Checking In with Dr. Therese Mascardo

Dr. Therese Mascardo
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  • MENTAL HEALTH
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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. Joy Isn't a To-Do List | A Psychologist on What High Achievers Get Wrong About Happiness

    1D AGO

    Joy Isn't a To-Do List | A Psychologist on What High Achievers Get Wrong About Happiness

    You’ve done everything right. You’ve hit the milestones, built the life, checked the boxes. And joy still feels like it’s somewhere just ahead of you — one more goal, one more accomplishment, one more thing away. This is the Season 2 Finale of Checking In. This is the episode that ties together everything we talked about during this season. Joy is not what most high achievers think it is. It’s not a reward. It’s not the feeling you get when things go according to plan. It’s not something you earn by working hard enough, healing enough, or becoming the right version of yourself. In this finale, Dr. Therese lays out five truths about joy that change the whole picture. Listen now: YouTube: Apple Podcasts: Spotify: In This Episode Why achievement and joy aren’t the same thing Most high achievers have spent years optimizing for achievement. But achievement and joy use completely different muscles — and this episode is about learning which ones you’ve been neglecting. 5 things joy actually is: * Joy coexists with grief — you don’t have to resolve the pain before you’re allowed to feel good * Presence is the whole practice, not a reward for getting everything done * Waiting for the other shoe to drop is foreboding joy — Brené Brown’s research on why we brace against good moments, and what it costs us * Joy is somatic before it’s cognitive — your body knows before your brain does * Joy doesn’t rely on your plans going right — holding them loosely is how it finds you What every Season 2 guest was actually saying From gut health to financial shame to sleep to truth-telling — Dr. Therese traces the thread running through every conversation this season and lands on what all of it was pointing toward. 🔥 Season 3 is coming: Learning from the Stories That Changed Everything 🔥 Subscribe so you’re there when it drops. Key Quotes “Achievement and joy are not the same thing.” “Joy lives in the room with grief. You don’t get one without making space for the other.” “Presence isn’t a luxury. It’s the whole practice.” “Waiting for the other shoe to drop doesn’t prevent the loss. It just steals the good part.” “Gratitude is how you choose to stay in the room when joy is happening.” “Joy is somatic before it’s cognitive. It’s something you feel before it’s something you understand.” “The most honest thing you can offer someone is the view from inside the hard thing, not from the other side of it.” “Joy isn’t waiting for you at the finish line. It’s already here. The question is whether you’re present enough to feel it.” “Where are you already one foot out the door?” If You Loved This Episode 💌 Share it with someone who’s been chasing joy in the wrong direction. 📝 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. 🔔 Subscribe on YouTube, Apple, or Spotify so you don’t miss Season 3. 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. Episodes Mentioned * How to Cope When the World Is on Fire w/ Dr. Marie Fang “What is the bare minimum I can actually do right now?” * Are You Building the Wrong Life? w/ Jodie Cook — Fear, powerlifting, and whether you’re building the right life * Loneliness Epidemic w/ David Gate — Saying something true as the first act of rebellion * Why Your Gut Issues Are Ruining Your Mental Health w/ Abi Owens — What chronic stress does to your gut, and why that line explains the whole season * The Psychology of Money w/ Lindsay Bryan-Podvin — What financial shame has to do with how you feel Resources Mentioned * Daring Greatly by Brené Brown — foreboding 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 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 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

    13 min
  2. The Psychology of Money: Breaking Free From Financial Shame & Anxiety w/ Lindsay Bryan-Podvin

    MAY 14

    The Psychology of Money: Breaking Free From Financial Shame & Anxiety w/ Lindsay Bryan-Podvin

