Checking In with Dr. Therese Mascardo

Dr. Therese Mascardo
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A podcast for overthinkers, perfectionists, and eldest daughters who are tired of being the strong one. Dr. Therese Mascardo shares the insights she's learned in over a decade of therapy work to help you feel less anxious, more connected, and better equipped to build a life you actually love. exploringtherapy.substack.com

  1. Why Your Gut Issues Are Ruining Your Mental Health (And What to Do About It) w/ Abi Owens

    17 HRS AGO

    Why Your Gut Issues Are Ruining Your Mental Health (And What to Do About It) w/ Abi Owens

    You’ve been told it’s just IBS. You’ve been told to manage it. You’ve been handed a pamphlet and sent home. What nobody told you: 90 to 95% of your serotonin is produced in your gut. Your gut is 70% of your immune system. And when you’ve been living in chronic stress — which, if you’re a high achiever, is most of your adult life — your body has literally been shutting down your digestion to survive. This conversation changes how you understand what’s been going on inside your body. And it comes with real answers. Abi Owens is a Functional and Naturopathic Nutritionist and founder of The Goodness Guide — and one of my closest friends. She spent over 13 years navigating chronic fatigue syndrome, IBS, and chronic gastritis herself. At her worst, she was bedridden in her late twenties, running her company from her bed, having her mom cut her food because she was too exhausted to do it herself. Doctors told her this was simply her life now. She didn’t accept that. She studied nutrition herself, figured out what was actually driving her symptoms, and healed from the inside out. Now she helps other people do the same — through her coaching program, one-to-one consultations, and some of the most accessible gut health education out there. What makes her different is the combination of real clinical knowledge and lived experience you simply cannot get from a textbook. In this episode, she’s bringing all of it to you. Listen now: Apple Podcasts: Spotify: YouTube: In This Episode Why chronic stress is a gut issue When you’re in fight-or-flight, your body makes a decision: survival over digestion. It cuts off stomach acid and digestive enzymes because it has decided those aren’t urgent. For most high achievers, that state isn’t temporary — it’s a Tuesday. And the gut has been quietly paying the price the whole time. The numbers that reframe everything * 90 to 95% of your serotonin is produced in your gut * Your gut accounts for 70% of your immune system * Low iron, B12, and magnesium — even on a good diet — can point back to poor absorption, not poor eating Symptoms you’d never connect to your gut Hair loss. Brain fog. Migraines. Low mood. Hormonal issues. Endometriosis. These aren’t separate problems. They’re the downstream effects of a gut that isn’t working at its best. Why probiotics aren’t the starting point Abi breaks down what actually needs to come first — and why jumping straight to supplements before addressing the root drivers often makes things worse, not better. How to advocate for yourself Abi had to push hard before anyone would run the tests that finally showed her gut lining was eroded and inflamed. Dr. Therese shares the reframe that changed how she approaches doctor’s appointments entirely: stop seeing them as wellness checks and start seeing them as negotiations for resources. Where to actually start Sleep. Nervous system regulation. Legs up the wall. Box breathing. Before any supplement protocol, the foundation has to come first — and Abi walks through exactly what that looks like. Abi’s coaching program An eight-module program with twice-weekly group coaching calls, built around getting to the root — not restriction. One client went from visiting the bathroom eight to ten times a day to once or twice, without medication. Another’s hair stopped falling out within six weeks. Key Quotes “When we’re in chronic stress, the first thing our body does is stop the gut from functioning. Your body’s saying, we don’t need digestion right now, we just need to survive. And most of us are living there constantly.” — Abi Owens “90 to 95% of your serotonin is produced in your gut.” — Abi Owens “The gut is 70% of your immune system.” — Abi Owens “Your gut doesn’t work in isolation. It knocks onto everything else.” — Abi Owens “You’ve got to get to the why — what’s underneath — to really get long lasting change and healing.” — Abi Owens “Women are amazing. But we push ourselves so much that we can break sometimes.” — Abi Owens “Thriving, not surviving.” — Abi Owens “Stop seeing doctor’s appointments as wellness checks. See them as negotiations for resources.” — Dr. Therese If You Loved This Episode 💌 Share it with someone who needs it — another high achiever, a perfectionist friend, anyone who looks like they have it all together and is quietly running on empty. 📝 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It takes two minutes and makes a real difference in helping this show reach more people who need it. 🔔 And if you haven’t subscribed yet, do that now so you don’t miss the rest of Season 2. Two episodes that pair well with this one: Season 1, Episode 5: Who Am I Without My Achievement? goes deeper into what happens to our identity when the doing gets taken away — whether by illness, burnout, or something else. Listen here. And Season 2, Episode 3: Why You’re Still Exhausted Even After Sleep, the 7 Types of Rest gives you a framework for understanding what kind of rest your nervous system is actually missing, and why sleep alone isn’t always enough to recover. Listen here. About Checking In: This podcast is for high-achievers, perfectionists, and eldest daughters who look like they have it all together while they struggle with burnout. Think of Dr. Therese like a big sister with a doctorate who’s been there too and knows what actually helps. No confusing academic jargon or pretending she has all the answers. Just real conversations about building a life you don’t need to escape from. New episodes every Thursday. About Abi Owens Abi Owens is a Functional and Naturopathic Nutritionist registered with the ANP and founder of The Goodness Guide. After more than 13 years navigating chronic fatigue syndrome, IBS, and chronic gastritis — and healing herself through functional testing and nutritional therapy — she now specializes in helping people with IBS get to the root of what’s driving their symptoms, rather than managing them indefinitely. She has amassed a devoted following on Instagram, with Dr. Therese proudly among them. Free IBS eBook | Website | Instagram One-to-one consultations, and coaching program available via her website. Resources Mentioned * The Goodness Guide IBS coaching program * Season 1, Episode 5: Who Am I Without My Achievement? * Season 2, Episode 3: Why You’re Still Exhausted Even After Sleep, the 7 Types of Rest. About Dr. Therese Dr. Therese Mascardo is a Filipina-American psychologist and author of Love The Journey. For over a decade, she’s been in therapy rooms noticing patterns most people never get to see: what happens right before someone breaks through to genuine joy, what keeps people stuck, what actually helps when everything feels heavy. Her mission is to help people love their lives so they never want to leave them. 💙 Sponsored by TherapyNotes This episode is made possible by TherapyNotes — the all-in-one practice management software built for therapists who are tired of spending Sunday nights catching up on notes. Scheduling, billing, telehealth, and HIPAA-compliant documentation all in one place. Their TherapyFuel AI drafts progress notes in seconds so you can close your laptop and actually be present in the rest of your life. Try it free for 2 months with code DRTHERESE Discussion about this episode This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit exploringtherapy.substack.com

