Today’s episode is a little different. We often mention our dear friend Katie, who has transformed herself over the years from a melancholy teenager into a contented adult. After healing past traumas and learning to practice radical acceptance through years of therapy, she became a therapist herself. Now she helps her clients make the same kinds of positive changes in their lives.

When Katie visited Jackson this summer, Melia insisted that she share her secrets, the practices that help her find happiness within herself, in the here and now. She tells us how cognitive-behavioral techniques -- choosing our thoughts and actions -- can change not only our feelings in the moment, but also our overall sense of happiness and fulfillment.

We hope that you’ll find these takeaways especially helpful during this busy holiday season, when our many commitments can feel less than jolly. You can contact Katie via [email protected], and she is taking new clients based in California and Minnesota, via teletherapy.

What resonates with you in this conversation? In which ways have you evolved since you were a teenager? Let us know via the email above or send us a voice memo.

Find us on the web for show notes and extras: https://www.semitogether.com

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Book a Discovery Call with Melia, who is coaching self-critics and perfectionists, including adults with ADHD: www.risingspiralcoaching.com 

Resources from this ep:

Perfectionism is a recurring theme of Semi-Together – and the root of many of the things we struggle with, as we learn to show up authentically and treat ourselves with compassion.

We went back and listened to Episode 25: Perfectionism & Self-Compassion, which we released almost exactly two years ago, to see where we’ve evolved and where we’re still growing. We share:

Find us on the web for show notes and extras: https://www.semitogether.com

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Book a no-charge Discovery Call with Melia, who is coaching self-critics and perfectionists, including adults with ADHD: www.risingspiralcoaching.com 

Referenced in the ep:

Buckle up: it’s Halloween season, and we’re talking about fear! Fear is a primitive emotion that evolved to protect us from real threats, but it can also hold us back from taking risks that would likely benefit us.

We discuss:

How do you deal with things that scare you? What advice about fear would you like to share?

* Content warning: In this episode, we talk about our fears as kids and adults, including scary media at about a PG-13 level. We also touch on some deeper existential fears. If these things may be triggering for you, feel free to skip this episode or parts of it. Toward the end, we talk about how to deal with fear, which we all need to do in some way, and we hope those takeaways are helpful. 

Find us on the web for show notes and extras: https://www.semitogether.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/semitogether

Facebook: https://facebook.com/semitogether

Subscribe to our e-newsletter for episode roundups, tips to steal + extras: https://www.subscribepage.com/semitogether

Become a patron of the podcast and access bonuses and extras: https://www.patreon.com/semitogether

Book a free Discovery Call with Melia, who is coaching self-critics and perfectionists, including adults with ADHD: www.risingspiralcoaching.com 

Referenced in this episode:

Find research and writing about fear linked from the episode page on our website.

October is ADHD Awareness Month.Even if ADHD is not a part of your life, as far as you know, we hope you listen – because it’s likely that you know someone or are someone with undiagnosed ADHD whose life could change with treatment.

And if you don’t have ADHD but struggle with some of the symptoms, like distractibility and procrastination, you’ll likely find the same kinds of strategies helpful.

We interview Melia’s friend and talented artist Ginger Williams Cook, who was recently diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 40, one year after Melia’s diagnosis at the same age.

We talk to Ginger about:

Content warning: We discuss mental health issues and briefly touch on suicide in this episode.

Find us on the web for show notes and extras: https://www.semitogether.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/semitogether

Facebook: https://facebook.com/semitogether

Subscribe to our e-newsletter for episode roundups, tips to steal + extras: https://www.subscribepage.com/semitogether

Become a patron of the podcast and access bonuses and extras: https://www.patreon.com/semitogether

Book a Discovery Call with Melia, who is coaching self-critics and perfectionists, including adults with ADHD: www.risingspiralcoaching.com 

Learn more about Ginger Williams Cook http://www.gingerwilliamscook.com and on Instagram at @gingerwilliamscook

Sound effect credit: https://www.zapsplat.com

Our topic in this episode is a fun one: making time for more play! We know how important play is for kids. But when we grow up, we somehow start thinking about play as optional or frivolous or childish. Spoiler alert: it’s none of those things and is actually fundamental to our health and well being!

