Intentional Therapist: Putting You In Your Schedule

Technology is supposed to make our lives easier. And yet somehow, many of us have ended up with more email, more notifications, more platforms, way too many passwords, and more things competing for our attention than ever before. And now AI is promising to save us time. Which sounds great. But here's the question we want to explore in today's episode: What are we actually going to do with that time?

Because there's a difference between using technology to create more meaningful room in our lives and using technology to simply help us stuff more things into an already-full schedule. And as therapists, we think that's an important distinction. The goal isn't necessarily to become more efficient at doing everything we're already doing so we can do even more. Sometimes the goal is to use technology intentionally so that we can do less, protect our energy, and make more room for the things that actually matter.

Episode Highlights:

• The ‘more trap’ and the paradox of efficiency
• Start with the life you want—not the technology
• See AI as a tool, not a decision maker 
• Recognize that technology needs boundaries 
• Our technology wins
• Self-care experiment for the week: Assess what technology is (and isn't) doing for you

Join us and the amazing Dr. Maelisa McCaffrey for a free webinar about technology, AI, and self-care!  Register at: https://techandselfcare.subscribepage.io/

Connect with Melissa & Karen at Intentional Therapist:
https://www.intentionaltherapist.ca/  |  [email protected]  |   https://www.linkedin.com/in/drmelissatiessen/

Share one of your own self-care experiments via our SpeakPipe page:  https://www.speakpipe.com/intentionaltherapist

Ready to upgrade your self-care? Check out the independent study version of our course, Thrivival Skills for Therapists, and earn 3 CE credits! Because self-care is PART OF our jobs! More info at: https://intentional-therapist.newzenler.com/courses/thrivival-skills-for-therapists-independent-study  

Disclaimer: This podcast seeks to be educational in purpose and is not to be used as clinical advice. Please connect with a therapist one-on-one for personalized support.

Have you ever had the experience of knowing exactly what you should be doing to take better care of yourself, and yet somehow not doing it?  For example, you know you should probably get more sleep. You know you should exercise.  You know you should make more time for friends, take breaks during the day, and have better boundaries.  As therapists, we often have an especially impressive collection of things we know we should be doing.  But knowing what is good for us and actually figuring out what works for us are two very different things.

That’s one of the reasons we talk so much about self-care experiments. Because self-care isn’t about trying to find the “perfect” strategy we can stick with forever. It’s about getting curious about what you need, trying something, noticing what happens, and being willing to adjust along the way. So today, we are exploring why we focus on self-care experiments and why this mindset can be such a powerful alternative to the endless cycle of self-improvement and self-criticism that so many therapists find themselves caught in.

Episode Highlights:

• Why we use the language of experiments
• How experiments help us to become more intentional
• Why even a 'failed' experiment is helpful
• Our recent experiments
• Self-care experiment for the week:
  • What can I experiment with?

Join us and the amazing Dr. Maelisa McCaffrey for a free webinar about technology, AI, and self-care!  Register at: https://techandselfcare.subscribepage.io/

Connect with Melissa & Karen at Intentional Therapist:
https://www.intentionaltherapist.ca/  |  [email protected]  |   https://www.linkedin.com/in/drmelissatiessen/

Share one of your own self-care experiments via our SpeakPipe page:  https://www.speakpipe.com/intentionaltherapist

Ready to upgrade your self-care? Check out the independent study version of our course, Thrivival Skills for Therapists, and earn 3 CE credits! Because self-care is PART OF our jobs! More info at: https://intentional-therapist.newzenler.com/courses/thrivival-skills-for-therapists-independent-study  

Disclaimer: This podcast seeks to be educational in purpose and is not to be used as clinical advice. Please connect with a therapist one-on-one for personalized support.

For many of us, the summer months are when we’re perhaps most likely to set aside some planning time. Often this will revolve around vacation plans and, if you have children, organizing things like childcare, summer camps, and other fun activities. And of course, it’s always easier to do planning when it’s related to things like vacations and summer plans. But how often do you take that same level of care in preparing for the other seasons of the year?

If you’re like most of us, this likely hasn’t happened with any real regularity. Yet taking some time to look ahead and think intentionally about our self-care can help us prepare for the season we’re entering rather than simply reacting once we’re already overwhelmed. That’s why in today’s episode, we’re revisiting the concept of seasonal self-care check-ins, with a particular focus on the upcoming fall season. We’ll walk you through a simple 5-step reflection process to help you take a more proactive, rather than reactive, approach to your self-care. So if you’re looking for a more intentional way to kick-start your fall season, this is the episode for you!

