Your Therapist Needs Therapy

When the news feels like a fever dream, it's easy to ask whether truth even matters anymore. This week we look at propaganda's long history through authoritarian regimes, dystopian fiction, and how this all affects our collective mental health. Spoiler: reality always wins. It just takes longer than we'd like. Can’t believe I forgot to mention that the literal book on propaganda was...

This week Jeremy looks at two recent bible events in the public eye, Trump reading some choice scriptures in the Oval Office and Russell Brand failing to navigate the worn pages of his good book. Jeremy looks at the cynical nature of these events as both a grift and a source of identity protection, while comparing these performances to other “get out of jail free” attempts from past public figures...

Ugh. This week there’s drama to talk about. We’re talking about the recent online firestorm around TherapyJeff, whose response to CNN's reporting on a so-called "rape academy" website was not good. We’ll cover why the way he said it matters as much as what he was, with the best possible reading, trying to say. Before getting to the outcry, we slow down on the CNN story itself, inclu...

Jeremy tries his hand at being an optimist this week! We take a look at a few possible futures and what role mental health might play. Jeremy questions if the profession is ready (and willing) to pivot into different models of care and call on the entire field of mental health to shift tactics to meet the moment, rather than react decades too late. You can decide how Jeremy fares at trying out thi...

This week Jeremy catches up on a sex scandal! And a viral moment from a pastor? But, both stories highlight different aspects of the control culture present both in this authoritarian regime and in high control religions. Jeremy discusses the sex scandal of Kristi Noem and her husband, along with the misogynistic ramblings of podcast pastors. It’s not great, but a microcosm of where we are as a co...

Jeremy gets to chat this week with extremely talented Mario Ismael Espinoza. Mario shares their journey from being a professional dancer to moving into social work, and blending body movement and mental health. Jeremy and Mario talk about some of the similarities and differences of dance and sports performance which also covers some of our thoughts on identity formation and transformation. We also...

This week Jeremy is joined by the incredibly talented Sammy from Haram Doodles. Jeremy and Sammy are both Borgenicht Fellows and they chat about some of the similarities they experienced leaving high control religion. Sammy talks about her deconstruction from Islam and starting Haram Doodles as a way to practice joy in her art while creating a safe space for ExMuslims to connect. Sammy also talks...

This week Jeremy is joined by returning guest Tracy Keller, owner over at Firefly Counseling . Tracy was the guest on episode 81 and this week we check in on the very chill, very normal times we’ve lived through since then. Tracy and Jeremy talk about the importance of community building and collaboration, and Tracy shares info about her ongoing group with Dr Jamie Camphouse “ Raising Little Human...

This week Jeremy takes a look at people deconstructing their civic pride and offers the framework of religious deconstruction as a useful model for navigating the fallout. We look at the “American Dream,” “Manifest Destiny” and even “We’re #1” as mythology that has been shown false and what happens to identity when people begin to pull on the thread of American exceptionalism. We talk about identi...

This week Jeremy tackles the ongoing drama in the world of Polyvagal Theory in the therapy room and online. Jeremy explains why some theories have better scientific data than others, and why therapy as a whole needs to do a better job of holding onto scientific rigour to not lose our professional credibility. Of course, we add the nuance that science cannot be so rigid that it stops being helpful....

This week Jeremy gets to talk about an upcoming symposium he is attending. Jeremy shares the conversation starter paper he wrote, “Questioning the Utility of Religion as Moral Arbiter” in all its nerdy social constructionist glory. Part 2 will be new learnings, great conversations, and hopefully not too much travel drama after the symposium wraps up. To learn more about the wonderful Taos Institut...

This week Jeremy tackles the rising tide of anti-intellectualism, and tries to bring some nuance to the conversation of “expertise.” Is the Internet making us dumber? Not really. Is AI making us dumber? For sure! But the reality of tools is they often reflect the user, and we are left with the fact that the human brain is prone to erroneous shortcuts, and critical thinking is a skill that requires...

This week Jeremy looks at America’s favorite pastime of staging a glossy reassurance ritual that the old prosperity myth is still alive! Three cheers for late stage capitalism celebrating itself! Corporate ads sell nostalgia, AI hype, and body shaming drugs, while the halftime show keeps breaking through with culture that actually feels real. The result is a hollow spectacle that owns the stage bu...

