Conversations With a Wounded Healer

Why therapists need compassionate curiosity, not fear, when talking about suicide.

Suicidal thoughts or suicidal ideation (SI), like the emotions that swirl around it, is a source of information. That perspective-altering declaration comes from my guest, Sally Spencer-Thomas, Ph.D. She's a brilliant, internationally recognized suicide prevention leader who lost her beloved brother to suicide. Sally urges cautious mental health professionals (and worried friends/family members tbh) to build their capacity for curiosity around suicide and SI.

Together, Sarah and Sally explore how clinicians can move beyond fear, liability, checklists, and the illusion of control toward compassionate curiosity, relationship, agency, and genuine human connection. They also explore grief, spirituality, continuing bonds with people who have died, and what it means for therapists themselves to be wounded healers.

In this episode:

• Why suicidal thoughts and feelings can be valuable information

• How fear and liability can interfere with the therapeutic relationship

• Different patterns of suicidal intensity—and why one-size-fits-all intervention doesn't work

• The importance of agency, nervous-system regulation, trust, and human connection

• Why therapists' own lived experiences with suicidality deserve a place in the profession

• Grief, continuing bonds, and Sally's experiences of her brother's presence after his death

Emerging models like polyvagal theory offer hope. But our ability to sit with what's uncomfortable may be our greatest source of preventative care.

Join The Therapist Network and receive 20% off your subscription tier when you enter the code SARAHROCKS.

Join the waitlist for the next Authentic Leaders Group!

This is a journey of self-discovery and leadership mastery, where you'll not only enhance your leadership skills but also forge meaningful connections with fellow therapists who are committed to their own growth and the betterment of the therapy field. Apply now!

Thank you to The Therapist Network for sponsoring the show!

The Therapist Network is a global community built by and for therapists. You'll find live consult groups, an ever-growing library of workshops and courses, plus a community that really sees you. Sarah's group, Tending to the Wounded Healer, meets every other Monday from 1–2pm CT, and it's a space to explore the intersection of your lived experience and your clinical work.

So if you want to feel more supported and less alone, visit TheTherapist.Network—or join Sarah's group directly at tinyurl.com/HealerConsultTTN.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Check the calendar for opportunities to connect with Sarah and earn CEs.

SUPPORT THE SHOW

Sarah's Downloadables

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An autism specialist and a skeptical therapist debate diagnosis, accommodations, masking, burnout, and who gets to define a "normal" brain.

I love a debate; they make for great podcast episodes. While their official goal is to generate effective critical thinking, that skill is often missing from the "debates" favored by social media algorithms, especially when the topic strikes a chord of cultural conflict like educational curricula, gender identity, and neurodivergence.

It's neurodivergence that gets the legit debate treatment in my conversation with new friend and fellow documentary film fiend Kory Andreas, LCSW-C. But rather than the standard "affirmative/negative" approach, our debate digs into the information (and misinformation) that surrounds diagnosis of and accommodations for folks on the spectrum, plus broader societal acceptance of neurodivergence.

Join The Therapist Network and receive 20% off your subscription tier when you enter the code SARAHROCKS.

Join the waitlist for the next Authentic Leaders Group!

This is a journey of self-discovery and leadership mastery, where you'll not only enhance your leadership skills but also forge meaningful connections with fellow therapists who are committed to their own growth and the betterment of the therapy field. Apply now!

Thank you to The Therapist Network for sponsoring the show!

The Therapist Network is a global community built by and for therapists. You'll find live consult groups, an ever-growing library of workshops and courses, plus a community that really sees you. Sarah's group, Tending to the Wounded Healer, meets every other Monday from 1–2pm CT, and it's a space to explore the intersection of your lived experience and your clinical work.

So if you want to feel more supported and less alone, visit TheTherapist.Network—or join Sarah's group directly at tinyurl.com/HealerConsultTTN.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Check the calendar for opportunities to connect with Sarah and earn CEs.

SUPPORT THE SHOW

Sarah's Downloadables

Join our Patreon for gifts & perks

Shop our Bookshop.org store and support local booksellers

Share a rating & review on Apple Podcasts

***

Let's be friends! You can find me in the following places…

Website

Facebook @headheartbiztherapy

Instagram @headheartbiztherapy

Career paths, mentorship, workplace power, and finding your voice as a therapist.

