Math Therapy

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply)

What happens in the brain when we're learning math?  What makes some students struggle more than others with it?  Can someone study brain science if they're scared of math?!  These are some of the questions that took today's guest Hillary Mastarciyan from severe math anxiety in high school (she was a former student at Vanessa's tutoring centre) to her current PhD in neuroscience at Toronto Metropolitan University!

In today's episode, they discuss:

• if math anxiety is "transmissible" to students (from either teachers or parents)
• the real reasons we see differences in math attitudes between genders
• how learning math is different from learning reading in the brain

Hillary is living proof that math anxiety in school doesn't put an expiry date on your ambitions - if she can become a neuroscientist, you can achieve your dreams too!

Articles mentioned:

• The AIM Collective: Connecting Research and Practice in Canadian Early Mathematics Education
• Bridges over troubled waters: education and cognitive neuroscience
• Computing Whether She Belongs: Stereotypes Undermine Girls’ Interest and Sense of Belonging in Computer Science

About Hillary:

Hillary Mastarciyan is a PhD student in Psychological Sciences at Toronto Metropolitan University, working in the neuroIDEA Lab under the supervision of Dr. Moriah Sokolowski. Her research draws on developmental psychology, numerical cognition, and cognitive neuroscience to investigate how children develop mathematical knowledge and why some learners struggle to acquire foundational mathematical skills. She aims to build on this work by combining behavioural and neuroscientific approaches to better understand the cognitive foundations of early mathematical learning and the factors that support successful development in mathematics.

Contact us:

• Vanessa Vakharia: Instagram, TikTok, Email
• Math Therapy: Text the Podcast

More Math Therapy:

• Get the book: Corwin, Amazon
• Audiobook: Audible, Spotify
• Merch store: Shop here

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply)

We talk about math trauma all the time on this podcast, but sometimes the feelings around it can be hard to articulate.  There's one confidence-crusher we can all easily picture from school though - the feeling of being picked last for the team in gym class.  So today we're going to explore something a little different: what math class would be like if we treated it like a team sport!

Kallen Currie is a physical education teacher and sports coach from Mistawasis First Nation in Saskatchewan, and he has figured out something most of us are still struggling with: how to make every kid feel like they belong before we ever ask them to perform. Vanessa chatted with him live at a conference in Saskatoon to discuss:

• The importance of helping students find their roles on the team
• How a disengaged kid might actually just be an anxious kid
• Positivity: the ultimate superpower on and off the field

This episode is a must-listen no matter what subject you teach, because it shows how to make sure every student in the class feels like they belong.

Contact us:

• Vanessa Vakharia: Instagram, TikTok, Email
• Math Therapy: Text the Podcast

More Math Therapy:

• Get the book: Corwin, Amazon
• Audiobook: Audible, Spotify
• Merch store: Shop here

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply)

Ever drive down a familiar road, hit the same old pothole, and think "Didn't they patch that up last summer? And it's already back?!"  Well buckle your seatbelt, because today's guest is going to show you how the same is true in math education, and why we need to FIX THE DAMN ROAD!

Courtney Flessner has 30 years of experience behind the wheel of teaching practices, and is an advocate for supporting teachers with schools that help them grow and professional development that actually makes a difference.  Today she joins Vanessa to discuss:

• Why teachers often default to teaching the way they were taught
• The power of vulnerability and honesty in helping students learn
• Whether a teacher's own math anxiety is "contagious"

This is a must-listen for any teacher that's felt like they want to keep growing but don't know where to start!

Links mentioned:

• Learning Together: Organizing Schools for Teacher and Student Learning (book)

About Courtney: (Instagram, LinkedIn)

Courtney Flessner is the Director of Keep Indiana Learning at the Central Indiana Educational Service Center. She spent 17 years working in public, private, and public charter schools as a classroom teacher, instructional coach, and administrator. Her work focuses on supporting instructional leaders and elementary mathematics teachers in creating environments that foster ambitious and equitable mathematics teaching. She is passionate about changing the narrative that some people are simply “not math people” and inspiring educators to teach mathematics ambitiously - and maybe even have a little fun while doing so.