    You’re not bad with money. But you do avoid opening your bank account. You let the bills pile up. You change the subject when finances come up because not knowing feels safer than looking. And underneath all of that is a shame spiral that’s been running so long it just feels like who you are. The real issue isn’t your habits. It’s that your money story was formed before you were old enough to question it, the system is more broken than anyone will admit, and nobody has ever addressed the emotional layer underneath — just the numbers. This week I sat down with Lindsay Bryan-Podvin, a licensed clinical social worker, certified financial therapist, and founder of Mind Money Balance. She won’t make you feel worse about where you are. She covers why high-achieving women get stuck in financial shame, what your childhood money story is still doing to you right now, and why curiosity — not discipline — is what finally moves the needle. She also gets into joyful spending, the “fun money account,” financial self-care by subtraction, ADHD and money, and how to talk about finances with a partner without it blowing up. You’re going to walk away feeling less alone, less ashamed, and clear on what you actually have the power to change. Listen now: YouTube: Apple Podcasts: Spotify: In This Episode Why smart, high-achieving people still struggle with money It’s not a personal failure. It’s the combination of a genuinely broken system, deeply ingrained money beliefs formed before age 8, and a shame spiral that keeps you from ever looking closely enough to actually change anything. The shame vs. guilt distinction that changes everything Guilt says: I made a bad money decision. Shame says: I am bad with money. Lindsay explains why shame makes it almost impossible to take action — and why curiosity is the way out. You cannot budget your way out of a broken system Lindsay breaks down the structural realities that make financial stress inevitable for so many of us — outdated financial advice, housing costs that have nearly doubled when adjusted for inflation, healthcare tied to employment, and the “enshittification” of the tech platforms that were supposed to save us money. This is context most people never get, and it matters. How your childhood money story still runs the show Money beliefs are largely formed by age 7 or 8. Lindsay walks through how to get curious about your own money story — not to spiral, but to finally understand why you do what you do. Joyful spending — and why perfectionists resist it For a lot of us, spending on ourselves feels indulgent, irresponsible, even scary. Lindsay talks about the “fun money account,” the under-$20 practice purchase, and why learning to spend joyfully is actually an act of self-care. Financial self-care by subtraction Sometimes the most generous thing you can do is take things off your plate, not add more. Lindsay talks about automating bills, canceling aspirational subscriptions, and doing a social media audit of the financial content you’re consuming. ADHD and money: working with your brain, not against it From the “ADHD tax” to body doubling with Focusmate to giving yourself permission to own three water bottles — Lindsay has genuinely practical, brain-first strategies for managing finances when your brain doesn’t do “conventional.” Money and couples Lindsay shares her “theirs, mine, and ours” system, why couples who talk about money regularly are measurably happier, and what to ask when deciding between a couples therapist and a financial therapist. What she wants every perfectionist to take away about mistakes Mistakes with money are not a sign you’re failing. They’re part of the process. Lindsay’s parting message for perfectionists is one of the most freeing things in this episode. Key Quotes “You cannot budget your way out of a broken system.” — Lindsay Bryan-Podvin “Guilt says, I made a bad money decision. Shame says, I am bad with money.” — Lindsay Bryan-Podvin “Secrecy, silence, and judgment make shame worse and harder to overcome.” — Lindsay Bryan-Podvin “We are trying to shoehorn ourselves into an economic picture that no longer exists.” — Lindsay Bryan-Podvin “Throw out about 80% of the personal finance advice out there. It was written for a world that is long gone.” — Lindsay Bryan-Podvin “There’s a lot of fear in joy — because it feels like if I have joy, I’ll lose my edge.” — Lindsay Bryan-Podvin “A mistake doesn’t mean you’re bad. It is just an opportunity to learn more about yourself.” — Lindsay Bryan-Podvin “Your money story started before you were old enough to question it.” — Dr. Therese If You Loved This Episode 💌 Share it with a friend who you know is white-knuckling their finances in silence 📝 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 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: Unimaginable Joy — exploring everything that impacts mental health beyond the mind. About Lindsay Bryan-Podvin Lindsay Bryan-Podvin is a licensed clinical social worker, certified financial therapist, and founder of Mind Money Balance. She ran a financial wellbeing curriculum for the University of Michigan for three years and has been featured in Allure, HuffPost, CNET, Time, and PBS. She’s the author of The Financial Anxiety Solution, a workbook that walks you through the emotional, psychological, and behavioral roots of your money stress — not just the numbers. 📖 The Financial Anxiety Solution 📲 Follow Lindsay 🌐 View the website 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. Resources Mentioned * The Financial Anxiety Solution by Lindsay Bryan-Podvin * Focusmate (body doubling app) * The Financial Therapy Association If this episode resonated, these ones pick up right where it left off * The Surprising Connection Between Success, Shame & ADHD w/ Dr. Shawn Horn * Are You Building the Wrong Life? w/ Jodie Cook 💙 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 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

    18 min
  3. Hopecore Is Trending: The Psychology Behind Our Obsession With Wholesome Content

