Essential Mental Healing

Send us Fan Mail IT's Therapy Thursday!! A doctor once told Tim McDonald he had three years to live. Tim didn’t accept that as the end of the story, and he didn’t try to “positive-think” his way out of reality either. He got curious, asked harder questions, tracked what his body was doing during chemo, and kept building a plan that matched his goals. What unfolds is a raw, practical conversat...

Send us Fan Mail It's Therapy Thursday!! Survival can be the loudest chapter, but the quiet that comes after is where so many of the real questions hit. We sit down with Nerissa Balland, a therapeutic arts practitioner, visual artist, and the author of Canvas of Courage, to talk about what it means to rebuild your identity after cancer, trauma, grief, or any life-altering change that leaves y...

Send us Fan Mail It's Therapy Thursday! Sex can be joyful, grounding, spiritual, and deeply connecting and it can also be wrapped in pressure, shame, secrecy, and survival. We go there with honesty, starting from everyday body image and self-talk, then opening up a bigger conversation about sexual wellness, boundaries, and what it means to choose intimacy on purpose. We break down abstinence...

Send us Fan Mail IT's Therapy Thursday! You ever catch yourself studying someone else’s life like it’s a map, then feeling behind when your path doesn’t match theirs? We go straight at that pressure and tell the truth: you can learn from other people without trying to copy their journey. Mom and I start with a small moment that turns into a big reset, standing in the kitchen and realizing the...

Send us Fan Mail That moment when you realize you forgot to hit record turns out to be a gift, because it means we start raw and honest. My mom (Janet) and I talk through a real communication slip where stress turned into projection, and we show what repair looks like when you actually listen, apologize, and let the other person be heard. If you’ve ever felt afraid that one argument could break a...

Send us Fan Mail It's Therapy Thursday!! Grief doesn’t always sound like crying. Sometimes it sounds like family showing up, a party continuing, and a teenager feeling joy while the adults carry the weight. Janet and I start with birthdays and end up in the tender places: losing her mother, what it meant to shield the kids from adult grief, and how certain memories stay fresh even 20-plus yea...

Send us Fan Mail it's Therapy Thursday! A locked door at an apartment gym shouldn’t turn into a whole emotional spiral but it can, fast. When a staff member snaps “can you not knock,” Candace feels that familiar heat: the need to be right, the need to be justified, the need for someone to admit they were wrong. Sitting with her mom, Janet Hale, she tells the story honestly, including the mess...

Send us Fan Mail What if the real reason change doesn’t stick is because we’re building on a shaky inner foundation? We sit down with Blaise, a guide who helps growth‑oriented seekers turn spiritual insight into embodied change, to map a path from self-connection to stronger relationships and practical follow-through. His story is raw and hopeful: early derailments, a wake-up into presence, and th...

Send us Fan Mail It's Therapy Thursday! A clear rearview and an open trunk spark a bigger revelation: when life is wide open, you can finally see what’s real. We ride that moment into a heart-to-heart about clarity—the kind that feels like greener grass and easy breath, and the kind that strips away the mask and demands truth. Across five seasons, our mother–daughter duo traces how confidence...

Send us Fan Mail It's Therapy Thursday Ever feel like you’re always “on,” even when nothing is actually wrong? We sit down with former police officer turned intuitive life coach and nervous system specialist Valerie Holden to explore how constant yellow-zone living steals sleep, fuels anxiety, and quietly taxes the body. Valerie shares why calm is a skill, not a mood, and how your presence ca...

Send us Fan Mail It's Therapy Thursday!! What if the most powerful thing you did this year was stop trying to be “soft enough” and started speaking with clean, direct honesty? That’s the energy we bring to a wide-ranging conversation with Lani Gonzales—former attorney turned hypnotherapist—on women’s intuition, subconscious healing, and boundaries that actually hold. We trace Lani’s journey f...

Send us Fan Mail Therapy Thursday What if bravery looked less like a roar and more like a 10-minute habit you actually keep? We sit down with author and educator Renee Zukin to explore radical bravery as a daily practice, not a performance. From quarterly life planning to the tiny wins that keep momentum alive, we unpack how consistency, compassion, and honest conversations reshape mental health i...

