Never Perfect

In this episode, Dr. Beth tackles a topic she’s deeply passionate about—but has taken time to approach thoughtfully: conflict avoidance and peacemaking. While peacemakers often value kindness, harmony, and sensitivity, avoiding hard conversations can quietly erode relationships over time.

Using real client stories, personal insight, and research from experts like Drs. John and Julie Gottman, Beth explores why holding things in often leads to resentment, emotional shutdown, or explosive anger—and how “being nice” can actually be a disservice to both yourself and the people you love.

This episode covers:

What it really means to be a peacemaker or conflict avoider

How internalizing/“ under-reacting” can lead to  overreacting/exploding 

Why honesty is often more loving than keeping the peace

How avoiding conflict impacts respect, intimacy, and connection

Practical ways to speak up without being aggressive

Why clarity, boundaries, and assertiveness strengthen relationships

If you tend to put your needs last, fear uncomfortable conversations, or pride yourself on being “easygoing,” this episode is a compassionate but challenging invitation to find your voice, advocate for yourself, and build healthier, more honest relationships.

💛 We need your help! This podcast is funded by Dr. Beth, and we are looking for donations from listeners and potential sponsors. If you’re interested in contributing, you can send donations via Venmo (⁠https://account.venmo.com/u/NeverPerfectPodcast⁠) or email ⁠[email protected]⁠ to find out other ways to donate.

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Today Dr. Beth sits down again with relationship expert Dr. Carol Stoney to explore one of the most common phrases couples use to describe their relationship: “We’re just not compatible.” Instead of couples seeing their differences as signs of failure, they unpack what actually lies beneath that thought—discouragement, unmet connection, and the skills we never learned but desperately need in relationships. Together they dive into:

Why compatibility isn’t about agreeing on everything

What happens when life stress wears down the “insulation” of congratulation

Practical habits that rebuild connection (eye contact, reassurance, warm touch)

How to tell disappointment from rejection

The real math of healthy relationships (positive interactions vs. negative ones)

If you’ve ever wondered whether differences mean you chose the wrong person—or whether love should feel easier—this episode offers a grounded, hopeful reframing and actionable insights for loving through incompatibilities.

Listen, reflect, and grow together.

💛 We need your help! This podcast is funded by Dr. Beth, and we are looking for donations from listeners and potential sponsors. If you’re interested in contributing, you can send donations via Venmo (⁠https://account.venmo.com/u/NeverPerfectPodcast⁠) or email ⁠[email protected]⁠ to find out other ways to donate.

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Why is it so hard to start the things we know we need to do?

In this quick, solo, and spontaneous episode, Dr. Beth shares practical ADHD-friendly strategies to break through procrastination without shaming yourself or waiting for perfect motivation. Using real-life examples from her own school days and a recent session with a late-twenties client, she talks about why big-picture thinkers with ADHD struggle to break tasks into small steps, how perfectionism fuels putting things off, and why “all-or-nothing” workouts and work plans backfire.

You’ll hear simple and helpful strategies such as:

Creating fake deadlines and using accountability

Setting 10-minute timers to make getting started easier

Embracing Brené Brown’s “shitty first draft” instead of expecting the first draft to be nearly perfect

Pairing boring tasks with something enjoyable

Picking the right setting to get into a productive zone

💛 We need your help! This podcast is funded by Dr. Beth, and we are looking for donations from listeners and potential sponsors. If you’re interested in contributing, you can send donations via Venmo (⁠https://account.venmo.com/u/NeverPerfectPodcast⁠) or email ⁠[email protected]⁠ to find out other ways to donate.

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In this episode, Dr. Beth sits down with her friends Amanda (a business owner) and Stephanie (a therapist) to tackle a tough, real-world question: How do you talk about a diagnosis with someone who doesn’t want one—especially when daily weed, anger outbursts, or past substance use are in the mix? Through the story of a 30-something creative with possible bipolar disorder, they unpack self-medication (the classic “upper, downer, mood-stabilizer” pattern), why partners and employers draw hard lines (“it’s legal” ≠ “it’s okay at work”), and how shame keeps talented people from becoming their best selves.

