When Depression is in Your Bed℠

Trish Sanders, LCSW
  • 4.9 (8)
  • Mental Health
  • Updated Weekly

When Depression Is in Your Bed℠ is a podcast about what happens when life gets hard and how we find our way back to connection. Hosted by Trish Sanders, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Certified Advanced Imago Relationship Therapist and Relationship Coach, each episode explores the complex relationship between our nervous systems, our relationships, and our emotional well-being. Through a blend of personal stories, professional insights, and practical tools, Trish tackles topics such as depression, communication, perfectionism, neurodivergence, self-trust, conflict, repair, empathy, boundaries, attachment, nervous system regulation, and relational healing. With honesty, warmth, and a deep belief in people's capacity to grow, Trish helps listeners understand not only why they get stuck, but how meaningful change becomes possible. Whether you're struggling with depression, feeling disconnected from yourself or your partner, or simply trying to navigate life with more awareness and compassion, this podcast offers a roadmap back to connection, again and again.

  1. 5d ago

    #86 Counting Every Step Along the Way: Receiving Growth Before You've Fully Arrived

    What happens when you can see that something is changing, but it still isn’t quite where you want it to be? Growth can be easier to recognize when the results are obvious. The old pattern doesn’t happen. The conversation goes differently. Something that used to be hard suddenly feels easier. But so much of real growth happens somewhere in between where we started and where we hope to go. In this episode, Trish continues the conversation about how we recognize progress when growth is still unfolding. Through a recent experience with her own familiar shame spiral and an imperfect but meaningful moment of support from her partner, she explores what it means not only to notice growth, but to actually receive it and let it count. Because receiving growth doesn’t mean declaring the work finished. We can appreciate that something is different while still wanting more. We can recognize our own increased capacity while acknowledging the places where old patterns still show up. And we can receive a partner’s effort without pretending it landed exactly the way we wanted it to. Through personal storytelling, practical neuroscience, and the lens of The Road to Reconnection™, Trish explores how focusing only on what is still missing can make it harder to take in how far we have already come. In this episode, you'll learn: Why an old familiar pattern showing up doesn’t erase the growth that has already happened.What it can look like to have a different relationship with an experience that once overwhelmed you.Why receiving a partner’s growth doesn’t require ignoring what you still need or want.How focusing on the remaining distance can cause us to overlook meaningful change that is already happening.Why our present-day lives and environments may not yet reflect all of the growth that has happened within us.How compassion for where we have been can coexist with continuing to influence where we are going.Why noticing, receiving, and allowing imperfect growth to matter may help support what becomes possible next.We don’t have to wait until we have fully arrived to appreciate how far we’ve traveled. There can still be more road ahead. There can still be things we want to change. There can still be old patterns, messy moments, and places where we wish things looked different. And we can count every step along the way. Because growth does not need to be complete before it matters. If you and your partner are ready to co-create the roadmap to the relationship of your dreams, join us for the next in-person "Getting the Love You Want" Weekend Couples Retreat!  For support in how to have deeper connections and better communication in the relationships that matter most in your life, follow the host, Trish Sanders on Instagram , Bluesky or LinkedIn.

  2. Sep 9

    #85 The Real Trajectory of Growth When It Feels Like You're Back Where You Started

