Mental Matters Hosted By Asekho Toto

Asekho Toto
  • 5.0 (35)
  • Mental Health
  • Updated Daily

Mental Matters is hosted by Asekho Toto, author and mental health activist. Through honest conversations with thought leaders, therapists, survivors, and change-makers, the podcast explores anxiety, depression, trauma, healing, resilience, spirituality, purpose, relationships, and emotional wellbeing. If you are trying to understand yourself, recover, or grow, this is for you.

  1. 19h ago

    Gabrielle Morreale — Your Body Is Not Your Currency: The Truth About Eating Disorders, Diet Culture & Recovering Your Worth

    Gabrielle is a licensed therapist, DBT-trained eating disorder specialist, and founder of Recovered & Restored Therapy — who healed from her own eating disorder before building a practice to help others do the same.Most of us think an eating disorder is about food, or vanity, or willpower. But here's the problem: that framing keeps people sick and silent. Gabrielle's own started at age 10 — when a pediatrician told her mother to put her on a diet. What followed was decades of struggle, denial, and finally recovery — the kind where you stop just saying the right things and actually start walking the walk. Her work now rests on one radical idea: you are the expert on you, and your body was never meant to be the currency you trade for love, safety, or belonging.Expect to learn why 25% of people who diet go on to develop an eating disorder, why eating disorders almost never travel alone, how "your body is not your currency" reframes everything about self-worth, why roughly 10% of men struggle with eating disorders (and why that number is likely far higher), what body dysmorphia actually distorts and how to loosen its grip, why fear-mongering someone into recovery never works, how collaborative therapy replaced the punitive old model, what infertility and loss taught Gabrielle about grief and "big T" trauma, why you are the captain of your own medical care, and much more.This conversation will challenge how you think about food, bodies, and the quiet ways we measure our own worth.Follow Gabrielle:Instagram: @gabriellepcWebsite: recoveredandrestoredtherapy.comEmail: gabby@recoveredandrestoredtherapy.comGet in touch:Instagram: @mentalmatters | @asekhotoListen on Spotify & Apple Podcasts Timestamps (chapters)- **00:00** — Welcome + a quick favor (rate, review & share Mental Matters)- **01:21** — How Gabrielle became a therapist — and her own eating disorder- **03:20** — "Do what I say, not what I do": the turning point to walking the walk- **03:45** — A life worth living (DBT) — building a life the eating disorder can't fit into- **05:06** — Where it started: age 10, a pediatrician, and a diet- **05:40** — The statistic that should stop us: 25% of dieters develop an eating disorder- **07:10** — Getting serious in grad school & the long search for the right therapist- **08:40** — The shift in therapy: the client is the expert on themselves- **11:20** — What she says when someone admits they have an eating disorder (readiness & harm reduction)- **14:10** — Eating disorders never come alone: comorbidity without shame- **16:20** — Safety, trust & why it finally became possible to open up- **17:22** — "Your body is not your currency": diet culture, beauty & pretty privilege- **20:35** — Men and eating disorders: the 10% we don't talk about- **21:00** — Body dysmorphia: seeing a body bigger than it is- **23:09** — What other people think of your body (and why it's usually not about you)- **24:38** — Infertility & loss: the hardest chapter- **25:09** — Big T vs little T trauma- **25:46** — The "shrapnel" that stays, even after the happy ending- **27:24** — Advice to women facing infertility: you're not a burden — talk about it- **30:55** — "White coat syndrome" and the trap of deferring completely- **31:29** — You are the captain of your care- **33:14** — Hopelessness, dark thoughts, and why there's always hope- **33:23** — If you're unsafe: crisis lines, ER, psychiatric help- **34:15** — Where to find Gabrielle & her team### If you're strugglingIf you or someone you know is battling an eating disorder or thoughts of self-harm, please reach out for help — a doctor, a therapist, a crisis line, or your local emergency services. There is always hope, and your life matters.

  2. Sep 21

    Tammy Powder - Losing My Daughter to Suicide Taught Me We've Been Getting Suicide Prevention Wrong

