You Must Be Some Kind of Therapist

Stephanie Winn
  • 4.4 (173)
  • Mental Health
  • Updated Weekly

A podcast at the intersection of psychology and culture that intimately explores the human experience and critiques the counseling profession. Your host, Stephanie Winn, distills wisdom gained from her practice as a family therapist and coach while pivoting towards questions of how to apply a practical understanding of psychology to the novel dilemmas of the 21st century, from political polarization to medical malpractice. What does ethical mental health care look like in a normless age, as our moral compasses spin in search of true north? How can therapists treat patients under pressure to affirm everything from the notion of "gender identity" to assisted suicide? Primarily a long-form interview podcast, Stephanie invites unorthodox, free-thinking guests from many walks of life, including counselors, social workers, medical professionals, writers, researchers, and people with unique lived experience, such as detransitioners. Curious about many things, Stephanie’s interdisciplinary psychological lens investigates challenging social issues and inspires transformation in the self, relationships, and society. She is known for bringing calm warmth to painful subjects, and astute perceptiveness to ethically complex issues. Pick up a torch to illuminate the dark night and join us on this journey through the inner wilderness. You Must Be Some Kind of Therapist ranks in the top 1% globally according to ListenNotes. New episodes are released every Monday. Three and a half years after the show's inception in May of 2022, Stephanie became a Christian, representing the crystallization of moral, spiritual, and existential views she had been openly grappling with along with her audience and guests. Newer episodes (#188 forward) may sometimes reflect a Christian understanding, interwoven with and applied to the same issues the podcast has always addressed. The podcast remains diverse and continues to feature guests from all viewpoints.

  1. 2d ago

    216. Creating Conditions for Desistance: A Parent's Guide to ROGD Recovery

    In this solo episode, I pull back the curtain on the work I do the rest of the week as an ROGD parent coach. Most parents arrive with one goal in mind: convince their trans-identified child to stop believing in gender ideology. I explain why that's the wrong place to put your energy, and why I won't help you do it as a first step. The belief is downstream. There are two goals that actually matter, and they have to be held in the right order. The first is preserving bodily integrity — keeping your child intact and unaltered for as long as possible, because medicalization is the part of this story that does permanent damage. The second is creating the conditions that support your particular child's desistance: helping her want, on her own, to step away from the identity and reclaim the developmental years she's losing to building up an alter ego. I walk through what desistance actually looks like in practice — rarely a dramatic confession, more often a gradual, face-saving off-ramp through ally identities, sexuality labels, or shifting friend groups. I introduce the frame from my essay "The Load-Bearing Delusion": the identity isn't a free-floating belief you can argue away, it's propping up something fragile underneath. Pull on it and your kid holds tighter. Then I get practical about leverage. So much of what parents try to control — beliefs, bodies, social worlds — isn't really theirs to control. I map out what is: the emotional climate of your home, your tone, the structure and rules, the money, your own nervous system, and your vision of who your child can become. This is the foundation for the relationship you're building for fifteen years from now. This episode comes with a companion essay derived from the transcript. If you'd prefer to read rather than (or in addition to) listening, visit my Substack. [00:00:00] Start[00:01:00] The Two Goals: Reframing the Work[00:04:00] Starving Samantha, Feeding Ryan[00:07:00] What Desistance Actually Looks Like[00:13:00] The Load-Bearing Delusion[00:16:00] Where Your Real Leverage Lies[00:27:00] Regulating Yourself and Holding the Vision ROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month. PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCourses PRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services. MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission.  ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend! Learn more about Do No Harm. Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com. Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi. Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products. Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI. Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission. Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration. Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