You’ll hear practical, compassionate ways to:

Frame diagnosis as information, not identity

Explain the bipolar spectrum (including agitated/hypomanic presentations)

Explore roots vs. band-aids: trauma, lifestyle, and biology

Talk with spouses about the real costs of daily use and rage cycles

Use simple next steps (e.g., the MDQ screen, treatment options, boundaries)

Honest, stigma-cutting, and immediately useful—for therapists, leaders managing teams, partners who are worried, and anyone wondering whether a label might actually unlock a path forward.

Note: This conversation is educational and not medical advice. If you have concerns about mood or substance use, please consult a licensed professional.

💛 We need your help! This podcast is funded by Dr. Beth, and we are looking for donations from listeners and potential sponsors. If you’re interested in contributing, you can send donations via Venmo (⁠https://account.venmo.com/u/NeverPerfectPodcast⁠) or email ⁠[email protected]⁠ to find out other ways to donate.

🎧 Listen to this episode and more: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠neverperfect.org⁠
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In this special role-reversal episode, Beth hands the mic to her longtime friend of 40+ years, OB-GYN Dr. Patricia “Tricia” McClelland—a familiar voice on the podcast from past episodes on hormones and menopause. This time, Tricia interviews Beth, asking the questions Beth usually asks everyone else.

Together they dive into the values that quietly steer Beth’s life—love, kindness, community, authenticity, using your gifts to help others, and treating everyone with dignity—plus how her Christian faith gives her peace with her own imperfections. Beth opens up about parenting three kids close together, her journey with ADHD, and how chronic people-pleasing and weak boundaries left her exhausted (and what she’s doing differently now).

They talk honestly about:

If you’ve ever felt like you’re supposed to have it all together while secretly struggling, this conversation will make you feel seen, normal, and a little more hopeful.

💛 We need your help! This podcast is funded by Dr. Beth, and we are looking for donations from listeners and potential sponsors. If you’re interested in contributing, you can send donations via Venmo (⁠https://account.venmo.com/u/NeverPerfectPodcast⁠) or email ⁠[email protected]⁠ to find out other ways to donate.

🎧 Listen to this episode and more: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠neverperfect.org⁠

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What if your pain is real—and also not the whole story?

In this episode, Dr. Beth sits down with two “pain whisperers” who bridge medicine and recovery: Dr. Matt McClanahan, an osteopathic physician (Neuromusculoskeletal & Family Medicine; Center for Insight Medicine), and Joe Timberlake, a 35-year sober addictions specialist and chronic-pain coach. Together, they explore how the brain processes danger—physical and emotional—in the same places, why neuroplasticity can both help and hurt us, and how grief, stress, and identity conflicts can keep alarms blaring long after tissues have healed.

You’ll hear why “pain × resistance = suffering,” how fear (not pain) is often the real treatment target, and why changing our relationship to symptoms (curiosity over panic, safety over threat) can downshift nervous-system alarms. Beth shares her own recent back injury amid the loss of her father, and the three unpack how context, attachment, and meaning shape the “pain experience.” We get practical too: reframing, paced return to movement (yes, yoga!), breath-led state shifts, and the difference between coping vs. retraining for neuroplastic pain.

If you’ve ever thought, “I just want an answer,” this conversation offers one that’s both compassionate and empowering: your pain is real—and there’s more hope than you’ve been told.

Perfect for listeners who…

Live with chronic pain, migraines, or panic flares

Are navigating grief, stress, or recovery

Want brain-based, skills-based ways to feel safer in their body

💛 We need your help! This podcast is funded by Dr. Beth, and we are looking for donations from listeners and potential sponsors. If you’re interested in contributing, you can send donations via Venmo (⁠https://account.venmo.com/u/NeverPerfectPodcast⁠) or email ⁠[email protected]⁠ to find out other ways to donate.

🎧 Listen to this episode and more: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠neverperfect.org⁠

📲 Follow us on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@neverperfectpodcast

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Parenting teens isn’t about perfection—it’s about presence, honesty, and learning to let go.