    58 min
  2. Loneliness Epidemic

    APR 2

    Loneliness Epidemic

    People pleasers and perfectionists are experts at softening their truth. But staying silent has a cost — in your relationships, your creativity, and how connected you feel to your own life. This week, poet David Gate joins Dr. Therese to talk about what it actually looks like to speak honestly without disclaimers, why beauty and friendship are the antidotes to despair, and why loneliness is the epidemic nobody is talking about enough. Listen now: Apple Podcasts: Spotify: YouTube: In This Episode David Gate is a poet and author of A Rebellion of Care whose poetry has amassed a devoted following on Instagram — Dr. Therese proudly among them. He writes about grief, rage, despair, and the difficulty of being human without disclaimers or pre-apologies. In a world that constantly asks high achievers to be more palatable, he’s doing the opposite — and this conversation explores what it might look like for you to do the same. Here’s some of what they get into: Why perfectionists get in their own way — and why David recommends The Perfectionist’s Guide to Losing Control by Katherine Morgan Schafler for anyone who’s ever stalled on something they really wanted to create Truth-telling without disclaimers — what it means to trust your reader, trust your listener, trust the person in front of you enough to say the true thing without softening it first Beauty as the antidote to despair — David’s answer to existential darkness isn’t to push harder or think more positively. It’s to deliberately add beauty to your life, and why that’s more radical than it sounds Creativity as mental health — David lives with depression and says creativity is the most important thing for his wellbeing. The loneliness epidemic — why loneliness is the thing destroying us and how friendship will save us. Dr. Therese also shares something personal in this one — about losing her brother to suicide and what David’s writing about reasons to stay meant to her. It’s a tender episode. One of her favorites this season. Key Quotes “Saying something true in a world awash with lies is the first act of rebellion.” — David Gate “I have to trust the reader. The moment you add the disclaimer, you’ve started writing for the imagined critic instead of the actual human who needed to hear it.” — David Gate “Creativity is the most important thing for my mental health. When I’m creating, that’s when I feel most alive.” — David Gate “Beauty really is the biggest antidote to despair.” — David Gate “Loneliness is the real cancer eating us right now.” — David Gate “I keep showing up — in whatever state I’m in.” — David Gate “Beauty isn’t a distraction from the hard stuff. It’s the thing that keeps us human enough to keep going.” — Dr. Therese If You Loved This Episode 💌 Share it with someone who needs it — another high achiever, a perfectionist friend, anyone who looks like they have it all together and is quietly running on empty. 📝 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It takes two minutes and makes a real difference in helping this show reach more people who need it. 🔔 And if you haven’t subscribed yet, do that now so you don’t miss the rest of Season 2. About Checking In: This podcast is for high-achievers, perfectionists, and eldest daughters who look like they have it all together while they struggle with burnout. Think of Dr. Therese like a big sister with a doctorate who’s been there too and knows what actually helps. No confusing academic jargon or pretending she has all the answers. Just real conversations about building a life you don’t need to escape from. New episodes every Thursday. About David Gate David Gate is a poet, writer, and author of A Rebellion of Care (Convergent/Penguin Random House). He grew up in North London and now lives in Asheville, North Carolina, where he writes, mills flour, and tends to a one-acre homestead. He’s working on his second book. Resources Mentioned • The Perfectionist’s Guide to Losing Control by Katherine Morgan Schafler: https://www.amazon.com/Perfectionists-Guide-Losing-Control-Peace/dp/059332952X • Season 1 — Complex Shame Explained w/ Dr. Zoe Shaw: https://exploringtherapy.substack.com/p/complex-shame-explained-w-dr-zoe • Up next: Abi Owens, nutritionist, on the gut-brain connection About Dr. Therese Dr. Therese Mascardo is a Filipina-American psychologist and author of Love The Journey. For over a decade, she’s been in therapy rooms noticing patterns most people never get to see: what happens right before someone breaks through to genuine joy, what keeps people stuck, what actually helps when everything feels heavy. Her mission is to help people love their lives so they never want to leave them. 💙 Sponsored by TherapyNotes This episode is made possible by TherapyNotes, the all-in-one practice management software that helps overwhelmed therapists handle notes, scheduling, billing, and telehealth so they can focus on people, not paperwork. Try it free for 2 months with code DRTHERESE: https://bit.ly/3IjR482 Discussion about this episode This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit exploringtherapy.substack.com

    59 min

  3. MAR 26

    Are You Building the Wrong Life?