    Tammy Powder is a mental health advocate, author of Mamas Need Love and Compassion Too, and a mother whose daughter Ruby died by suicide after a long struggle with mental health. When your child is hurting, every instinct says to fix it — offer solutions, share your own experience, make the pain go away. Tammy used to be a fixer, and for years she believed that was love. But here's the problem: trying to fix someone's pain doesn't land as support — it lands as "I don't trust you to handle this yourself." Tammy learned that the hardest way possible, watching her daughter Ruby fight her own mental health battles before losing her to suicide. What she took from that loss has reshaped how she talks to grieving and struggling parents everywhere: you cannot climb the ladder for someone you love. You can only stand at the bottom and hold it steady. Expect to learn why trying to fix someone's pain shuts them down instead of helping, what the "ladder" analogy teaches about supporting a loved one through mental health struggles without taking over, why "I've been there, just listen to me" can make a child stop opening up altogether, how a single code word — "apple" — created enough safety for her kids to bring her their scariest thoughts, why suicide prevention needs to shift toward suicide awareness because the numbers aren't moving, how the suicidal brain operates fundamentally differently from a mind making rational decisions, why isolation quietly compounds grief for mothers especially, why honoring grief matters more than rushing to move past it, how to respond when a child says they're anxious or depressed without minimizing it, why parents have to refill their own tank before they can support anyone else, and what it means to "check on the gentle ones" — the kids who mask their pain best — and much more. This conversation will change how you think about suicide prevention, grief, and what it actually means to support someone you love.

  3. Sep 7

    Clegg - Trauma Recovery, Purpose & Conscious Leadership

    In this episode of Mental Matters, Clegg shares his powerful journey of trauma recovery, mental health, purpose, and personal transformation after experiencing a life-changing accident. Clegg is a leadership development coach, CEO, TEDx speaker, and founder of Leadership Square. He explains how therapy, coaching, introspection, and focusing on his future self helped him overcome trauma and rediscover direction in his life. The conversation explores post-traumatic growth, conscious leadership, emotional healing, finding your purpose, and the importance of improving yourself before leading others. Clegg also discusses why many people become trapped in a “default future”—repeating the same routines without feeling inspired, fulfilled, or connected to their goals. If you feel stuck, are recovering from trauma, or want to become a more self-aware and purpose-driven leader, this episode offers practical insight and encouragement to start creating a different future. Keywords: trauma recovery, mental health, post-traumatic growth, finding purpose, conscious leadership, personal development, TEDx speaker, emotional healing, future self, leadership development.

  4. Aug 31

    Scottie Schneider - You Don't Find Purpose, You Build It: Lessons From a West Point Grad Turned Colombian Jungle Healer

    Scottie Schneider is a West Point graduate, former U.S. Army officer, and founder of Ocóyái, an indigenous-guided healing community deep in the Colombian jungle. Most people wait for purpose to arrive — a sign, a moment, a calling that makes everything click. But here's the problem: Scottie says that's backwards. Purpose isn't something that finds you sitting in your room. He's lived the opposite of it — waking up at 1pm on a beach in Cartagena, buried in alcohol, unable to leave the room in one of the most beautiful places on earth. What got him out wasn't a program handed to him. It was a self-built anti-depression checklist, a 30-day contract with himself, and years later, a complete rebuild of his life around community, plant medicine, and what he calls sustainable healing. Expect to learn why purpose is something you go find rather than wait for, how trauma and daily habits work together to drive anxiety and depression, why alcohol is a normalized drug while others get demonized despite similar effects, what sustainable healing actually looks like day to day, why Western medicine is built to treat symptoms instead of root causes, how community and tribal living shaped human psychology far more than modern isolated life, why hustle culture becomes self-destructive once it ignores the body's basic needs, how to navigate purpose when you're financially trapped in work you don't love, and much more. This conversation will challenge how you think about purpose, healing, and what it actually means to take care of yourself.

  5. Aug 28

    Pamela Michaux - Pain Was My Comfort Zone: How I Broke the Cycle of Generational Trauma

    Pamela Michaux is an author, survivor, and advocate for breaking generational trauma, whose story spans exile at age seven, years of physical and emotional abuse, and the courage to take her own guardians to court at twelve. Most people believe healing means erasing the past. You do the work, you move on, and the pain is supposed to disappear. But here's the problem: that's not how trauma works. Pamela spent years in what she calls "survival mode," unaware her mind had simply filed the pain away rather than resolved it — until becoming a mother forced it all to the surface. Her conclusion is uncomfortable but freeing: pain can become a comfort zone, love can feel like a threat, and real healing means learning to parent your own inner child while still building a life. Expect to learn why children raised around abuse often mistake love for a trap, what it really means to become "a prisoner of the past," why pain tolerance can be both a wound and a source of strength, how identity and belonging get complicated by racial rejection across cultures, why self-forgiveness feels harder than forgiving others, what the "steam pot" model of suppressed emotion reveals about burnout, why men are disproportionately affected by silence around depression, how the Adverse Childhood Experiences study connects trauma to addiction and suicide risk, why "vitamin N" — the power to say no — is something you have to actively build, and much more. This conversation will challenge how you think about resilience, forgiveness, and what it actually takes to stop surviving and start living.