Send us Fan Mail A homemade snickerdoodle led to a soul reading, and from there we dove into the kind of healing most of us crave but rarely get: simple, whole, humane. With Julie as our guide, we explore what happens when you stop treating symptoms in isolation and start aligning energy, boundaries, and daily rhythms so your body can finally exhale. She calls herself a healing facilitator for a r...

Send us Fan Mail It's Therapy Thursday!! What if balance isn’t a perfect calendar but a kinder relationship with time? We open up about the tug-of-war between packed days and the deep need to slow down, trading guilt for acceptance and urgency for presence. From missed movie showtimes and overflowing to-do lists to the tender relief of an unhurried conversation, we map the messy terrain where...

Send us Fan Mail It's therapy Thursday!!! A weekend blowup turned into a breakthrough. We start with a raw mother–daughter moment and move straight into a wide-open conversation with the Josephs, a young married couple whose story blends faith, attraction, vision, and a hard pivot from “negative broke” to purpose-driven building. Their last name, Joseph—“increase”—frames everything: why visio...

Send us Fan Mail It's Therapy Thursday!! The air still hums from a room that felt brave enough for everyone. We unpack what happened at our women’s conference where a Muslim practitioner, a Christian voice, and someone who practices magic shared a stage without defensiveness—and why safety, not sameness, made the healing real. The stories that poured out, the tissues that ran thin, and the lo...

Send us Fan Mail It's Therapy Thursday and Season 5 begins! Season five opens with honesty, tears, and a surprising kind of joy. We step straight into the heart of grief and come out with tools you can use: how to honor good memories after a painful divorce, how to receive support you couldn’t accept years ago, and how stillness can surface the truths that keep you stuck. You’ll hear a mother...

Send us Fan Mail It's Therapy Thursday and Season 4's wrap! What if conditions like ADHD, autism, and OCD weren't permanent disabilities but rather brain imbalances that could be corrected? Dr. Robert Melillo, a pioneering functional neurologist with over 30 years of clinical experience and author of eight bestselling books including "Disconnected Kids," joins us to comple...

Send us Fan Mail It's Therapy Thursday Authenticity begins in the mirror, but what happens when the reflection others see doesn't match your self-image? In this deeply reflective conversation, I'm joined by my mother to untangle the complex web of perception, identity, and the courage to be truly seen. We start by examining those uncomfortable moments when we hide parts of ourselves...

Send us Fan Mail It's Therapy Thursday! What happens when life breaks you completely? After losing her teenage son to a violent crime and surviving an attack by a serial killer just months later, Sylvia Moore Myers discovered a profound truth that transformed her understanding of trauma: we aren't designed to heal—we're designed to scar. This realization sparked her journey to becom...

Send us Fan Mail What would our lives look like if we had learned financial literacy from an early age? Sean Lax, who joined us on Essential Mental Healing, answers this question through his remarkable journey from childhood homelessness to successful real estate agent. Sean's story begins in suburban St. Louis where his family embodied the American dream – until they lost everything in 1992....

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever noticed how life seems to move in cycles? That's because there truly is nothing new under the sun. In this soul-nourishing conversation, Janet and Candace explore how ancient patterns repeat throughout our lives while revealing that our unique power lies in how we respond to these timeless challenges. Janet shares her journey back to veganism and how physical no...

Send us Fan Mail Michael Pereira's journey from corporate traveler to autism advocate began when his son Christian started showing developmental concerns around his first birthday. Like many parents, Michael and his wife initially struggled with denial – a phase he now recognizes was rooted in focusing on their own feelings rather than their child's needs. "The extent of denial refl...

Send us Fan Mail Tired of failed relationships? You might be asking one person to fill too many intimacy needs. In this deeply thoughtful episode, relationship expert Tannaz shares her transformative concept of the six intimacy tanks we all have: physical (non-sexual touch), sexual, emotional, experiential, intellectual, and spiritual connection. Instead of expecting a single person to fill every...

Send us Fan Mail It's Therapy Thursday Your screen time is shaping you in ways you might not realize. Every show, movie, and social media scroll leaves an imprint on your mind, influencing everything from your daily thoughts to how you interact with others. Candace and Janet take us on a revealing journey through their personal media consumption habits, examining how what we watch creates a &...