Cracking Open with Molly Carroll

Molly Carroll, MA, LPC
  • 4.9 (64)
  • Self-Improvement
  • Updated Bimonthly

What happens when life brings you to your knees and forces you to discover who you truly are? Cracking Open is the podcast for anyone who has faced a defining moment of crisis, grief, trauma, or rock bottom and found themselves transformed by it. Hosted by Molly Carroll, licensed therapist, TED speaker, published author, and coach, each episode dives deep into the raw, real stories of actors, athletes, thought leaders, healers, and everyday warriors. Whether it was the loss of a loved one, addiction, childhood trauma, incarceration, or an unexpected life collapse, these "cracking open" moments shape everything: how we parent, love, work, lead, and connect. What you'll discover: How trauma and crisis can become the greatest catalysts for growthTools and insights from mental health, healing, and personal transformationHonest conversations that normalize struggle and celebrate resilienceIf you're navigating grief, trauma recovery, personal growth, or a major life transition, or you simply want to feel less alone in your human experience, this podcast is for you. Subscribe and join the conversation.

  1. Why Small Talk Is Making You More Lonely (And What To Do Instead)

    5d ago

    Why Small Talk Is Making You More Lonely (And What To Do Instead)

    I recorded this episode in the middle of one of the most emotional weeks of my life. My daughter Cora was three days from graduating high school, and I found myself at backyard parties where the conversation kept drifting to the same familiar places: the weather, work, the kids. And I felt that quiet ache I believe so many of us are carrying right now. The longing for something deeper. More real. More connected. So that’s what today’s episode is about: how we find the courage to have more connection. Something Is Shifting Because I think we all feel it. This quiet ache underneath the busyness of our lives. We reach for our phones in line for coffee instead of turning to the person next to us. We text instead of call. We scroll instead of sit. We show up to gatherings and perform a version of ourselves the edited, polished, “I’m fine” version instead of actually arriving in all our beautiful messiness. And from this? We feel less connected. More lonely. More invisible. Here’s what I’ve learned in 25 years as a therapist: loneliness isn’t about being alone. You can be surrounded by people at a party, in a marriage, in an office full of colleagues and still feel profoundly unseen. The opposite of loneliness isn’t proximity. It’s depth. And the data tells us loneliness is worse for your health than smoking, obesity, or high blood pressure. Anxiety and depression are the highest ever, and we are more likely to die from feeling lonely. The epidemic is real. But here’s what I know after 25 years of sitting with people in my office: loneliness is not the problem. It’s the symptom. Connection is the medicine. And the prescription? COURAGE. The courage to ask a real question. To say the true thing. To let someone love you back. So here are the four pillars of courage to create more connection and therefore more LOVE. The Four Pillars of Courage for Connection ✨1. Ask for Help Here’s the thing about asking for help: we avoid it because we think it makes us look weak or like a burden. A Harvard and Wharton study found the number one reason people don’t ask for help: it makes us feel incompetent. But here’s what the research actually shows. When you ask someone for help, they see you as more competent. They trust you more. And this is the part I love so much: they feel like they matter. I have been a therapist for decades, and I still feel resistance every single time I walk into my own therapist’s office. But this week, in the middle of all the graduation chaos, I asked a couple of friends for help. And I felt the weight lift. I wasn’t just giving love anymore. I was letting people give me love back. Next time someone asks how you’re doing, try this instead of “fine”: “I’ve been wrestling with something lately. Can I get your take on it?”“Honestly, I could use some advice. I’ve been dealing with something hard.”Watch what happens to their face. Watch their eyes change. You just told them they have something real to offer you. You just allowed them to love you. ✨2. Be Authentic I know authenticity gets thrown around so much it almost loses its meaning. So here’s what I actually mean by it: tell the truth. Not the highlight reel, not the LinkedIn version. The real one. I was on a walk with a dear friend recently, and I could feel she’d been carrying something heavy for months. I kept holding back, not wanting to push. But finally I said: “I see something going on with you. I feel like you’re carrying something hard. Can I be here for you?” She was honest. She cried. And then I could share my own fears about Cora leaving for college. We walked away closer than we’d been in years. Try slipping one of these into your next conversation: “What’s been the hardest part of your week?”“If you’re being totally honest, how are you?”People might pause. It might get a little uncomfortable. The Buddhists teach that we need to get comfortable with the uncomfortable. ✨3. Make Change Yes, the world is noisy. Yes, our phones, schedules, and the general chaos of life are real. But we still get to choose where we spend our time and if we want to connect on a deeper level. It is our responsibility to create the rituals, the invitations, the conversations for more connection. A month ago I challenged myself to walk up to a table of strangers, young, hip, athletic mountain bikers, and ask if they’d be on my podcast. My heart was pounding. But when I did, they looked up. They smiled. They felt seen. And at a graduation party recently, I stopped a new friend and said, “I’m challenging myself to go deeper at these parties. So here’s my question: in a year from now, what do you want to be celebrating?” We both got quiet. Then she said: “I want to be celebrating that I don’t worry as much. That I’ve let go of the weight I carry around my kids and my divorce. That I’m finally celebrating who I am.” That is the kind of conversation that stays with you. That’s the one you remember. ✨4. Be in Service: Show Up to See, Not Just to Be Seen Most of us walk into a room carrying some version of the same quiet anxiety: Do I look okay? Will people like me? Am I enough? You are not alone in that. I feel it every time too. But what if you walked in with just one question in your heart: “Who in this room needs to feel less alone today?” That is the shift. That is everything. When you become the person who asks the real questions, who listens without fixing, who makes eye contact and says “tell me more,” you become magnetic. Not because you performed well. Because you made someone feel like they mattered. Some of my favorite questions to bring to any gathering: “What’s something you wish more people asked you about?”“What’s the best thing that’s happened to you in the last month?”“How do you want to live?”I heard that last one recently from a son speaking at his father’s funeral. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. This Is the Moment We keep waiting for the right time to have the real conversation. The right setting. The right moment. The right person to go first. There is no right time. This is the moment. By the time you read this, Cora has already graduated. The cap, the gown, the ugly crying it’s all happened. And I can tell you that the conversations I will carry from this season are not the ones about the weather. They’re the ones where someone looked me in the eye and asked something real. At your next gathering, be the one who goes first. Ask the brave question. Sit with the pause. Put down your phone and let it go somewhere. The world doesn’t need more small talk. It needs more of you the real, brave, loving, beautifully messy, imperfect you. That is the magic xo Lots of love, Molly