    MAY 7

    Hopecore Is Trending: The Psychology Behind Our Obsession With Wholesome Content

    When the Artemis 2 crew went viral, millions of people lost their minds. That same obsession — the kind Ted Lasso, Tabitha Brown, and Dolly Parton spark in us — has a name. It’s called hopecore. It restores our faith in humanity. And the fact that we’re all consumed by it right now tells us something important about our mental health. In this episode, Dr. Therese breaks down the psychology behind why we can’t get enough of wholesome content, what it’s actually doing to your nervous system, and how to stop waiting for hope to find you and start cultivating it yourself. Listen now: YouTube: Apple Podcasts: Spotify: In This Episode * What hopecore and competency porn actually are — and why your brain is already hooked * The specific emotional state Jonathan Haidt says gets triggered when hopecore hits you (and why it makes you measurably more generous afterward) * Why high achievers feel the sting of incompetent leadership more acutely than most — and what watching Artemis 2 revealed about that * The C.R. Snyder hope framework that reframes everything about what hope actually is and how it works * Why hope isn’t the finishing touch on your mental health — and what happens when it runs out * The surprisingly small, physical thing Dr. Therese does when she’s feeling genuinely hopeless * Why the most countercultural thing you can do right now isn’t just consuming hopecore — it’s becoming it Key Quotes “We are tired, and tired people will grab on to anything that looks like it might help.” “Watching Ted Lasso felt like someone handing that hope back to me — reminding me that hope still exists.” “Hope is not the decorative part of mental health that we tend to only when everything else is handled. It’s structural, and everything else gets built on top of it.” “Hope is two things working together: the belief that a path forward exists, and the belief that you are personally capable of walking it.” — C.R. Snyder “Your standards were never the problem.” “Hope isn’t a luxury you add once everything else is figured out. It’s the thing that makes everything else worth doing.” “Hope isn’t just something you find. It’s something you can be.” If You Loved This Episode 💜 If this episode resonated, you’ll also love Are You Building the Wrong Life? — Dr. Therese’s conversation with Jodie Cook on designing a life that actually feels good to live in: 💌 Share it with someone who’s been running on empty and doesn’t have words for what they need. 📝 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 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 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

    18 min
  4. The Crisis of Character | Why Being a Good Person Has Never Felt Harder

    APR 30

    The Crisis of Character | Why Being a Good Person Has Never Felt Harder

    You try to be a good person. And then you look up at the men who have all the power, all the money, all the platforms — who lie and cheat and manipulate without consequence — and you think: why am I even trying? We are living in a crisis of character. Dr. Therese breaks down how we got here, why character is so important, and what we can do to begin making things right in a broken world. In This Episode * Why the rage you feel watching dishonest people keep winning isn’t a personality flaw — it’s a sign that something is genuinely, systemically broken • The dark side of organized religion and what it has to do with why character stopped being rewarded • Why the wellness world — cold plunges, breathwork, sound baths and all — might be making the character crisis worse, not better • What the therapist code of ethics reveals about the gap between what we preach and what we actually do (and why the most obvious rule is the one that keeps getting broken) • Why Stoic philosophy, developed over 2,000 years ago, might be more urgently needed now than ever — and the one practice that can change how you move through the world • The qualities we have nearly lost as a culture — and what reclaiming even one could do for your relationships, your work, and your sense of self • Why good character almost always costs something — and why the people with the most of it are rarely the ones with the biggest platforms • What it actually means to live with integrity when no one is watching and it costs you something real — and how to start today Key Quotes “The reason those videos get millions of views is because we are starving. And what we are starving for is character.” “Character is almost never produced without hardship. And hardship we have made increasingly optional.” “You are not going to go viral for being patient with your mother on the phone. The algorithms were not designed to reward this.” “The people who stayed late and cleaned toilets were in the back. The people who looked good doing it were invited to the stage.” “We say we hate narcissism. But our attention says we love it.” “Wellness without character is just a more expensive form of self-absorption.” “We assume that because someone can articulate pain well, they must also know how to handle it with care.” “In a culture that runs on the fear of not-enough, generosity is a radical act.” “In a world designed to split your attention into a thousand pieces, presence is the most powerful form of love.” “The Stoics called it prosoche — the daily practice of asking yourself: am I actually living what I believe? Most of us never ask. We’re too busy watching everyone else.” If You Loved This Episode 💌 Share it with someone who’s been running on empty and doesn’t have words for what they need. 📝 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. Resources Mentioned * If you’d like to learn more about Stoicism: The Little Book of Stoicism by Jonas Salzgeber. * Related episodes: How to Cope When the World Is on Fire | Grief, Anger & Doom Scrolling ft. Dr. Marie Fang — what it actually looks like to hold yourself together when everything feels like too much. Why You’re Still Exhausted Even After Rest — a foundational episode on the seven types of rest and what you actually need to recover. 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 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

    20 min
  5. The Burnout Cure High Achievers Are Finding in the Analog World w/ Salomé Peralta

    APR 16

    The Burnout Cure High Achievers Are Finding in the Analog World w/ Salomé Peralta