When we met a few years back, Lee Thompson, LCSW, was an early career therapist, a "COVID baby" of sorts. She inherited a professional space acclimating (or not) to rapid changes in the field, like the use of conferencing tools and the growing popularity of VC-backed virtual "wellness" platforms.

Lee is part of a broader, younger cohort that has opted to enter private practice upon graduation rather than pursue experiences in community mental health. There are many reasons for this generational shift, not least of which is an opportunity to pay back those increasingly burdensome loans.

We talk about:

• the external forces weighing on therapists' career choices,

• the life-changing magic of meaningful mentorship,

• and how group practice employees can feel empowered even during challenging times.

How are we having conversations between owners and employees to actually make it more feasible to be in the group practice space with all of these changes coming?

Good question. Some of the answers lie in the power dynamics of a group practice. The tension in these relationships must be addressed openly and honestly on both sides because, even if the practice owner is being absolutely 100% perfectly benevolent, the relationship doesn't work if the employees aren't owning 100% of their power.

Group Practice (R)evolution is a podcast series offering insights from owners, employees, and experts, and resources to support this wildly ambitious vision for the future. Become a part of the (R)evolution in our Authentic Leaders Group.

Join the waitlist for the next Authentic Leaders Group cohort.

This is a journey of self-discovery and leadership mastery, where you'll not only enhance your leadership skills but also forge meaningful connections with fellow therapists who are committed to their own growth and the betterment of the therapy field. Apply now!

UPCOMING EVENTS

Check the calendar for opportunities to connect with Sarah and earn CEs.

SUPPORT THE SHOW

Sarah's Downloadables

Join our Patreon for gifts & perks

Shop our Bookshop.org store and support local booksellers

Share a rating & review on Apple Podcasts

***

Let's be friends! You can find me in the following places…

Website

Facebook @headheartbiztherapy

Instagram @headheartbiztherapy

AI Can Reduce Symptoms. But Is That Therapy? Ted Faneuff on artificial intelligence, human connection, therapist burnout, and what technology can—and can't—replace.

I'm gonna potentially anger some folks, but here I go: I understand that AI has become a moral issue (on top of being an environmental one). That said, while I agree with some of the concerns, the tech does offer major benefits.

Don't @ me. You can find plenty of recent episodes where I wrestle with the pros and cons of using artificial intelligence in therapeutic spaces. Add this conversation with Ted Faneuff, LCSW, to that list.

Ted is the clinical operations leader at Upheal, an AI-powered platform that helps therapists manage progress notes, treatment plans, and other daily operations.

We dig into the questions shaping the AI debate and motivations guiding three distinct user groups: therapists who are firmly opposed to AI, therapists who are cautiously curious, and therapists who are already enthusiastically adopting the tech in their practices.

Where would you place yourself on this spectrum? Would anything shift your opinion or usage of AI one way or the other?

Join The Therapist Network and receive 20% off your subscription tier when you enter the code SARAHROCKS.

Join the waitlist for the next Authentic Leaders Group!

This is a journey of self-discovery and leadership mastery, where you'll not only enhance your leadership skills but also forge meaningful connections with fellow therapists who are committed to their own growth and the betterment of the therapy field. Apply now!

Thank you to The Therapist Network for sponsoring the show!

The Therapist Network is a global community built by and for therapists. You'll find live consult groups, an ever-growing library of workshops and courses, plus a community that really sees you. Sarah's group, Tending to the Wounded Healer, meets every other Monday from 1–2pm CT, and it's a space to explore the intersection of your lived experience and your clinical work.

So if you want to feel more supported and less alone, visit TheTherapist.Network—or join Sarah's group directly at tinyurl.com/HealerConsultTTN.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Check the calendar for opportunities to connect with Sarah and earn CEs.

SUPPORT THE SHOW

Sarah's Downloadables

Join our Patreon for gifts & perks

Shop our Bookshop.org store and support local booksellers

Share a rating & review on Apple Podcasts

***

Let's be friends! You can find me in the following places…

Website

Facebook @headheartbiztherapy

Instagram @headheartbiztherapy

AI, venture capital, tech platforms, and the fight to preserve quality and human connection in mental health care with Steve Duke, creator of The Hemingway Report.