    19 min
  2. I Want to Be Wild: Emma Tynan on Letting Go of More and Coming Home to Yourself

    May 28

    I Want to Be Wild: Emma Tynan on Letting Go of More and Coming Home to Yourself

    I found Emma through Maria Shriver's newsletter, and her words stopped me cold: "I no longer want more. I want to be wild." I felt my whole body exhale. Because I knew exactly what she meant. The TED Talks, the books, the funnels, the coaching groups, I had all of it. And so did Emma. And somewhere underneath all of it, we both heard the same quiet voice saying: this isn't it. This conversation is for anyone who has ever felt that way. Meet Emma Tynan Emma Tynan is an Irish writer whose work explores belonging, the inner life, and contemplative practice through lived experience. She lives in the Pacific Northwest and is currently writing her first book, Brave Words. She also facilitates international luxury retreats in devotion to St. Mary Magdalene, and before all of this, she founded an international life coaching company that served thousands of students worldwide for over a decade. What We Get Into Closing a decade-long business in a single afternoon. Emma got her name on the office door and two weeks later heard four words rise up within her, standing outside her son's school: give me everything. She sent the emails that same day. Her son Eli and the gift inside the unexpected. Emma's youngest is autistic. His becoming was an invitation to grieve, surrender, and release everything she thought life was supposed to look like. She homeschooled him for a year, with hot chocolates, forest walks, and a chalkboard in the dining room. She'd do it ten times over. Distraction disguised as productivity. Years of funnels and Facebook ads, chasing the next strategy while a voice in her heart kept saying the same thing: write the book. I felt this in my bones. Mary Magdalene and reclaiming what's true. Emma's work centers on restoring Mary Magdalene's real story, scholar, apostle, prophet, not the fiction she was branded with for centuries. In Ireland, this history is not abstract. It's in the bones of the culture. What wildness really means. Not resistance. Belonging. The part of us we were taught to tame, that's the part that knows who we really are. Quotes I'm Still Thinking About ✨"It was distraction disguised as productivity and scaling and growth." ✨"The thing you're most afraid to admit that's the thing that's going to liberate you." ✨"The tendrils of my soul want to touch the real earth to move not outward, but inward." Her writing will move you. I promise. 📖 Subscribe to her Substack 🌿 www.thelightscript.com 📷 Instagram: @emmatynan_ If this landed somewhere in you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Molly Carroll: Website | Instagram | Facebook Now accepting new therapy clients! Schedule Here

