Checking In with Dr. Therese Mascardo

You’ve done everything right. You’ve hit the milestones, built the life, checked the boxes. And joy still feels like it’s somewhere just ahead of you — one more goal, one more accomplishment, one more thing away. This is the Season 2 Finale of Checking In. This is the episode that ties together everything we talked about during this season. Joy is not what most high achievers think it is. It’s not...

You’re not bad with money. But you do avoid opening your bank account. You let the bills pile up. You change the subject when finances come up because not knowing feels safer than looking. And underneath all of that is a shame spiral that’s been running so long it just feels like who you are. The real issue isn’t your habits. It’s that your money story was formed before you were old enough to ques...

When the Artemis 2 crew went viral, millions of people lost their minds. That same obsession — the kind Ted Lasso, Tabitha Brown, and Dolly Parton spark in us — has a name. It’s called hopecore. It restores our faith in humanity. And the fact that we’re all consumed by it right now tells us something important about our mental health. In this episode, Dr. Therese breaks down the psychology behind...

You try to be a good person. And then you look up at the men who have all the power, all the money, all the platforms — who lie and cheat and manipulate without consequence — and you think: why am I even trying? We are living in a crisis of character. Dr. Therese breaks down how we got here, why character is so important, and what we can do to begin making things right in a broken world. In This E...

The Burnout Cure High Achievers Are Finding in the Analog World w/ Salomé Peralta You’ve probably tried the rest. The better sleep schedule. The morning routine. Maybe even the therapy. And they’ve helped. But there’s something this particular kind of burnout is asking for that none of those things quite reach — and it has everything to do with what you stopped doing somewhere between childhood an...

You’ve been told it’s just IBS. You’ve been told to manage it. You’ve been handed a pamphlet and sent home. What nobody told you: 90 to 95% of your serotonin is produced in your gut. Your gut is 70% of your immune system. And when you’ve been living in chronic stress — which, if you’re a high achiever, is most of your adult life — your body has literally been shutting down your digestion to surviv...

People pleasers and perfectionists are experts at softening their truth. But staying silent has a cost — in your relationships, your creativity, and how connected you feel to your own life. This week, poet David Gate joins Dr. Therese to talk about what it actually looks like to speak honestly without disclaimers, why beauty and friendship are the antidotes to despair, and why loneliness is the ep...

Are You Building the Wrong Life? Jodie Cook on Designing Your Life on Purpose I'll be honest with you — Jodie Cook is one of the most incredible people I've ever met. And not because of the accolades, though she has plenty. It's because the way she lives life is genuinely unconventional, and just plain better. You can feel it when you're around her. She has become extraordinarily talented at one s...

Ever plan the perfect vacation and find yourself completely unable to actually be on it? You’re by the pool, everyone else has their book and their little umbrella drink, and you’re color-coding a restaurant itinerary because sitting still makes your skin crawl. Or maybe it’s not a vacation. Maybe it’s any quiet moment — a Saturday morning, a slow evening, a rare free afternoon — and instead of re...

Ever find yourself at 1 AM, phone in hand, thinking: how did this happen again? I’m a psychologist. I literally know better. And I still do it. That’s actually how I opened this conversation with Dr. Alison Kole — because I think the shame spiral around sleep is one of the most underrated things keeping high achievers stuck. We’re good at so many hard things. And somehow sleep, this thing we’ve be...

Ever feel so paralyzed by what’s happening in the world that you can’t do the most basic things — work, sleep, work out, function? Like you’re watching yourself not be the version of you that you’re used to being, and then feeling bad about that on top of everything else? That was me when I was supposed to be recording this episode. I wrote it. And then I just couldn’t do ANYTHING. For days I didn...

Ever feel like you’re doing everything right but still not okay? Like you’re setting boundaries, going to therapy, doing all the work… and you still wake up some mornings wondering if any of it’s actually working? Here’s what nobody tells you about building your dream life: you can do everything right and still feel like you’re not making progress. In this season finale, psychologist Dr. Therese M...

Here’s what nobody tells you about grief: you can do every single thing right and still feel like you’re failing at it. In this deeply personal episode, psychologist Dr. Therese Mascardo draws on both her clinical expertise and her own experience as a suicide loss survivor to explain complex grief: what it actually is, how it differs from typical grief, and why high achievers often struggle with i...

I’m 43 years old. I’m a licensed clinical psychologist. I literally work with people who have ADHD every single day. And I just figured out I have it. Not because I struggled in school (I loved school). Not because I can’t focus (I hyperfocus all the time). But because I constantly feel overwhelmed with my to do list, I’m always trying to do 5 things at the same time, and because I lose friends wh...

If you’ve ever deleted a text asking for help three times because asking feels like admitting you’re a fraud, this episode is for you. Psychologist Dr. Therese Mascardo explains why high-achievers struggle to ask for help and gives you 6 practical strategies to actually get better at it without feeling like you’re destroying your entire identity. You’ll learn why asking for help feels like identit...

What do you do when you’ve achieved everything you thought you wanted and you’re still standing at the edge? TV host and author AJ Gibson had interviewed Hollywood’s A-list on red carpets (including Lady Gaga!) and built a successful career. And he still sat in his bathroom looking out a tenth-floor window, seriously considering jumping. The nation’s first LGBTQ+ morning talk radio show he hosted?...

If you've ever felt like you don't know who you are outside of what you've achieved, this episode is for you. Psychologist Dr. Therese Mascardo explains the 4 warning signs that show you've lost yourself in your achievements and exactly how to build a sense of self that isn't dependent on external validation. You'll learn how to rediscover who you were before you learned to perform for love, how t...

Setting Boundaries for People Pleasers: Why You Feel Guilty & What to Do Instead If you've tried setting boundaries before but they crumbled the moment someone pushed back, this episode is for you. Psychologist Dr. Therese Mascardo explains the 4 reasons boundaries feel impossible and exactly what to do instead. You'll learn how to set boundaries that protect your peace without destroying your rel...

Sometimes shame runs so deep that the usual fixes—like getting vulnerable or sharing your story—just don’t work. In this conversation, psychologist Dr. Therese Mascardo sits down with psychotherapist and author Dr. Zoe Shaw ( Stronger in the Difficult Places ) to unpack complex shame : why it lingers, why “share and be seen” isn’t always enough, and what real healing looks like. You’ll learn the d...

Why can't I feel happy lately? If you've tried journaling, gratitude lists, or self-care Sundays and still feel stuck, this one's for you. In this episode, I'm breaking down the four hidden blocks keeping even the most self-aware people from joy: expectations, destination anxiety, core wounds, and comparison. Then I'll share three "joy-adjacent" practices (presence, gratitude, and acceptance) that...

You’re not broken — adult friendship really is harder now. In this episode, psychologist Dr. Therese Mascardo explains four barriers making friendship difficult — no built-in structure, initiative anxiety, impatience with the process, and self-doubt — and exactly what helps, so you can build the connections you’ve been missing. You’ll learn why adult friendship changed, what gets in the way, and h...

Most self-help podcasts talk at you. This one sits with you. You know how sometimes you wish you could just call up your therapist when you're having a moment? When you're overthinking something, feeling stuck, or just need someone who gets it to remind you that you're going to be okay? That's what this podcast is. I'm Dr. Therese Mascardo, a Filipino-American psychologist and author of Love The J...