    Are You Building the Wrong Life? Jodie Cook on Designing Your Life on Purpose I'll be honest with you — Jodie Cook is one of the most incredible people I've ever met. And not because of the accolades, though she has plenty. It's because the way she lives life is genuinely unconventional, and just plain better. You can feel it when you're around her. She has become extraordinarily talented at one specific thing: sifting through what doesn't matter so she can focus completely on what does. And in doing so, she has built a life that many of us only dream of. In today's episode, she's sharing the exact frameworks, reframes, and tools that got her there — and I think some of what she says is going to quietly rearrange something in you. Can I ask you something first, though? How much of the life you're actually living right now is on purpose? Not whether things are going well. Not whether you're hitting your goals. But whether the whole blueprint — the way you spend your days, what you're grinding toward, what's on your list — actually feels like yours? Because if there's even a flicker of "I'm not sure," this one's for you. Listen now: Watch on YouTube (including Jodie's full breakdown of the wombat problem, princess energy, and the distraction spreadsheet): [INSERT YOUTUBE EPISODE LINK HERE] Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/checking-in-with-dr-therese-mascardo/id1847993697 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0JYJn4AqCeUU67dKcmhnyg In This Episode Jodie Cook: who she is Forbes 30 Under 30 entrepreneur, senior Forbes contributor with over 20 million article reads, and founder of CoachVox AI — the platform that lets coaches and consultants create AI versions of themselves. She sold her social media agency in a seven-figure exit in 2021, has competed in powerlifting for Great Britain nine times with a 400lb deadlift, and has lived in 35 cities with everything she owns fitting in one suitcase. Find her at jodiecook.com and on Instagram and LinkedIn. The new operating system Jodie opens by describing becoming a completely different person in the last year. The old OS: structure every minute, chase, knock on doors, subordinate power to things outside herself. The new OS: trust herself, play the long game, let what's meant for her find her. She journals every day and does a weekly debrief with her husband to make sure they're still going in the right direction. Making success feel inevitable Rather than working forward from a plan step by step, Jodie starts from the end. She gets the outcome so vividly in her mind that it feels inevitable — and then the steps leading up to it just feel like things that obviously have to happen. This reframe transforms grind into a game. The wombat problem Wombats dig holes. When you put them somewhere they can dig, they will never question the hole. This, Jodie says, is the high achiever's greatest weakness — the shadow side of grit. The strength is determination. The weakness is the ability to grind hard in the wrong direction without ever stopping to ask if the hole is right. Difficulty, fear, and powerlifting Jodie has competed for Great Britain in powerlifting nine times. What the sport taught her: instead of running away from fear, walk directly into its mouth. When she felt trapped in her agency years ago, she booked a five-week trip to Australia as a deadline to force herself to solve the problem. She then dissected her fear down to a specific sentence — and once she found it, she could put a plan in place. Princess energy and rejection Rejection stops hurting when you know who you are. Jodie keeps all her rejection letters from early career graduate scheme applications — and when she looks at them, her reaction is: "you're going to wish you said yes." Every offer she makes is an opportunity she's giving someone to partner with her. If they say no? Their loss. This is princess energy: not arrogance, but grounded self-knowledge. The "so what?" framework Inspired by Andy Warhol: people go around letting the same things make them miserable for years, when they could just say "so what?" Write a list of the specific things you don't like about yourself. For each one: change it, or accept it. Complaining without doing either isn't an option. Shouting "Change" to break the rush cycle Jodie describes a guided meditation practice where you identify a feeling you want to release — for her, rushing — and the next time you catch it happening, you say "change" out loud. A full-body pattern interrupt. She started doing it in the shower. She rushes far less. Growing up without anxiety Jodie shares that she didn't really learn the word "anxious" until she was around 15 — her mom would reframe pre-performance nerves as excitement or butterflies. Because the label was never "anxiety," the feeling never had that weight. Dr. Therese points out this is a real CBT intervention: the chemical components of fear and excitement are identical. You get to choose which one you call it. Perfectionism as a shackle Perfectionism doesn't protect you — it hides you. The question to ask isn't "how do I get this perfect?" It's "what is this giving me?" The answer, usually: the safety of something to hide behind. Keep asking until you find the real fear. Then dismantle it. Paying attention and things working out Every successful person's story has two threads in common: don't give up, and pay attention. The answers are there. The signs are obvious. The only question is whether you're scrolling your phone and missing them. Awareness is the first step to any change. Betting on yourself Every challenge Jodie has faced came, in some way, from subordinating power to something outside herself — a collaboration that would "change everything," a person who could "save everything." Betting on yourself first elevates you, which elevates what you attract. Self-discipline is self-love Keeping promises to yourself is how you build confidence. But if something's on your list and you genuinely know you're not going to do it, the open loop is costing you energy every single day. Label it a legacy goal and let it go. Open loops and your to-do list The book Getting Things Done taught Jodie about the mental overhead of open loops — your brain doesn't distinguish between "doing this now" and "meaning to do this in November." It spends energy on it either way. Jodie will sometimes just delete her entire to-do list: if it's important, it'll come back. The distraction spreadsheet When a shiny new idea shows up, Jodie puts it on a spreadsheet instead of acting on it. The spreadsheet grows. Most ideas fade. The ones that matter come back. This is how she stays focused without closing herself off to creativity. The summer of ideation After selling her agency, Jodie and her husband spent a season brainstorming business ideas at coffee shops, spas, gyms, and high-rise buildings. One observation: the more aspirational the environment, the bigger the ideas. They generated 30 ideas. CoachVox AI was number 22 — the one they couldn't stop thinking about. CoachVox AI: how it started and how it works After selling her agency, Jodie started coaching clients on how to do the same. She noticed the ones who got further were using "Jodie AI" — an AI version of herself built from her course content — in between sessions. When coaches started asking "can you make the AI version of me?", CoachVox was born. Coaches load it with their books, podcasts, and frameworks. It takes on their coaching style and gives clients access between sessions. One coach now makes $6K a month from her AI version alone. Closing wisdom The gold standard Jodie holds herself to: how little she thinks before she speaks. Not carelessness — trust. When you're being 100% true to yourself, with your people, in your place, there's nothing to censor. You can just say what comes out. Key Quotes "If you're going in the right direction, keep going. If you're not — do something else." — Jodie Cook "All the best ideas I've ever had came from not grinding." — Jodie Cook "The more you know who you are, the less rejection is even a thing." — Jodie Cook "Life isn't a grind because I don't believe it needs to be." — Jodie Cook "Perfectionism is a shackle. There's no place for it in your life." — Jodie Cook "Ask: what is this giving me? Keep going until you get to the real fear." — Jodie Cook "Designing your life intentionally isn't a luxury. It's a practice." — Dr. Therese "Betting on yourself isn't a one-time leap. It's every day, in the small choices." — Dr. Therese "The things that are meant for me will find me." — Jodie Cook Why This Episode Matters This season is about unimaginable joy. And the through-line of this conversation is that joy doesn't just happen — it gets designed. Not once, dramatically, but in thousands of small deliberate decisions: what goes on the list, what gets deleted, which direction you're actually digging. What makes Jodie unusual isn't her credentials or her accolades. It's the degree to which she has refused to sleepwalk — and her extraordinary ability to sift through the noise and focus completely on what actually matters. She has built a life that looks, from every angle, like hers. If you're a high achiever who has been executing someone else's blueprint without realizing it, this is your permission slip to stop and look up. And if this episode resonated, Dr. Therese recommends going back to the Season 1 episode "Who Am I Without Achievement?" — it pairs perfectly with everything Jodie shared today. If You Loved This Episode Share it with someone who needs it — another high achiever, a perfectionist friend, anyone who looks like they have it all together and is quietly running on empty. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It takes two minutes and makes a real difference in helping this show reach more people who need it. And if you haven't subscribed yet, do that now