    48 min
  3. The Leader Within: Shadow Work, Core Values & the Power of Human Connection with Thomas Droge | Ep. 104

    May 14

    The Leader Within: Shadow Work, Core Values & the Power of Human Connection with Thomas Droge | Ep. 104

    What does it mean to truly lead not just in a boardroom, but in your relationships, your family, and your own inner life? In this deeply moving episode, therapist and host Molly Carroll sits down with Thomas Droge, executive coach, Chief Mindfulness Officer, mindfulness speaker, and author of The Leader Within, to explore the practices that create real, lasting transformation. Thomas brings over three decades of integrated medicine, qigong, meditation, and contemplative work into a raw, honest conversation about shadow work, living your core values, the healing power of human connection, and what happens when life cracks you open without warning. You'll hear Thomas share the moment his wife came out of surgery paralyzed — and what that crisis revealed about love, presence, and showing up. This episode is for anyone feeling stuck, disconnected, or searching for deeper meaning in a noisy world. Topics covered: Shadow work and embracing your "evil twin"How to identify and live by your core values (the precepts practice)Leadership as a human skill — for parents, teachers, and everyday peopleThe psychology of not wanting to be a burdenAncient wisdom for modern mental healthMindfulness in the workplace and startup cultureFinding your path when the template doesn't fit🎧 Tune in now to listen. xo Molly 🌱 Please consider supporting the Cracking Open podcast on Patreon. Resources and Links Thomas Droge:  Website | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook The Leader Within — available now wherever books are sold. Molly Carroll: Website | Instagram | Facebook Now accepting new therapy clients! Schedule Here

    53 min
  4. Molly Magic: The Power in Life's No's and Not Yet's

    Apr 30

    Molly Magic: The Power in Life's No's and Not Yet's

    You got a NO this week. Maybe more than one. Someone said no to you. Or your kid came home with that look on their face. Or you've been trying and trying, and the door just won't open. Here's what the research tells us: your brain processes social rejection in the same region as physical pain. Neuroscientist Naomi Eisenberger found that the anterior cingulate cortex — the part that lights up when you're physically hurt — lights up identically when you're rejected. You are not being dramatic. You are being human. And your brain doesn't distinguish between a big no and a small one. The strawberries being out of stock. The email that never came back. Your nervous system treats them all the same way. The small nos stack. By noon, your threat response has been firing all morning — and your fear brain starts whispering: maybe you're not enough. Maybe you should stop trying. That is not wisdom. That is fear doing its job. A no is information about that moment. It is not a verdict on your worth. When it happens to someone you love. When your child doesn't make the team, isn't invited to the party, comes home with that look — it hits differently. Research shows that when someone we love is rejected, our brains register it as if it happened to us. Add the helplessness of not being able to take it from them, and it's a lot to carry. So: feel your own pain first. Then sit with them. Listen. Show them what it looks like to get back up. How you handle your nos is teaching everyone around you how to handle theirs. Four tools for the no you're holding: 1. Name which no it is. A not yet has a crack in it — soft language, an open door, worth showing up for again. A real no feels different in your body: clear, final, repeated. Releasing a real no isn't defeat. It's clarity. It frees up every ounce of energy you've been spending on a closed door. 2. Write it out. Unprocessed nos become stories — nothing works out for me, I always get passed over. Those aren't facts. They're feelings. Write it out and watch it lose its grip. Naming an emotion reduces its intensity and moves you from fear brain back into thinking brain. 3. Burn it. Write it down, read it one last time, say out loud: "This does not define me" — and burn it. Watch it turn to ash. Can't burn it? Tear it up. Delete it. The point is the conscious choice to let it go. 4. Ask what it's making room for. What could this no be redirecting you toward? What are your yeses now? And if all you can write is I don't know yet, but I trust something is coming — that is enough. That is the whole practice. Every no you have ever survived is proof that you are still here. Something good is ahead of you. I really believe that. Now go find your magic. 🤍 — Molly 🌱 Please consider supporting the Cracking Open podcast on Patreon. RESOURCES & LINKS: Molly Carroll: Website | Instagram | Facebook Now accepting new therapy clients! Learn more or schedule a session here.