Episode Highlights:

• Assessing your season and mini-seasons
• Our 5-step seasonal check-in practice
• What's standing out for each of us in this upcoming season
• Self-care experiments:
  • Do a fall self-care calendar scan
  • Invite someone else into your fall planning
  • Put one small change on the calendar

Join us and the amazing Dr. Maelisa McCaffrey for a free webinar about technology, AI, and self-care!  Register at: https://techandselfcare.subscribepage.io/

Connect with Melissa & Karen at Intentional Therapist:
https://www.intentionaltherapist.ca/  |  [email protected]  |   https://www.linkedin.com/in/drmelissatiessen/

Share one of your own self-care experiments via our SpeakPipe page:  https://www.speakpipe.com/intentionaltherapist

Ready to upgrade your self-care? Check out the independent study version of our course, Thrivival Skills for Therapists, and earn 3 CE credits! Because self-care is PART OF our jobs! More info at: https://intentional-therapist.newzenler.com/courses/thrivival-skills-for-therapists-independent-study  

Disclaimer: This podcast seeks to be educational in purpose and is not to be used as clinical advice. Please connect with a therapist one-on-one for personalized support.

As we continue to give ourselves permission for a summer break (and hope you are too!), we wanted to highlight this past episode about some of the important issues that effectively rig the self-care game for female therapists.   And as always, some steps you can take to start to change this.

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Ever feel like you’re always giving—whether it’s to your clients, your family, or even strangers on the street—and somehow your own needs get pushed aside? You're not alone. In fact, this might be part of a much bigger issue that’s rigged against women when it comes to self-care. If you're a female therapist, juggling the demands of your clients, family, and personal well-being, this episode is going to shine a light on why that balance feels so elusive—and what you can do to break the cycle.

Today, we're talking about the hidden forces that keep women stuck in the 'human giver' role and leave little room for genuine self-care. We’ll dive into the cultural expectations and productivity systems that make it harder for women to prioritize themselves. But here's the good news: You can change the game. Join us as we explore how to reclaim your time, passions, and well-being—without guilt, shame, or burnout. Ready to shift the paradigm? Let’s dive in. 

Episode Highlights:

• 3 ways the self-care game is rigged for women: 
  • Seeing ourselves as ‘human givers’
  • Pressure to fit into male-dominated productivity systems
  • Not feeling permission to have passions
• Self-Care Experiments:  
  • Let yourself be a human being, not a human giver
  • Gather up the ‘time confetti’
  • Focus on integration over ‘greatness’
  • Give yourself permission to have passions

Resources Mentioned:

• Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily and Amelia Nagoski 
• Find Your Unicorn Space and Fair Play, both by Eve Rodsky
• Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time by Brigid Schulte
• The Plan: Manage Your Time Like a Lazy Genius by Kendra Adachi
• This is Not a Book About Benedict Cumberbatch: The Joy of Loving Something - Anything - Like Your Life Depends On It by Tabitha Carvan
• Our past podcast interview with Tabatha Carvan
• Visit our website to get your own copy of our FREE 4 C's Self-Care Assessment:  https://www.intentionaltherapist.ca

Join us and the amazing Dr. Maelisa McCaffrey for a free webinar about technology, AI, and self-care!  Register at: https://techandselfcare.subscribepage.io/

Connect with Melissa & Karen at Intentional Therapist:
https://www.intentionaltherapist.ca/  |  [email protected]  |   https://www.linkedin.com/in/drmelissatiessen/

Share one of your own self-care experiments via our SpeakPipe page:  https://www.speakpipe.com/intentionaltherapist

Ready to upgrade your self-care? Check out the independent study version of our course, Thrivival Skills for Therapists, and earn 3 CE credits! Because self-care is PART OF our jobs! More info at: https://intentional-therapist.newzenler.com/courses/thrivival-skills-for-therapists-independent-study  

Disclaimer: This podcast seeks to be educational in purpose and is not to be used as clinical advice. Please connect with a therapist one-on-one for personalized support.

While we give ourselves permission for a break over the summer months (and we hope you are doing the same!), we thought it was a great time to revisit this early podcast episode.  How we think about time really is the foundation for building more effective and sustainable self-care practices.