    1h 19m

  4. MAR 19

    Why You're Still Exhausted Even After Sleep

    Ever plan the perfect vacation and find yourself completely unable to actually be on it? You’re by the pool, everyone else has their book and their little umbrella drink, and you’re color-coding a restaurant itinerary because sitting still makes your skin crawl. Or maybe it’s not a vacation. Maybe it’s any quiet moment — a Saturday morning, a slow evening, a rare free afternoon — and instead of resting, you’re reorganizing, optimizing, catching up, staying useful. Because stopping feels like something you haven’t earned yet. If that’s you, this episode is for you. Because rest isn’t something you’re bad at. It’s something you’ve been trained out of. And there’s a really specific, fixable reason why rest doesn’t seem to work for you — even when you try. Listen now Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube In This Episode Rest as resistance — and why it’s deeper than self-care Tricia Hersey of The Nap Ministry calls rest a form of resistance — not a luxury, not a reward, but a radical refusal to participate in systems that benefit from your exhaustion. This reframe sets the tone for everything that follows. Why rest feels physically dangerous If you’ve ever felt genuine anxiety when you stop moving, you’re not imagining it. Your nervous system has learned that safety comes from staying busy, staying ahead, staying needed. Downtime registers as a threat — which is why “just relax” is genuinely unhelpful advice. What the research actually says The data is pretty humbling for overachievers. Elite performers across fields — musicians, athletes, chess players — work in focused 90-minute intervals followed by rest, not marathon sessions. Microsoft Japan’s four-day workweek experiment saw productivity jump 40%. The rest isn’t the opposite of the work. It’s part of it. The 7 types of rest (and why you’re probably depleted in 5 of them) Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith’s research (drdaltonsmith.com — she also has a free rest quiz there) identifies seven distinct types of rest our bodies need. Most high achievers are running on physical rest alone, if that, while the other tanks are completely empty. Here’s the full list: * Physical rest — passive (sleep, naps) and active (yoga, stretching, massage) * Mental rest — breaks from the decision-making, planning, analyzing brain * Sensory rest — relief from screens, notifications, noise, artificial light * Creative rest — experiencing beauty without having to produce anything from it * Emotional rest — at least one relationship where the mask comes off completely * Social rest — more time with people who energize you, less with people who extract * Spiritual rest — connection to something larger than your individual productivity The baby reframe We celebrate babies for existing. We photograph them sleeping. We show up just to be near them, even though they produce nothing and contribute nothing to anyone’s to-do list. They didn’t earn that love. They have inherent worth just for being here. So do you. Rest as wealth What real wealth looks like: sitting at a café in Lisbon on a Wednesday afternoon with a friend, drinking something slow, eating a €1.50 pastel de nata, not checking your watch, not mentally calculating what you should be doing instead. Having time that belongs to you. Space in your day that isn’t optimized. That’s the version of rich worth working toward. How to actually start Not as a prescription, but as an invitation: get curious about your depletion like a scientist, not a judge. Notice what drains you and what restores you. Ask yourself what type of tired you are today — and match your rest to that. Try micro-moments: 60 seconds of closed eyes between meetings, a lunch outside without your phone, one social obligation declined this week. Why this is hard — and why it matters Maybe you grew up where love was conditional on performance. Maybe you’re carrying generations of people who didn’t get to rest. Maybe rest feels like betrayal, or laziness, or privilege. This is real. And it’s exactly why Hersey’s framing matters: rest as resistance isn’t about individual self-care. It’s about refusing to destroy yourself to prove your worth. Resources Mentioned • Tricia Hersey — The Nap Ministry • Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less • Devon Price — Laziness Does Not Exist • Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith — 7 types of rest + free rest quiz • K. Anders Ericsson — The Making of an Expert (HBR) • Audre Lorde — on rest as self-preservation Key Quotes “Your nervous system interprets the absence of productivity as danger. No wonder rest feels physically uncomfortable.” “Microsoft Japan tried a four-day workweek. Productivity jumped 40%. The rest is literally part of the work.” “Creative rest means letting yourself be moved by beauty without having to do anything with that experience. Can you do that? Or do you turn everything into a project?” “That baby didn’t earn love by being useful. Your worth is not measured in your productivity. You are the same.” “Rest is wealth. Having time that belongs to you, not to your productivity. Having space in your day that isn’t optimized.” “Maybe you’re carrying generations who didn’t get to rest. Rest as resistance is about refusing to participate in systems that demand we destroy ourselves to prove our worth.” “You’re worthy of rest. Not because you’ve earned it. Not because you’ve checked off enough items on your impossible list. Because you exist.” Why This Episode Matters So many high achievers have tried resting and concluded it doesn’t work for them. They took the vacation. They got the eight hours. They forced themselves to lie on the couch. And they still felt exhausted, so they decided they must just be people who need to keep moving. But they weren’t solving the wrong problem — they were solving a seven-dimensional problem with a one-dimensional solution. And that’s not a character flaw. Nobody taught them there were seven types of rest. Nobody told them that the fatigue they can’t sleep off might be emotional, or creative, or spiritual. This episode is for anyone who has tried to rest and felt like they failed at it. Which, if we’re honest, is most of us. If You Loved This Episode 💌 Share it with someone who needs permission to stop 📝 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts — it helps more people find the show 🔔 Subscribe so you don’t miss new episodes every Thursday About Checking In: This podcast is for high-achievers, perfectionists, and eldest daughters who look like they have it all together while they struggle with burnout. Think of Dr. Therese like a big sister with a doctorate who’s been there too and knows what actually helps. No confusing academic jargon or pretending she has all the answers. Just real conversations about building a life you don’t need to escape from. New episodes every Thursday. 💙 Sponsored by TherapyNotes This episode is made possible by TherapyNotes, the all-in-one practice management software that helps overwhelmed therapists handle notes, scheduling, billing, and telehealth so they can focus on people, not paperwork. Try it free for 2 months with code DRTHERESE: https://bit.ly/3IjR482 Discussion about this episode This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit exploringtherapy.substack.com

    25 min
  5. Why High Achievers Can't Sleep | A Sleep Doctor's Honest Answer (Dr. Alison Kole)

    MAR 12

    Why High Achievers Can't Sleep | A Sleep Doctor's Honest Answer (Dr. Alison Kole)