Contact us:

• Vanessa Vakharia: Instagram, TikTok, Email
• Math Therapy: Text the Podcast

More Math Therapy:

• Get the book: Corwin, Amazon
• Audiobook: Audible, Spotify
• Merch store: Shop here

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply)

Over the summer, Vanessa recorded our first interview with an actual real life audience when she sat down at a conference with Chase Orton for an unfiltered and tense conversation.  

Among many hot topics debated, they discussed the challenges teachers face in wanting to make changes in their students' lives while having to closely follow curricula and standards - and one clip went VIRAL online with teachers all over the continent weighing in!

Even months later, Vanessa is convinced that there MUST be some middle ground, so today she explores 5 strategies teachers can use to seek balance between the extremes by finding the "middle path":

1. if you can't move the mountain, move a stone
2. use the curriculum, don't let it use you 
3. protect the first 5 minutes of your class
4. build your community
5. redefine "success"

Links mentioned:

• The Math Therapy episode with Chase Orton that started it all and the clip that went viral on TikTok with 200 comments
• 3 things every math teacher should do from Day 1
• Episode on redefining "success"

Contact us:

• Vanessa Vakharia: Instagram, TikTok, Email
• Math Therapy: Text the Podcast

More Math Therapy:

• Get the book: Corwin, Amazon
• Audiobook: Audible, Spotify
• Merch store: Shop here

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply)

Last week we shared a full Math Therapy session with lifelong "not-a-math-person" Lauren Keeling, which was recorded as part of Imagine Learning's "Heart Work" podcast series on math anxiety.  

And as promised, today Vanessa follows up with Lauren 4 months later to learn the domino effect that session had on her whole life!  They discuss:

• How her story around math impacted her ENTIRE identity
• How Duolingo Math made learning fun & low-stakes (131-day streak & counting!)
• The key to healing math trauma: build trust & remove shame

Links mentioned:

• Last week's Before & After Pt. 1 w Lauren Keeling
• 3-part podcast series: "Heart Work: Breaking the Cycle of Math Anxiety" by Imagine Learning
• How Math Therapy changed my entire life w/ Charizma Laughton (Jun '25)

About Lauren:

Lauren Keeling is a National Curriculum Consultant with Imagine Learning and the host of Heart Work, a podcast exploring the work of America's educators. A literacy leader with more than 15 years of experience supporting public education systems, she has served as a teacher, principal, curriculum strategist, and educational leader, helping districts navigate meaningful instructional change. Lauren is passionate about the intersection of learning, leadership, and the
human side of educational transformation.  She is also completing doctoral research on collaborative leadership and curriculum change.

Contact us:

• Vanessa Vakharia: Instagram, TikTok, Email
• Math Therapy: Text the Podcast

More Math Therapy:

• Get the book: Corwin, Amazon
• Audiobook: Audible, Spotify
• Merch store: Shop here

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply)

Today we bring you part 1 of 2 of our first ever Math Therapy Makeover "Before & After"!

When Vanessa first met Lauren Keeling earlier this year, being "not a math person" defined her entire life.  Visiting Vanessa's tutoring centre in Toronto with her team from Imagine Learning's Heart Work podcast, Lauren was dreading her IRL math therapy session - literally terrified that Vanessa would ask her to do math with the mics on and cameras rolling!

But what actually happened was magic; the two unpacked the roots of her icky feelings around math and talked through how to flip the script.  The 2nd episode of Heart Work's 3-part series on math anxiety included portions of that session, but Imagine Learning graciously allowed us to share the FULL convo with Math Therapy listeners!

And what makes this EXTRA special is that Vanessa interviewed Lauren 4 months later to find out what changed - and we'll be airing THAT episode NEXT week!

Links mentioned:

• 3-part podcast series: "Heart Work: Breaking the Cycle of Math Anxiety" by Imagine Learning
• Watch this interview: extended video interview on Heart Work's YouTube

Contact us:

• Vanessa Vakharia: Instagram, TikTok, Email
• Math Therapy: Text the Podcast

More Math Therapy:

• Get the book: Corwin, Amazon
• Audiobook: Audible, Spotify
• Merch store: Shop here

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply)

Have you ever felt like math education needs to take a good long look at itself in the mirror and make some major changes before everything goes off the rails?  Like one of those Hollywood interventions - but for math class?

Well today's guest, Juliana Tapper, is a math interventionist!  She steps in to help students before they slip through the cracks.