This episode examines why America repeatedly defends powerful men and institutions accused of sexual harm while claiming moral outrage about “protecting children.” From QAnon’s fantasy villains to Donald Trump’s continued political protection, from cultural call-outs like Kendrick Lamar’s Not Like Us to the church’s billion-dollar abuse coverups, the pattern is the same: accountability stops where...

Authoritarian movements in the U.S. don’t appear out of nowhere, they inherit patterns. In this episode, Jeremy traces the American authoritarian family tree from Gerald L. K. Smith’s Christian Identity movement shaping modern Christian Nationalism, looking at Joseph McCarthy’s fear-based security politics, and finally moving to Paul Weyrich’s Moral Majority and the direct connection to the MAGA m...

This week Jeremy is joined by therapist, writer, and occasional radio host Deana Bianco. Jeremy and Deana talk about her journey to becoming a mental health professional, the decline in journalism standards, and how music helps us through tough times. We wonder if the kids are or aren’t alright, and talk about the lack of shared reality making us all a little crazy. Deana talks the joys of going o...

This week Jeremy looks at how evangelical, Dobson-style parenting normalizes obedience, fear, and punishment which leads into pro-cop, pro-ICE “law and order” politics. What looks like a contradiction between “don’t tread on me” freedom rhetoric and support for violent state power is actually a coherent system where freedom is reserved for the obedient and force is used to manage everyone else. Je...

This week Jeremy shares some insight on the ins-and-outs of New Year's resolutions. He looks at resolutions as a modern control ritual that turns exhaustion, seasonal biology, and systemic burnout into individual failings. Jeremy talks about how capitalism repackaged ritual rest into productivity theater and self-surveillance that reliably produces shame and repeat consumers. This episode dis...

This week Jeremy looks at the process in which standup comedy has become a “neutral” on-ramp for culture-war ideology, shifting the Overton Window not through arguments, but through vibes, repetition, and algorithmic adjacency. We look at what gets framed as “reclaiming” language or pushing boundaries and how it actually functions as desensitization to train audiences to suppress empathy and mista...

Lolz, obviously not. This week Jeremy takes a deeper look at the inevitable and terribly unsurprising turn of right wing media grifters and tech fascists to religion! Joe Rogan thinks AI is Jesus, and Peter Thiel thinks Greta Thunberg is the antichrist. So, we look at the general unwellness of their thought processes, as well as the remaining utility of religion as opium for the masses. It’s a goo...

The internet has questions about holidays and boundaries, and I have …thoughts! Individual usage on these answers may vary! Jeremy answers questions this week about how to navigate the holidays, how to be better about boundaries, and why family gatherings are always a topic of conversation in therapy. Struggling with your own boundaries? Finding yourself stuck in a burnout cycle? Join Jeremy for t...

Jeremy sits himself on the couch to reflect on what he did this year for his own mental wellness.  As always, Jeremy has all his practice info at Wellness with Jer , and you can find him on Instagram and YouTube . To show your love for the show you can pick up some merch ! We appreciate support from likes, follows, and shares as well! None of my online work would be possible without my media maven...

Jeremy is joined this week by B, owner of Tres Ojos and co-founder of What the Hex. They discuss the rise of modern witchcraft, emphasizing B’s “no-bullshit” spirituality grounded in ethically sourced, non-hierarchical practices. They explore how people leaving organized religion seek ritual and community, and how commercialized spirituality and wellness cultures can replicate the same harms as or...

This week Jeremy follows up on last week’s holiday themed episode with the concept of moral injury and how the holidays often force us into rituals, traditions, and family dynamics that violate our core values. We unpack the psychological and somatic cost of participating in celebrations rooted in colonialism, religious harm, or identity erasure, and why “forced cheer” can feel like a betrayal of...

In this episode, Jeremy and Emily dig into the realities of setting and enforcing holiday boundaries, especially when family dynamics, guilt, and old patterns collide. They explore why boundaries are for the self and not other people, and discuss how unclear limits, people-pleasing, and differing needs make the holidays a pressure cooker for emotional and moral conflict. Together, they offer pract...