We're at a tipping point in the evolution of our field, especially when it comes to the rapid ascendancy of venture capital, consolidation, and technology—those AI chatbots lurking and learning in the digital shadows.

I sound the alarm not to incite panic but to encourage resistance. We don't have to bow down to the homogeneity of late-stage capitalism. We do have to recalibrate outdated modes of operation and revamp our self-care strategies if we hope to continue providing quality service.

Steve Duke is one of the bright minds I turn to for data-driven inspiration and motivation. He founded The Hemingway Group, a business working with mental health organizations to help them succeed clinically and commercially.

If it still feels like AI is coming for your job, you're not wrong. Capitalism is continually working to optimize any experience for shareholders. But what about consumers? A growing consensus says clients of the behemoth therapy platforms are beginning to seek out quality over cheap access.

To learn more about Steve visit TheHemingwayReport.com

Join The Therapist Network and receive 20% off your subscription tier when you enter the code SARAHROCKS.

Join the waitlist for the next Authentic Leaders Group!

This is a journey of self-discovery and leadership mastery, where you'll not only enhance your leadership skills but also forge meaningful connections with fellow therapists who are committed to their own growth and the betterment of the therapy field. Apply now!

Thank you to The Therapist Network for sponsoring the show!

The Therapist Network is a global community built by and for therapists. You'll find live consult groups, an ever-growing library of workshops and courses, plus a community that really sees you. Sarah's group, Tending to the Wounded Healer, meets every other Monday from 1–2pm CT, and it's a space to explore the intersection of your lived experience and your clinical work.

So if you want to feel more supported and less alone, visit TheTherapist.Network—or join Sarah's group directly at tinyurl.com/HealerConsultTTN.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Check the calendar for opportunities to connect with Sarah and earn CEs.

SUPPORT THE SHOW

Sarah's Downloadables

Join our Patreon for gifts & perks

Shop our Bookshop.org store and support local booksellers

Share a rating & review on Apple Podcasts

***

Let's be friends! You can find me in the following places…

Website

Facebook @headheartbiztherapy

Instagram @headheartbiztherapy

Sarah shares an episode from a podcast (and therapist) she'd like to introduce you to: Therapists Unchained with Sivie Suckerman

In this episode of Therapists Unchained, Sivie interviews Sharon Harper, a licensed clinical social worker and founder of the Therapist Resource Institute (TRI). The conversation explores the necessity of reclaiming professional autonomy and building sustainable careers through authentic human connection and systemic advocacy, while also delving into the Therapist Resource Institute as a national platform designed to unify mental health professionals across all licenses and career stages.

Harper explains that she created the organization to combat the fragmentation of the field and the growing influence of venture-backed tech platforms that often exploit clinician labor and client data. TRI is a supportive professional community that offers practical tools, such as referral networks and business vetting, while aiming to provide a collective political voice through future lobbying efforts.

Thank you to Sivie and Sharon for sharing this conversation from Therapists Unchained with us.

Join The Therapist Network and receive 20% off your subscription tier when you enter the code SARAHROCKS.

Join the waitlist for the next Authentic Leaders Group! This is a journey of self-discovery and leadership mastery, where you'll not only enhance your leadership skills but also forge meaningful connections with fellow therapists who are committed to their own growth and the betterment of the therapy field. Apply now! Thank you to The Therapist Network for sponsoring the show! The Therapist Network is a global community built by and for therapists. You'll find live consult groups, an ever-growing library of workshops and courses, plus a community that really sees you. Sarah's group, Tending to the Wounded Healer, meets every other Monday from 1–2pm CT, and it's a space to explore the intersection of your lived experience and your clinical work. So if you want to feel more supported and less alone, visit TheTherapist.Network—or join Sarah's group directly at tinyurl.com/HealerConsultTTN. UPCOMING EVENTS Check the calendar for opportunities to connect with Sarah and earn CEs. SUPPORT THE SHOW Sarah's Downloadables Join our Patreon for gifts & perks Shop our Bookshop.org store and support local booksellers Share a rating & review on Apple Podcasts *** Let's be friends! You can find me in the following places… Website Facebook @headheartbiztherapy Instagram @headheartbiztherapy

Sarah shares an episode from a podcast (and therapist) she'd like to introduce you to: A Simple Therapy Podcast with Sindee Gozansky.

