Never Perfect

This is what happens when 3 therapists get together for coffee, and spontaneously invite Beth’s dietician friend Ellie Paulauskaite to join them. Today’s episode is a recording of this fun and informative discussion about body image, fat shaming, and nutrition. Things include societal perceptions around nutrition and body image, emphasizing that being thin does not equate to being healthy. It high...

Today Dr. Beth interviews Jordanne Sculler, a therapist who specializes in relationships, approaching her clients with a “ tough yet compassionate style”.  She challenges her clients to look in the mirror at themselves rather than pointing their finger at others in an effort to “bring the work back to them.” She also challenges the delusion that relationships can be perfect. For her, the heart of...

In relationships, conflict is universal and unavoidable because we all have different viewpoints, opinions, needs and irritable moods and poor affect regulation often exacerbate these issues. Conflict itself is not the problem, but how we manage it can cause the problems. Today Dr. Beth shares several examples of common everyday conflicts and issues. She also includes several examples, including o...

Judith Belmont, best selling author of the TIPS series, has been practicing as a psychotherapist for more than 40 years, has recently published her favorite book with 110 cognitive behavioral therapy tips. It’s called 110 CBT Tips and Tools. Cognitive behavioral therapy is an empirically validated treatment for common mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression. Today Beth and Judith shar...

Alicia Jones, who developed the program Over Fifty Fit & Fabulous, went through some pivotal experiences with her own mental health and the physical health of her loved ones, which lead her to a life, dedicated to healthy living at any age. In her early adulthood, Alicia was motivated to lose weight because she thought it would make her more beautiful or worthy, but eventually she realized that th...

Today Stephen shares his story of living with cerebral palsy, explaining what it is, and what he wishes “normies” understood about it, such as how much mental energy it takes to simply live with pain or maintain physical balance, in the sense of walking without falling. At a young age, his mother instilled in him the importance of working as hard as possible to stay strong, and he describes how th...

After serving as a judge in Los Angeles for 26 years, Anthony pursued his passion for writing and decided to write a book about growing up in a blended family in the 50’s and 60’s, going back-and-forth between his father‘s house and his mother‘s house. He describes “ living in the shadow of two larger than life men”, both of whom mentored and influenced him in distinctive ways. His father was a Ho...

Today Dr. Beth has a fun discussion with her daughter, Cullie, and Cullie‘s boyfriend Bennett, who were both diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder about a year ago. After sharing some of the strengths and weaknesses of individuals with ADD, Beth asks them to share some a little bit about their experience with getting diagnosed, learning struggles, and reflecting on which traits they can and ca...

Today relationship expert Dr. Carol Stoney returns to Never Perfect to deliver more phenomenal nuggets on how to improve relationships and communication. She focuses on the importance of developing agreements on the front end rather than expecting your loved ones to read your mind or do guess work (Dr. Stan Tatkins developed this concept of agreements). Carol brings up a powerful exercise from Dr....

Are your life and work aligned with your purpose? Are your efforts making a positive difference? These are questions posed by Annette Gulick in her latest book. She states “In a world overflowing with options—from which product to buy, to which job to take, and for how long—it can be overwhelming to figure out what truly matters. And even harder to know if our choices will foster our well-being.”...

Today Vanderbilt trained physician Patricia McLelland addresses 10 common questions about menopause and hormones. Topics include how to know when you need hormones, how to decide which hormones to take, the benefits of hormones, the safest way to take them, etc. Patricia approaches medicine from an integrative standpoint, recommending holistic and botanical tools whenever possible. She focuses on...

After raising two daughters with allergies and working in the health and beauty industry for over 20 years, Kim Grustas founded  Good For You Girls, the first clean skincare company for girls in the United States. Kim has spent many years studying puberty and views it as a miraculous phase to be celebrated. Today she shares her views on puberty and how she talks about it with young girls and paren...

Author Sasha Saidman knows what it’s like to have struggles with learning and to question your intelligence. As a person with dyslexia and a high school dropout, Sasha is passionate about helping other individuals with learning disabilities discover their gifts and realize how intelligent they truly are, and embracing themselves as “outside the box thinners.” Today she shares her childhood story o...