    38 min

  2. May 25

    215. Disenfranchised Dad, ROGD Kid: When Fathers Get Sidelined in Their Own Family

    In this short solo episode, I introduce you to a figure who shows up again and again in my ROGD parent coaching work: the disenfranchised dad. He's usually a decent man — hardworking, opinionated, loves his kids — but somewhere along the way he ended up on the outside of his own family's emotional life, looking in. His wife is the emotional center. The kids bring everything to her. He drifts to the periphery and starts commenting on dinner from across the room, and the family rolls its eyes. I unpack how this pattern develops: a temperament mismatch between a Gen X dad and a more sensitive child, a marriage dynamic where mom gradually takes over the kids' inner lives, and a cultural script that has trained fathers to undervalue their own role. I look at what this does to children — including how it can show up in trans-identified boys who opt out of masculinity entirely, and in trans-identified girls carrying an unread longing for a father's protective love. Most importantly, I talk about repair. The way back isn't a grand sit-down conversation; it's hundreds of small moments of presence, side-by-side time, and putting down the running commentary. Moms can help by stepping out of the gatekeeper role and letting dads back in. If you've been on the edge of your family for years, this episode is for you. If you’re a parent navigating these dynamics in your own family, I created ROGD Repair with you in mind. This podcast episode doubles as an ROGD Repair bonus lesson. In the course, it can be found here, along with a companion essay and reflection questions to help you personalize the material. There’s lots more content like this for you in the program. It’s the closest thing to working with me one-on-one as a coach. ROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month. PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCourses PRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services. MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission.  ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend! Learn more about Do No Harm. Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com. Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi. Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products. Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI. Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission. Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration. Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

    25 min

  3. May 18

    214. Too Buddhist, Not Self-Hating Enough: Counseling Whistleblower Suzannah Alexander

    In this episode, I sit down with Suzannah Alexander — counseling-education whistleblower, writer of the Substack Diogenes in Exile, and now organizer with the National Association of Scholars. Suzannah enrolled in a Tennessee counseling master's program after 25 years as a stay-at-home parent, only to discover that what was being taught wasn't psychology at all. It was demographics, identity politics, and what she eventually came to call a totalitarian philosophy dressed up as "multicultural competency." We unpack the moment that broke her trust in the program: when she described the Buddhist practice of the non-self — focusing less on your own identity so you can extend loving kindness toward an aggressive client — three separate professors told her, within 48 hours, that this was "invalidating to other identities." She was ultimately deemed unsafe for practicum because she hadn't sufficiently absorbed the program's values around whiteness, privilege, and cultural deference. From there, the conversation widens into the structural picture. Suzannah walks us through CACREP, the accrediting body that's been quietly building a near-monopoly on counseling education, the ACA Code of Ethics that's now baked into most state licensure boards, and the consortium of organizations that decided — without testing whether any of it produces better clinical outcomes — that critical social justice ideology would be the "professional identity" of American counseling. We talk about why this matters for patients, what it does to the people who would have been excellent therapists, how we might build alternative training pathways and apprenticeship models outside the current system, and why the problems of the 21st century — including AI psychosis — will demand the kind of pioneering, free-thinking practitioners this ideology is actively driving out. Suzannah Alexander is the External Affairs Coordinator for the National Association of Scholars. She came to this work after blowing the whistle on ideological indoctrination in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling Master's program at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Since that experience, through work with FAIR, she has spearheaded OCR complaints against the counseling accreditation body CACREP and Colorado State University, where her reporting work drew attention to the Whitelash Study, documenting public humiliation of white social work students due to their race, and the disparagement of minorities as not good enough to succeed on their own. Now she is focused on policy measures to curtail accreditor and higher education overreach that are threatening free speech on campus. Substack Diogenes in Exile: https://www.diogenesinexile.comX/twitter: https://x.com/DiogenesInExileYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/@DiogenesInExileMinding The Campus: https://mindingthecampus.org/author/suzannahalexander/National Association of Scholars: https://www.nas.org [00:00:00] Start[00:04:59] What She Found In The Program[00:14:32] Steel-Manning Critical Social Justice[00:18:39] Pushed Out Before Practicum[00:24:05] The Bitter Irony Of Buddhism Rejected[00:34:37] Realizing The Problem Is Bigger[00:41:02] Counseling Futures And The Historical Roots[00:47:09] Who Gets To Be Okay?[00:56:37] What CACREP Is And Should Do[01:00:25] Microaggressions And Borderline Thinking[01:05:47] The CACREP Monopoly Explained[01:14:38] ACA Code Of Ethics And The Need For Alternatives[01:22:52] Mia Hughes Parallel And A Field Breaking Down[01:26:43] AI Psychosis And 21st-Century Problems[01:30:22] Building New Networks Outside The System ROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month. PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCourses PRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services. MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission.  ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend! Learn more about Do No Harm. Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com. Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi. Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products. Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI. Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission. Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration. Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

