The Sacred Weight

Melissa Trickey, LPC

The Sacred Weight is a podcast about faith, grief, mental health, and the burdens we carry. Hosted by licensed therapist Melissa Trickey, LPC, each episode offers honest conversations, practical encouragement, and hope for those navigating loss, healing, depression, anxiety, and life's unexpected challenges. Together we'll explore how faith and emotional health can coexist—even when life feels heavy.

Episodes

  1. 6 days ago

    The Weight of Shame: Part 2 - Breaking Free

    What happens when you know you’re forgiven—but your mind keeps dragging you back to what happened? In this episode of The Sacred Weight, we’re talking about what it actually looks like to begin breaking free from shame. We explore radical acceptance, the stories our minds tell us, cognitive distortions, and practical ideas from CBT, DBT, and ACT that can help us notice our thoughts without automatically believing everything they say. And we come back to an even bigger question: Who gets to tell me who I am? Your past?Your mistakes?Your shame?Other people? Or the One who calls you loved, forgiven, and wanted? Radical AcceptanceRadical acceptance is a DBT skill that means acknowledging reality as it is—even when we deeply wish it were different. Acceptance does not mean approval, agreement, excusing what happened, or saying something was okay. It means choosing to stop fighting the fact that it happened so we can decide how we want to move forward. CBT — Cognitive Behavioral TherapyCBT helps us examine the connection between our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. One important CBT skill is learning to recognize cognitive distortions—patterns such as all-or-nothing thinking, catastrophizing, mind reading, overgeneralizing, and labeling—and learning to question whether our thoughts are accurate or helpful. DBT — Dialectical Behavior TherapyDBT teaches practical skills for handling painful emotions and difficult situations. Its core skill areas include mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. Radical acceptance is one of the distress-tolerance skills commonly associated with DBT. ACT — Acceptance and Commitment TherapyACT teaches us that we don't have to eliminate every painful thought before we can live according to what matters to us. Through skills such as cognitive defusion, we can learn to notice a thought as a thought—“I'm having the thought that…”—rather than automatically treating it as a fact. For additional educational resources, visit Therapist Aid for information and exercises related to CBT, DBT, cognitive distortions, radical acceptance, and other mental-health skills. A simple prayer for this week:Jesus, please help me to see myself the way You see me—loved, forgiven, and wanted. Shalom, friends. Take care. ❤️ The Sacred Weight is for educational and informational purposes and is not a substitute for individual mental-health treatment, diagnosis, or medical care. Want to learn more?🌿 Visit The Sacred Weight on EtsyLooking for gentle, faith-centered resources for reflection, prayer, and personal growth? Visit the BRAND NEW "The Sacred Weight" Etsy shop for printable journals and thoughtfully designed digital resources. ~ More to come. https://www.etsy.com/shop/TheSacredWeight?ref=shop_profile&listing_id=4552726174

About

The Sacred Weight is a podcast about faith, grief, mental health, and the burdens we carry. Hosted by licensed therapist Melissa Trickey, LPC, each episode offers honest conversations, practical encouragement, and hope for those navigating loss, healing, depression, anxiety, and life's unexpected challenges. Together we'll explore how faith and emotional health can coexist—even when life feels heavy.