  6. Aug 26

    Adam Tomlin - He Went to Therapy to Save His Son, and Ended Up Saving Himself

    Adam Tomlin is the host of the ACT OUT podcast, where he has spent years hosting honest, unfiltered conversations about identity, authenticity, and what it really takes to live unapologetically as yourself — while quietly working through his own diagnosis of ADHD and complex PTSD. Most people assume you go to therapy when you've hit rock bottom, or when something is visibly wrong. Adam didn't go for himself. He went because he was terrified of becoming the version of his own childhood that he swore he'd never repeat — and he didn't think he deserved to be there for any other reason. But here's the thing: it took nearly a year before he even considered that the healing might be for him too. What he found on the other side wasn't a cure, and it wasn't the calm, untouchable "Dalai Lama" version of peace he expected. It was something much more useful — a way to stay standing no matter what life throws at him. Expect to learn what complex PTSD actually is and why it often has no single "moment" you can point to and blame, how Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy rewires the relationship between your body and your emotions, why external validation becomes a dangerous substitute for identity when you grow up without one, what "parentification" is and how being forced to grow up too fast quietly shapes the rest of your adult life, why so many men equate emotional control with suppression instead of regulation, how the idea of "boys being left behind" shows up in mental health funding and institutional support, why starting therapy for someone else can still be the doorway to healing yourself, what real healing looks like once you let go of the fantasy of being permanently "fixed," and much more. This conversation will challenge how you think about strength, fatherhood, and what it actually means to heal. Follow Adam Tomlin:Podcast: the ACT OUT podcast — https://www.theactoutpodcast.com/Instagram: @actoutpodcastLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/adam-tomlin26YouTube: @theACTOUTpodcast

  7. Aug 7

    Dr. Crystal Harell - I Almost Died Chasing Corporate Success: Why Joy Is a Choice, Not a Reward

    Dr. Crystal Harell is a motivational speaker, life coach, and co-founder of Seven Sisters, a holistic health and beauty company built with her sisters. Most people think success looks like a stable job, a degree, a title — check the boxes and happiness follows. But here's the problem: Crystal did all of it, and her body started shutting down. She kept getting sick. She felt more trapped in corporate America than she ever did growing up with nothing. It took her three days to know she was misaligned, and thirty more to finally walk away — a decision that came after years of unprocessed grief from losing her father at eleven, and a rock-bottom moment at twenty-three that forced her to finally start healing. Expect to learn why joy is a choice but never an easy one, why Crystal's corporate job was making her physically sick and what her body was trying to tell her, how she found the courage to quit without a backup plan, what surrendering to the unknown actually requires versus what people assume it means, why doing inner work doesn't mean abandoning the people or the work you love, what shadow work really is and why the word "shadow" gets an unfair reputation, why heartbreak has a real, measurable effect on the body, why Crystal doesn't believe in failure and calls it redirection instead, how detaching from outcomes lets you actually enjoy the process without losing your drive, and much more. This conversation will challenge how you think about success, failure, and what it actually costs to keep chasing both.

  8. Jul 31

    Nicole Poulton - Why Sobriety Was Never About the Drug

    Nicole Poulton is a sobriety coach who survived childhood sexual abuse, years of addiction to prescription pills, cocaine, and alcohol, and a near-fatal overdose before rebuilding her life from the ground up. Most people think addiction is about the substance. But here's the problem: it's not. Nicole spent years using drugs and alcohol to numb pain she didn't even know she was carrying, until an overdose forced her to confront just how far she'd drifted from herself. Her conclusion is uncomfortable — addiction isn't a moral failing or a character flaw, it's self-soothing that got away from us. And until you deal with the root, no amount of willpower will fix it. Expect to learn why addiction is really just an unhealthy coping mechanism and not a personality defect, how childhood trauma shapes the nervous system long before we have language for it, why some people convince themselves a habit is "fine" simply because it's legal, what the concept of leverage has to do with getting — and staying — sober, why shame and guilt keep people trapped in the same destructive cycles, how to substitute a harmful coping mechanism without just ripping it away, why sobriety doesn't have to be a daily fight and can actually be joyful, what role community and who you surround yourself with plays in recovery, and much more. This conversation will challenge how you think about addiction, trauma, and what it actually means to heal.

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About

Mental Matters is hosted by Asekho Toto, author and mental health activist. Through honest conversations with thought leaders, therapists, survivors, and change-makers, the podcast explores anxiety, depression, trauma, healing, resilience, spirituality, purpose, relationships, and emotional wellbeing. If you are trying to understand yourself, recover, or grow, this is for you.

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