    23 min
  5. Shaka Senghor: How to Escape Life's Hidden Prisons and Be Free

    Apr 16

    Shaka Senghor: How to Escape Life's Hidden Prisons and Be Free

    Whenever someone asks me for a word that describes how I want to live, my answer is always the same. Freedom. Not just personal freedom, but freedom in my mind, my body, and my spirit. Maybe that comes from being raised Catholic, or maybe it’s simply my wild spirit that has never wanted to be contained. So when I read Shaka Senghor's How to Be Free: A Proven Guide to Escaping Life’s Hidden Prisons, I knew I needed to have him back on the podcast. Because this message isn’t just for people who have been behind bars. You don’t need a prison cell to feel imprisoned. It’s for anyone lying awake replaying something they wish they could let go of. Anyone who can’t move past a loss. Anyone whose carefully built walls are keeping even joy out. Shaka Senghor is known for his remarkable journey from solitary confinement to the C-suite. He is a New York Times bestselling author, a resilience teacher, and one of the most powerful voices we have on transformation, healing, and justice. In his latest book, he names the hidden prisons that keep us stuck. They are not made of concrete and steel, but of grief, anger, shame, and fear. And here is the truth that changes everything. These prisons have doors. In This Episode, We Explore Grief Shaka begins his book with grief for a reason. We talk about loss in a deeply human way, including the death of his beloved dog and his brother. In one of the most moving moments of our conversation, he shares how he refused to let his dog’s passing go unacknowledged, even taking legal action against the care center responsible. This is grief met with both love and accountability. Anger What does it mean to be the master of your emotions rather than a prisoner of them? He reframes anger as something that, when understood, can become a source of power and agency rather than destruction. Shame In one of the most courageous moments of the conversation, Shaka speaks openly about sexual abuse as a man and the silence that surrounds it. At a time when so many men carry this in isolation, his willingness to name it matters deeply. Hope and Joy There is light here, too. This conversation is not just about surviving. It is about learning how to live. He reminds us that joy is not something we earn after suffering. It is available to us now. Shaka spent nineteen years in the Michigan prison system, including seven years in solitary confinement. Since his release, he has become a leading voice on resilience, healing, and personal transformation. His work has been featured on Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday, and How to Be Free is a roadmap for anyone who has ever felt stuck. Which, if we’re honest, is all of us. Hidden prisons are real. They are built from our pain, our past, and the stories we carry about who we are. But as he reminds us through both his life and his work, the door is always there. You just have to be willing to walk through it. 🎧 Tune in now to listen. With love, Molly 🌱 Please consider supporting the Cracking Open podcast on Patreon. RESOURCES & LINKS: Shaka Senghor Website | Instagram How to Be Free — available wherever books are sold Molly Carroll: Website | Instagram | Facebook Now accepting new therapy clients! Learn more or schedule a session here.

    57 min
  6. Welcome to Episode 1 of Molly's Magic: Reset Your Nervous System in Minutes

