Everyone wants authenticity… from others. Expressing your real feelings, real opinions, and real needs can be scary in a world increasingly built on rejection; hiding behind pleasant, fake smiles seems safer. But that protective fakeness can sabotage the connections we crave. Ontario psychotherapist Kirsten Davidson (https://mindthegaps.co/) talks to Liana about how to create a comfort zone of authenticity for stronger, more meaningful relationships.

When her son Jonathan was very young, Lynn Greenberg was told that his neurodivergence would prevent Jon from achieving scholastic success. Years later, Jon graduated from university with a Master's Degree, and the mother-and-son team now write and successfully publish books for young readers featuring neurodivergent characters. Liana talks to Lynn and Jonathan about how they overcame the hurdles of low-expectations - hint: it wasn't by smiling and nodding at 'experts'.

How to put the 'oral' in sex!
A healthy sexual connection with a partner is built on good communication and understanding. But what happens when you don't fully understand what arouses you or how to communicate that effectively? Add the challenges many neuro-divergent people face in making themselves understood and the obstacles to successful intimacy can become ever more daunting. Liana talks with Edmonton-based sex therapist Corey Hruska about how to connect with our own sexual impulses and how to share that knowledge with our partners.

Narcissism is a word that has broken containment; people mistakenly believe it's simply an inflated ego rather than a specific mental health disorder requiring diagnosis by a licensed medical health practitioner. In other words, it's often misunderstood. But what happens when narcissism is also misunderstood by some mental health practitioners? Mental health educator Ross Rosenberg M. Ed, of Selfloverecovery.com, returns to talk to Liana about how to recognize when you, a friend or loved one is not receiving appropriate mental health assistance.

We all have tasks or projects that we know we need to do, even want to do, but we don't, we don't even get started. Is it fear of failure? Fear of success? Fear of change? A mixture of fears? And how do we get past our hesitations and get going? Good questions, and Liana's returning guest, Steven Puri of thesukha.co, has some answers!

Social media and cell phone bans for children under 16 are a common topic among many world governments, including Canada's. But what if the device isn't the problem, but a symptom masking the problem? Child mental health therapist Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge joins Liana to talk about the less-discussed social, emotional and mental health issues that may fuel a child's phone habits... and those of adults.

Recent studies have shown that the loneliness epidemic has been furthered by a lack of meeting spaces in the real world, notably low-pressure gatherings... and what's more low-pressure than a garage sale?? Liana talks with Danielle Cohen, organizer of the Georgina-Wide Garage Sale Day (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1584575116580127/), about the need to create opportunities for people to interact in a chill space where the weight of constrictive social norms are relaxed.

We talk about the journey of identity and self image, but that becomes an even bigger struggle when you’re a professional singer, touring with some of the biggest bands in the world, including Pink Floyd, Sting, Foreigner, and Pat Benatar! Japanese American singer and author Machan Taylor talks to Liana about these challenges and her new book Naked Out Loud: From Yokohama to Pink Floyd and Beyond

Many of us were told in childhood not to talk to strangers. Good advice at the time. But today, one of the foundations of the loneliness epidemic is people not knowing how to talk to strangers, or very afraid of trying. Liana lived with these experiences and so did her guest, Geoffrey Huck (courageous-communication.com), who shares how he 'flipped his extrovert switch' and turned his fear of speaking to new people into a compass and not a stop sign

Many of us have been in a relationship with someone who is wrong for us. This is especially true of people who are 'givers' that find themselves attracted to 'takers'...sometimes repeatedly. Ross Rosenberg (selfloverecovery.com) is an author and expert on codependency and trauma - such an expert that he believes the term 'codependency' is a misnomer and has instead coined the term Self-Love Deficit Disorder. What is that? Listen as he and Liana discuss SLDD and pathological narcissism, and what you can do to stop falling for people who keep hurting you.