Therapy on the Cutting Edge

In this episode, Kara speaks about her work with couples who are struggling with addiction. She discussed obtaining a family systems training in a couples and family clinic in Montreal, and then moving to an outpatient clinic in Vancouver for individual’s struggling with addiction. She explained that many of the clients wanted to bring in their partner and/or family members, so she turned to the r...

In this episode, Oona discusses how she went through her own divorce a number of years ago and found that there were not that many resources for women. After moving through her own divorce and becoming resettled, she started running groups for women going through divorce and has run numerous groups over the years. She shared that through working with many women, she began to find patterns and them...

In this episode, Alicia discusses her work with Dialectical Behavior Therapy and Radically Open DBT. She explains that she was first exposed to DBT in her predoctoral internship at Marin General Hospital, where part of the rotation was to run a DBT group and fell in love with its practicality and giving people real tools they could take away. She explained that it was great to see clients using th...

In this episode, Alecia explores the critical intersection of women's mental health, ADHD, and reproductive psychiatry—an area where science is only beginning to catch up with women's lived experiences. Alecia's journey into psychiatry began in Sacramento, California, where she witnessed profound disparities in healthcare access across diverse communities. After seeing loved ones struggle with bot...

In this episode, I speak with psychologist Kenneth Perlmutter about his work with wounded family systems and how his background shaped his therapeutic approach. Kenneth shared that he originally planned to go to medical school but switched to journalism, then worked in advertising in San Francisco in the 1980s. During that time, he worked with a therapist who made a profound impact on him, which u...

In this episode, I speak with Peter about his work on narcissism and its place within the broader spectrum of personality disorders. He shares that when he was in graduate school for literature, he was required to participate in a course of psychotherapy—an experience that sparked his interest in the field and eventually led him to pursue clinical training. Peter explains that he became increasing...

In this episode, I speak with Matt about his work with veterans, PTSD and his research on AI's ability to diagnose mental health disorders. Matt explained that he got into the field of psychotherapy after being a patient, working through his own issues after being in the Marines. He found the process very helpful and went on to become a therapist and initially worked with unhoused populations, psy...

In this episode, Fred discusses how in college he got very interested in spiritual questions and read books, learned how to meditate, thought a lot about deeper meaning and opened a vegetarian restaurant in Santa Cruz. After having his first child, he went to graduate school and decided to do his dissertation on the topic of forgiveness, which was something that he struggled with in his own life,...

In this episode, Jeff Greenwald—world champion tennis player, licensed therapist, and sports psychology consultant—offers a rare glimpse into the intersection of clinical therapy and high-performance coaching. Jeff highlights how anxiety has become the predominant struggle both inside and outside of sport, often crippling athletes and families alike. Drawing on nearly three decades of experience,...

In this episode, Michelle discussed how she grew up in a dysfunctional family, and as a child and adolescent, she was always trying to figure it out and understanding why this is happening. She said it wasn’t until she got into recovery from food addiction and codependency, did she get the principles for living that she didn't learn growing up, and this inspired her to become a therapist to help o...

In this episode, I speak with Rachel about using Energy Psychology (EP) and Sound Healing (SH) in her psychotherapy work. Rachel describes how she was originally trained psychodynamically and had been in psychodynamic therapy herself. After Rachel learned about EP from her acupuncturist she pursued training in the approach, and found it was very effective with clients. She also worked with an EP p...

In this episode, I speak with Nigel about his work with Integrative Attachment Therapy (IAT). He discusses how his studies with Dan Siegel, M.D. and his meditation training in the Tibet Bon Dzongchen, led him to be very interested in what is a “mind”, how it works, what its about, and how ti develops. He discussed how attachment is the basis for the development of the mind, which we create "bottom...

In this episode, I speak with Peter about his work with “last chance couples” -- couples on the brink of separation who are putting in potentially one final effort in therapy. Peter first gives us a history of how he began specializing in this demographic of couples, the cornucopia of therapeutic models he brings into his work, and the particular challenges these types of couples pose to the thera...

In this episode, I speak with Chandra about her path into trauma-informed work with young children and their caregivers. Raised in San Francisco by parents who worked in child welfare, Chandra was exposed early to stories of trauma and healing. Before age 7, several of her friends lost their parents to cancer, which inspired her to become a doctor. In high school, during an internship on a pediatr...

In this episode, Heather discusses her background and how she came to working with couples in therapy. She discussed how usually, when a partner in a couple has significant PTSD, it is recommended that each do individual therapy, but as she discussed, that doesn’t mean the couple doesn’t continue to struggle in their relationship. She shared how in her research with couples, where one person was a...

In this episode, I speak with Karen Sprinkel Ancelet about her path to integrating trauma-informed, psychedelic-assisted therapy into her clinical practice. Karen shares how, early in her career, she worked with families whose loved ones had been murdered by a serial killer. She found that the models she had been trained in were not enough to address the profound spiritual trauma her clients exper...

In this episode, I speak with Sam about his career and what lead him to become an Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy trainer, teaching EFT in The United States and throughout Latin America, S​pain and the Caribbean. Sam discussed how his clients lead him to EFT when, although he had trained in multiple models of couples therapy, his clients were saying they felt like the therapy wasn’t going deep...

In this episode, I sit down with Zenobia Morrill, Ph. D., who shares her journey into psychotherapy—from a personal confrontation with existential truth to navigating her family’s intergenerational pain. Dr. Morrill reflects on her early experiences as a therapy client, where she encountered traditional frameworks that often fell short, approaches that pathologized pain while ignoring the broader...

​In this episode, Laney discusses her experience learning about eye movements from taking a training in Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR). After trying it one time she then found a way to be as direct and quick as possible, which she called Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART). She discusses her approach to utilizing ART to help clients rescript past negative images and narratives....

In this episode, I speak with Alex about his career working with addiction. While there are countless resources for substance-related issues—such as drug, alcohol, and sex addiction—he noticed a striking lack of support when it came to process addictions related to technology use. He shared how he connected with and learned from Dr. Hilarie Cash, founder of reSTART, a pioneering treatment program...

In this episode, I speak with Matt about his evolution as a therapist, researcher, and founder of New Harbinger Publications. Originally trained in Gestalt therapy, Matt transitioned to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) after discovering its effectiveness in addressing his own anxiety—and its ability to offer more structured tools for change. From there, his work expanded into third-wave CBTs lik...

In this episode, I speak with Bill Miller about his road to developing Motivational Interviewing. Bill explained that he started off heading into pastoral ministry but instead chose to be trained as a clinical psychologist. His behavioral PhD program required a two-semester course on how to work with clients before engaging in behavior therapy, and that's where he was introduced to Carl Rogers and...

In this episode, Judye discusses growing up in a family where her father was a psychoanalyst and became interested in the field. In graduate school, she became interested in family therapy, and worked at a youth guidance center in Massachusetts, but didn’t find working with children and play to be a way she really wanted to work. Her supervisor had trained at the Ackerman Institute in New York Cit...

In this episode, Haim discusses his extensive experience providing group and being an early adopter of group therapy in 2006, which lead to his work on the effectiveness of telehealth. He discussed how in 1995 he started an internet forum called GP Listserv which now consists of 400 group therapists from all over the world who join together to discuss group therapy. Haim talked about his group ana...

In this episode, Michael discusses his work in therapy, resilience research, and helping people find diverse systems to support their well-being. Michael explains how he became interested in predictions of psychopathology and pathways to adolescent well-being through resilience and advocacy. Throughout his early career, he noticed how there had been greater efforts to suppress disorders, but these...