    Ever find yourself at 1 AM, phone in hand, thinking: how did this happen again? I’m a psychologist. I literally know better. And I still do it. That’s actually how I opened this conversation with Dr. Alison Kole — because I think the shame spiral around sleep is one of the most underrated things keeping high achievers stuck. We’re good at so many hard things. And somehow sleep, this thing we’ve been doing since we were born, feels impossible. Dr. Alison is triple board-certified in pulmonary medicine, critical care, and sleep medicine — and she’s a reformed chronic insomniac who didn’t sleep well for 25 years. She gets it from the inside out. And in this episode, she drops more truth bombs than I was prepared for. In the best way. In This Episode Why high achievers are specifically bad at sleep — and it’s not a willpower problem Dr. Alison traces it back to generational conditioning: many of us were raised by parents who lived through times of scarcity and conflict, where rest wasn’t survival, work was. That message got passed down. Layer on the double standard women face — expected to perform at work and run the household — and you have a generation of high-achieving women who were never given permission to prioritize themselves. “It’s just never been a priority. Something else is always more important.” That was the message. And we absorbed it completely. What sleep deprivation is actually doing to your body Every organ system. Brain health (the glymphatic system that clears metabolic waste only works when you sleep), heart health, immune function, hormone regulation, weight — all of it is downstream of sleep. Dr. Alison also connects poor sleep to disrupted hunger hormones that make us reach for comfort food, and to increased dementia risk over time. Sleep isn’t a luxury. It’s the foundation. Everything else gets built on top of it. Bedtime procrastination: why we scroll and what to actually do For many high achievers, the end of the day is the first moment that belongs to us — not our inbox, not our families, not anyone else’s needs. Scrolling isn’t laziness. It’s the dopamine hit of finally getting some time that’s ours. The fix isn’t shame or cold-turkey phone bans. It’s: * Start your wind-down earlier in the evening * Set a timer — allow the scroll, just give it an end * Shift the narrative: sleep isn’t taking something away. It’s a gift to yourself * Go incrementally — you can’t go from midnight to 8 PM overnight ADHD, autism, and sleep — what’s different For neurodivergent folks, the late-night scroll isn’t always procrastination — it can be genuine nervous system regulation. The quiet of night may be the first time the day has felt manageable. Dr. Alison also notes that autistic individuals may have lower baseline melatonin, making supplementation more genuinely helpful for them than for the general population. What the research actually says about sleep aids * Sleeping pills (OTC or prescription): approximately 60% of their effect is placebo * CBT for insomnia (CBT-I): effective in about 80% of people — with no medication * Benadryl/antihistamines: builds tolerance quickly, may affect memory centers in the brain * Melatonin: not a sleep aid in the classic sense — it adjusts circadian rhythm; most helpful for jet lag and for autistic individuals * Marijuana: people report sleeping deeper, but long-term research is limited and complicated * The pattern to avoid: chasing the magic bullet while skipping the behavioral work that actually retrains the brain You can’t force sleep — but you can set the conditions Sleep is one of the few things you genuinely cannot control by willpower. The more you try to control it, the more it escapes you. What CBT-I teaches is how to set the right conditions — the environment, the wind-down routine, the relationship with your bed — and then surrender to the process. A particular challenge for high achievers who are used to pushing through anything. Warning signs: when it’s time to stop pushing through * Excessive daytime sleepiness, especially if you’re worried about driving safely * New high blood pressure, palpitations, or your wearable flagging a possible sleep disorder * You’re self-medicating with marijuana, melatonin by the handful, or escalating supplements * Mood that’s tanked: uncontrollable anxiety or depression regardless of what you try * Your doctor keeps dismissing your concerns — don’t accept that. Advocate for yourself. Key Quotes “We were sold a bill of goods. That’s a bunch of BS and the exact opposite of what we needed to do.” “Sleep is foundational. You cannot build a house without a strong foundation.” “The only person who’s going to prioritize you as much as you need to be is yourself.” “Self-discipline is self-love.” “The more you want to sleep, the more elusive it will become.” “Do not identify as a bad sleeper — we can always be better at our sleep.” “The goal is not to have perfect sleep every single night. It’s to be able to roll with the punches.” “Leave the perfection tendencies at the door.” “If you’re really concerned about your sleep, do not take no for an answer.” “Cognitive behavioral therapy is effective in about 80% of folks — completely medication free.” “We’re little girls inside who grew up to be big, baddie women. And as little girls, we needed routine.” “You can’t sleep better if your nervous system is dysregulated all day.” Why This Episode Matters Season 2 of Checking In is about the mind-body connection — and sleep is where that connection is most obvious and most ignored. You can do all the therapy in the world, but if your nervous system is dysregulated because you haven’t slept well in years, you’re working against yourself. This episode gives you the science, the psychology, and the permission — to stop shaming yourself, to stop chasing the magic pill, and to start building a relationship with rest that actually works for how your brain operates. One practical starting point: a simple wind-down routine. Not 15 steps. Not a TikTok skincare hour. Something quiet and consistent that tells your nervous system the day is done. And if you have a rough night, you have a rough night. Don’t spiral. Just try again tomorrow. If You Loved This Episode * Share it with the high achiever in your life who swears they’ll sleep when they’re dead — they need this one * Leave a review on Apple Podcasts — it’s one of the best ways to help this show reach more people who need it * Subscribe so you don’t miss what’s coming in Season 2: nutrition, movement, stress management, and everything that works together to help you actually live the life you’re working so hard to build Listen now: Apple Podcasts: Spotify: Watch the video version on YouTube (including the moment Dr. Alison explains why high achievers are wired to resist sleep): About Checking In: This podcast is for high-achievers, perfectionists, and eldest daughters who look like they have it all together but are silently struggling. Think of Dr. Therese like a big sister with a doctorate who’s been there too and knows what actually helps. No confusing academic jargon or pretending she has all the answers. Just real conversations about building a life you don’t need to escape from. New episodes every Thursday. Season 2 theme: the mind-body connection — because you can’t think your way to wellness. You have to live it. About Dr. Therese: Dr. Therese Mascardo is a Filipina-American psychologist and author of Love The Journey. For over a decade, she’s been in therapy rooms noticing patterns most people never get to see: what happens right before someone breaks through to genuine joy, what keeps people stuck, what actually helps when everything feels heavy. Her mission is simple: to help people build lives they don’t need to escape from. Sponsored by TherapyNotes: This episode is made possible by TherapyNotes, the all-in-one practice management software that helps therapists handle notes, scheduling, billing, and telehealth so they can focus on people, not paperwork. Try it free for 2 months with code DRTHERESE: https://bit.ly/3IjR482 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit exploringtherapy.substack.com

    1 hr

  6. MAR 5

    How to Cope When the World Is on Fire | Grief, Anger & Doom Scrolling ft. Dr. Marie Fang

