S* Your Therapist Reads

For this spooky edition of the podcast, we're discussing motherhood (I mean, really, what could be scarier?)

We discuss 3 books about being a mom in our time: the Mamas by Helena Andrews-Dyer, the School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan, and Screaming on the Inside by Jessica Grose. We talk about how the role of motherhood has shifted over time, the impossible and contradictory standards mothers are held to, and mothering as a woman of color. 

Check out the episode and let us know what you think in the comments! 

We are so excited to have our first guest author on the podcast! Dr. Jessi Gold joined us to talk about her new book, How Do You Feel, that just came out this month. We discuss core themes from her book including burnout, being a mental health professional navigating your own mental health, and the unreasonable demands made of those who work in the medical and mental health fields. 

Oh boy. So in this week's episode, we tackle the book Bad Therapy, and discuss what this book claims is bad therapy, what we wish it actually addressed about the failures of mental health treatment, and make a case for why telling kids to just "man up" is not the move.

You know, in each episode of our podcast we talk about who a book is for, and for this particular book our answer is...no one. 

We are unfortunately without our fearless friend Christina in this episode  but May and I hold down the fort. We discuss the recently published book, Borderline, and talk about the common (mis-)understandings of this disorder in our field and in popular culture, including its reputation for being 'untreatable.' Finally, May and I debate the role and value of diagnosis and discuss its origins in the psychoanalytic tradition. 

In this episode we discuss Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning, and talk about the complexities of Asian American identity, having vulnerable conversations about race, and getting comfortable with the uncomfortable. 

For this episode, we read two books about grief: Grief is Love by Marisa Renee Lee and Grief is for People by Sloan Crosley. These books approach the topic from wildly different angles, but each offers a clear window into the experience of grief. In our conversation, we talk about what grief is "supposed" to look like versus what it actually looks like, the vulnerability inherent in grieving, and about who is permitted to grieve. We also talk about why finding a new therapist sucks, and ponder if our podcast is "poo." 

For the podcast this week, we tackled It's Not You with special guest, Maureen Bethea! We're happy to have Maureen join us as we wade into the narcissism discourse. Of course, according to social media, everybody and their mama is a narcissist, but the reality is a bit more complicated.

We discuss whether the solution to kids' rising mental health issues is decreased screen time and more outdoor play, talk about why parenting in this day and age feels particularly hard, and one of us shares how this book has already directly impacted her own parenting. 

For this episode, we read our first memoir for the podcast, Anna Gazmarian's Devout. We discuss the role of religion in mental health education and treatment, and why both therapist fit and timing matter. 

In this episode, we talk about the book Fat Talk, and discuss fatphobia and the worship of thinness, diet culture, the food industry's efforts to hijack our brains, and the merits of letting your kid eat a stick of butter.