    Apr 2

    Welcome to Episode 1 of Molly's Magic: Reset Your Nervous System in Minutes

    Welcome to Molly's Magic. I’m Molly. A mom, a therapist, an author, a podcast host, and a TED speaker. The alchemy of these roles has brought me here. Molly's Magic is simple. Short, meaningful, and doable steps to help you move closer to your goals. Who is Molly's Magic for? This is for the part of you that knows you are capable of more but cannot quite name what is getting in the way. The part of you that feels stuck. That senses something bigger is waiting. That is ready, even just a little bit, to explore what that could look like. The Story Behind Molly's Magic I was not always the smartest, the most athletic, or the most beautiful person in the room. But I have always had something else. A deep, steady belief that things can happen for me in life. And a lot of the time, they do. From meeting the Dalai Lama, to walking into a fully booked restaurant and somehow getting a table, to getting into a Taylor Swift Eras Tour show on the floor with no ticket. Over time, my kids started calling it Molly Magic. What I Know to Be True After 25 years as a therapist, and from living my own messy, beautiful, complicated life, this is what I know. You have the magic too. And I also know what gets in the way. An unregulated nervous system. A mind stuck in fight or flight. The voice that tells you that you are not enough, or that there is not enough. The pressure to be perfect. Old stories that feel like truth. Blame. Staying stuck in the past. These things do not just keep you unhappy. They block your magic. What Molly's Magic Is Molly's Magic is about finding your magic. Living your magic. And gently moving the things out of the way that are keeping you from it. You are not going to feel magical every day. There will be hard days. Hard seasons. Moments when nothing feels possible. You are okay when you are not okay. And that is part of this, too. This is about possibility and acceptance in the same breath. Daily ritual and real therapeutic tools. Self-love. Real, imperfect, practiced self-love. Because when you learn to truly love yourself, you create more space for connection, for joy, and for magic in your life. Every month, I will share one tool. One shift. One piece of wisdom. Something I have learned over 25 years in the therapy room and, often, the hard way in my own life. Short. Simple. Actionable.  Something you can begin before you even finish your coffee. So welcome to Molly Magic. And welcome home to you. If this landed for you, share it with someone who might need it. If you want more, subscribe to Cracking Open so you never miss an episode, and come find me so we can keep the conversation going. You do not have to do any of this alone. 🎧 Tune in now to listen. With love, Molly 🌱 Please consider supporting the podcast on Patreon. RESOURCES & LINKS: Molly Carroll: Website | Instagram | Facebook Now accepting new therapy clients! Learn more or schedule a session here.

    19 min
  7. 100th Episode Part 2: Coming Home to the People Who Know Me Best

    Mar 19

    100th Episode Part 2: Coming Home to the People Who Know Me Best

    Welcome back to Part 2 of our 100th episode. If you have not listened to Part 1 yet, pause here and go back. Truly. Tommy, Lisa, René, Leo, and Cora brought everything. And your responses told me just how deeply it landed. You shared that Tommy reminded you that everything you need is already inside of you. That Lisa’s story made you want to start something new at 60. That René’s story changed the way you see single moms and families of three. That after listening to Cora, you wanted to sign up for her workshop on overcoming toxic friendships. Honestly, same. And that Leo left you feeling more hopeful about your own life. I could not have asked for more than that. And now, we continue. Because there are more stories to tell. More moments to sit with. More truth to witness. In this second half, you will hear from some of the people who have held me together for decades. Charlotte Hardwick, my most trusted confidante, reflects on what 100 episodes of this podcast have taught her. Noelle Teuber, who has been running beside me, both literally and figuratively, for 15 years, shares about loss and what it means to find love again on the other side. My husband, Adam Carroll, opens up about navigating life’s biggest transitions and what it truly means to believe in yourself when the path is not clear. Bowen Teuber speaks honestly about the loneliness and challenge of transitioning to college and how he found himself in the middle of it. And then there is me. Because if I am going to ask the people I love most to crack open on this microphone, it only feels right that I do the same. I share what it meant to show up for René after she lost Jason and how, in that moment, our group of friends became something more than friendship. We became family. These are not famous voices or household names. They are the people who show up. The people who stay. The people who love. And somewhere in these conversations, my hope is that you hear yourself. That you feel a little less alone. And that you are reminded: Cracking open, that beautiful, messy, courageous act of being human, belongs to all of us. 🎧 Tune in now to listen. With love, Molly 🌱 Please consider supporting the Cracking Open podcast on Patreon. RESOURCES & LINKS: Molly Carroll: Website | Instagram | Facebook Now accepting new therapy clients! Learn more or schedule a session here.

