The Affirming Minds Podcast

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Earn continuing education credit for this episode here: https://www.affirmmentalhealth.com/courses/0b54bd3e-8449-4113-a495-722f7f5b381e   

Looking for more? Explore our convenient, affordable CE bundles or browse our full library of podcast courses, on-demand webinars, and live virtual trainings at affirmmentalhealth.com.  

This episode explores opioids through a behavioral health lens, with attention to pain, prescription opioid use, opioid misuse and opioid use disorder, diversion, overdose risk, and recovery. The discussion distinguishes tolerance and physical dependence from addiction, reviews signs of problematic opioid use, and examines how stigma, bias, prescribing practices, and inequities in pain treatment can shape clinical care.

The course also addresses the changing opioid landscape, including illicitly manufactured fentanyl, counterfeit pills, polysubstance use, naloxone, fentanyl test strips, and other harm-reduction strategies. Treatment approaches for opioid use disorder are reviewed, including methadone, buprenorphine, extended-release naltrexone, contingency management, motivational interviewing, CBT, ACT, DBT, peer support, and recovery resources. Throughout, the focus remains on what behavioral health clinicians need to recognize, assess, discuss, and respond to within their scope of practice.

**Want CE/CEUs for this episode?**  

View course information and earn CE/CEUs here: https://www.affirmmentalhealth.com/courses/883839f8-bb1a-4dab-97bf-4966b1a7be13

Looking for more? Explore our convenient, affordable CE bundles or browse our full library of podcast courses, on-demand webinars, and live virtual trainings at affirmmentalhealth.com. 

In this episode of The Affirming Minds Podcast, host Shaina Siber, LCSW, is joined by Lou Lasprugato, LMFT, to explore how Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) can be applied within couples therapy. The conversation focuses on yearnings—deep, enduring psychological longings for experiences such as connection, security, validation, understanding, partnership, and shared meaning—and how they influence relationship patterns. Shaina and Lou discuss how ACT’s psychological flexibility processes can be extended interpersonally, how threat responses and underlying vulnerabilities can contribute to conflict, and how clinicians can help couples move toward greater flexibility, safety, connection, and values-guided action. The episode also highlights practical ACT-informed interventions for couples, including workability, “us as context,” co-regulation, and experiential exercises that support relational change.

**Want CE/CEUs for this episode?**

Earn continuing education credit for this episode here: https://www.affirmmentalhealth.com/courses/9c5ad152-0781-4b43-8ec1-77cc4e1be9c0   

Looking for more? Explore our convenient, affordable CE bundles or browse our full library of podcast courses, on-demand webinars, and live virtual trainings at affirmmentalhealth.com.

Suicide assessment is only the beginning of suicide care. In this continuing education podcourse, we move beyond identifying risk to explore how clinicians can formulate suicide risk, directly address suicidal thoughts and behaviors, develop collaborative safety plans, reduce access to lethal means, and determine appropriate levels of care.

We discuss suicide-specific approaches including CAMS, CBT for Suicide Prevention (CBT-SP), and DBT, as well as the role of psychiatric treatment and interdisciplinary coordination. The course also explores chronic suicidality, medication considerations, hospitalization and alternatives to hospitalization, post-crisis care, and more complex presentations involving violence risk, postpartum psychiatric emergencies, financial crises, and emerging technology.

**Want CE/CEUs for this episode?**

Earn continuing education credit for this episode here: https://www.affirmmentalhealth.com/courses/9ca63c70-af79-4f1b-8853-b5efcca3c0f6   

Looking for more? Explore our convenient, affordable CE bundles or browse our full library of podcast courses, on-demand webinars, and live virtual trainings at affirmmentalhealth.com.

Suicide is one of the most complex and consequential issues mental health professionals encounter. In this CE-eligible episode of the Affirming Minds Podcast, Shaina Siber, LCSW, explores what we know about why suicidal thoughts develop, what increases the risk that thoughts become actions, and why understanding suicide requires looking beyond diagnosis alone.

We explore psychological pain, hopelessness, entrapment, perceived burdensomeness, thwarted belongingness, trauma, mental illness, chronic pain, social conditions, minority stress, and access to lethal means. We also examine how human cognition and our capacity to imagine the future may contribute to suicidal suffering.

The episode considers major theories in suicidology, disparities in suicide risk, the distinction between suicidal ideation and suicidal behavior, and the complicated role of psychiatric hospitalization. Throughout the conversation, the focus remains on understanding the individual person: What has become unbearable? What feels impossible to escape? And what does the person believe suicide would solve?

Child sexual abuse prevention is a conversation every therapist should be part of.

In this Mental Health Edit episode, Shaina sits down with Chris Yadon of Saprea to discuss child sexual abuse prevention, survivor healing, child-on-child sexual abuse, healthy sexual development, disclosure, the evolving role of technology and AI in exploitation, and practical ways clinicians, parents, and communities can help protect children.

