Your Mental Breakdown

Drew explores what it means to experience life solo rather than go through his separation feeling lonely or alone. He and Doug talk about learning to balance the fairy tale, fantasy world version of love with the reality of what feels healthy and supportive. Doug helps Drew connect the anxiety about not knowing everything that's going on for someone with people lying or concealing things – histori...

Sarah feels righteous anger about a coworker that was let go. Doug helps her see that it's a trigger for her own traumatic past when people in power abuse that power and wrong others. When it's on someone else's behalf, Sarah has insulation, protection, and deflection from her own wounds, making it easier to take up a quest for justice. She is able to draw the link to her own history of being wron...

Drew continues the process of individuation. He sees that sharing his life with his mom is now a function of him being proud of himself, not him looking to her for reassurance and self-worth. Drew acknowledges his own physical body and the sensations that come along with his emotional experiences. Doug helps him understand how regulating his physical body can help him regulate his thoughts and fee...

Sarah felt validated and valued at work this week after a triggering annual review last week. Doug and Sarah explore how what she calls nonsense can make perfect sense to others. They break down issues of control and accountability. Sarah unpacks how her vigilance that others follow the rules is conditioning from her childhood in the cult.  Doug Friedman Meredith Levy YMB Webpage Join Us on Social...

Drew got emotionally triggered after a recent funeral for a friend from back home. Then he made a surprise visit to his parents for his mom's birthday. Doug fills us in on what we missed in both Drew's last session (#65) that didn't get recorded, and a phone call that Drew and Doug had to process some relationship trouble. In the session Drew is able to go into the emotion underneath the recent tr...

Drew learns to trust his gut more. He experiences being the son he wants to be for his parents, rather than the son he thinks they want him to be. He feels whelmed , not overwhelmed, but still needs support from people around him. Drew explores asking for forgiveness rather than asking for permission, and saying "thank you" instead of "I'm sorry." Doug Friedman Meredith Levy YMB Webpage Join Us on...

Sarah got triggered by a review at work which leads to an exploration of deeper issues. Doug helps her express anger and frustration about being powerless and misrepresented, especially when someone of authority is in control. Sarah starts to make the link to repressed emotion from the childhood heartbreak she experienced in the cult. She is able to stay with the emotion in the session and just no...

Drew feels his self-confidence grow, but acknowledges that his trust issues are still making him want constant reassurance in relationships. As he recovers from Covid, we explore and break down his relationship to smoking weed. Drew celebrates his baby steps and progress in the meta sense – from pronouncing the word "compartmentalize" to breaking codependence.  Doug Friedman Meredith Levy YMB Webp...

Doug redefines work-life balance: it's a balance of work, rest, and play that are all under the umbrella of life. Sarah examines "play" in her life. She connects the hyper-vigilance of being 'mama bear' for everyone around her to the trauma response that protects her from slowing down or stopping to feel the feelings. Doug uses a folding paper example to show the neural pathways that get embedded...

Who doesn't love the smell of bacon? Drew manages Covid confusion and experiences letting go and trusting himself. He is slowing down without slowing down and acknowledges, "As a human being, you can only put up with so much." He draws inspiration from his grandma - and shares a story about her that Mer loves! Doug Friedman Meredith Levy YMB Webpage Join Us on Social Media:  YMB The Facebook Group...

Doug is on location in New York discovering the quiet, nature side of the city. Sarah and Doug dissect the associations she's held in her head with being a trauma survivor and with being a victim. Sarah explores some recent triggers and exercises having compassion for the younger version of herself that was traumatized. Doug helps Sarah trace some of her discomfort back to a feeling of powerlessne...

Drew continues to work on breaking codependence. He is looking at several relationships in his life, right as we're in the thick of the holiday season. He realizes that "not talking to somebody for a month, doesn't mean they don't love you." It's ok if you don't have someone showing you love right in front of you at all times, it's still there... and he's beginning to feel that that's true. Doug F...

As Sarah talks about a stressful work relationship, Doug slows her down and helps her process being a trauma survivor. They examine how Sarah's system learned to protect her from complex trauma in the past and how it still affects her current relationships. Doug walks Sarah through examples of interactions to help create new neural pathways and new ways of thinking and interacting.    Mentioned in...