    1h 6m
  8. 100th Episode: Coming Home to the People Who Know Me Best

    Mar 5

    100th Episode: Coming Home to the People Who Know Me Best

    In this special two-part 100th episode, you’ll hear something a little different—the everyday, deeply human stories of the people closest to me. From navigating the loss of a husband to the tender uncertainty of leaving home for college. From launching a business to discovering a passion for a sport you never imagined trying at 50. From the journey of growing from boy to man, to finding resilience after heartbreak, to the quiet but powerful work of building strong friendships. These are not famous voices or household names—and that is exactly the point. Because cracking open doesn’t belong to the extraordinary few. It belongs to all of us. My hope is that somewhere in these conversations, you hear yourself. You hear your own story. And maybe, just maybe, you feel a little less alone in yours. But to understand why this episode means so much to me, you have to know a little about the journey that brought us here. One Hundred Episodes One hundred episodes. I still have to pinch myself writing those words. When I started this podcast, I had one question I couldn’t stop thinking about: What is your cracking open moment—and how did it change you forever? I had no idea that question would lead me to 99 of the most extraordinary people I’ve ever had the privilege of sitting with. From Jodie Patterson and David Nichtern, who said yes when I had absolutely no idea what I was doing… to Fr. Greg Boyle of Homeboy Industries, Mary Pipher, Shaka Senghor, Elizabeth Lesser, Dr. Mary Claire Haver, Dr. Dan Siegel, Terry Real, Dr. Lisa Miller, Tami Simon, Dr. Ellen Langer, Cory Richards, Suneel Gupta, and so many more whose wisdom has changed me forever. Guests who overcame heroin addiction, grief, incarceration, and unimaginable loss. Guests who returned a second time because one conversation wasn’t enough. Guests who became dear friends. Every one of those 99 guests trusted me with their cracking open stories—with their vulnerability, wisdom, and kindness—and they will forever be woven into the fabric of this podcast. And for that, I am deeply grateful. Because here’s the truth: I’m not Joe Rogan. I’m not Mel Robbins. I’m not a celebrity who decided to start a podcast. So every single time someone said yes to me—trusted me with their time and their story—I jumped up in pure joy. Coming Home For episode 100, I wanted to do something that felt true to why I started this podcast in the first place. So I turned to the people who know me best—and asked them the same question I’ve asked every guest: What was your cracking open moment? You’ll hear from my husband of 22 years, Adam Carroll, my son Tommy Carroll,  my daughter Cora Carroll, and my brother Leo Rowen. You’ll also hear from the friends who have held me together for decades. Charlotte Hardwick, René Mitchell, Lisa Bermudez, Noelle Teuber, and Bowen Teuber. My Team And none of this would exist without my team. Natalie, Kevin, and Chloe: this is yours too. Ninety-nine episodes of strangers who became teachers, teachers who became friends, and stories that cracked me wide open in ways I never expected. And now episode 100—coming home to the people who have been cracking me open my entire life without even knowing it. It feels exactly right. If this episode moves you, please share it with someone you love. And if you haven’t yet, subscribe so you never miss a Cracking Open moment. We’re just getting started. 🎧 Tune in now to listen. With love, Molly

    1h 3m
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4.9
out of 5
64 Ratings

About

What happens when life brings you to your knees and forces you to discover who you truly are? Cracking Open is the podcast for anyone who has faced a defining moment of crisis, grief, trauma, or rock bottom and found themselves transformed by it. Hosted by Molly Carroll, licensed therapist, TED speaker, published author, and coach, each episode dives deep into the raw, real stories of actors, athletes, thought leaders, healers, and everyday warriors. Whether it was the loss of a loved one, addiction, childhood trauma, incarceration, or an unexpected life collapse, these "cracking open" moments shape everything: how we parent, love, work, lead, and connect. What you'll discover: How trauma and crisis can become the greatest catalysts for growthTools and insights from mental health, healing, and personal transformationHonest conversations that normalize struggle and celebrate resilienceIf you're navigating grief, trauma recovery, personal growth, or a major life transition, or you simply want to feel less alone in your human experience, this podcast is for you. Subscribe and join the conversation.

Information

  • Creator
    Molly Carroll, MA, LPC
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    107
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Cracking Open with Molly Carroll
  • Show Website
    Cracking Open with Molly Carroll

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