In this conversation, Beth welcomes Randi Crawford, a straight-talking parenting coach who brings humor, vulnerability, and decades of life experience to the table. From co-founding a women’s health company with her father to becoming an empty-nester, Randi shares her journey of reinvention and what it taught her about resilience, grit, and independence.

Together, they dive into:

Why letting kids sit in discomfort is a gift (not punishment)

How to practice “tough love” without the toughness

The importance of listening without trying to fix

Modeling imperfection and apologizing as parents

Why communication is the #1 tool for building trust with teens

This episode is both refreshing and relatable—reminding us that our kids are not an extension of us, but their own people. If you’ve ever wrestled with how much to guide, when to step back, and how to stay connected through it all, this conversation is for you.

👉 To learn more about Randi, go to Randicrawfordcoaching.com

💛 We need your help! This podcast is funded by Dr. Beth, and we are looking for donations from listeners and potential sponsors. If you’re interested in contributing, you can send donations via Venmo (https://account.venmo.com/u/NeverPerfectPodcast) or email [email protected] to find out other ways to donate.

🎧 Listen to this episode and more: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠neverperfect.org

📲 Follow us on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@neverperfectpodcast

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Figs o’Sullivan and his wife Teale are marriage therapists and relationship experts who developed the Empathi method.

They are the architects of the Empathi Method and they think of themselves as “wounded healers and fellow strugglers.” Figs takes a casual approach in his work with couples and see himself as “just another wounded person trying to make his own relationships work.”

Figs believes that “every person makes sense and every person is worthy of love”, AND if they can get beyond the narrative that one partner is right and one partner is wrong, they can find a neutral place to meet and talk and work through their issues.  

He shares a bit about his approach to helping couples, and he believes that “although people are complicated, therapy shouldn't be. “  Figs views himself as a fellow traveler in life and a fellow struggler. He likes to remind couples that many of their conflicts and arguments are just evidence that they care so much about this relationship.

O'Sullivan's approach encourages individuals to examine their own emotional responses and vulnerabilities, becoming more self-aware to attract and maintain a healthier relationship dynamic. 

He shares the  3 pillars of relationships that he focuses on in couples work: 

    1    Attachment theory

    2    Systems Theory

    3    Transformation/Experiences

To learn more about Figs and his work, go to empathi.com

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Today Dr. Carol Stoney, Beth’s most frequent (and very likely one of the most popular ) podcast guests returns to the show to talk about marriage. She likes to encourage married couples to ask themselves the question regularly: “ Why did we get  married?” Like when things get hard  or when transitions happen, she urges them to sit down and have a conversation “What’s our purpose?” Sometimes couples have change their mission, she said.

Dr. Stoney stated “I don’t care what couples are fighting about, I care what they are fighting FOR“ “What is the mission and the purpose and the reason you are staying together?”

In essence, it is important for couples to know and remember what it is they are trying to achieve and what stands in the way (or threatens) what it is that they are trying to recover to achieve that goal they never knew they had.

She urges couples to consider, why is this so important to me? What is it that we’re fighting for?

To hear more episodes with Dr. Stoney, go to your favorite podcast platform and Google Never Perfect Dr. Stoney

To learn more about her, you can go to healingforcouples.com

Listen to this episode and more: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠neverperfect.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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What is the difference between unconditional love and conditional love? Does healthy love have to include approval of all choices? Are we showing love to our children or our loved ones even when we don’t approve of their choices, or when we grieve their choices? Is our love for them more selfish or more selfless? Are we wanting them to make choices that are good for US or for THEM? How do we handle it if they have different priorities or make different choices than we want them to? Are we allowing them to be their healthiest best selves or are we trying to control them?  Do we punish people when they don’t do what we want? How can you provide guidance and rules without interfering with healthy development and choices? Today Dr. Beth records a conversation about these topics with a client, honing in on topics related to healthy parenting and unconditional love. This conversation was recorded spontaneously immediately following their therapy session. This client, who has several adolescent and young adult children, shared some great insights and questions, along with examples from her own childhood.

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Please rate and review this podcast. Send us an email with any feedback or requests: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠

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