August Podcasts!
Written by-Helena Lorenz, LCSW
Hey, y’all! This is a new installment of my ongoing series where I get to share my love of podcasts and mental health awareness!
Periodically, I’ll share 3 episodes from a variety of my favorite shows; sometimes an episode is from a whole series that revolves around psychology or counseling, and sometimes it’s just a one-off mental health-focused episode in a series about something totally different! Either way, my sincere hope is that these stories can provide you with some mix of comfort, validation, enlightenment, and enjoyment.
Happy listening!
Feel free to check out these episodes via the links in the titles or through your favorite podcast app.
What Wellness Costs Us - Explain It To Me
“Wellness” as a concept is a bit hard to pin down, but that doesn’t stop it from being sold to us in every possible form these days. These days everywhere from gyms to restaurants to hair salons to doctors’ offices seems to be marketing with a bent towards maximizing our “wellness”. But what does that really even mean? And what exactly is it about modern humans that is so chronically unwell? This podcast episode attempts to shine a light on the problematic history of “wellness” within popular culture and to try to define the modern term’s many-faceted nature. I think the host, Jonquelyn Hill, does a great job of highlighting the fact that what works for one of us to feel “well” may be completely different from what works for someone else (cold plunges vs. saunas, paleo carnivore vs. vegetarian, supplements vs. prescription drugs). There is no one-size-fits-all panacea that will make us our most magical, perfect, pristine selves. We are all constructing our own unique mosaic of what works for us as we go along, and that’s ok!
The Allure of The Mean Friend - This American Life
One of the more common topics that comes up in my sessions with clients is that of friendships, and the difficulties inherent in crafting a thriving social life. It is an eternal struggle that waxes and wanes throughout a person’s life of how to find the right people to cultivate healthy, intimate relationships with. In this recent rerun of a classic episode, the This American Life team looks at one weird piece of social phenomena that almost all of us can relate to – the mean friend. Why do we keep them around?? What is their magical hold on us that keeps us from cutting things off with them? Through vulnerability and humor, this episode tries to understand the many aspects of the “mean friend”, and the various strategies we can take to understand and navigate these relationships that, at least on the surface, do us no good at all.
We Discuss Becca and Jake - Dear Therapists
Hosted by veteran therapists Lori Gottlieb and Guy Winch, Dear Therapists is a fabulous podcast and vital resource for anyone wanting expert insight on the human experience. In each episode, they deftly walk through a single issue with an anonymized client in a one-time therapeutic session. The show covers every topic under the sun, but I picked this episode in particular because I think it gives people an interesting look behind the curtain on how therapists approach their work. In it, Lori and Guy reflect on how they handled a particular couples session (Becca and Jake), what came up for them as individuals and what they wish they had done differently. It’s an important reminder that therapists are human too, and we don’t always always get it right on our first pass. Thankfully, most of the time, we have the benefit of an on-going relationship with the client where we can rebuild trust and take another crack at the issue in the next session. Lori and Guy don’t have the luxury of extended time with their single-session clients, and so it’s neat to hear them self-reflect and learn from their mistakes as they go.