    Have you ever thought you were finally making progress... only to find yourself right back in a familiar pattern and wonder if anything had really changed at all? Growth can be incredibly encouraging when we can see it happening. But what about the moments that don't look like growth? The argument you thought you'd moved beyond. The reaction you thought you'd changed. The family pattern that seemed to be getting better, until suddenly, there it is again. It can be easy to look at that moment and think, We're right back where we started. But are we? In this deeply personal episode, Trish returns to the family car rides she has shared about in recent episodes. After intentionally creating a new and much more connected experience together, the next family trip didn't begin nearly as well. And that raised a bigger question: How do we actually know whether growth is happening? Through personal storytelling, practical neuroscience, and the lens of The Road to Reconnection™, Trish explores what becomes visible when we stop measuring growth only by whether an individual moment went the way we hoped and begin looking at the larger trajectory. This isn't about putting a positive spin on every difficult experience or insisting that something isn't a setback when it feels like one. It's about getting curious about whether we may sometimes call something a setback because we're measuring the wrong thing. In this episode, you'll learn: Why growth rarely follows the steady upward trajectory we may expect.How a familiar pattern can reappear without necessarily meaning you're back where you started.Why the outcome of a difficult moment isn't the only place to look for evidence of change.How noticing, understanding, responding, recovering, and repairing differently can reveal growth that might otherwise be missed.Why something new can represent meaningful movement even when it doesn't yet look like the outcome you're working toward.How approaching difficult experiences as information can help reveal what you may need for the next step.Why measuring each individual experience as a success or failure can sometimes make continued growth harder.Up close, we may only be able to see the moment we're standing in. The good one. The hard one. The one that felt like progress. The one that made us wonder if we'd lost it. But an individual moment and the trajectory of growth are not the same thing. Sometimes we have to step back far enough to ask not only, Did this go the way I hoped? But also: What was different this time? What became available? What did I understand that I didn't understand before? What did I learn about where I need to go next? Because maybe the question isn't simply whether we moved forward or backward. Maybe it's whether we can learn from where we are now and take the next step from here. If you and your partner are ready to co-create the roadmap to the relationship of your dreams, join us for the next in-person "Getting the Love You Want" Weekend Couples Retreat!  For support in how to have deeper connections and better communication in the relationships that matter most in your life, follow the host, Trish Sanders on Instagram , Bluesky or LinkedIn.

  3. Sep 2

    #84 You Don't Have to Take My Word for It: Revising Old Stories and Building Trust

    What happens when someone you love expects something from you that you truly wish they didn't... and you understand why they expect it? Our relationships are filled with predictions. We anticipate how our partner will respond, how a familiar conversation will unfold, or what will happen when we find ourselves in a situation we've experienced many times before. And often, those expectations exist for a reason. In this deeply personal episode, Trish explores how our nervous systems use past experiences to anticipate what may happen next, and what becomes possible when we stop fighting those predictions and begin creating new experiences instead. Through a recent experience with her own family, Trish considers what it means to recognize that someone we love may have learned to expect something from us that doesn't reflect what we want to bring to the relationship. The "old stories" we carry aren't simply cognitive stories we're telling ourselves. They can be predictions grounded in repeated nervous-system experience. And when our nervous systems have gathered evidence for what is likely to happen, changing that prediction may require more than simply being told that things are different now. Through personal storytelling, practical neuroscience, and the lens of The Road to Reconnection™, Trish explores how understanding Prediction as Protection can help us move beyond promises and begin participating in the experiences that make new predictions, and greater trust, possible. In this episode, you'll learn: How repeated relational experiences can shape what we learn to expect from one another.Why old predictions can remain powerful even when circumstances or people begin to change.How Prediction as Protection can help us understand expectations without judging or dismissing them.Why asking someone to trust that things are different may not be enough to change what their nervous system expects.How validation can contribute to greater relational safety and a stronger foundation for growth.Why changing the conditions surrounding familiar experiences can create opportunities for something new.How new experiences can gradually provide evidence for new predictions.Why building trust may be less about convincing someone we've changed and more about allowing change to be experienced.Sometimes we want the people we love to simply trust us when we say things will be different. But maybe they don't have to take our word for it. Maybe we can understand the experiences that shaped what they expect. And then we can begin creating new experiences together. Not by erasing what happened before. Not by demanding trust. But by creating opportunities for something different to become familiar. And, over time, for something different to become possible. If you and your partner are ready to co-create the roadmap to the relationship of your dreams, join us for the next in-person "Getting the Love You Want" Weekend Couples Retreat!  For support in how to have deeper connections and better communication in the relationships that matter most in your life, follow the host, Trish Sanders on Instagram , Bluesky or LinkedIn.

  4. Aug 26

    #83 Capacity Discrepancy: When "I Would" Becomes "You Should"

