This Feels Familiar with Minaa B.

By Minaa B.Health & Fitness Mental Health Education Self-Improvement

This Feels Familiar with Minaa B. episodes

August 1182: Signs You Struggle With Emotional Intimacy (And How to Change That)
In this episode, Minaa B. explores emotional intimacy—what it is, why it's essential in all relationships, and the signs you're struggling with it.

Sources cited in this episode:
Gottman & Silver (2015) - Research on open and honest communication in couples and relationship satisfaction

Laurenceau et al. - Research on couples with high emotional closeness and relationship satisfaction

Karremans et al. (2017) - Research on mindfulness and presence in relationships and emotional connection
Recent Study (2024) from MDPI - Childhood emotional abuse and its impact on attachment and fear of intimacy
Resources
Website: minaab.com
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40 min
August 04 81: How to Stop Catastrophic Thinking: It's Hurting You and Your Relationships
In this episode, Minaa B. explores catastrophic thinking—the anxious brain's tendency to jump from small triggers straight to worst-case outcomes—and how this pattern sabotages both mental health and relationships.

Resources
Website: minaab.com
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31 min
July 2880: How to Make and Sustain Friendships as an Adult
In this episode, Minaa B. addresses one of the hardest things about adulthood: making and sustaining friendships. She shares research on adult loneliness and how friendships naturally decline without proximity and intentional effort.
Minaa explores the barriers to friendship, then breaks down concrete steps for making friends.
SOURCES CITED IN THIS EPISODE
American Perspectives Survey (2021) - Data on friendship decline from 1990 to 2021

American Psychological Association Stress in America Survey (2024-2025) - Data on loneliness, isolation, and lack of companionship

Jeffrey Hall, University of Kansas - "How Many Hours Does It Take to Make a Friend?" published in Journal of Social and Personal Relationships (2018) - Research on contact hours needed for different stages of friendships.
Resources
Website: minaab.com
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32 min
July 21 79: How to Set Firm Boundaries: The Difference Between Kindness & Niceness
In this episode, Minaa B. explores the crucial difference between being nice and being kind—and why this distinction is transforming how people show up in their relationships.
She breaks down how niceness prioritizes others' comfort over your own well-being, while kindness involves telling the truth and setting boundaries.

Resources
Website: minaab.com
Newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠Subscribe here
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31 min
June 23 78: The Longevity Hack No One Is Talking About: Healthy Relationships
In this episode, Minaa B. examines what unhealthy relationships actually look like—and why people normalize them. She breaks down six key signs of unhealthy relationships and explores why people don't recognize these patterns.
The episode covers romantic relationships, friendships, family dynamics, and sibling relationships—recognizing that relationship quality is one of the biggest predictors of longevity and health, yet most people ignore it while optimizing everything else.

Website: minaab.com
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31 min
June 09 77: Healing Childhood Wounds in Dating
In this episode, Minaa B. explores how childhood wounds—specifically emotional neglect and abandonment—show up in your dating patterns and sabotage your relationships. She also examines the often-overlooked role of sibling dynamics in shaping these wounds, including golden child/scapegoat patterns that compound feelings of unworthiness.
Minaa breaks down how these wounds manifest in dating and offers concrete healing practices. The core message: your childhood shaped you, but it doesn't have to define your adult relationships.

Resources
Work with me: Book a 1:1 therapy consultation.
Website: minaab.com
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25 min
June 02 76: When They Won't Change: Grieving the Relationship That Won't Heal
In this episode, Minaa B. addresses a question she hears constantly in therapy: "What else can I do to make this relationship work?" She explores the signs that you've already done enough, examines why we keep trying, and guides listeners through the painful shift from "How do I fix this?" to "Can I make peace with this relationship being what it is?"

Resources
Website: minaab.com
Newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠Subscribe here
Order my book: Owning Our Struggles⁠⁠⁠

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35 min
May 26 75: That Never Ending Feeling That You're Not Enough
In this episode, Minaa B. addresses the persistent feeling of not being enough that many people carry from childhood emotional neglect. She explores what emotional neglect teaches about worth—that love is conditional, needs are too much, and you're fundamentally lacking—and why this wound is so hard to heal.

Resources

Work with me: Book a 1:1 therapy consultation.
Website: minaab.com
Newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠Subscribe here
Order my book: Owning Our Struggles⁠⁠⁠

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32 min
May 12 74: Shame Isn't a Boundary: Stop Policing Normal Human Behavior
In this episode, Minaa B. explores a pattern she's seeing: people using morally charged, shame-based language to control others' behavior instead of exercising their own agency through boundaries.
She examines how terms like "invasive," "rude," and "offensive" are used to police normal communication behaviors rather than to develop assertiveness and boundaries.
Minaa breaks down where your agency actually lies and offers eight strategies for exercising it rather than policing behavior.

Resources
Work with me: Book a 1:1 therapy consultation.
Website: minaab.com
Newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠Subscribe here
Order my book: Owning Our Struggles⁠⁠⁠

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32 min
May 05 73: You Don't Have Imposter Syndrome, You Have a Scarcity Blueprint
In this episode, Minaa B. reframes imposter syndrome as a scarcity blueprint—a relational pattern learned in childhood, not a personal failing.
She explores the roots of chronic self-doubt through the first dimension of The Siblinghood Theory: Competition and Scarcity. Minaa examines how growing up competing with siblings and peers for limited love, attention, and recognition creates a blueprint of "I'm not good enough" that follows you into adulthood.

She breaks down what happens when you watch others receive what you can't access, when love feels conditional on performance, when nothing you do is ever good enough, and when wanting recognition is treated as selfish.

She then offers eight strategies for revising your scarcity blueprint and internalizing your worth.

Resources
Work with me: Book a 1:1 therapy consultation.
Website: minaab.com
Newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠Subscribe here
Order my book: Owning Our Struggles⁠⁠⁠

Stay Connected!
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LinkedIn⁠
Facebook⁠⁠⁠

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35 min

About This Feels Familiar with Minaa B.

From the publisher's feed

Do you ever have that weird feeling that says, "I've been in this situation before?" The same conflict. The same feeling that no matter what you do, the pattern repeats. That familiar feeling isn't a coincidence–it's a pattern. And This Feels Familiar can help you change it.