Delve Psych

The Delve Podcast

Health EN ↓ 59 episodes

The Delve Podcast is dedicated to exploring deeper approaches to mental wellness and the craft of psychotherapy.

Author

Delve Psych

Episodes

Job Loss and Identity 05.07.2026 42:50

--Media Links-- website: delvepsych.com instagram: @delvepsychchicago youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DelvePsych20 substack: https://delvepsych.substack.com/ --Participants-- Ali McGarel Adam W. Fominaya --Overview of Big Ideas-- Work can become more than an activity: it can function as identity, status, financial security, social connection, purpose, and proof of competence. Losing a job can th...

Making Friends as an Adult: Initiative, Vulnerability, and Showing Up 28.06.2026 42:32

--Media Links-- website: delvepsych.com instagram: @delvepsychchicago youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DelvePsych20 substack: https://delvepsych.substack.com/ --Participants-- Ali McGarel Adam W. Fominaya --Overview of Big Ideas-- Making friends as an adult rarely happens passively. Without the built-in proximity of school, friendship requires deliberate action. Initiating more often does not nec...

Powerlessness Is a Feeling, Not a Fact 18.06.2026 33:40

--Media Links-- website: delvepsych.com instagram: @delvepsychchicago youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DelvePsych20 substack: https://delvepsych.substack.com/ --Participants-- Ali McGarel Adam W. Fominaya --Overview of Big Ideas-- Despair is seductive because negative events are dramatic, immediate, and emotionally gripping, while meaningful progress is usually gradual, imperfect, and easy to ove...

The Psychology of Job Applications: Beyond the Numbers Game 14.06.2026 41:34

==Media Links== website: delvepsych.com instagram: @delvepsychchicago youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DelvePsych20 substack: https://delvepsych.substack.com/ ==Participants== Hosts: Ali McGarel Adam W. Fominaya ==Overview of Big Ideas== This episode reframes job searching as more than “send out as many applications as possible.” Adam and Ali argue that a strong job search includes several kinds...

Confidence, Shame, and the Smallest Next Step 07.06.2026 48:54

==Media Links== website: delvepsych.com instagram: @delvepsychchicago youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DelvePsych20 substack: https://delvepsych.substack.com/ ==Participants== Hosts: Ali McGarel, Adam W. Fominaya Guest: Andrea Bink ==Overview of Big Ideas== A listener’s question about confidence opens into a deeper conversation about self-talk, shame, gender expectations, relationships, and the f...

You Are Not Failing: Systems, Shame, and the Context Around Us 31.05.2026 38:40

==Media Links== website: delvepsych.com instagram: @delvepsychchicago youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DelvePsych20 substack: https://delvepsych.substack.com/ ==Participants== Hosts: Ali McGarel Adam W. Fominaya ==Overview of Big Ideas== The episode begins with a deceptively simple claim: you may not be failing; the system around you may be failing you. Individual responsibility can become a conv...

Love as a Verb: Risk, Generosity, and Slowing Down 24.05.2026 52:41

==Media Links== website: delvepsych.com instagram: @delvepsychchicago youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DelvePsych20 substack: https://delvepsych.substack.com/ ==Participants== Ali McGarel Adam W. Fominaya ==Overview of Big Ideas== Ethan Hawke’s quote becomes a springboard for thinking about love as something you do, not just something you feel. Unrequited love can be painful, but loving openly is...

If You Do What You Love, You Might Lose the Love 17.05.2026 40:19

Website: delvepsych.com Instagram: @delvepsychchicago YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DelvePsych20 Substack: https://delvepsych.substack.com/ ==Participants== Ali McGarel Adam W. Fominaya ==Overview of Big Ideas== “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day” sounds wise, but work remains work, even when it involves something meaningful. Turning a beloved activity into a job can change its psyc...