    Have you ever looked at your partner and thought, "But I would never handle it that way"? I would have remembered. I would have asked for help. I would have taken care of it. If I can do it, why can't they? It's an incredibly easy leap to make. What would be available to us becomes what we believe should be available to the person we love. And before we know it, a difference between two people can become a judgment about responsibility, effort, caring, or even character.  In this deeply personal episode, Trish introduces the idea of Capacity Discrepancy, the reality that two people in a relationship may have very different things genuinely available to them in the very same moment. Through a recent experience with her husband, Ben, Trish explores what can happen when "I would" quietly becomes "you should." When we view our partner's choices through the lens of what we would do, it's easy to assume that what feels obvious or available to us should be equally available to them. From there, frustration can quickly turn into stories about what their behavior means.  But recognizing a difference in capacity doesn't mean excusing behavior, ignoring its impact, or abandoning our own needs. It's about becoming curious about the difference. Through personal storytelling, practical nervous system understanding, and the lens of The Road to Reconnection™, Trish explores how honoring what is genuinely available to each person can create room for both partners' experiences, and why sometimes maintaining connection matters more than reaching immediate resolution. In this episode, you'll learn:  What Capacity Discrepancy can look like between two people in a relationship.  How "I would do this" can subtly become "you should do this," and eventually become judgment about our partner.  Why something that feels obvious or available to one partner may not be genuinely available to the other in the same moment.  Why capacity isn't a fixed trait, and why one partner isn't simply the "high-capacity" person while the other is "low-capacity."  How curiosity can help us distinguish our interpretations of our partner's behavior from their actual experience.  Why honoring your partner's capacity doesn't require ignoring the impact of their choices or abandoning your own needs.  How greater nervous system regulation can make additional responses available, even when frustration, sadness, or anger are still present.  Why some conversations are better left unfinished until both people have more capacity available.  How couples can move from managing a difficult moment, to understanding it afterward, to intentionally creating conditions that support both partners in the future.  Sometimes the most supportive thing we can do in a relationship isn't convince our partner to respond the way we would. It's recognizing: This is where you are. This is where I am. How can we make room for both? We can honor someone else's experience without rejecting our own. We can remain curious about what's different. And we can trust that every difficult conversation doesn't have to be resolved immediately in order for connection to remain. Because sometimes relational safety isn't created by finishing the conversation. Sometimes it's knowing that an unfinished conversation doesn't have to mean an unfinished connection.  If you and your partner are ready to co-create the roadmap to the relationship of your dreams, join us for the next in-person "Getting the Love You Want" Weekend Couples Retreat!  For support in how to have deeper connections and better communication in the relationships that matter most in your life, follow the host, Trish Sanders on Instagram , Bluesky or LinkedIn.

  5. Aug 19

    #82 When the Backslide Doesn't Scare You Trusting the Way Back

    What if healing isn't reaching a place where you never struggle again, but trusting yourself when you do? When things finally start feeling better, it can be surprisingly difficult to simply enjoy them. Instead, we may find ourselves waiting. Wondering when the other shoe will drop. When we'll fall back into an old pattern. When depression, anxiety, overwhelm, disconnection, or some other familiar struggle will return and prove that the progress we've made wasn't real after all. But what if returning to a familiar struggle doesn't mean returning to the beginning? In this deeply personal episode, Trish explores a change she didn't expect to find in her own healing journey: she is no longer as afraid of backsliding as she once was. Not because she believes she will never struggle again. But because she increasingly trusts her ability to find her way back. Through personal reflection, practical neuroscience, and the lens of The Road to Reconnection™, Trish explores how Prediction as Protection can leave us bracing for the loss of the very things we've worked so hard to build, and how repeated experiences of navigating difficult moments can gradually create something different: self-trust. This episode isn't about becoming so healed that nothing knocks you off balance. It's about discovering a different kind of stability. The kind that comes from knowing that even when your capacity narrows, even when old patterns reappear, and even when what you've learned doesn't feel immediately available, your growth hasn't disappeared.  In this episode, you'll learn:  Why a difficult day, week, or season doesn't mean you've returned to the beginning.  How the fear of backsliding can make it harder to fully participate in the moments when life is going well.  Why familiar struggles can become evidence for old stories about who we are and what we should expect from our lives.  How Prediction as Protection can leave us anticipating the next fall even while we're standing on solid ground.  Why temporarily losing access to something you've learned is different from losing the growth itself.  How self-compassion and support can help us stay with ourselves when our capacity narrows.  Why self-trust doesn't have to mean trusting yourself never to struggle.  How repeated experiences of finding your way back can gradually change your identity and what you predict about the future.  Why healing doesn't remove the difficult parts of being human, but can change the way we experience and move through them. Maybe progress isn't about finally reaching a place where you never lose your footing. Maybe it's realizing that losing your footing doesn't erase the road you've already traveled. You've learned things. You've built resources. You've developed relationships. You've found your way through difficult moments before. And every time you find your way back, you're creating new evidence that you can do it again. Eventually, the goal may not be to trust that the good moments will last forever. It may be to trust yourself even when they don't. If you and your partner are ready to co-create the roadmap to the relationship of your dreams, join us for the next in-person "Getting the Love You Want" Weekend Couples Retreat!  For support in how to have deeper connections and better communication in the relationships that matter most in your life, follow the host, Trish Sanders on Instagram , Bluesky or LinkedIn.