    Ever feel so paralyzed by what’s happening in the world that you can’t do the most basic things — work, sleep, work out, function? Like you’re watching yourself not be the version of you that you’re used to being, and then feeling bad about that on top of everything else? That was me when I was supposed to be recording this episode. I wrote it. And then I just couldn’t do ANYTHING. For days I didn’t touch work. I doom scrolled. I felt frozen, then got frustrated with myself. Sometimes people wonder: “How are the therapists doing?” The honest answer is we’re also not okay. And instead of giving you ten tips from a psychologist on how to get through all of this, I wanted to let you into what it actually looks like when therapists try to process all the hard stuff together. So I called my friend Marie, who isn’t just a brilliant psychologist but she’s also one of my smartest, wisest friends that I reach out to whenever I need some guidance. Watch the video version of this podcast: https://youtu.be/zuRaHUHwgkE You can also listen on Apple or Spotify: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/checking-in-with-dr-therese-mascardo/id1847993697 https://open.spotify.com/show/0JYJn4AqCeUU67dKcmhnyg In This Episode Who is Dr. Marie Fang? Dr. Marie Fang is a licensed psychologist, private practice owner, and creator of Private Practice Skills — a platform that has helped thousands of therapists build sustainable, values-aligned practices. https://www.youtube.com/@privatepracticeskills The check-in: “Chaos and calm coexist — girl carries on” We start where the show always starts — checking in as humans. Dr. Marie’s headline for her life right now? Somewhere between things that are incredibly stable and things that are genuinely on fire. Sound familiar? Why therapists shut down too I was basically incapacitated for five or six days leading up to this recording. Not working, not working out, not doing any of my routines — just doom scrolling and feeling deeply unsettled. Dr. Marie shares her own version of this: an epic trifecta of a harmful workplace exit, ending a relationship with her parents, and a struggling marriage that sent her into a depressive state for over a year. The takeaway: this happens to all of us. Even the people who are supposed to have it together. Doom scrolling and the highly sensitive nervous system Dr. Marie identifies as a highly sensitive person, which means even on a good day, opening a scroll-based app sends her nervous system into overwhelm — regardless of the content. Her solution: intentional, search-based access only. No scrolling, period. We talk about what that actually looks like in practice, her YouTube history hack, and why the brain is essentially a goldfish when it comes to social media. The Yerkes-Dodson curve: your nervous system and what you can actually do Dr. Marie brings back a classic from her freshman year psychology class — the bell curve of anxiety and performance. Too little activation and you don’t perform. A little anxiety and you peak. Too much, and you can’t access your critical thinking or creative brain at all. This reframe alone can change how you manage expectations of yourself on your hardest days. The CBT bare minimum activation strategy When you’re in your lowest state, Dr. Marie asks one question: what is the actual bare minimum I can do right now? Not your ideal. Not what you planned. The bare minimum. Get out of bed and wash your face. Put on clean sweatpants. Do the one thing, then ask again. This is not giving up — it’s attuning to yourself with radical honesty. Why the “should” dialogue is emotionally expensive One of the most powerful moments in this episode: Dr. Marie naming what happens when we spend our low moments not resting, but telling ourselves about all the things we should be doing instead. That internal dialogue costs you energy. It makes you more tired. And it gives you absolutely nothing in return. Anger as a consultant, not a CEO: the boardroom model We spend real time on anger — what it’s pointing to, why validating it changes its intensity, and how to let it influence your decision-making without letting it drive the car. Dr. Marie’s image of all her emotions living in a boardroom together — anger included, because it belongs there — is one of the most useful mental models I’ve heard for navigating hard feelings. The role of community when the world is heavy Dr. Marie shares something I found genuinely moving: the most important work of community happens not in the moments you reach out for help, but in the quiet knowing that your people are there. That secure attachment — I know they’re with me even when I’m not talking to them — is what holds you on the days when everything feels like too much. Showing up, speaking up & permission for nuance We get into something a lot of us have felt: the social media pressure to post, to say something, to be visible in your response to the world. We talk honestly about the fear behind that, the value of strategic rather than reactive action, and why not everyone needs to do the same thing for collective action to be effective. Joy as resistance Dr. Marie closes with something I want everyone to sit with: leaning into your joy in the middle of suffering is not pretending the harm isn’t happening. It’s refusing to let whoever or whatever is causing that harm steal your humanity too. Your joy is resistance, too. Key Quotes “The anger doesn’t drive the car of my life. It’s in the car, though. It belongs there.” — Dr. Marie Fang “All my emotions live in a boardroom together. Anger belongs on the board.” — Dr. Marie Fang “When someone is causing harm, they’re trying to steal your humanity and your capacity for joy. Leaning into my joy is resistance.” — Dr. Marie Fang “You are valuable. And as a valuable person, you might have some valuable impact.” — Dr. Marie Fang “Treat your emotions as consultants, not CEOs.” — Dr. Therese “Your joy is resistance. Your rest is resistance.” — Dr. Therese “What is the bare minimum I can actually do right now?” — Dr. Marie Fang “The ‘should’ dialogue is emotionally expensive — it costs you and gives you nothing.” — Dr. Marie Fang “In order to have a village, you have to be a villager.” — Dr. Therese “Name it to tame it. Allow it. Permit it. Then let it be useful.” — Dr. Therese “You can’t pour from an empty cup — and we need to be able to fight in the long run.” — Dr. Therese Why This Episode Matters This episode happened a month late and it’s the conversation I planned to start Season 2, but it’s the conversation I think we all needed. If you’ve been doom scrolling, if you’ve gone days not functioning the way you usually do, if you’ve felt guilty for feeling joy or paralyzed trying to figure out how to help — this conversation was made for you. Not to fix it. Not to wrap it in a bow. But to make you feel a little less alone in it. Dr. Marie’s frameworks are the kind that rewire how you talk to yourself. The boardroom model for emotions, the bare minimum activation strategy, the Yerkes-Dodson curve as a daily check-in tool — these aren’t tips. They’re ways of being with yourself that actually work when things are genuinely hard. If You Loved This Episode * Share it with someone who needs permission to not be okay right now * Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify — it helps more people find the show * Subscribe so you don’t miss what’s coming this season (it’s going to be good) * Find Dr. Marie Fang at Private Practice Skills on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@privatepracticeskills Resources mentioned: * Dopamine Nation by Dr. Anna Lembke: https://www.annalembke.com/dopamine-nation * Rest Is Resistance by Tricia Hersey (The Nap Ministry): https://thenapministry.com * From Checking In Season 1 Complex Grief: What It Actually Is and the 7 Things That Help When You’re Stuck * Complex Shame Explained w/ Dr. Zoe Shaw About Checking In: This podcast is for high-achievers, perfectionists, and eldest daughters who look like they have it all together while they struggle with burnout. Think of Dr. Therese like a big sister with a doctorate who’s been there too and knows what actually helps. No confusing academic jargon or pretending she has all the answers. Just real conversations about building a life you don’t need to escape from. New episodes every Thursday. Now in Season 2: Unimaginable Joy. About Dr. Therese: Dr. Therese Mascardo is a Filipina-American psychologist and author of Love The Journey. For over a decade, she’s been in therapy rooms noticing patterns most people never get to see: what happens right before someone breaks through to genuine joy, what keeps people stuck, what actually helps when everything feels heavy. Her mission is to help people love their lives so they never want to leave them. Sponsored by TherapyNotes: This episode is made possible by TherapyNotes, the all-in-one practice management software that helps overwhelmed therapists handle notes, scheduling, billing, and telehealth so they can focus on people, not paperwork. Try it free for 2 months with code DRTHERESE: https://bit.ly/3IjR482 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit exploringtherapy.substack.com