Sindee Gozansky welcomes Gino Titus-Luciano, LMHC—CEO of Kokua Mental Health and Wellness Group, president of the Hawaii Counselors Association, and a therapist who believes you can't show up as a textbook and expect real healing to happen. Gino brings insight into what culturally grounded care actually looks like and why bringing your authentic self into the room doesn't mean losing your professional boundaries.

Together, Sindee and Gino explore how to balance being real with staying professional, why cultural curiosity matters more than competency, and what happens when a client's values directly challenge your own. Gino shares a powerful moment working with a client who rejected DEI principles—and how getting curious instead of defensive opened the door to actual therapeutic work. He breaks down why rigid treatment models burn clinicians out, how to know when you're over-identifying or under-identifying with a client's culture, and why caring for your therapists is the foundation of caring for clients.

This conversation is full of permission to stop performing, real talk about vicarious trauma, and a reminder that reflection isn't optional—it's essential. Gino challenges us to ask whether we still love this work and to build practices where clinicians can laugh, bring their specialties to the table, and actually want to show up. Because sustainable therapy starts with remembering you're a person too.

Thank you to Sindee and Gino for sharing this conversation from A Simple Therapy Podcast with us.

Join The Therapist Network and receive 20% off your subscription tier when you enter the code SARAHROCKS.

Join the waitlist for the next Authentic Leaders Group!

This is a journey of self-discovery and leadership mastery, where you'll not only enhance your leadership skills but also forge meaningful connections with fellow therapists who are committed to their own growth and the betterment of the therapy field. Apply now!

Thank you to The Therapist Network for sponsoring the show!

The Therapist Network is a global community built by and for therapists. You'll find live consult groups, an ever-growing library of workshops and courses, plus a community that really sees you. Sarah's group, Tending to the Wounded Healer, meets every other Monday from 1–2pm CT, and it's a space to explore the intersection of your lived experience and your clinical work.

So if you want to feel more supported and less alone, visit TheTherapist.Network—or join Sarah's group directly at tinyurl.com/HealerConsultTTN.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Check the calendar for opportunities to connect with Sarah and earn CEs.

SUPPORT THE SHOW

Sarah's Downloadables

Join our Patreon for gifts & perks

Shop our Bookshop.org store and support local booksellers

Share a rating & review on Apple Podcasts

***

Let's be friends! You can find me in the following places…

Website

Facebook @headheartbiztherapy

Instagram @headheartbiztherapy

What if the future of therapy asks clinicians to stop checking their humanity at the door?

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: There's a gap between the world we were trained for as therapists and the world we find ourselves in now.

And here to explore that gap with compassion, curiosity, and a dose of reality is relational therapist, writer, mentor, and founder of Venus + Legacy, Josie Rosario.

Keep listening if you are curious about:

• The evolving role of the therapist to meet the needs of today's clients

• Therapists doing their own healing work and examining one's relationship to power as essential parts of becoming an effective clinician,

• Spirituality, the wounded healer, and the future of psychotherapy including faith and hope amid social and systemic collapse, and a possible return to the therapist as a more relational "village healer" rooted in community rather than positioned above it.

"We have been trained to kinda check our humanity at the door a little bit," Josie says. But what happens when clients are increasingly hungry for what's real?

Join The Therapist Network and receive 20% off your subscription tier when you enter the code SARAHROCKS.

Join the waitlist for the next Authentic Leaders Group!

This is a journey of self-discovery and leadership mastery, where you'll not only enhance your leadership skills but also forge meaningful connections with fellow therapists who are committed to their own growth and the betterment of the therapy field. Apply now!

Thank you to The Therapist Network for sponsoring the show!

The Therapist Network is a global community built by and for therapists. You'll find live consult groups, an ever-growing library of workshops and courses, plus a community that really sees you. Sarah's group, Tending to the Wounded Healer, meets every other Monday from 1–2pm CT, and it's a space to explore the intersection of your lived experience and your clinical work.

So if you want to feel more supported and less alone, visit TheTherapist.Network—or join Sarah's group directly at tinyurl.com/HealerConsultTTN.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Check the calendar for opportunities to connect with Sarah and earn CEs.

