Conversations With a Wounded Healer

Look for the helpers. It's a simple axiom meant to comfort small children, a reminder to find supportive adults in times of distress. But good advice doesn't stop being good just because we've aged out of the original target audience. Adults need helpers, too. David Allen is an absolute gem of a helper, an art director turned tattoo artist who works with post-mastectomy clients in Chicago. While b...

If you work inside a group practice, why do you stay? And if you lead a group practice, do you know why your employees stay? Or… why they don't? Jennifer Fromel is a bilingual mental health clinician with over 30 years of experience across various clinical and supervisory settings, specializing in trauma, evidence-based interventions, and integrative therapy approaches. She is actively involved in...

Ready to dive into artificial intelligence in the therapy space?! Steve Duke, founder of The Hemingway Group, is back for part two of our conversation. Steve helps us think more purposefully about how we can AI-proof the relational component of therapy while acknowledging that the tech may make other aspects of the job easier, like note-taking. GUEST BIO Steve Duke (he/him) is the founder of The H...

How are y'all doing while the United States (specifically) plummets into political, social, and economic freefall? Therapists are freaking tf out right with good reason. We're at a tipping point in the evolution of our field, especially when it comes to the rapid ascendancy of venture capital, consolidation, and technology––those AI chatbots lurking and learning in the digital shadows.  I sound th...

How do you support group practice employees to feel connected, engaged, and motivated? HINT: It might have something to do with building the capacity to receive and act on feedback. Mirjam Quinn (she/her) is a licensed clinical psychologist and the founder of Mirjam Quinn and Associates, a group practice in Chicago that provides affirming therapy, testing, and teaching to people 3 - 104 in Chicago...

"I thought I knew what this conversation might be like. I had all my worries, concerns, and anticipations of what might be brought up––and it didn't go that way," laughs Heather Lovegood.  Intrigued??  Check out part one, and then come back here for the conclusion of my conversation with Heather, a holistic bodyworker and lymphatic drainage expert who provides healing-centered, trauma-trained serv...

I'm a firm believer in the connectedness of everything. Healing happens at the intersection of spirituality, science, and Indigenous wisdom. Sure, each principle can (and has!) exist in its own sphere, but the true magic is in the mix. Heather Lovegood agrees. She's a holistic bodyworker and lymphatic drainage expert who provides healing-centered, trauma-trained services to clients in Chicago. She...

How do we bridge the divide between practice owners and employees in the therapy field to create better healing environments for everyone?  Discover how innovation, open communication, and shared values can transform group practices, resulting in a culture of connection. Group Practice (R)evolution is a new platform and podcast series offering insights from owners, employees, and experts, and reso...

Leadership is lonely, y'all. It's also hella rewarding. Cara Chae, LCPC, knows this duality all too well. She's working on finding (and holding!) the balance between the two––an evolutionary pursuit that resonates with many.  GUEST BIO Cara Chae , LCPC, (she/her) is a psychotherapist working in a group private practice in Chicago. Her professional interests include working with issues related to A...

Cue the klieg lights and gift bags because THIS episode marks the seventh anniversary of Conversations With A Wounded Healer! Major thanks to everyone from the OG fans to the newbies. I couldn't do it without you, which is the perfect segue to today's episode. Cara Chae, LCPC, is a psychotherapist at Inner Voice Psychotherapy, a group private practice in Chicago. She focuses on issues related to a...

If you missed Part One of my conversation with sociocracy expert Ted Rau, PhD., hit play on that episode now. You won't be disappointed, nor will you want to miss our introduction to sociocracy, the decentralized way for organizations, workplaces, and communities to make decisions.  In Part Two, Ted and I expand on how sociocracy might work in the group practice environment and how the fundamental...

Change may be inevitable, but it's far from easy. That's especially true in the therapy field. Part of my own shift is a greater focus (on this podcast and IRL) on system-wide transformation, especially in the group practice realm. How do we bridge the gap between employees and owners when both feel overworked and underpaid?  Sociocracy could be the answer. But first, what the heck is sociocracy?...

In the words of my esteemed co-host, Anne Remy, "There's a difference between an elder and a person who is older than you." Judith Lewis Herman, MD, is wise––a psychiatrist, professor, researcher, author, and advocate who helped establish the diagnosis of PTSD back before many of us were born. In addition to her work with veterans and children, Judith fundamentally altered the discourse around wom...

