ShrinkChicks

On this week's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen bring you the third and final part of the in-laws series! They start the episode off by discussing some DMs received from mothers-in-law about their daughters-in-law and shed some light on the roles we all play in this complicated dynamic. Emmalee and Jen answer your questions about in-laws using guilt as a form of manipulation, what to do if...

*Trigger Warning:* We discuss suicidal ideation in today's episode. If you are dealing with suicidal thoughts, please know that you're not alone. There are so many options and resources out there for you.  Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Dial or Text 988 Today on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen have the pleasure of sitting down with Jenny Weinar, LCSW! Jenny is trained in Ketamine Assisted Psychother...

On this week's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are taking us through the different stages of romantic relationships: from the beginning stages of dating, to the end of the honeymoon phase, to moving in together, getting married, having kids, to becoming empty nesters. They discuss the insecurity that comes with the early stages of dating, the worry about being seen as “needy” at the start...

Today on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen dive into part two of their in-laws series! The focus this week is all about setting boundaries with in-laws and where to begin when doing so. Emmalee and Jen answer your questions about  HOW  to set healthy boundaries, what to do when your partner still consults their parents about big life decisions, how to discuss in-law issues with your significant other,...

This week on ShrinkChicks, we present part one of our multi-part in-laws series! Emmalee and Jen kick off the series by answering your questions about conflict & confrontation with your in-laws. They answer questions like: why are mothers-in-laws so triggering? They also speak on how to prepare for in-laws, what to do when your partner won't speak up to their parents, how to handle a deceitful...

On today's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are joined by one of their amazing clinicians, Natalia Addona, LPCC! Natalia is a therapist at The Therapy Group and works with clients residing in California and Florida. The three of them dive into the term "people pleasing," their own experiences in "recovery" from being people pleasers, and answer your questions about it! They touch on topics...

Today on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen break down the buzz term "the mental load" AKA cognitive labor! They discuss gender roles and how the mental load has historically fallen on women, the overfunctioning/underfunctioning dynamic in relationships and what these terms mean and look like, the mental load falling onto the person who cares more, being the default parent and how to divide the mental...

On today's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen have the honor of sitting down with the brilliant Dr. Alexandra Solomon! Dr. Solomon is a therapist, author, teacher, fellow podcast host and relationship expert! They start the episode off by talking about the challenges and nuances of Instagram and TikTok therapy. They then ask Dr. Solomon about the class she teaches at Northwestern University ...

This week on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are thrilled to have a listener favorite guest, and one of their mentors, Terry Real, back on the podcast to tell us all about his new book:  Us: Getting Past You and Me to Build a More Loving Relationship.  Terry shares some stories and concepts from the book, how Bruce Springsteen writing the forward of "Us" came to be, the difference between “us” vs. “...

On today’s episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen share their expertise on how to repair after a rupture in our relationships a.k.a. how to make up after a fight, disagreement, or argument. They discuss why rupture is inevitable in all of our relationships, why being "right" doesn't matter, why tit for tat can be harmful, how to hold onto ourselves when the other person is dysregulated, whether...

This week on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are talking all about emotional boundaries, starting off by defining emotional boundaries and where to begin when setting them. They discuss separating our emotions from others' emotions, how to recognize when you need to do so, and the importance of tone and context. Emmalee and Jen answer your questions like: how to set emotional boundaries when working...

On today’s episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen answer one of our most popular listener questions: how to ask for what you need! They discuss why it can be so hard to ask for what you need, how to begin learning what you need, and give us tangible steps to do so. Emmalee and Jen share how they learned what it was they needed through trial and error, why our childhood experiences can play a big...

On today’s episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are joined by one of The Therapy Group's wonderful therapists, JoAnne Hanson, LMFT! JoAnne is not only a therapist but also an energy healer. Emmalee and Jen talk to JoAnne about WTF energy healing is, her journey to becoming an energy healer, integrating energy healing into traditional talk therapy, what it was like for JoAnne growing up as a hi...

