked below (2026): “In essence, cultural changes, some...

In the third installment of our trauma series, the docs bring the discussion of trauma into the present. Paige gives us some fascinating research from the world of social psychology. We look at how the term “trauma” gets used in different ways, concept creep, adverse childhood experiences (ACE’s), The Body Keeps the Score , how social media reflects (often inaccurate) representations of trauma, ho...

This week Dr. Graff takes Dr. Hover on a thrilling ride through history, with brief mentions of: The Odyssey and the ancient Greeks, Victorian psychiatric culture, Freud’s contemporaries, hypnosis and suggestibility, the birth of personal injury lawsuits, and the re-emergence of certain ideas in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Mentioned in this episode: The Memory Hole Podcast hosted by Jana Martin: https:...

Welcome to Part 1 of our much anticipated trauma series! This week the docs breakdown what we (psychologists) mean when we say “trauma,” why it’s important to have a definition of this term, what it really means to have a trauma-related disorder, and what the research shows about trauma recovery and resilience. Stay tuned for Part 2, where we look at the origins of the idea of psychological trauma...

We are excited to bring you 3 new episodes, all on the subject of trauma: what the term means and how we define it, how our thinking on trauma has evolved over time, what the current research offers us, and where we see this is media and everyday life. Stay tuned! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit honestpsychpod.su...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit honestpsychpod.substack.com This week the docs take a look at how we treat each other in the fields of mental health and psychology. We want to know why we can be so accepting towards our patients and so harsh towards our colleagues. We notice that there are vastly different ways of practicing, assumptions underlying our practices, and...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit honestpsychpod.substack.com In this episode, the docs take on the history and research support for the chemical imbalance theory of depression. We review a large-scale research article from 2022 and a book based on that article as well as some responses to those publications. Subscribe to hear the last part of the episode where we get i...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit honestpsychpod.substack.com This week the docs are on their own and discussing what’s been on their minds lately. We ask why therapists seem desperate for clients if regular people can’t find therapists, how does anyone know what kind of therapy they need, how big is autism right now, how to think about being a sensitive person, and whe...

This week Whitney shares a little preview of an upcoming talk. The docs dig into functional understandings of behavior: the idea that everything we do has a payoff, even when it looks like it's working against us. Understanding what a behavior does for you is the first step to having more choice about it. We examine our own awkwardness to help YOU! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discus...

Many of us have likely seen the headlines about the vast array of species delineated as Emotional Support Animals (peacocks, snakes, and emus to name a few). Today the docs discuss emotional support animals (ESAs) and the role that mental health providers play, specifically letters of support and evaluations needed for an animal to qualify as an ESA. Since the guidelines about this are currently s...

In this episode, the docs are excited to welcome Dr. Elliott Conklin to unpack a growing trend in mental health: everything getting rebranded as “brain-based.” From polyvagal theory to neuroscience-laced explanations, mental health has become obsessed with the nervous system. But is any of this actually improving care? We dig into what’s driving this shift, where it goes off track, and what gets l...

This week the docs are excited to welcome Dr. Mara Whiteside. She is a board-certified pediatric neuropsychologist who recently made a strong impression at the American Psychological Association conference along with two colleagues presenting insights on mental health-related social media content. Did you know that almost three quarters of the top #autism videos on TikTok displayed information tha...

This week the docs are concerned about trends in how stimulant medication is discussed and used without prescriptions, so we consulted the research. We discuss the actual effects of the medication, investigate whether they will improve your grades, your intelligence, or your problem-solving abilities, the implications for mood, and what all this means for people at different stages of life. Resear...

Today the docs welcome Dr. Monika Sharma, who has spoken and written about her experience as the owner of a group psychotherapy practice participating in insurance networks. She discusses the particulars and behind-the-scenes details of being in-network therapists, including insurance audits, clawbacks, coding, diagnoses, and more. We end on a hopeful note with some new legislative efforts aimed a...

This week, the docs tackle a deceptively big question: what even is therapy? The duration of therapy in many ways depends on what the point of it was in the first place. Is it treatment? Personal growth? Life improvement? We dig into the ethics of long-term therapy, the incentive structures that can make clients (and clinicians!) uneasy, how therapists can support a thoughtful and ethical terminat...

This week the docs are in it to help you find a good therapist. Where should you start? How do you know who’s a good fit? Does the brand of therapy matter? When you reach out, does no one call you back? We have ideas. Also discussed: dogs and zoomies, books we’re reading right now, favorite biopics and memoirs, why you should go to the movies, and Whitney is working on a couple upcoming podcast to...