    1h 48m

  4. May 4

    212. The Most Dangerous Moment: The 30 Seconds That Determine Whether Your Child Opens Up Again

    Instead of a long-form interview, this week I'm reading you an essay I wrote called The Most Dangerous Moment in the Conversation: What To Do and What Not To Do When Your Child Finally Opens Up. It originally appeared inside ROGD Repair, my comprehensive program for parents of trans-identified youth, and I wanted it to reach more people. If your child is living inside a trans identity, most of the time she shows you nothing — composed, contained, deliberately blank. And then one day, out of nowhere, a seam shows. A flash of urgency. A disproportionate demand. A flicker of alarm about who will be at a party. These are what I call fractal windows: ordinary-looking moments where the entire architecture of the anxiety organizing her life becomes briefly visible. In this episode I unpack what those moments actually are, why they matter, and how to handle them without slamming the door shut. The core tool I want to put in your hands is the empathic guess — a tentative, careful statement that names what your child might be feeling, without diagnosing, arguing, or correcting. I walk through what to say, what not to say, and why the 30 seconds after she finally says something real just might be the most dangerous point in the entire process. That's where almost every parent's instincts pull them in exactly the wrong direction — toward defending themselves, correcting the factual or ideological distortions, or winning the point. I'll explain why staying in the emotional register (instead of the logical one) is the whole game, why "permission to buy time" is one of the most underused parenting tools, and what you are actually building over many such conversations: a pattern in your child's nervous system that says: I opened up to my parent, something okay happened, I could do that again. [00:00:00] Start[00:00:25] When Your Child Finally Opens Up[00:01:33] Fractal Windows And The Cost Of A Trans Identity[00:03:24] The Outermost Knot: Why You Can't Say It All At Once[00:04:13] Introducing The Empathic Guess[00:05:05] Stay In The Emotional Register, Not The Logical One[00:06:33] When The Empathic Guess Lands: The Walls Come Down[00:07:50] The Pull To Correct Ideological Distortions[00:08:47] Why You Are Not Endorsing By Not Arguing[00:09:36] Listen, Reflect, Don't Defend[00:10:24] Permission To Buy Time[00:11:10] What You're Really Building: A Nervous System Pattern[00:11:40] About ROGD Repair And Today's Experiment[00:14:44] Closing Thoughts ROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month. PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCourses PRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services. MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission.  ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend! Learn more about Do No Harm. Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com. Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi. Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products. Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI. Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission. Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration. Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