  6. Aug 12

    #81 Expanded Capacity: When Life Doesn't Feel as Hard as It Used To

    What if one of the clearest signs that you're healing isn't a huge breakthrough, but realizing that something that used to feel hard... just doesn't feel as hard anymore? Growth doesn't always make itself known with a big announcement.   There aren't always fireworks or one life-changing moment when everything suddenly shifts. Sometimes meaningful change happens so gradually that we don't recognize it while it's happening. Until one day, we do. In this deeply personal episode, Trish explores the concept of Expanded Capacity™ and what it can look like when years of growth begin changing our everyday experience in ways we may not immediately notice. Through reflections on her own life, parenting, neurodivergence, and decades of personal growth, Trish considers why healing can be so difficult to recognize from the inside. When we're still aware of everything that feels hard, it's easy to overlook the things that have quietly become easier. This episode isn't about reaching a place where life is always easy or where our nervous system is perfectly regulated. It's about noticing when more becomes available. Through personal storytelling, practical neuroscience, and the lens of The Road to Reconnection™, Trish explores how greater safety, self-understanding, and nervous system regulation can gradually expand our capacity, changing not only how we experience ourselves, but how we're able to participate in our lives and relationships. In this episode, you'll learn: Why meaningful growth doesn't always arrive through a giant breakthrough.How gradual changes can be easy to miss while they're happening.What Expanded Capacity™ can look and feel like in everyday life.How overwhelm, executive functioning, neurodivergence, and nervous system capacity can influence what feels genuinely available to us.Why expanded capacity isn't about becoming more productive or perfectly regulated.How repeated experiences of greater safety and self-understanding can gradually change what becomes available to us.Why our own expanded capacity can influence how we're able to show up for the people we love.How looking at what isn't as hard as it used to be can help us recognize growth we might otherwise overlook.When we're in the middle of growth, it's easy to focus on how far we still have to go. But sometimes there's value in looking back. What feels different than it once did? What takes a little less effort? Where do you have a little more room than you used to? The answers may reveal changes you didn't even realize were happening. Because growth isn't always about finally arriving somewhere new. Sometimes it's recognizing that you're already living differently than you used to. If you and your partner are ready to co-create the roadmap to the relationship of your dreams, join us for the next in-person "Getting the Love You Want" Weekend Couples Retreat!  For support in how to have deeper connections and better communication in the relationships that matter most in your life, follow the host, Trish Sanders on Instagram , Bluesky or LinkedIn.

  7. Aug 5

    #80 When Trying Harder Isn't Working: How Your Best Becomes Better

    Have you ever felt like you're doing everything you can... and it still doesn't feel like enough? Maybe you've tried harder. Worked harder. Pushed yourself harder. And yet somehow, the things you most want to change still feel just out of reach. In this deeply personal episode, Trish explores one of the most hopeful shifts she's experienced through understanding the nervous system. For years, she believed she was doing her best, and she still believes that today. What changed wasn't whether she was trying hard enough. What changed was her understanding that her best isn't fixed and getting better is not totally out of her control. As her nervous system experienced greater safety and her capacity gradually expanded, more of who she already was became genuinely available. Over time, the things that once felt exhausting, inconsistent, or even impossible began feeling more natural. Not because she forced herself to become a different person, but because she learned how to intentionally create the conditions that helped her capacity grow. This episode isn't about trying harder. It's about understanding what makes more possible. Through personal stories, practical neuroscience, and the lens of The Road to Reconnection™, Trish explores how narrowed capacity can leave us feeling stuck in self-criticism, overwhelm, and discouragement, and why understanding our nervous system creates a very different path toward lasting growth. Because lasting change doesn't begin by demanding more from ourselves. It begins by creating the conditions where more of ourselves becomes genuinely available. In this episode, you'll learn: Why "I'm doing my best" and "my best can become better" can both be true at the same time.How narrowed capacity shapes our mental health, relationships, habits, and everyday functioning.Why self-criticism and "just try harder" often create even more nervous system protection instead of meaningful change.The difference between capacity fluctuating from day to day and capacity expanding over time.How intentionally influencing the conditions that support greater safety and nervous system regulation can help your best become better.Why expanded capacity isn't about becoming a different person, but about allowing more of who you already are to become genuinely available.How self-compassion for whatever your best is today helps support expanded capacity for tomorrowHow grounded hope grows from recognizing the evidence of your own expanding capacity, one experience at a time.Growth isn't about becoming someone you're not. It's about creating the conditions where more of who you already are can emerge. One moment of understanding. One moment of compassion. One cue of safety. One expanded capacity at a time. Because your best isn't the end of the story. It can continue becoming better. And I think there is something incredibly hopeful about that. If you and your partner are ready to co-create the roadmap to the relationship of your dreams, join us for the next in-person "Getting the Love You Want" Weekend Couples Retreat!  For support in how to have deeper connections and better communication in the relationships that matter most in your life, follow the host, Trish Sanders on Instagram , Bluesky or LinkedIn.

