137 episodes

A psychotherapy-entertainment podcast featuring licensed therapist, Doug Friedman and a co-host. Episodes include real therapy sessions in sequence with a real client that has agreed to be recorded throughout the process of therapy. After the session, Doug and his co-host break down the session and they give you their clinical insights with personality, humor, and the opportunity to use therapeutic tools in your own life.

Your Mental Breakdown Your Mental Breakdown

    • Health & Fitness
    • 4.9 • 283 Ratings

A psychotherapy-entertainment podcast featuring licensed therapist, Doug Friedman and a co-host. Episodes include real therapy sessions in sequence with a real client that has agreed to be recorded throughout the process of therapy. After the session, Doug and his co-host break down the session and they give you their clinical insights with personality, humor, and the opportunity to use therapeutic tools in your own life.

    128. Drew #97: The Fire in Your Own Belly

    128. Drew #97: The Fire in Your Own Belly

    Doug helps Drew focus on himself, not just the baby on the way. Drew admits that he isn’t feeling joy in things the way he’s used to feeling it and that it’s taking him out of the present. Drew realizes that he’s looking for the joy instead of being in the moment and letting the joy find him. This leads Drew to acknowledge the existential anxiety that he’s also been feeling. Doug and Kenzie discuss anhedonia and sitting with clients when they are experiencing this feeling. They also talk about what happens when we may have missed something in a session as a therapist or feeling like our therapist missed something as a client. Have we missed something else, let us know… or if you’ve missed something, check out the podcast archives and listen to Drew and Sarah from day one of their journey in therapy!
     Doug’s Group Therapy Practice
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     Join Us on Social Media: 
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    • 1 hr 14 min
    127. Sarah #38: Giving Yourself Permission to Feel

    127. Sarah #38: Giving Yourself Permission to Feel

    Doug helps Sarah move forward along a path toward her emotions. They discuss her learned pattern of being dismissive of herself and her feelings. The pursuit of data and facts that turns Sarah into the “justice warrior” is a defense mechanism to not feel the feelings. Doug uses an analogy with Spock and Kirk to highlight a spectrum of being logically driven versus being emotionally driven. Sarah connects this to how she can sound like a robot sometimes while suppressing and invalidating her own feelings. Doug invites Sarah to give herself permission to bring out her inner Captain Kirk so she can practice allowing her emotions to come up and out. 

     
    Doug’s Group Therapy Practice
     
    YMB Webpage
     
    Join Us on Social Media: 
    YMB The Facebook Group
    YMB on Instagram
    YMB on TikTok

    • 1 hr 4 min
    126. Drew #96: Much Love Because Here Comes the Challenge

    126. Drew #96: Much Love Because Here Comes the Challenge

    Drew is feeling like an adult and living in the world. He acknowledges feeling strength where he used to feel weakness in asking for help. He’s getting support in his life by virtue of actually asking for help from others rather than doing everything on his own. Doug and Drew talk about the subtle differences between being an individual and being independent. Doug and Kenzie discuss the therapeutic relationship as a secure attachment. With this secure base to jump off from, Doug is able to challenge Drew, and Drew is able to explore his independence. 

     
    Doug’s Group Therapy Practice
     
    YMB Webpage
     
    Join Us on Social Media: 
    YMB The Facebook Group
    YMB on Instagram
    YMB on TikTok

    • 1 hr 9 min
    125. Sarah #37: I Feel Like I'm Going to Think About It a Lot

    125. Sarah #37: I Feel Like I'm Going to Think About It a Lot

    Sarah is experiencing the difference between being of value at work and being the singular essential piece that also carries with it all the responsibility and pressure. She notices how she’s starting to relax a bit and soften her edges when she isn’t in complete control. Doug helps Sarah acknowledge how the control issue arose to protect herself as a child growing up in a cult, but it isn’t serving her well now in her adult life. Doug invites her to come out of the protective shell to feel her own emotional experience rather than stay “safe” inside and keep her feelings internalized. Kenzie presses Doug to break down the abundant use of analogy and personal stories in session rather than stay in Sarah’s own personal experiences and emotions. They find that the analogies, especially the airplane one, really do land for Sarah… do they land for you too?
     
    Doug’s Group Therapy Practice
    YMB Webpage
     
    Join Us on Social Media: 
    YMB The Facebook Group
    YMB on Instagram
    YMB on TikTok

    • 58 min
    124. Drew #95: Digging Up That Old Polaroid

    124. Drew #95: Digging Up That Old Polaroid

    Doug and Kenzie talk about connecting to your inner child. Then in the session, Drew is adulting and creating distance from his parents while preparing to be a father himself. Doug digs deeper with Drew in the session to get to the emotions underneath all the progress we see and hear on the outside. Doug explains an analogy of photographs to show how we often perceive (and misperceive) people. There are polaroid snapshots from one instance in time and there are “Harry Potter” pictures that constantly move and change - but neither is a true moving picture of our actual life now. The images someone has in mind of us don’t necessarily line up with how we really are now. We want people to see us and know us for who we are, but we are constantly changing. This gets murky when we put up walls and present false pictures to people, especially family members.
    Doug’s Group Therapy Practice
    YMB Webpage
    Join Us on Social Media: 
    YMB The Facebook Group
    YMB on Instagram
    YMB on TikTok

    • 1 hr 5 min
    123. Sarah #36: The Scooby-Doo Effect: Catching Up With Yourself

    123. Sarah #36: The Scooby-Doo Effect: Catching Up With Yourself

    Sarah keeps learning and exploring in therapy – and her family is noticing the change in her and the progress she’s made as a result. Doug explains how and why he uses stories and analogies so often in sessions. It’s an effective way to make a concept less clinical and more relatable and memorable for clients. He names a sensation for Sarah, “The Scooby-Doo Effect,” when the cartoon bodies get scared out of their skins then later join back together. This helps highlight the concept of how Sarah is now catching up with herself after being in a heightened cortisol state of fight or flight to get through an event or experience. From this place, Sarah can take stock of what she just went through and process it.
     
    Doug’s Group Therapy Practice
    YMB Webpage
     
    Join Us on Social Media: 
    YMB The Facebook Group
    YMB on Instagram
    YMB on TikTok

    • 56 min

Customer Reviews

4.9 out of 5
283 Ratings

283 Ratings

Podcastlove-r ,

We all need a Doug

While we all should probably be in therapy, we all definitely need a Doug if we go (Mer is the best also…we’re just a little too similar for therapy 😂). I love to listen to the journey of Drew and Sarah and see myself in them and am so proud of how far they have come already! The “ball in the box” visualization for grief literally changed my thoughts and feelings about my own grief and how I’ve processed it so far. I just can’t recommend this podcast enough if you are interested in being fully human and humaning!

fuzzycandle ,

Kenzie!

I really am enjoying Kenzie as a co-host. As an AMFT myself, it’s nice to hear her questions/observations as a foil to Doug. I think her perspective is more valuable than Meredith’s.

OhhhJenny ,

Great insight and balance

I really enjoy this psychotherapy podcast. Hearing the sessions and Doug and Meredith’s breakdown of the sessions is very informative and entertaining. I am studying to become a mental health therapist and in therapy myself, I love hearing how other practitioners build a connection with their clients.

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