    1h 19m

  7. 2025-12-11

    8 Signs You’re Building a Life You Don’t Need to Escape From (Even When You Can’t See It)

    Ever feel like you’re doing everything right but still not okay? Like you’re setting boundaries, going to therapy, doing all the work… and you still wake up some mornings wondering if any of it’s actually working? Here’s what nobody tells you about building your dream life: you can do everything right and still feel like you’re not making progress. In this season finale, psychologist Dr. Therese Mascardo reveals the 8 subtle signs you’re building a life you don’t need to escape from (even when you can’t see it). She breaks down why progress never looks like we think it should (spoiler: it’s not a straight line), the uncomfortable truth about what “dream lives” actually feel like, and the two traps that pull high achievers back even when they know better. This episode connects the dots from the entire season: from complex shame with Dr. Zoe Shaw to ADHD in women with Dr. Shawn Horn to AJ Gibson’s story of choosing to stay alive. It’s about what it really means to stop running from yourself and start building something worth staying for. In This Episode: The Truth About Progress: * Why progress looks like a messy spiral, not a straight line * How high achievers misread regression as failure * What’s actually happening in those “loop back” moments The 8 Signs You’re Building a Life You Don’t Need to Escape From: * You catch yourself faster - Spiraling takes hours instead of days (that’s a regulated nervous system) * You’re willing to disappoint people - Setting boundaries without excessive guilt or apologies * You have hard conversations now - Even when your hands shake and your voice wobbles * You can rest without guilt - Sometimes. You’re slowly learning rest is permission, not punishment * You’re less performative - More interested in being real than being impressive * You have satisfying relationships - Reciprocity, balance, people who actually show up * You’re making peace with your body - Moving from body hatred to neutrality to appreciation * Bad days don’t convince you everything’s broken - Separating a moment from your identity The Truth Nobody Tells You About Dream Lives: * Why your dream life will still make you cry in the bathroom sometimes * How every victory comes with new challenges * The shift from “I need to get out of here” to “this is hard AND I’m exactly where I want to be” * What it means to choose your hard instead of just surviving it The Two Traps That Pull You Back: * The Comparison Trap: Why you were feeling good five minutes ago and now you’re questioning everything (and the one question that changes everything) * The Destination Anxiety Trap: Why “I’ll be happy when...” is an endless treadmill keeping you exhausted What Season 1 Taught Us: This season covered nine essential topics for high achievers: why joy feels out of reach, making friends as adults, complex shame, setting boundaries, identity beyond achievement, choosing to stay alive, asking for help, ADHD in women, and holding complex grief. The through-line connecting all of it? Building a life you don’t need to escape from means learning to be with yourself. ALL of yourself: The anxious parts, the grieving parts, the parts that struggle. It means learning you don’t have to fix yourself to be worthy of love, you don’t have to achieve your way to enoughness, and you don’t have to earn your right to rest. It means building a life where you can actually BE instead of constantly BECOMING. 🔥 SEASON 2 COMING JANUARY 2025: “UNIMAGINABLE JOY” 🔥 Get ready. Season 2 goes deeper into the mind-body connection and what it really takes to build joy when life feels impossible. We’re diving into: * Sleep and mental health with Dr. Alison Kole (you can’t regulate your nervous system on four hours of sleep) * The gut-brain axis with nutritionist Abi Owens (your digestive system is literally connected to your mental health) * Hormones and mood (when it’s physiological, not just psychological) * Rest as resistance (not self-care as commodity, but rest as a radical act) * Money and mental health (the conversation nobody’s having honestly) * Rejection resilience for high achievers * Choosing joy when circumstances don’t change Subscribe now so you don’t miss it. Key Quotes: “Progress doesn’t look like a straight line. It loops back, circles around. You’re not back where you started, you’re spiraling upward.” “You catch yourself in three hours instead of three days. That’s not failure. That’s a regulated nervous system.” “Your worth doesn’t come from being convenient.” “Dream lives are still real lives, which means they’re still hard sometimes.” “Building a life you don’t need to escape from doesn’t mean building a life without hard moments. It means the hard moments don’t make you want to abandon everything.” “Their timeline is not your timeline. Their path is not your path. Their definition of success doesn’t have to be yours.” “What if this—right now, exactly as it is—was actually good enough?” “You don’t have to fix yourself to be worthy of love. You don’t have to achieve your way to enoughness.” “The life you’re waiting to start living? It’s already here. You’re in it.” “You’re not too messy to heal. You’re not too broken to build something beautiful. You’re not too late to start over.” Why This Episode Matters: So often when we think we’re failing, we’re actually succeeding. We just don’t recognize what success looks like when we’re in it. Because we’re not taught to envision the realities of success, we only anticipate the highlights. If you’re a high achiever who’s been doing the work: setting boundaries, going to therapy, trying to heal, but you can’t see if any of it’s actually working, this episode will help you recognize what you’ve actually been building. Progress feels invisible until someone points out what to look for. This is that pointing out. If you loved this episode: * Share it with a high achiever who needs to hear this * Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify * Subscribe so you never miss Season 2 * Join the newsletter community for weekly insights on building a life you don’t need to escape from Listen now: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/checking-in-with-dr-therese-mascardo/id1847993697 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0JYJn4AqCeUU67dKcmhnyg Watch the video version on YouTube (including the visual breakdown of what progress actually looks like): https://youtu.be/H4B49ecOlb0 About Checking In: This podcast is for high-achievers, perfectionists, and eldest daughters who look like they have it all together but are silently struggling. Think of Dr. Therese like a big sister with a doctorate who’s been there too and knows what actually helps. No confusing academic jargon or pretending she has all the answers. Just real conversations about building a life you don’t need to escape from. New episodes every Thursday. Season 2 launches January 2025. About Dr. Therese: Dr. Therese Mascardo is a Filipina-American psychologist and author of Love The Journey. For over a decade, she’s been in therapy rooms noticing patterns most people never get to see: what happens right before someone breaks through to genuine joy, what keeps people stuck, what actually helps when everything feels heavy. Her mission is simple: to help people build lives they don’t need to escape from. Instagram: www.instagram.com/exploring.therapy Newsletter: https://exploringtherapy.substack.com Website: https://www.exploringtherapy.com Sponsored by TherapyNotes: This episode is made possible by TherapyNotes, the all-in-one practice management software that helps therapists handle notes, scheduling, billing, and telehealth so they can focus on people, not paperwork. Try it free for 2 months with code DRTHERESE: https://bit.ly/3IjR482 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit exploringtherapy.substack.com