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Ever feel like there’s just never enough time in the day? You’re juggling client sessions, family responsibilities, and maybe even a little bit of a social life—if you’re lucky. And yet, somehow, taking care of yourself always falls to the bottom of the list. Sound familiar? In today’s episode, we’re breaking down the toxic time messages that keep us stuck in this endless cycle of overwhelm. We’re diving into how these hidden beliefs sneak into our everyday decisions and offer some practical tips to reclaim your time—and your energy.

We’ll be talking about why saying, “I can do it better and faster,” or, “I should spend my time doing X, Y, Z,” might be costing you more than you realize. So, if you’re tired of feeling like time is slipping through your fingers and ready to start putting you back in your schedule, please stick around.

Episode Highlights:

• Toxic Time Messages:
  • “I can do it better and faster”
  • “I can save time by doing it myself”
  • “I should be spending my time doing x, y, z”
• Time reframes
  • "Even if I can do it better, that doesn't mean I should be the one to do it"
  • "Saving time now isn't worth the long-term cost to my well-being"
  • "I will not let 'shoulds' rob me of time for myself"

Self-Care Experiments:  

• Delegating a task
• Pausing before agreeing to new commitments
• Setting aside uninterrupted time for yourself

Resources Mentioned:

• Book:  Fair Play by Eve Rodsky
• Visit our website to get your own copy of our FREE 4 C's Self-Care Assessment:  https://www.intentionaltherapist.ca

Join us and the amazing Dr. Maelisa McCaffrey for a free webinar about technology, AI, and self-care!  Register at: https://techandselfcare.subscribepage.io/

Connect with Melissa & Karen at Intentional Therapist:
https://www.intentionaltherapist.ca/  |  [email protected]  |   https://www.linkedin.com/in/drmelissatiessen/

Share one of your own self-care experiments via our SpeakPipe page:  https://www.speakpipe.com/intentionaltherapist

Ready to upgrade your self-care? Check out the independent study version of our course, Thrivival Skills for Therapists, and earn 3 CE credits! Because self-care is PART OF our jobs! More info at: https://intentional-therapist.newzenler.com/courses/thrivival-skills-for-therapists-independent-study  

Disclaimer: This podcast seeks to be educational in purpose and is not to be used as clinical advice. Please connect with a therapist one-on-one for personalized support.

How often have you actually taken the time to think about and plan your self-care?  If you’re like most therapists this likely hasn’t been a regularly occurring event and, in fact, may have never even crossed your mind.  Yet doing this is such an important component of ensuring that our self-care is matching our current realities.  Especially when our responsibilities, energy, and capacity often shift without us even realizing it.  

That’s why in today’s episode, we are re-visiting the concept of seasonal self-care check-ins.  We will walk you through a simple 5 step reflection process to help you assess what’s draining you, what’s sustaining you, and what small adjustments may better support you in this season of life.  Because the most meaningful self-care happens when we respond to ourselves with honesty, flexibility, and discernment as the seasons change. 

Episode Highlights:

• Why seasonal self-care check-ins matter
• A 5-step seasonal check-in practice
• What's standing out for each of us in this season
• Self-care experiments:
  • Assess your self-care needs in this specific season
  • Share your self-care assessment with a trusted colleague or loved one
  • Take some baby steps

Join us and the amazing Dr. Maelisa McCaffrey for a free webinar about technology, AI, and self-care!  Register at: https://techandselfcare.subscribepage.io/

Connect with Melissa & Karen at Intentional Therapist:
https://www.intentionaltherapist.ca/  |  [email protected]  |   https://www.linkedin.com/in/drmelissatiessen/

Share one of your own self-care experiments via our SpeakPipe page:  https://www.speakpipe.com/intentionaltherapist

Ready to upgrade your self-care? Check out the independent study version of our course, Thrivival Skills for Therapists, and earn 3 CE credits! Because self-care is PART OF our jobs! More info at: https://intentional-therapist.newzenler.com/courses/thrivival-skills-for-therapists-independent-study  

Disclaimer: This podcast seeks to be educational in purpose and is not to be used as clinical advice. Please connect with a therapist one-on-one for personalized support.

Leaders often shape the culture of self-care in their workplaces — whether intentionally or not. And sometimes the most compassionate, competent clinicians are also the ones unintentionally modelling overwork, over-responsibility, and depletion as normal.