Mer is back with Doug on the breakdowns, and might be a little jelly of the guest co-hosts... Drew is embracing being perfectly imperfect and not getting so caught up in the moment of disappointment, knowing it will be ok. And he will be ok. He calls Doug his mental muscle trainer, and he's flexing his muscles! Doug Friedman Meredith Levy YMB Webpage Join Us on Social Media:  YMB The Facebook Grou...

In an emotional session, Sarah vents about an issue she's having with a coworker. This leads Doug to look deeper inside for what's really going on with her. As he helps Sarah slow down in the session, she takes a deep breath and feels the emotional weight of stress she's been holding and keeping inside. Sarah tries to stay controlled and worries that if she lets it out, it will all be tears. Doug...

Drew is directly affected by Covid hitting his family at Thanksgiving. Doug is joined by his colleague and therapy practice mate, Sasha Brodsky. Doug Friedman YMB Webpage Join Us on Social Media:  YMB The Facebook Group YMB on Instagram YMB on TikTok

Drew reflects on his self-worth and thinks about it not coming from what he does for others, but rather truly from himself. Doug is joined in the breakdown this week by his colleague and friend, Bonnie Rae (who was on our first Roundtable in Season One!).  Bonnie and Doug explore unmet attachment needs and breaking codependency. Doug Friedman Bonnie Rae YMB Webpage Join Us on Social Media:  YMB Th...

Drew is unlearning codependency by building confidence in himself. From this strength he is finding community and feeling a sense of belonging that doesn't rely on other people's well being for his own. "I was ok when they weren't disappointed but I was never really happy." -Drew Doug's colleague, Jen Parkford joins the Breakdown and offers her perspective. Doug Friedman YMB Webpage Join Us on Soc...

Doug and Mer talk comets and cults while Doug corrects an earlier comment that the cult leader in Sarah's case was caught - he wasn't! He lived in hiding for over twenty years until he died. Sarah talks about school and education growing up in the cult. She explains the massive confusion and the ensuing tragedies experienced by many around her in the aftermath of leaving the cult. Doug helps Sarah...

Mer acknowledges Doug for his emotional and personal music album coming out in a few weeks; and then she gives him guff for not getting the podcast's Patreon launched yet!  It's coming soon with ongoing Drew episodes and other exclusives for subscribers. In this session with Sarah, Doug helps her look at the inner critic that fuels perfectionism. This is often a trauma response from her growing up...

Meredith imparts some knowledge to Doug (and us!) about invalidation trauma after a recent training. We get to know more about Sarah in her session as she talks about her work, her upbringing in the cult, and her anxiety that she carries around with her still. Doug helps Sarah understand the connection of making herself indispensable to a historic fear of abandonment. Doug and Mer highlight the ba...

Meredith updates us on the intruder in her backyard - who came back again! We continue the new season with Sarah, in spite of a few audio hiccups in the session. Doug and Sarah talk about feeling frustrated, annoyed, and overwhelmed when others don't get to a solution as quickly and easily as you do, especially when that means you take it on and do it all yourself. This has been a part of Sarah fo...

***Trigger warning*** This episode contains potentially triggering and sensitive topics including child abuse. If you suspect or know that a child is being abused or neglected, call or text 800-4-A-CHILD (800-422-4453). Professional crisis counselors are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in over 170 languages. All calls are confidential.     The new season continues with the second therapy...

We're baa-ack! In this new season kick-off, Doug and Meredith are "a step up from sweatpants" and ready to dive back into it with us. We hear the first session with Doug and Sarah, the new client we'll get to know and join for the journey in therapy. Sarah shares some of her history and acknowledges that she's spent a lifetime compartmentalizing, but doesn't truly have a handle on everything. We h...

In this Roundtable episode, Doug and Meredith are joined by fellow therapist Ashley McGirt and therapist in training Sahaj Kohli for a conversation about cultural issues in mental health and the world around us. Ashley is a racial trauma specialist, speaker, and author. Sahaj is the founder of Brown Girl Therapy, a mental health community for children of immigrants. The conversation explores stigm...