    16 min

  5. Apr 27

    211. Mia Hughes: Trans as an Extreme Overvalued Belief — Cracking the Code

    In this episode, I welcome back Mia Hughes — director of Genspect Canada, senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, and one of the sharpest writers on the gender scandal — to dig into the framework she calls "trans as an extreme overvalued belief." Mia walks us through the history of the overvalued idea, from Carl Wernicke in 1892 to Paul McHugh's post-9/11 application of the concept to ideologically driven violence, and explains why this psychiatric category — sitting between delusion and obsession — finally makes sense of the trans phenomenon in a way no other diagnosis ever has. We trace the Dutch origins of medical transition in the 1970s, the moment psychiatry "gave up" on these patients, and how WPATH's 2010 de-psychopathologization statement re-engineered a mental illness into a celebrated identity — triggering, in Mia's view, the social contagion that followed. I bring my clinical lens to the conversation, exploring transference and countertransference, neuroplasticity, the hijacking of dopamine through "gender euphoria," and why so many therapists get this wrong in both directions. We close on Mia's anorexia parallel and what it teaches us about loosening the grip of a pathological belief — gently, indirectly, and without the parent in the line of fire. Mia Hughes specializes in researching pediatric gender medicine, psychiatric epidemics, social contagion and the intersection of trans rights and women’s rights. She is the author of The WPATH Files, a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and director of Genspect Canada. She co-hosts the Beyond Gender podcast with Stella O'Malley and Bret Alderman, available on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube. Follow her on X @_CryMiaRiver. Follow her Substack @CryMiaRiver. Mia first appeared on this podcast in episode 107. Exposing Gender Malpractice: Mia Hughes on the WPATH Files, Medical Ethics, & Informed Consent. Books mentioned in this episode:• The Extreme Overvalued Belief by Tahir Rahman• Good Girls: A Study and Story of Anorexia by Hadley Freeman [00:00:00] Start[00:02:13] Trans as an Extreme Overvalued Belief[00:07:13] From 9/11 to Anders Breivik[00:11:13] Neuroplasticity and Adolescent Meaning-Making[00:18:52] Defining the Trans Overvalued Belief[00:22:52] The Dutch 1970s: When Psychiatry Gave Up[00:31:00] Countertransference and the Therapist's Role[00:38:35] WPATH's Fortress and the True Believer[00:43:20] Re-Psychopathologization Campaign[00:45:45] How HBIGDA Became WPATH[00:50:13] DSM-5, ICD-11 and the Sleight of Hand[01:02:08] Hacking Dopamine and Gender Euphoria[01:06:27] The Anorexia Parallel[01:13:13] What Therapists Get Wrong[01:28:45] Putting Cracks in the Belief[01:35:26] Helping the Part That Wants Out ROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month. PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCourses PRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services. MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission.  ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend! Learn more about Do No Harm. Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com. Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi. Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products. Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI. Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission. Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration. Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

    1h 40m

  6. Apr 20

    210. Why Gender-Referred Youth Went From Bad to Worse: A Psychological Lens on the Finnish Study

    In this solo episode, I'm bringing you something a little different. I've been wanting to talk about the recent Finnish register study on gender-referred youth since it came out, and rather than wait until my written article was polished, I decided to open the draft I'd been working on, read it to you, and interrupt myself along the way with the commentary and speculation from a psychological lens. The study followed 2,083 adolescents and young adults who sought gender identity assessments at Finland's two centralized gender clinics between 1996 and 2019, compared against 16,643 age-matched controls. What the data show is sobering: nearly half of gender-referred youth had already required specialist psychiatric care before they ever walked through the clinic doors, and that number climbed to 61.7% two or more years after referral — whether or not they underwent medical transition. I walk through what "medical gender reassignment" actually captures (and doesn't), why Finland's gatekeeping model fundamentally changes how these numbers should be read, and what this means for the American informed-consent pipeline. The heart of this episode is a concept I've been trying to articulate for months: the untested hypothesis. It's the psychological trap in which a distressed young person becomes convinced that medicalization is the only path to wellbeing — and in doing so, builds an external locus of control so total that no outcome, approved or denied, actually improves their inner life. I close with a metaphor about a hotel room, an apartment, and why gender ideology actively disincentivizes the one thing these kids need most: getting comfortable in the body they already have. Visit my Substack for the full essay, which is read aloud with additional commentary in this video. [00:00:00] Start[00:03:15] Summary Of Key Findings[00:17:15] High Preexisting Psychiatric Burden[00:20:30] Finland's Gatekeeping Vs. Informed Consent[00:25:30] The Untested Hypothesis[00:32:45] What This Means For American Practice[00:38:15] Recap And Author's Conclusions[00:43:00] The Hotel Room Metaphor ROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month. PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCourses PRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services. MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission.  ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend! Learn more about Do No Harm. Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com. Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi. Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products. Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI. Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission. Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration. Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