SUPPORT THE SHOW

Sarah's Downloadables

Join our Patreon for gifts & perks

Shop our Bookshop.org store and support local booksellers

Share a rating & review on Apple Podcasts

***

Let's be friends! You can find me in the following places…

Website

Facebook @headheartbiztherapy

Instagram @headheartbiztherapy

What if the biggest challenge facing therapists isn't burnout… but evolution?

In this special bonus episode, Sarah shares her keynote from the inaugural Revolutionary Practice Summit, exploring why therapists must evolve—not just professionally, but personally—to meet the realities of practicing in today's world.

Drawing from trauma theory, developmental psychology, leadership research, systems thinking, and her own experience as a therapist and group practice owner, Sarah offers a compelling vision for the future of psychotherapy.

Rather than asking therapists to simply become more resilient, she invites us to expand our capacity for complexity, uncertainty, and collective care.

In this keynote, Sarah explores:

• Why therapists must do their own work

• The hidden cost of pathological empathy

• Why self-care alone isn't enough

• Organizational trauma and unhealthy workplace cultures

• Vertical development and therapist maturity

• The "meta-crisis" shaping mental health today

• Power, leadership, and the future of psychotherapy

• Why healing must happen at the individual, organizational, and systemic levels

Whether you're a therapist, supervisor, practice owner, social worker, or graduate student, this keynote is an invitation to imagine what our profession could become—and the role each of us plays in creating it.

Join the 2027 Revolutionary Practice Summit. Get $50 off with code: SpeakUp50

Join The Therapist Network and receive 20% off your subscription tier when you enter the code SARAHROCKS.

Join the waitlist for the next Authentic Leaders Group!

This is a journey of self-discovery and leadership mastery, where you'll not only enhance your leadership skills but also forge meaningful connections with fellow therapists who are committed to their own growth and the betterment of the therapy field. Apply now!

Thank you to The Therapist Network for sponsoring the show!

The Therapist Network is a global community built by and for therapists. You'll find live consult groups, an ever-growing library of workshops and courses, plus a community that really sees you. Sarah's group, Tending to the Wounded Healer, meets every other Monday from 1–2pm CT, and it's a space to explore the intersection of your lived experience and your clinical work.

So if you want to feel more supported and less alone, visit TheTherapist.Network—or join Sarah's group directly at tinyurl.com/HealerConsultTTN.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Check the calendar for opportunities to connect with Sarah and earn CEs.

SUPPORT THE SHOW

Sarah's Downloadables

Join our Patreon for gifts & perks

Shop our Bookshop.org store and support local booksellers

Share a rating & review on Apple Podcasts

***

Let's be friends! You can find me in the following places…

Website

Facebook @headheartbiztherapy

Instagram @headheartbiztherapy

Donna Sky on Employee Ownership, Legacy, and the Future of Private Practice.

Lemme ask the group practice owners a question: What's your business plan for the end of capitalism?

OK, so we're not quite there yet, but "something" is pushing private practices closer to the cliff's edge of capitalism, the inevitable collapse of unbridled growth for no other reason than greed. Group practice owners who want to land safely should prepare for what comes next.

Employee ownership (EO) could be what's next.

Donna Sky is senior manager of business and engagement and partnerships at Project Equity. This national non-profit helps business owners explore EO and build more equitable, resilient workplaces and communities.

"There have been a lot of success stories," Donna says. "The first step is to think about what's important to you and then educate yourself."

Group Practice (R)evolution is a podcast series offering insights from owners, employees, and experts, and resources to support this wildly ambitious vision for the future. Become a part of the (R)evolution in our Authentic Leaders Group.

Join the waitlist for the next Authentic Leaders Group cohort.

This is a journey of self-discovery and leadership mastery, where you'll not only enhance your leadership skills but also forge meaningful connections with fellow therapists who are committed to their own growth and the betterment of the therapy field. Apply now!

UPCOMING EVENTS

Check the calendar for opportunities to connect with Sarah and earn CEs.

SUPPORT THE SHOW

Sarah's Downloadables

Join our Patreon for gifts & perks

Shop our Bookshop.org store and support local booksellers

Share a rating & review on Apple Podcasts

***

Let's be friends! You can find me in the following places…

Website

Facebook @headheartbiztherapy

Instagram @headheartbiztherapy