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What happens when the checklist says “no,” but your body and life keep saying “something is real”? We open the new season by taking aim at diagnostic gatekeeping—across therapy offices, clinics, and urgent care—and making the case for care that centers lived experience alongside criteria. With returning guest Jessica Kirkberg, LMFT and sex therapist, we untangle how the medical model can flatten people into labels and why cultural humility, social location, and context should guide treatment just as much as manuals do.

We get practical fast. Jessica shares how training in cultural humility and pain reprocessing reshaped her supervision and client work, from asking about the menstrual cycle to mapping how Ehlers‑Danlos syndrome, endometriosis, migraines, and autoimmune flares affect mood, attention, and safety. We talk about the rise of self-diagnosis through social media—not as a problem to be mocked, but as a tool that gives people language and community when criteria were written for someone else. For many, an EDS diagnosis won’t unlock a cure, but it can unlock clarity, reduce shame, and point to better pacing, sensory supports, and boundaries.

Ableism shows up everywhere: patients feeling forced to “look sick” to be believed, therapists policing how clients sit or move, and insurance barriers that turn access into a maze. We offer concrete ways to lower the mental load in therapy—allow movement, normalize comfort items, keep heat packs and tea on hand, dim harsh lights, and keep curiosity at the center. We also challenge clinicians to name their own social locations and examine internalized ableism, because what we hide in ourselves we often project onto clients. If your setting is rigid, build a consultation circle, follow disabled clinicians, and test one new adaptation at a time. Better care isn’t a slogan; it’s a series of small, repeatable choices that trust what people say about their bodies and minds.

If this conversation pushed you or gave you language you needed, subscribe, share with a colleague, and leave a review telling us one access change you’ll try this week. Your story might be the spark someone else needs.

A Hero's Welcome Podcast © Maria Laquerre-Diego & Liliana Baylon