Chris also introduces Saprea's incredible free resources, including prevention education, support groups, online learning, and a trauma-informed retreat for adult survivors.

Resources:

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a colleague. Together, we can help bring these important conversations to more clinicians.

**Want CE/CEUs for this episode?**

Earn continuing education credit for this episode here: https://www.affirmmentalhealth.com/courses/9e17027a-8651-4111-b994-8a5bb1a76741    Looking for more? Explore our convenient, affordable CE bundles or browse our full library of podcast courses, on-demand webinars, and live virtual trainings at affirmmentalhealth.com.

How do trauma and attachment shape the way we connect with our closest relationships? In this episode, Shaina speaks with Kathy Gusenkov, LMFT, about how developmental trauma influences adult relationships and explores trauma-informed approaches to fostering safety, co-regulation, and secure functioning in couples therapy. 

**Want CE/CEUs for this episode?**

Earn continuing education credit for this episode here: https://www.affirmmentalhealth.com/courses/1909ad83-0f64-4ba6-aeef-7ccaeeea044d 

Looking for more? Explore our convenient, affordable CE bundles or browse our full library of podcast courses, on-demand webinars, and live virtual trainings at affirmmentalhealth.com.  

Psychosis has long been viewed through a medical model focused on symptom reduction—but recovery is about much more than eliminating symptoms. In this episode, Shaina sits down with Maggie Mullen, LCSW, DBT-LBC, to explore recovery-oriented, disability justice-informed approaches to psychosis. Together, they discuss common misconceptions, reducing stigma, person-centered care, and the emerging role of psychotherapy—including DBT—in supporting individuals experiencing psychosis. 

**Want CE/CEUs for this episode?**

Earn continuing education credit for this episode here: https://www.affirmmentalhealth.com/courses/3aac8a4c-169b-45df-8c69-882ed09bdbd1 

Looking for more? Explore our convenient, affordable CE bundles or browse our full library of podcast courses, on-demand webinars, and live virtual trainings at affirmmentalhealth.com.  

Demand for mental health care continues to grow while therapists face increasing rates of burnout, workforce shortages, administrative burden, and rapid technological change. In this episode, Shaina sits down with therapist, consultant, and bestselling author Joe Sanok to explore how organizational psychology and intentional work design can help clinicians build more sustainable, fulfilling careers.

Together, they discuss the science of productivity, decision fatigue, autonomy, and workplace design, challenging the idea that burnout is simply an individual problem to solve with better self-care. Whether you work in community mental health, hospitals, integrated care, leadership, or private practice, this conversation offers practical, evidence-informed strategies for supporting both clinician well-being and high-quality client care.

What can a reality television show teach us about trauma, belonging, faith, and identity? In this Mental Health Edit episode, I’m joined by Mellissa Perry Hill, LPC, owner of Inner Compass Counseling & Consulting. Using The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives as a starting point, we explore religious trauma, high-control belief systems, gender roles, childhood trauma, mental health stigma, public shaming, and the challenges of healing while living in the public eye. In This Episode, We Discuss:

About Today's Guest Mellissa Perry Hill, MS, LPC, is the owner of Inner Compass Counseling & Consulting and specializes in religious trauma, spiritual abuse, and faith transitions. She works with individuals, couples, and families throughout Arizona and Utah.

Connect with Mellissa Website: https://inner-compass-counseling.com/

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

Related Episode 🎙️ Episode 40: Healing After High-Control Religion and Religious Trauma

For a deeper clinical discussion of religious trauma and faith transitions, be sure to check out Mellissa's previous CE-eligible appearance on The Affirming Minds Podcast.

**Want CE/CEUs for this episode?**

Earn continuing education credit for this episode here: https://www.affirmmentalhealth.com/courses/b38c1a67-776b-47e3-a5fb-24250e5cd456   

Looking for more? Explore our convenient, affordable CE bundles or browse our full library of podcast courses, on-demand webinars, and live virtual trainings at affirmmentalhealth.com.  

Psychologist, author, speaker, and Linehan Board-Certified DBT Expert Dr. Kiki Fehling joins The Affirming Minds Podcast to discuss LGBTQ+ mental health, minority stress, identity invalidation, and the role of Dialectical Behavior Therapy in fostering resilience, self-love, and queer joy.

Together, we explore the history of LGBTQ+ mental health care, affirmative practice, and how DBT skills can help individuals navigate shame, stigma, and discrimination while building lives that feel meaningful, authentic, and connected.

Dr. Fehling is the author of The LGBTQ+ Mental Health Workbook: Find Emotional Resilience, Self-Love, and Queer Joy with Dialectical Behavior Therapy.