The Seduction of Ridicule 10.05.2026 32:20

==Media Links== Website: delvepsych.com Instagram: @delvepsychchicago YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DelvePsych20 Substack: https://delvepsych.substack.com/ ==Participants== Ali McGarel Adam W. Fominaya ==Overview of Big Ideas== Ridicule can feel powerful because it moves shame outward: if I can criticize you, I do not have to feel what hurts in me. Some people turn shame inward through self-at...

You Are Allowed to Keep Doing What You’re Doing 03.05.2026 34:03

==Media Links== Website: delvepsych.com Instagram: @delvepsychchicago YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DelvePsych20 Substack: https://delvepsych.substack.com/ ==Participants== Ali McGarel Adam W. Fominaya ==Overview of Big Ideas== The 50th episode opens with Ali and Adam reflecting on the podcast itself: the pleasure of dialogue, public thinking, and watching ideas become sharper over time. The c...

The Backwardness of Behavioral Change 26.04.2026 37:06

==Media Links== website: delvepsych.com instagram: @delvepsychchicago youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DelvePsych20 substack: https://delvepsych.substack.com/ ==Participants== Ali McGarel Adam W. Fominaya ==Overview of Big Ideas== Most behavior-change advice assumes awareness: put the phone away, choose your words carefully, notice activation, use the right script. The problem is that people ofte...

Chemistry, Spark, and the Trouble with Romanticism 19.04.2026 58:20

==Media Links== Website: delvepsych.com Instagram: @delvepsychchicago YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DelvePsych20 Substack: https://delvepsych.substack.com/ ==Participants== Hosts: Ali McGarel Adam Fominaya ==Overview of Big Ideas== This episode pushes back on the idea that chemistry is a trustworthy oracle. What feels like spark may actually be anxiety, uncertainty, intermittent reassurance, a...

Free Will, Agency, and the Choices We Still Have 12.04.2026 26:47

==Media Links== Website: delvepsych.com Instagram: @delvepsychchicago YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DelvePsych20 Substack: https://delvepsych.substack.com/ ==Participants== Ali McGarel Adam W. Fominaya ==Overview of Big Ideas== The episode tackles free will not as a purely abstract puzzle, but as a practical question for therapy: do we have choices, and what follows if we do? Adam sketches the...

Emotional Dumping, Healthy Support and Knowing When to Reach Out 05.04.2026 28:31

==Media Links== website: delvepsych.com instagram: @delvepsychchicago youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DelvePsych20 substack: https://delvepsych.substack.com/ ==Participants== Ali McGarel Adam Fominaya ==Overview of Big Ideas== This episode tackles a very modern anxiety: when does opening up to friends become too much? Ali and Adam argue that the line is not simply "talking about hard things...

Strong, Successful, and Still Lonely 22.03.2026 37:57

==Media Links== website: delvepsych.com instagram: @delvepsychchicago youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DelvePsych20 substack: https://delvepsych.substack.com/ ==Participants== Ali McGarel Adam Fominaya ==Overview of Big Ideas== This episode takes the "male loneliness epidemic" seriously without pretending that concern for men cancels concern for women or trans people. Ali and Adam explo...

Let's Normalize Spiraling a Bit 15.03.2026 31:42

website: delvepsych.com instagram: @delvepsychchicago youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DelvePsych20 substack: https://delvepsych.substack.com/ ==Participants== Ali McGarel Adam Fominaya ==Overview of Big Ideas== Therapy is not about becoming unbothered, robotic, or perfectly stoic. This episode argues that spiraling, panic, grief, and anger do not automatically mean failure; progress is messy, an...

Expectations, Process, and Boundaries 06.03.2026 41:02

==Media Links== website: delvepsych.com instagram: @delvepsychchicago youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DelvePsych20 substack: https://delvepsych.substack.com/ ==Participants== Ali McGarel Adam W. Fominaya ==Overview of Big Ideas== Expectations can spoil experience when life is forced to match a fantasy. Unplanned moments often bring more joy than curated ones. Meaning may come more from process t...