Today we are closing out our discernment series with a bonus episode, where we’re exploring the hidden leadership beliefs that can inadvertently influence workplace culture, team wellness, and even our own professional satisfaction. Because regardless of your title, the beliefs you hold about boundaries, commitment, productivity, and self-care are more important than you may realize.

Episode Highlights:

• How leadership beliefs intersect with discernment and self-care
• 5 key categories of leadership beliefs that can impact self-care of leaders and those around them
  1. Over-responsibility and identity beliefs
  2. Productivity & performance beliefs
  3. Scarcity & fear-based beliefs 
  4. Boundary confusion beliefs
  5. Cultural & gendered conditioning beliefs
• Our own reflections on leadership beliefs
• Self-care experiments
  • Separate the association between working extra hours and professional commitment 
  • Assess your organizational culture of self-care
  • Leadership belief audit

Resources Mentioned:

• Does Self-Care Make You a Better Leader? A Multisource Study Linking Leader Self-Care to Health-Oriented Leadership, Employee Self-Care, and Health 
• Burnout Study in Women:  https://www.egonzehnder.com/insight/super-burnt-out
• Centre for Patient Safety, Fostering a Culture of Self-Care:  https://blog.centerforpatientsafety.org/fostering-a-culture-of-self-careblog.
• 55 Limiting Beliefs That Hold Leaders Back from Success and Fulfillment

Join us and the amazing Dr. Maelisa McCaffrey for a free webinar about technology, AI, and self-care!  Register at: https://techandselfcare.subscribepage.io/

Connect with Melissa & Karen at Intentional Therapist:
https://www.intentionaltherapist.ca/  |  [email protected]  |   https://www.linkedin.com/in/drmelissatiessen/

Share one of your own self-care experiments via our SpeakPipe page:  https://www.speakpipe.com/intentionaltherapist

Ready to upgrade your self-care? Check out the independent study version of our course, Thrivival Skills for Therapists, and earn 3 CE credits! Because self-care is PART OF our jobs! More info at: https://intentional-therapist.newzenler.com/courses/thrivival-skills-for-therapists-independent-study  

Disclaimer: This podcast seeks to be educational in purpose and is not to be used as clinical advice. Please connect with a therapist one-on-one for personalized support.

What if the stress you’re carrying at work isn’t a sign of something you are doing wrong, but a sign that something around you isn’t healthy?  Many therapists are quick to assume burnout, frustration, or dread must be a personal failing:  poor boundaries, weak coping, not enough self-care.  But sometimes the problem isn’t you. Sometimes the workplace itself is the problem.

In today’s episode, we explore how to recognize a genuinely unhealthy work environment.  We talk about psychological safety, the traits of healthy workplaces, and how to discern when your stress is coming from the system rather than from yourself.  Because the wisest forms of self-care begin with clarity. 

Episode Highlights:

• Unhealthy environments vs belief, boundary, or values misalignment
• 5 characteristics of psychologically healthy workplaces
• Questions to ask about whether a workplace embodies psychological safety
• Our own experiences with unhealthy workplace settings
• Self-care experiments:
  • Reflect on whether your own work setting is psychologically healthy
  • Reflect on whether your own work setting offers psychological safety
  • Identify how you incorporate healthy workplace practices into your own clinical practice and setting

Resources Mentioned:

• The Psychologically Healthy Workplace: Building a Win-Win Environment for Organizations and Employees:  https://www.apa.org/pubs/books/The-Psychologically-Healthy-Workplace-Intro-Sample.pdf
• What is psychological safety at work? Here’s how to start creating it:  https://www.apa.org/topics/healthy-workplaces/psychological-safety

Join us and the amazing Dr. Maelisa McCaffrey for a free webinar about technology, AI, and self-care!  Register at: https://techandselfcare.subscribepage.io/

Connect with Melissa & Karen at Intentional Therapist:
https://www.intentionaltherapist.ca/  |  [email protected]  |   https://www.linkedin.com/in/drmelissatiessen/

Share one of your own self-care experiments via our SpeakPipe page:  https://www.speakpipe.com/intentionaltherapist

Ready to upgrade your self-care? Check out the independent study version of our course, Thrivival Skills for Therapists, and earn 3 CE credits! Because self-care is PART OF our jobs! More info at: https://intentional-therapist.newzenler.com/courses/thrivival-skills-for-therapists-independent-study  

Disclaimer: This podcast seeks to be educational in purpose and is not to be used as clinical advice. Please connect with a therapist one-on-one for personalized support.