There's no denying that our systems and selves are at a crossroads. So, my fellow therapists, will we accept the universe's invitation to evolve, or will the profession regress beyond the point of no return?  Ki Smith believes in the potential of the collective to transform and transcend our current fractured moment. They're a psychotherapist, coach, mediator, and facilitator of power-conscious no...

Let's play fill-in-the-blank: Sex is _____ . The possibilities are endless! But, my word of choice is intimate. It's a perfect shorthand for the spectrum of desires, experiences, and, yes, traumas that inform every sexual encounter––even if the act in question is fake. As in: part of an acclaimed Hollywood film in which sex represents the main character's evolving agency.   Intimacy Coordinator El...

Oh, fellow therapists, how I love you! That said, I'm super-concerned about our capacity to move through interpersonal challenges exacerbated by, among other things, a volatile election season. My question is: How do we model being with folks outside the profession––even those we disagree with––if we can't make space for complexities of thought and motivation within our own community? Marc Mathys...

Self-care is a basic human right. Sadly, intuitive healing practices like acupuncture are often dismissed, especially in Western society, as woo-woo or pseudoscientific time-wasters. Thank goodness for practitioners like the delightful Jo Darling in Brighton, UK!  Jo is passionate about women's health and healing, and she's also co-host Anne Remy's acupuncturist, so we'll finally get to the core o...

Discomfort doesn't automatically denote danger. Identifying the difference and holding those nuances takes practice. Let this episode be part of the lesson plan. Deborah Ooten, PhD., is the founder/director of the Conscious Living Center, and she's the first person to successfully merge the teachings of the Enneagram with the Spiral Dynamics evolutionary model.  I'm a fan of both models; my co-hos...

Disclaimer: No! Anne's conversation isn't with that Alex Jones. Instead, it's with Alex Jones, the creator of Humans of Brighton And Hove, an Instagram account featuring candid street photos and stories of folks in the UK's eclectic, beloved seaside village.  While Alex's photography is stunning, the captions create a broader community of compassion. They're real, raw glimpses into the subject's w...

If you're one of the 43 million Americans currently living under the crushing weight of student loan debt, that's by design, not personal failure. Under our late-stage capitalist system, the cost of a college degree has far outpaced the wages offered to pay for it.  Tiffany Konyen, a Doctoral Candidate in the Anthropology and Social Change department at the California Institute of Integral Studies...

Independent bookshops are magical places. But building that mix of quiet corners and convivial community doesn't come without a lot of sweat equity. Indie bookshops thrive because of the booksellers behind them, real live humans who concentrate on more than just commerce.  Carolynn Bain, founder, and owner of Afrori Books in Brighton, UK, is "that" indie bookseller, an award-winning entrepreneur w...

With the amount of time folks invest in their news feeds, social scrolls, podcasts, and hot-takes, you'd think we'd have a better grasp on "the whole picture." But we only operate with a partial perspective regardless of the situation or issue. This universal truth pushes many of us toward the false comfort of binary thinking. Podcast host and Professor of Criminal Justice at Plymouth State Univer...

If you like your woo-woo grounded in modern scientific understanding, this convo is for you!  Khaled ElSherbini, PhD, is the founder of Consciousness Academy (CA), the leading IEA-accredited Enneagram school located on the Sinai Peninsula, which is, coincidentally, a place that three of the world's major religions (Islam, Judaism, and Christianity) believe holds spiritual significance.  CA quickly...

After 18 episodes featuring conversations with burnt-out (and not burnt-out) practice owners and some of their employees, I've got survey responses that prove we can band together to form the practices we desperately want to participate in. But, owners, we gotta have a chat… Employees feel underpaid, undervalued, and undersupported, while a lot of practice owners feel underappreciated and overwhel...

There's a universal truth that goes something like this: To get where we're going, it's a good idea to examine where we've been. I'll add that it's also in our best interest to chat up the elders. Charlotte Sills, MA, MSc, is a psychotherapist in private practice in the UK and also an elder with intelligence and foresight to spare, literal textbooks worth of knowledge, as her conversation with co-...