  8. Jul 29

    #79 When Caring Feels Like Criticism: How Fear Changes the Conversation

    Have you ever tried to help someone you love, only to have your care experienced as criticism? It can be one of the most frustrating and confusing experiences in a relationship. We know our intentions are good. We know we're coming from a place of love. And yet somehow, the conversation leaves both people feeling hurt, misunderstood, or disconnected. In this deeply personal episode, Trish shares a recent experience with her husband, Ben, that led to a powerful realization. As she reflects on a familiar pattern in their relationship, she explores how genuine care can gradually become infused with fear, changing not only the way our words are delivered, but also the way they're received. This episode isn't about learning better communication techniques. It's about understanding the nervous system beneath our communication. Through storytelling, practical neuroscience, and the lens of The Road to Reconnection™, Trish explores why fear often speaks the language of urgency while care speaks the language of invitation. She shares how slowing down, recognizing the deeper fears driving her own nervous system, and receiving enough cues of safety transformed a difficult conversation into one of deeper connection. Because sometimes the greatest shift doesn't happen when we find better words. It happens when enough safety becomes available for the love underneath our words to finally be received. In this episode, you'll learn: Why caring can sometimes feel like criticism, even when our intentions come from love.How fear changes not only what we say, but how our nervous system delivers our words.Why people don't just hear our intentions. They experience the nervous system communicating them.How urgency can be a sign that fear, not just care, has become active.Why vulnerability can become one of the most powerful cues of safety in a relationship.How creating greater safety changes what becomes available for both people in a conversation.Why meaningful connection isn't always about communicating better, but about creating the conditions where love can truly be received.Healing doesn't always begin with better advice. Sometimes it begins with greater understanding. Greater safety. And the courage to let someone see what's happening beneath our words. Because when fear no longer has to carry the conversation... Our care becomes available again. And I think there is something incredibly hopeful about that. If you and your partner are ready to co-create the roadmap to the relationship of your dreams, join us for the next in-person "Getting the Love You Want" Weekend Couples Retreat!  For support in how to have deeper connections and better communication in the relationships that matter most in your life, follow the host, Trish Sanders on Instagram , Bluesky or LinkedIn.

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4.9
out of 5
8 Ratings

About

When Depression Is in Your Bed℠ is a podcast about what happens when life gets hard and how we find our way back to connection. Hosted by Trish Sanders, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Certified Advanced Imago Relationship Therapist and Relationship Coach, each episode explores the complex relationship between our nervous systems, our relationships, and our emotional well-being. Through a blend of personal stories, professional insights, and practical tools, Trish tackles topics such as depression, communication, perfectionism, neurodivergence, self-trust, conflict, repair, empathy, boundaries, attachment, nervous system regulation, and relational healing. With honesty, warmth, and a deep belief in people's capacity to grow, Trish helps listeners understand not only why they get stuck, but how meaningful change becomes possible. Whether you're struggling with depression, feeling disconnected from yourself or your partner, or simply trying to navigate life with more awareness and compassion, this podcast offers a roadmap back to connection, again and again.

Information

  • Creator
    Trish Sanders, LCSW
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    87
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 When Depression is in Your Bed℠
  • Show Website
    When Depression is in Your Bed℠