Have you ever had a point in your career where it felt as though something shifted for you, and not in a good sense?  Maybe it was a general sense of feeling more drained or perhaps noticing a shift in your ability to keep up with the myriad of tasks and responsibilities related to your professional role.  If so, you’re definitely not alone.  

And, unfortunately, when those things set in it’s easy for us to assume that there is something wrong with us and to begin questioning our suitability for our professional role.  But what if the issue isn’t that there is something wrong with you but rather a misalignment between your current seasonal capacity and your expectations for yourself?  The good news is there are ways to better align our work with our values and our capacity, and that’s what we will be exploring today. 

Episode Highlights:

• Discernment category #3 (part 2): Seasonal capacity misalignment
• Values versus value domains
• What is seasonal capacity misalignment
• How values and value domains will shift over time
• Our own seasonal capacity mis/alignment examples
• Self-care experiments:
  • Identify your current value domains and notice how they show up, or not, in your work week
  • Identify one misaligned value domain or capacity expectation and initiate a conversation about it with a trusted colleague 
  • Reflect on how your values have been expressed over the course of your career

Resources Mentioned:

• Russ Harris' website:  https://www.actmindfully.com.au/
• Valued living questionnaire:  https://stevenchayes.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/The-Valued-Living-Questionnaire.pdf
• Dr. Marie-Helene Pelletier's book, The Resilience Plan

Join us and the amazing Dr. Maelisa McCaffrey for a free webinar about technology, AI, and self-care!  Register at: https://techandselfcare.subscribepage.io/

Connect with Melissa & Karen at Intentional Therapist:
https://www.intentionaltherapist.ca/  |  [email protected]  |   https://www.linkedin.com/in/drmelissatiessen/

Share one of your own self-care experiments via our SpeakPipe page:  https://www.speakpipe.com/intentionaltherapist

Ready to upgrade your self-care? Check out the independent study version of our course, Thrivival Skills for Therapists, and earn 3 CE credits! Because self-care is PART OF our jobs! More info at: https://intentional-therapist.newzenler.com/courses/thrivival-skills-for-therapists-independent-study  

Disclaimer: This podcast seeks to be educational in purpose and is not to be used as clinical advice. Please connect with a therapist one-on-one for personalized support.

Have you ever been good at something (like your work), and still felt drained by it?  It might sound strange, but it is not unusual to be competent and even excellent at what we do, and still feel that something about our work feels heavy, or off.  And that is often the moment that we start to assume something is wrong with us.  But what if that isn’t actually true?

What if the issue has nothing to do with your level of competence, but instead is about a misalignment between what is important to you and how your values show up in your work?  And counter-intuitively, when we really value the work that we do, this can even at times contribute to feeling dissatisfied.  The good news is there are ways to better align our work with our values, so that we can get back to enjoying the meaningful work we do.  That's what we are exploring in today's podcast episode.

Episode Highlights:

• Discernment category #3 (part 1): Values misalignment
• What values are, and are not
• The role of discerning values in our work life
• Our own values mis/alignment examples
• Self-care experiments:
  • List your top 5 values and notice how they show up (or not) in your work week
  • Notice how your top values show up in your treatment of yourself 
  • Check out the book, Values in Therapy, by Jenna LeJeune and Jason Luoma 

Resources Mentioned:

• Values exercise:  https://www.actmindfully.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Values_Checklist_-_Russ_Harris.pdf

Join us and the amazing Dr. Maelisa McCaffrey for a free webinar about technology, AI, and self-care!  Register at: https://techandselfcare.subscribepage.io/

Connect with Melissa & Karen at Intentional Therapist:
https://www.intentionaltherapist.ca/  |  [email protected]  |   https://www.linkedin.com/in/drmelissatiessen/

Share one of your own self-care experiments via our SpeakPipe page:  https://www.speakpipe.com/intentionaltherapist

Ready to upgrade your self-care? Check out the independent study version of our course, Thrivival Skills for Therapists, and earn 3 CE credits! Because self-care is PART OF our jobs! More info at: https://intentional-therapist.newzenler.com/courses/thrivival-skills-for-therapists-independent-study  

Disclaimer: This podcast seeks to be educational in purpose and is not to be used as clinical advice. Please connect with a therapist one-on-one for personalized support.