    46 min

  7. Apr 13

    209. When Schools Keep Secrets: Parental Rights, Teachers & the Supreme Court | Dean Broyles

    Constitutional attorney Dean Broyles, president of the National Center for Law and Policy, joins me to continue untangling the legal battles reshaping how public schools handle gender identity — and what they mean for parents, teachers, and students. Picking up where we left off with Laura Powell in episode 207, Dean begins with a detailed breakdown of the Mirabelli v. Bonta case, which started in Escondido, California, when two Catholic teachers refused to comply with “gender secrets” policies requiring them to conceal a child’s gender identity from parents. Dean walks us through Judge Bonita’s landmark ruling, which found that California’s parental exclusion policies create a “trifecta of harm” to children, parents, and teachers alike — and the March 2nd Supreme Court decision reinstating the statewide injunction squarely on the side of parental rights. We go deep on what these rulings mean in practice: the secret “shadow records” schools have been keeping on students’ gender identities, the religious accommodation rights teachers can assert against California’s coercive PRISM training, and the student free speech protections guaranteed by Tinker v. Des Moines. Dean explains the difference between a parent’s right to be informed and a teacher’s legal obligation — and where the courts are headed on whether parents can block social transition at school entirely. We also address the growing wave of detransition malpractice cases, including the Varian v. Einhorn verdict, and what a pending Supreme Court case could mean for therapists’ freedom of speech in counseling. This is essential listening for parents, teachers, and mental health professionals navigating what Dean calls an Orwellian environment in today’s public schools. Dean Broyles is a constitutional attorney who serves as the president of the National Center for Law & Policy. He is a free speech, religious freedom, and parental rights advocate with extensive experience involving sexual identity issues in the courts, culture, and public schools. Dean regularly files amicus briefs at the U.S. Supreme Court in landmark cases, provides legislative testimony, and advises mental health professionals. He lives in southern California and has been married to his wife, Shona, a public-school teacher, for 36 years. Dean is the father of four adopted children and two grandchildren. Follow him on X: DeanBroyles. His blog can be found here. [00:00:00] Start[00:02:08] Mirabelli v. Bonta: Background and Origins[00:05:55] Judge Bonita's Ruling: Trifecta of Harm[00:09:25] Supreme Court Reinstates Statewide Injunction[00:13:52] Teachers' Rights vs. Obligation to Inform[00:15:45] Shadow Records in California Schools[00:24:33] First and 14th Amendment Parental Rights Explained[00:38:35] Students' Free Speech Rights: Tinker v. Des Moines[00:44:50] Orwellian Coercion of Religious Students and Teachers[00:51:20] AB 5 and California's PRISM Teacher Training[00:58:40] Teachers Win Exemptions After Supreme Court Ruling[01:00:50] The Spiral of Silence — and How to Reverse It[01:07:15] Can Parents Block Social Transition at School?[01:12:36] Desistance Rates and the Danger of Medicalization[01:18:20] Detransition Malpractice Cases: Who's Liable?[01:23:46] Pending Supreme Court Case on Therapist Free Speech ROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month. PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCourses PRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services. MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission. ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend! Learn more about Do No Harm. Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com. Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi. Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products. Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI. Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission. Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration. Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