    The Burnout Cure High Achievers Are Finding in the Analog World w/ Salomé Peralta You’ve probably tried the rest. The better sleep schedule. The morning routine. Maybe even the therapy. And they’ve helped. But there’s something this particular kind of burnout is asking for that none of those things quite reach — and it has everything to do with what you stopped doing somewhere between childhood and being a serious adult. This week I sat down with Salomé Peralta, who spent over 12 years at Google in Dublin and watched burnout quietly take hold — not because anyone was forcing her into it, but because the environment was so exciting and the work so consuming that it just became everything. When life gave her forced pauses, she kept noticing the same thing: the moment she slowed down and used her hands, something came back. Some version of herself she hadn’t seen in a long time. That realization is what became The Manual Break — and the first edition sold out. This conversation is one of my favorites I’ve had on this show. In This Episode How Salomé got here A Portuguese government program randomly placed her in Dublin for six months. A friend at Google had her over for lunch. She stayed for 12 years. That’s the kind of serendipity that changes everything — including who you become and what you eventually decide to build. What burnout actually looked like inside a company doing everything “right” Google had wellbeing conversations in one-on-ones. It cared. And yet the culture was so performance-driven, so genuinely exciting, that it was easy to lose yourself in it — not because anyone told you to, but because you wanted to. Salomé talks honestly about how it felt to realize she’d drifted away from herself without noticing. The forced pauses that changed everything Every time Salomé stepped away from work — for maternity leave, or when her husband Tiago was laid off — she noticed the same thing: she could breathe again. She could remember what she actually liked. She could see what she’d been missing. She didn’t want to wait for another forced pause to find her way back. What The Manual Break actually is Not a yoga class. Not a silent meditation weekend. Their words: “Not a retreat, but it may feel like one.” It’s a creative weekend — two days in the forest, away from screens — where burned-out professionals work alongside Portuguese artists and craftspeople learning hands-on skills. No performance expected. No end result required. Just your hands doing something real. The first edition, held at Retiro do Bosque about an hour from Lisbon, sold out. Why working with your hands does something screens never can Salomé’s take: it connects you to the child you once were. Before achievement became your identity. Before creativity had to justify itself. There’s something about making something tangible — especially in industries where the end line never really comes — that creates a kind of rest that rest alone can’t touch. On nostalgia as a signal We’re all feeling it — the pull toward analog cameras, board games, reading in the park. Salomé’s read on it: nostalgia shows up when we’re losing too much going the other direction. It’s not just sentiment. It’s your nervous system telling you something. “I’m not creative” Salomé has a reframe for this. Stop calling it creativity. Call it exploration. You’re not there to make great art. You’re there to try something, with your hands, without anyone grading you. That’s it. And for people whose entire professional life is tied to performance, that permission alone can be the breakthrough. What Salomé hopes people walk away with Not just a nice weekend. A felt sense that manual mode is available to them — that it’s not out of reach, that it doesn’t require a special experience to access. The bingo card she sent guests home with said it best: cook something slowly, read before bed, write something by hand, sketch for a few minutes. These things are not gone. They’re just waiting. What’s next for The Manual Break A collaboration with Portuguese grandmas who make art through a social hub for 60+ women. And Salomé and Dr. Therese are exploring bringing The Manual Break to the Checking In community this fall in Portugal. Details to come. Key Quotes “You just easily lose yourself. It’s so easy to forget about taking care of other things because it easily becomes all you want to achieve.” — Salomé Peralta “Every time I was forced to stop, I realized there are so many other things I’m not currently integrating in my life that I really like.” — Salomé Peralta “It connects you to the child you once were more easily.” — Salomé Peralta “If you feel that nostalgia, it’s probably because we’re losing too much while going through the other end of things.” — Salomé Peralta “It’s not about being creative. It’s about being more explorative.” — Salomé Peralta “It’s really easy to completely forget about play and playful things in your life.” — Salomé Peralta “I remembered a part of myself I forgot.” — Dr. Therese Mascardo “It would be successful for me if people would leave feeling that it’s easier to go back to manual mode in their normal lives.” — Salomé Peralta If You Loved This Episode 💌 Share it with someone who’s been running on empty and doesn’t have words for what they need. 📝 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 Salomé Peralta Salomé Peralta spent over 12 years at Google in Dublin before co-founding The Manual Break with her husband Tiago — a hands-on creative experience that brings burned-out professionals back to themselves through art and Portuguese craft. Follow The Manual Break on Instagram Connect with Salomé on LinkedIn Resources Mentioned • The Manual Break on Instagram • The first edition sold out — join the waiting list for the next edition • Interested in joining Dr. Therese for a future Manual Break in Portugal? Click here. 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 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 8m
  6. Why Your Gut Issues Are Ruining Your Mental Health (And What to Do About It) w/ Abi Owens

    APR 9

    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. 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
  7. Loneliness Epidemic | How Beauty, Friendship, and Truth Will Save Us w/ Poet David Gate

    APR 2

    Loneliness Epidemic | How Beauty, Friendship, and Truth Will Save Us w/ Poet David Gate

    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
  8. Are You Building the Wrong Life? Jodie Cook on Designing Your Life on Purpose

    MAR 26

    Are You Building the Wrong Life? Jodie Cook on Designing Your Life on Purpose

    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
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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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