On today’s episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen cover the topic of rejection. They start the episode off by addressing a listener question that asks “how to get over rejection?” The hard truth is that rejection is inevitable - and so they give us all tangible ways to learn to deal with rejection and the feelings that accompany it. Emmalee and Jen discuss rejection’s connection to shame and emb...

This week, Emmalee and Jen talk about their bread and butter: couples therapy! As Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists, couples therapy is one of their favorite topics to demystify. They start by discussing the stigma behind couples therapy and why they wholeheartedly believe in it - from both sides of the couch - because relationships are  hard!!  They talk about when a couple should seek out...

On today's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are joined by their wonderful Astrologer, Natalie Levin! Natalie shares her expertise with us and starts off with some Astrology 101. She explains what a birth chart is (i.e. sun, moon, and rising signs) and why some people don't feel aligned with their astrological sign. She then does a deep dive into Emmalee and Jen's charts, individually, and...

This week on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen cover one of your most requested topics: expectations. They discuss expectations in our romantic relationships, friendships, and with our family members as well as grieving unmet expectations and change and how to categorize this type of grief. They talk about how magical thinking and toxic positivity can play a role in our expectations, realistic vs. unr...

On today’s episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen have the pleasure of sitting down with Mac Stanley Cazeau, LMHC ( @talk2mac_therapist ) to talk all about relationships, communication, infidelity, and affair recovery. Mac owns a private practice called  Therapy is for Everyone  and primarily works with couples recovering from an affair. He shares his insight with us on how to communicate our ne...

At the end of every episode, Emmalee and Jen always say: "to grow yourself, you gotta know yourself" but what does that really mean? This week on ShrinkChicks, Em and Jen break down their tagline and explain where to start when getting to know yourself. They discuss specific questions to guide us on this journey, how indecisiveness plays a role in knowing ourselves, internal self vs. external self...

This week on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are joined by Kail Lowry and Vee Rivera, hosts of the Baby Mamas No Drama Podcast! If you watched Teen Mom 2, you know that Kail and Vee’s relationship started off rocky, but today, Emmalee and Jen learn about their journey from hating each other, to co-parenting, to hosting a podcast together. They discuss the effect that being on reality TV has had on t...

On today's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen dive into one of their most requested topics: Jealousy! They start off by discussing jealousy as a controversial emotion, the difference between jealousy and envy, why jealousy is a very normal emotion, and the reaction to jealousy vs. the emotion of jealousy. Emmalee and Jen each share the last time they felt jealous or envious and why. They rec...

Today on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen explain the term "Radical Acceptance," which comes from a therapeutic modality called DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy). They discuss the difference between radical acceptance and invalidating our feelings, how to work towards this kind of acceptance, building up our distress tolerances, how many of us were taught to resist our emotions, toxic positivity, wh...

This is ShrinkChicks 100th episode!! Thank you to all of the listeners - both old and new - for helping the show get to this point! Today, Emmalee and Jen reflect on this exciting milestone and laugh about the things that have changed over the past two years. They then answer your questions in a fan favorite, Q&A style episode. These questions include: how to mentally prepare before having kid...

This week's episode combines Emmalee and Jen's love for therapy and the Disney movie, Encanto, by discussing how Encanto so perfectly depicts family systems. Emmalee and Jen tell us about common, family roles we take on like the “caretaker” or the “scapegoat," how these roles can serve us and be reinforced externally, the story your family tells about you vs. what your story actually is, how traum...

Today's episode of ShrinkChicks is a follow up to the episode from a few weeks ago: Does Sibling Rivalry Ever End. There were so many sibling/birth order specific listener questions, so Emmalee and Jen wanted to answer them for you, today! Some questions and topics they discuss include: can sibling birth order affect you outside of the family dynamic? Why siblings can be so competitive with one an...