Procrastination, Burnout, and the "Lie" of Productivity: Making Meaning Again 01.03.2026 31:47

====Media Links==== website: delvepsych.com instagram: @delvepsychchicago youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DelvePsych20 substack: https://delvepsych.substack.com/ ====Participants==== Ali McGarel Adam W. Fominaya ====Overview of Big Ideas==== Procrastination is often framed as personal failure, but it can be a predictable byproduct of a culture that yokes worth to output. The "spark" na...

Reading With, Reading Against: How Curiosity and Skepticism Each Have Their Moment 22.02.2026 38:30

====Media Links==== website: delvepsych.com instagram: @delvepsychchicago youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DelvePsych20 substack: https://delvepsych.substack.com/ ====Participants==== Ali McGarel Adam W. Fominaya ====Overview of Big Ideas==== Many of us were trained (especially in academia) to meet new ideas with suspicion: what is wrong with this? That "reading against" posture can pro...

Working With an Intern Therapist: What It Means and Why It Can Be Great 15.02.2026 35:15

====Media Links==== website: delvepsych.com instagram: @delvepsychchicago youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DelvePsych20 substack: https://delvepsych.substack.com/ ====Participants==== Ali McGarel Adam W. Fominaya ====Overview of Big Ideas==== "Intern" can mean anything from brand-new to someone with hundreds of clinical hours who just has not graduated or licensed yet. Intern therapy is...

Don’t Text Your Depressed Friends “How Are You Feeling Today?” 08.02.2026 30:45

--Media Links-- website: delvepsych.com instagram: @delvepsychchicago youtube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@DelvePsych20⁠ substack: ⁠https://delvepsych.substack.com/⁠ --Participants-- Ali McGarel Adam W. Fominaya --Overview of Big Ideas-- A well-meant “How are you feeling today?” can inadvertently become a demand for improvement, loading guilt onto someone who already feels wretched. The urge to resc...

Internal Working Models: The Quiet Rules We Learn About Self, Others, and the World 01.02.2026 32:05

MEDIA LINKS Website: delvepsych.com Instagram: @delvepsychchicago YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DelvePsych20 Substack: https://delvepsych.substack.com/ Hosts Ali McGarel Adam W. Fominaya OVERVIEW OF BIG IDEAS Ali and Adam unpack the “internal working model” as a mental blueprint: the mostly-implicit rulebook we carry about who we are, what other people are like, and what the world tends to do...

Three kinds of needs 25.01.2026 32:05

MEDIA LINKSWebsite: delvepsych.comInstagram: @delvepsychchicagoYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DelvePsych20 Substack: https://delvepsych.substack.com/ HostsAli McGarelAdam W. Fominaya, PhD OVERVIEW OF BIG IDEAS Ali and Adam continue their goals-needs-values framework by zooming in on “needs” and why this category so often confuses people. They argue that a “need” isn’t a craving or an impulse; i...

Regret, the Historian’s Fallacy, and Why “Hindsight” Is a Trick 18.01.2026 27:32

MEDIA LINKS Website: delvepsych.com Instagram: @delvepsychchicago YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DelvePsych20 Substack: https://delvepsych.substack.com/ Hosts Ali McGarelAdam W. Fominaya OVERVIEW OF BIG IDEAS Ali and Adam dig into regret as something many people experience as “an emotion,” while Adam argues it’s better understood as a cognitive process: a backward-looking judgment that you “sho...

Stop Comparing Yourself: How Hierarchies Hijack Self-Worth 11.01.2026 32:47

Media Links Website: delvepsych.com Instagram: @delvepsychchicago YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DelvePsych20 Substack: https://delvepsych.substack.com/ Participants Hosts Ali McGarel Adam W. Fominaya, PhD Overview of big ideas A listener question opens a familiar ache: how do you stop comparing yourself to others when it’s corroding your self-worth? Ali and Adam treat comparison as more than a...