We share:

- The science behind the importance of play at any age

Find us on the web for show notes and extras: https://www.semitogether.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/semitogether

Facebook: https://facebook.com/semitogether

Subscribe to our e-newsletter for episode roundups, tips to steal + extras: https://www.subscribepage.com/semitogether

Become a patron of the podcast and access bonuses and extras: https://www.patreon.com/semitogether

Book a free Discovery Call with Melia, who is coaching self-critics and perfectionists, including adults with ADHD: www.risingspiralcoaching.com 

We are so happy to be back with a new season after our summer break. We missed you, and the opportunity to talk things through with each other. Our last minisode at the end of May was called Emerging from Our Cocoons. Welp! How innocent we were. Now we’re halfway back in our cocoons, trying to navigate this weird in-between period.

We check in on what’s been going on and share five ways to deal with uncertainty and frequent change. Along with the launch of Melia’s new practice, Rising Spiral Coaching, we introduce a new segment. In Rising Spiral, we each share a challenge that we keep encountering and track our progress on our learning spirals.

Find us on the web for show notes and extras: https://www.semitogether.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/semitogether

Facebook: https://facebook.com/semitogether

Subscribe to our e-newsletter for episode roundups, tips to steal + extras: https://www.subscribepage.com/semitogether

Become a patron of the podcast and access bonuses and extras: https://www.patreon.com/semitogether

Book a Discovery Call with Melia, who is coaching self-critics and perfectionists, including adults with ADHD: www.risingspiralcoaching.com 

As we re-enter the world and find our new normal, we want to be intentional about what we’re putting back into our lives and what we’re leaving behind. We revisit our minisode from April 2020, “What Do We Carry Forward?” to see what still resonates.

Melia geeks out over the process of metamorphosis, which her daughter’s preschool class has been observing. Did you know that caterpillars dissolve themselves into a goo of cells inside the chrysalis, then grow completely new parts to become a butterfly? The magic of this transformation, and the metaphor for reinventing ourselves as we emerge from COVID quarantine, blows our minds.

Links:

April 2020 Minisode: What Do We Carry Forward?

https://semitogether.com/podcast/what-do-we-carry-forward/

How Does a Caterpillar Turn into a Butterfly? (Scientific American)

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/caterpillar-butterfly-metamorphosis-explainer

Find us on the web for show notes and extras: https://www.semitogether.com

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We both share how we’re feeling after speaking so honestly about our mental health journeys in Ep. 54: Let’s Talk About Mental health. We get emotional as we each recount a terrifying close call that made us grateful to be alive, a wake-up call to remember in tough times. Melia sets the record straight in a For the Record segment, on topics like medication and how to talk about mental health. We encourage you to share these conversations with your loved ones and start your own. Being able to talk about these things can quite literally save lives.

Find us on the web for show notes and extras: https://www.semitogether.com

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We talk about mental health – ours, yours, and everyone’s – and why it’s so critical to normalize talking about it. We share our own personal experiences, terms to use and avoid, strategies to care for your mental health, and tips for supporting others.

Note: We get into some serious topics including suicide and use adult language, so you may want to listen with headphones.

Find us on the web: https://semitogether.com

Show notes and resource links: https://semitogether.com/podcast/lets-talk-about-mental-health

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/semitogether

Facebook: https://facebook.com/semitogether

Subscribe to our e-newsletter for episode roundups, tips to steal + extras: https://www.subscribepage.com/semitogether

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As we reach the anniversary of pandemic quarantine, we talk about the ways we have evolved during the past year -- not necessarily in ways that we expected or asked for, but have experienced nonetheless. This is NOT a list of achievements; it's about recognizing the fundamental ways we’ve grown during the toughest year of our lives to date. We encourage you to reflect on how you've evolved, too, and let us know at [email protected].

Find us on the web: https://semitogether.com

Show notes and resource links: https://semitogether.com/podcast/how-weve-evolved-during-the-pandemic

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/semitogether

Facebook: https://facebook.com/semitogether

Subscribe to our e-newsletter for episode roundups, tips to steal + extras: https://www.subscribepage.com/semitogether

Become a patron of the podcast and access bonuses and extras: https://www.patreon.com/semitogether