    1h 29m

  8. Apr 6

    208. How Sweet, Sensitive Boys Enter the Porn-Addiction-to-Transgender Pipeline | Shane Cole

    If you have a son, this conversation is essential listening. I'm welcoming back Shane Cole, breathwork practitioner and men's coach, who first appeared in episode 149, where we broke down what parents need to know about sissy hypnosis pornography. This time, we go even deeper. One of the things I'm most passionate about tackling here is the dangerous myth that sweet, sensitive, smart boys are somehow immune to porn addiction. Shane is living proof that the opposite can be true — and that this particular profile of boy may in fact be especially vulnerable, for reasons we explore in depth. We walk through the architecture of how sissy hypnosis pornography works: how it enters through mainstream platforms using innocuous images, then systematically eroticizes male insecurity using professional-grade hypnosis techniques, binaural beats, and repeated mantras designed to take young viewers into deeply suggestible trance states. This is not content a boy can simply "turn off" — and we make the case for why that framing fundamentally misunderstands the neuroscience involved. We also get into territory I think the gender-critical community need to be taking far more seriously: the role of endocrine-disrupting chemicals in the environment and how they may be contributing to skyrocketing rates of gender dysphoria. I share my perspective — tinfoil hat and all — on why normalizing trans identity as an "identity to be affirmed" may function as a convenient cover for the very industries that are poisoning us. And I make the case that parental guilt and ideological defensiveness are getting in the way of an honest reckoning with this data. From there, Shane lays out a compelling and deeply personal vision of his alternative path, including semen retention, Qigong, meditation, breathwork, and a sense of masculine purpose directed outward toward the world. We contrast the easy-now-hard-later escape of estrogen and porn with the hard-now-easy-later path of character, and Shane speaks directly to the young men who are standing at that crossroads right now. Shane Cole is a trauma-informed breathwork facilitator and founder of Inspiratus Breathwork. After studying psychology at the University of Southern California and completing a nine-month, trauma-informed breathwork facilitator training program, he travels the country to musical festivals and retreats teaching breathwork. With Inspiratus, he creates sacred spaces for humans to cultivate purpose, positivity, and presence through his research-backed approach to breathwork. Throughout his life, he struggled with gender dysphoria and an addiction to sissy hypnosis pornography. After traditional talk therapy did not assist or even want to address the issues he faced, he turned to alternative solutions. Using breathwork, meditation, IFS therapy, psychedelic-assisted therapy, and men's work, he was able to free himself from his addiction, come back to his masculinity, and reclaim his innocence. He is now on a mission to bring breathwork practices to clients struggling with gender dysphoria and pornography addiction. To work with Shane, join the EDM Breathwork Council. Follow him on Instagram @breathingwithshane and @edmbreathwork Books Mentioned in This Episode:-Countdown by Dr. Shanna Swan-Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill [00:00:00] Start[00:03:00] Why Sweet, Sensitive Boys Are Vulnerable to Porn Addiction[00:06:34] What Is Sissy Hypnosis Pornography[00:14:40] How the Content Escalates into Full Hypnosis Videos[00:19:25] Why "Just Turn It Off" Fundamentally Misses the Point[00:26:47] Breathwork and Reclaiming Your Dopamine System[00:28:44] Male Sexual Energy: A Powerful Force[00:33:23] Testosterone Decline and Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals[00:40:57] Semen Retention, Qigong, and Channeling Purpose[00:50:55] Why Estrogen Feels Like a Solution to Young Men[00:54:10] Reclaiming Anger as Vital Energy[00:56:26] Alexithymia and the Allure of Synthetic Emotions[01:04:53] The Anima, Autogynephilia, and Real Relationship[01:13:00] Hard Now, Easy Later: The Path of Character[01:17:24] A Message to Young Men Standing at the Crossroads ROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month. PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCourses TALK TO ME: book a meeting. PRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services. SUPPORT THE SHOW: subscribe, like, comment, & share or donate. Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission.  ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend! Learn more about Do No Harm. Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com. Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi. Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products. Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI. Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission. Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at

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A podcast at the intersection of psychology and culture that intimately explores the human experience and critiques the counseling profession. Your host, Stephanie Winn, distills wisdom gained from her practice as a family therapist and coach while pivoting towards questions of how to apply a practical understanding of psychology to the novel dilemmas of the 21st century, from political polarization to medical malpractice. What does ethical mental health care look like in a normless age, as our moral compasses spin in search of true north? How can therapists treat patients under pressure to affirm everything from the notion of "gender identity" to assisted suicide? Primarily a long-form interview podcast, Stephanie invites unorthodox, free-thinking guests from many walks of life, including counselors, social workers, medical professionals, writers, researchers, and people with unique lived experience, such as detransitioners. Curious about many things, Stephanie’s interdisciplinary psychological lens investigates challenging social issues and inspires transformation in the self, relationships, and society. She is known for bringing calm warmth to painful subjects, and astute perceptiveness to ethically complex issues. Pick up a torch to illuminate the dark night and join us on this journey through the inner wilderness. You Must Be Some Kind of Therapist ranks in the top 1% globally according to ListenNotes. New episodes are released every Monday. Three and a half years after the show's inception in May of 2022, Stephanie became a Christian, representing the crystallization of moral, spiritual, and existential views she had been openly grappling with along with her audience and guests. Newer episodes (#188 forward) may sometimes reflect a Christian understanding, interwoven with and applied to the same issues the podcast has always addressed. The podcast remains diverse and continues to feature guests from all viewpoints.

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