It's Not Normal

what does 2026 have in store??

Holidays aren't always the most wonderful time of the year... let's talk about it

Let's talk about perfectionism, control and self-reliance.

In this week's episode, I take you through the first chapter of Meg Josephson's book, "Are You Mad at Me?"

we're back!!

In this week’s episode, and with your help, I’m challenging myself to talk about parts of my life that are relatively unrelated to my trauma. Since sharing my experience with emotionally immature parents on social media, I have created an invisible box and put myself in it. From following dreams and finding a work-life balance to vanlife and tattoos, we’re covering it all. 

0:00 Episode 50!!

4:55 A Plan For Life

16:49 Woodworking

25:40 Vanlife

33:03 What Drives Me

37:53 Sports

42:46 Tattoos

44:21 Clothes

49:30 Final Thoughts 

Dwell (Camper Reno): https://www.dwell.com/article/budget-breakdown-renovated-sun-valley-road-runner-trailer-path-design-e1fe2e8f

Insider: https://www.businessinsider.com/couple-spent-ten-thousand-renovating-trailer-camper-2023-4

Life Lessons From a 7,000 Bike Ride: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUTL4Op56CM

Have you ever found yourself being strung along by a parent, partner or friend? Intermittent reinforcement is a powerful tool that can shape not only our personality, but also our perception of the present and our beliefs for the future. In this week’s episode, we talk about breadcrumbing as a behavior in a parent-child relationship and how it fuels the development of healing fantasies and role-selves. 

0:00 Breadcrumbs Create A Power Dynamic

6:58 Future Faking and Empty Promises

11:22 Healing Fantasies

17:21 Becoming Someone Else

20:13 Developing A Role-Self

This weekend, I took a trip to a place that I hadn’t visited in over a decade. It was healing, but also brought to the surface some complex emotions. In this week’s episode, we talk about what inner-child is, why it’s important and how we can take steps to accommodate our younger selves in adulthood. 

0:00 Inner-Child Healing

1:31 Childhood Wounds

3:14 Disproportionate Reactions

7:59 Validating Our Trauma Responses

10:48 What Age Do I Feel?

16:11 Happy and Sad At the Same Time

24:51 What Can We Do?

In this week’s episode, I’m walking you through The Science of Stuck by Britt Frank, a book that I often reference as marking the beginning of my healing journey. From signs of unresolved trauma to what characteristics define an emotionally unskilled family, we get into it all. 

Buy “The Science of Stuck” here:

https://amzn.to/4faNms7

0:00 Healing our Inner Child

1:35 Positive and Negative Emotions

5:38 Signs of Unresolved Trauma

19:40 Trauma

22:07 Dysfunctional Families

24:04 The Emotionally Unskilled Family

Have you ever felt intense jealousy or insecurity about your friend or partner’s past? And does imagining a time in their life before you give you a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach? In this week’s episode, we’re going to be talking about retroactive jealousy and the connection between OCD and childhood trauma.

0:00 Retroactive Jealousy

1:57 OCD

5:01 Obsessing Over the Past

9:51 Digging for Information

12:46 Comparison

16:12 Where Does It Come From?

18:36 What Can We Do?