Today they discuss:

• what a math intervention is and how it works
• the keys to a successful intervention
• small shifts teachers can try that really make a difference

The conversation also gets emotional when Juliana reads out some of her student “mathographies” (their personal math stories), showing how powerful it can be when students are able to voice their deepest feelings and fears around math.

Links mentioned:

• Coherence by Design article by TNTP about intervention tutoring
• Free download: "My Mathography" - print and try with your students!

About Juliana: (Website, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn)

Juliana Tapper is living proof that your worst subject can become your superpower. After healing her own early math trauma, she dedicated her life to ending the cycle of math trauma for other kids and to empowering teachers with strategies and tools that actually work for students who have been historically unsuccessful in math. She works with schools, districts, state departments of education, and juvenile justice systems to make math accessible for all. She is the bestselling author of Teaching 6-12 Math Intervention: A Practical Framework to Engage Students Who Struggle and the host of the K-12 Math Intervention Summit.

Contact us:

• Vanessa Vakharia: Instagram, TikTok, Email
• Math Therapy: Text the Podcast

More Math Therapy:

• Get the book: Corwin, Amazon
• Audiobook: Audible, Spotify
• Merch store: Shop here

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply)

Some of you have already started school, while the rest are just counting down the days ... so Vanessa is back this week with 3 easy & actionable strategies you can bring to your math class RIGHT now, to set the tone that each of your students belongs in your classroom this year and has the ability to build a better relationship with math.

1. Collect: find out what baggage kids might be bringing into class
2. Co-Create: make ALL voices valued, heard, and respected (including yours!)
3. Connect: break down the student-teacher barrier, even in a big class

For more, download the FREE Math Therapy Toolkit here and let us know how it goes - you've got this!

Contact us:

• Vanessa Vakharia: Instagram, TikTok, Email
• Math Therapy: Text the Podcast

More Math Therapy:

• Get the book: Corwin, Amazon
• Audiobook: Audible, Spotify
• Merch store: Shop here

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply)

Things have been a little crazy over here so Math Therapy is going to take a couple weeks off to catch our breath, but we will be back later this month to get you fired up for back to school!

In the meantime, here are a few ways you can get your Math Therapy fix:

• Vanessa was recently featured in episode 2 of the 3-part series on math anxiety called Heart Work by Imagine Learning
• She was also just interviewed on the Modern Math Teacher podcast
• Math Therapy Roulette!  Go to the podcast feed in your app, scroll way back and randomly pick an episode to listen to - we've been podcasting since 2019 so there are a lot of gems back there!

Enjoy the rest of your summer and we'll be back soon - and make sure to take care of yourself too if you need it!

Contact us:

• Vanessa Vakharia: Instagram, TikTok, Email
• Math Therapy: Text the Podcast

More Math Therapy:

• Get the book: Corwin, Amazon
• Audiobook: Audible, Spotify
• Merch store: Shop here

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply)

One of the most misunderstood words in math ed right now is "fluency", so Vanessa invited an expert on the podcast to demystify it: educator Christina Tondevold.  Christina calls herself a "recovering traditionalist" - she committed to stop teaching students in the same ineffective ways she was taught as a student.

They discuss a ton of practical strategies you can bring to your classroom, such as:

• showing students how connected math is (in class and in their lives)
• building fluency on 3 balanced pillars: efficiency, accuracy, and flexibility
• teaching students to learn math by teaching them to be problem solvers

If you enjoy this conversation, sign up for Christina's free 3-day virtual summit August 10-12, 2026 featuring Vanessa and a ton of other incredible speakers!

• Register here for the FREE "Build Math Minds Thinking Summit"

About Christina: (Website)

Christina Tondevold is a Recovering Traditionalist - she previously taught mathematics traditionally and expected the students to parrot back what she taught them.  Now she gets to work with teachers in developing students’ mathematical understandings in a balanced way by developing conceptual understanding while working on procedural fluency through her site BuildMathMinds.com where you can get PD at Your Fingertips.

Contact us:

• Vanessa Vakharia: Instagram, TikTok, Email
• Math Therapy: Text the Podcast

More Math Therapy:

• Get the book: Corwin, Amazon
• Audiobook: Audible, Spotify
• Merch store: Shop here