Thoughts from the Couch Podcast

On today’s episode, I sit down with long-time friend and holistic health coach Kathleen Healy.  Kathleen shares how her background in teaching physical education and health in schools lead her to becoming a certified health coach.  We talk about how her life changed for the better when she decided to make health and nutrition a priority in her twenties. Kathleen offers amazing insight into how to transform your body, mind, relationships, and much more through holistic health coaching. 

This episodes dives into: 

• Four core points of connecting food to your life.
• How focusing on her wellness gave her weight loss, rather than focusing on her weight or appearance. 
• Kathleen’s creation of an accessible and affordable “Green Drink.”
• Inner workings of all your relations with food and how it impacts your life.
• How to find a good support system for accountability and motivation.
• Overcoming excuses, victimhood, and self-pity.
• Bio-Individuality and finding what foods work for you.

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In this week’s episode, I sat down with fitness instructor and nutrition coach Sara Gagnon to discuss Sara’s journey with utilizing physical fitness to transform her mental health.  Sara shares how experiencing a traumatic event shifted her to change career paths and follow her heart.  While listening, you will learn through Sara’s stories and suggestions how physical fitness can be utilized to transform your entire being and lead a happier life.

This episodes dives into:

• How Sara discovered fitness as a way to support her own mental health.

• Sara’s symptoms of anxiety and depression.

• Sara’s experience losing her friend to suicide and how she coped during this time.

• Unhealthy coping skills.
• Sara’s workout routine.

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In this episode, I sit down with Candy Lawrence to discuss her personal journey with Bipolar Disorder.  Bipolar Disorder affects about 6 million people in the United States, but it is rarely talked about. Candy shares how her substance use affected her Bipolar II diagnosis and how sobriety was the missing puzzle piece to enhancing her mental health.  Candy remains vulnerable throughout the episode in sharing her stories as her diagnosis unfolded, her experiences with the mental health system, how she manages her symptoms.

This episodes dives into: 

• Candy shares her story of how she discovered she had Bipolar Disorder.
• Symptoms that were challenging to manage at the time.
• Candy shares how she learned to manage her symptoms and what has been most helpful for her in regard to therapy, medication, and holistic approaches. 
• How resiliency has helped in managing Bipolar disorder. 
• How to talk to others about a Bipolar diagnosis and how others react to the conversation.
• How to manage your mental health routine. 
• How to prioritize and create a schedule to practice healthy coping habits. 
• Challenges when living with Bipolar Disorder.

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Statistics show that 1 in 5 women are sexually assaulted. Sexual assault is a topic we don’t typically shed light on. It can feel very uncomfortable to talk about, but it needs to be a conversation we get a little more comfortable having. In this episode I speak with Dana Caretta-Stein, a Licensed Mental Health Counselor who shares her expertise in treating survivors of sexual assault. Dana provides her insight on how EMDR therapy has helped her clients start their healing journey as well as the common experiences sexual assault survivors go through during their recovery and healing journey. 

This episodes dives into: 

• Who are people typically assaulted by.
• What should people do in order to help themselves recover from sexual assault and sexual trauma.
• Resistance to report sexual assault to authorities. 
• Different therapies that may be harmful for survivors of sexual assault.
• Treating a survivor of sexual assault.
• Survivor resistance in seeking help from trauma. 
• What is EMDR.
• What is Dissociation.

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In this week’s episode, I practice vulnerability by sharing my experience of being an adult child of an alcoholic.  Although hesitant to open up, I found it important to share this part of my story as it is relevant to many other individuals. 

This episodes dives into: 

• How I learned my father was an alcoholic.
• My father’s adverse childhood experiences and their impact on his disease.
• Alcohol as a learned coping skill for managing trauma related pain.
• What I learned from going to therapy.
• Common traits shared by adult children of alcoholics.
• My father’s journey to sobriety. 

Guest Info:

Connect with Justine Carino on Instagram @_thoughtsfromthecouch_ or her website here. 

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It's a normal part of life to experience occasional feelings of anxiety. Anxiety can show up in many ways, but when it starts affecting our everyday lives it can seem overwhelming and hard to manage. In this episode, I talk with Emily Johnson, founder of the Buddy Mind Coach App. Emily has personally struggled with anxiety and panic attacks throughout her twenties and she walks us through her journey of what worked, what didn’t work and how her experience eventually helped her create the “Buddy” platform to make mental health more accessible to everyone.  This episodes dives into: 

• Emily’s personal journey with anxiety.
• Emily’s first panic attack and how it felt.
• Managing and Coping with anxiety.
• Therapy is a tool to help with anxiety treatment.
• Tangible tips for managing anxiety.
• Emily’s Buddy platform to increase accessibility for mental health.

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In this episode, I chat with Dan Sokal, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who specializes in treating people who have been impacted by individuals in their life with narcissistic personalities. The topic of today’s episode really piqued my interest and I had to bring in an expert to share his expertise on how having a narcissistic parent affects our relationships and childhood experiences.  Dan provides insight on what a narcissist is, his experience working with this population and how you know when a parent may be narcissistic.

This episodes dives into: 

• What a Narcissist is?
• Differences between Narcissistic Personality Disorder, “sociopath”, or Antisocial Personality Disorder. 
• Healing from a relationship when you have a Narcissistic parent and how it looks like.
• Signs that your parent may have Narcissistic Personality Disorder
• Challenges faced for those who were raised by a Narcissist.
• Setting  boundaries with a Narcissistic parent & maintaining a healthy relationship.

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Bekome Natural Suuplement. Use the code Justine20 to receive 20% off your order 

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This is a very special episode as I got to sit down with my supervisor to pick her brain on her area of expertise which is families and relationships. Families are your first source of social contact, they teach you how to live, how to interact with others, and how to make your way in the world. They are also the first group of people you learn to trust. As such, your family of origin is largely responsible for your thought patterns and behavior, especially when it comes to relationships. Because it is literally the basis from which you develop, your family of origin has a large impact on you and your life. In this episode, we dive into how your family of origin influences who you pick as a partner. 

This episodes dives into: 

• How our parents and family systems as a child and teen can impact our choice in romantic partners.
• Examples on how people take unhealthy habits or patterns from the families they grew up in 
• Example on helpful habits or patterns that are taken from your family of original into your relationship
• How to  see when your own baggage comes up in conflict with your partner.

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Do you struggle saying NO to family members, friends, or romantic partners? Do you hold back because you don’t want to ruin the relationship?  Do you find yourself having trouble asserting your boundaries? Justine speaks to Licensed Professional Counselor Mary Beth Somich on how to understand and set boundaries in your relationships. This episodes dives into:

• Why boundaries are important for us to maintain relationships.
• How to recognize when someone crosses your boundaries.
• Family of Origin and boundaries.
• Differentiation and enmeshment in relationships.
• How to establish, change or create new boundaries with people.

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Path to Peace Live Group Program 

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Most of us have gone through a breakup. A breakup can be one of the most stressful and emotional experiences in life. Even if it has been several months or years since your break up these feelings can surface and it’s okay to feel sad about it. In this episode, Justine speaks with Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Darcie Brown on how to recover from heartbreak.

This episodes dives into:

• The emotional process and thought patterns that surface
• Unhealthy coping behavior after breakups
• Positive ways of coping through a breakup
• Grief and Loss from breakups 
• Growing and learning from past relationship experiences

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