    24 min

  8. 2025-12-04

    Complex Grief: What It Actually Is and the 7 Things That Help When You're Stuck

    Here’s what nobody tells you about grief: you can do every single thing right and still feel like you’re failing at it. In this deeply personal episode, psychologist Dr. Therese Mascardo draws on both her clinical expertise and her own experience as a suicide loss survivor to explain complex grief: what it actually is, how it differs from typical grief, and why high achievers often struggle with it the most. She breaks down why doing everything “right” can still leave someone feeling stuck months or even years later, exploring examples from suicide loss to leaving abusive relationships to the complicated grief of new motherhood. Dr. Therese offers seven concrete strategies for working with complex grief, including permission to stop performing grief for others, tools for managing survivor’s guilt, and a reframe on letting grief transform rather than destroy. Why This Episode Matters: After my brother died by suicide, I tried to handle grief the way I handled everything else in my life: by not dealing with it and staying busy. I didn’t go to therapy for a long time. I didn’t cry. I didn’t talk about it much. Here’s the spoiler: that doesn’t work very well. What I’ve learned from both my personal experience and working with clients is that complex grief doesn’t follow the rules we think it should. High achievers especially struggle because we think if we just work hard enough at grieving, we’ll graduate from it faster. But grief isn’t a performance review. This episode shares what I wish someone had told me back then: that you can do everything right and still feel stuck, that grief has layers too heavy to carry alone, and that there are specific strategies that actually help when the normal grief process gets derailed. The 7 Strategies Covered in This Episode: * Stop Performing Your Grief * Lean Into Your Support Network * Let Your Grief Speak * Own Your Grief Story * Track Patterns Without Trying to Control the Grief * Release Yourself From Guilt About Laughing or Enjoying Life * Let Grief Change You Instead of Destroy You You’ll also learn: * The difference between typical grief and complex grief (hint: it’s like a layer cake) * Why high achievers struggle especially hard with grief * Examples of what makes grief complex—from suicide loss to new motherhood * How to stop performing your grief for other people * Why survivor’s guilt keeps you stuck and what to do about it * How to let grief transform you instead of destroy you Quotes from this episode: * “Grief isn’t a performance review. There’s no gold star for finishing ahead of schedule.” * “You’re allowed to grieve who you were while loving who you’re becoming.” * “Grief can’t be optimized or performed. It can only be carried.” * “You can carry grief and still have joy. You can miss someone deeply and still build a beautiful life.” * “Let this grief transform you instead of destroying you.” 🎧 Listen Everywhere 🍎 Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast 🎵 Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/0JYJn4AqCeUU67dKcmhnyg?si=18d779b8e3384ddd 🪴 Substack Audio → https://exploringtherapy.substack.com/podcast 📺 YouTube → https://youtu.be/cz08nk3SjeY 📚 Resources & Support: Immediate Crisis Support: * 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline - Call or text 988 (available 24/7) * Crisis Text Line - Text HOME to 741741 (available 24/7) * The Trevor Project (LGBTQ+ Youth) - Call 1-866-488-7386 or text START to 678-678 * International Association for Suicide Prevention - https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/ Suicide Loss Survivor Support: * American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) - https://afsp.org/find-support * Alliance of Hope for Suicide Loss Survivors - https://allianceofhope.org * The Compassionate Friends - https://www.compassionatefriends.org * Find local survivor support groups through AFSP or NAMI Additional Mental Health Resources: * NAMI Helpline - Call 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or text “HelpLine” to 62640 * SAMHSA National Helpline - 1-800-662-4357 * Psychology Today Therapist Finder - https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists 💙 SPONSOR: This episode is made possible by TherapyNotes, the all-in-one practice management software that helps therapists handle notes, scheduling, billing, and telehealth so they can focus on people, not paperwork. 🩵 Try it free for 2 months with code DRTHERESE → https://bit.ly/3IjR482 If you loved this episode: 💬 Leave a comment below - What resonated with you most? 📧 Share it with someone who needs to hear this ⭐ Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify 🔔 Subscribe so you never miss a conversation Join the newsletter community for weekly insights on building a life you don’t need to escape from: ✨ About This Podcast You know how sometimes you wish you could just call up your therapist when you’re having a moment? That’s what this podcast is. This is for high-achievers, perfectionists, and eldest daughters who look like they have it all together but are silently struggling. Think of Dr. Therese like a big sister with a doctorate who’s been there too and knows what actually helps. No confusing academic jargon or pretending she has all the answers. Just real conversations about building a life you don’t need to escape from. 🗓️ New episodes every Thursday. ✨ Connect with Dr. Therese 📸 Instagram → https://instagram.com/exploring.therapy 🗞️ Free Weekly Newsletter → https://exploringtherapy.substack.com/ 🌐 Website → https://www.exploringtherapy.com 🪶 About Dr. Therese Dr. Therese Mascardo is a Filipina-American psychologist and author of Love The Journey. For over a decade, she’s been in therapy rooms noticing patterns most people never get to see: what happens right before someone breaks through to genuine joy, what keeps people stuck, and what actually helps when everything feels heavy. Her mission is simple: to help people build lives they don’t need to escape from. Topics: mental health, therapy, complex grief, grief support, high achievers, perfectionism, suicide loss, self-worth, psychology, healing, emotional health This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit exploringtherapy.substack.com

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A podcast for overthinkers, perfectionists, and eldest daughters who are tired of being the strong one. Dr. Therese Mascardo shares the insights she's learned in over a decade of therapy work to help you feel less anxious, more connected, and better equipped to build a life you actually love. exploringtherapy.substack.com

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