Thanks to a conversation about licorice with a dental tech, Dr. Beth got to hear a wonderful story about a young woman’s struggles with severe anxiety. This woman, Erika Derryberry, she how she got her anxiety to a manageable level, from antidepressant medication to EMDR to neurofeedback, meanwhile developing a huge passion for holistic medicine and natural cures. Today Erika shares her story with...

Today Dr. Beth attempts to get some free counseling from her listeners as she processes some recent parenting mistakes in her own family. She discussed some of the components of executive functioning which she, and most parents with ADHD) are lacking in. these include skills, such as decision-making, prioritizing, planning ahead, and organizing. Beth shares a few examples how poor planning can cau...

Years ago, Beth came up with the term “Overfunctioner” and frequently talks about this with clients and friends who tend to overwork, overperform, do more than their share, and frequently have trouble being on the receiving end of things. There are a variety of potential reasons that people overfunction, including perfectionism, childhood trauma, feelings of insecurity or inadequacy, feeling that...

Today Beth records a spontaneous podcast on parenting, and shares her own personal struggles with it, as well a couple of client examples. She summarizes the parenting research on authoritative parenting and illustrates the principles using a fish tank/aquarium. In essence, parenting that is too strict and too much like a dictatorship doesn’t lead to optimal outcomes for children, but permissive a...

In this 10 minute episode, Beth shares a few examples of how perfectionism or overestimating a task/situation can lead to procrastination and all our nothing thinking. A common behavior and anxious, depressed or ADHD individuals is overestimating the difficulty of something and underestimating yourself. Analysis paralysis is similar. Beth shares three examples of this behavior in today’s episode....

In his mid 40s, Jeff Barry, an “oops” baby, became passionate about his life story, the heroes and the villains he’d encountered, and the life lessons along the way. His book “Go to Hell Ole Miss” is clearly a passion project, and one that he couldn’t sit down until he got it almost perfect. An editor told him it was ready to publish about a year into the process, but he spent another seven years...

Today, Beth asks dietitian Ellie, Paulauskaite for her top 10 pieces of nutrition advice. Ellie provides some amazing and simple guidelines to help with a big picture approach to giving our bodies what they need. Her advice includes: 1) eating whole grains instead of refined grains 2) making sure that half of your plate includes veggies and fruits, especially veggies 3) having small amounts of pro...

Chad talks about his journey as an Enneagram Four and coming into his own as an adult, recognizing his tendencies and passions, and how they affected his relationships. As a teenager and young adult, he was reluctant to pursue some of his passions, like poetry, that didn’t seem very welcomed in masculine culture. He also talks about his Enneagram subtype as a Sexual (One to One) type, and the way...

Today Matt Monahan returns for another interview with Dr. Beth, following a great conversation on the Never Perfect Faith podcast on 6/20/24 entitled “Allowing hard questions and honest answers.” So many men find it difficult to face their pain and be vulnerable, and Matt is willing to share his story of growing up with childhood abandonment and emotional neglect. He barely knew his father, and ha...

On today’s episode, Beth, interviews 2 brave and insightful teenagers (clients who are friends with eachother) who are willing to share their battles with mental health issues, body positivity struggles, etc. Charlie and Emie share their process of learning to value their package deal of strengths and weaknesses, managing social stressors and FOMO, discussing the impact of social media with these...

Scottie Bowman is an entrepreneur and restaurant owner today, but 22 years ago, after beginning her recovery from alcohol and drug addiction, she developed a passion for starting a rehabilitation center of some kind so that she could help women like herself. In 2019, her dream finally came true when she and her dream team of friends and colleagues, developed a 12-step based sober living home for w...

Sydney Guerette, founder of the Be The Change Youth Initiative, shares the reasons her family began a quest when she and her brother were teenagers of traveling the country, writing music and speaking to other teenagers about mental health issues and how they can make a difference in their everyday lives. Sydney believes that “all youth should be seen, heard, and loved,” as well as empowered “to b...