Your Mental Breakdown

Drew describes what it's like to go through highs and lows by himself with the support of people around him. Doug and Drew explore what it means to have the validation that comes when we can say "thank you" and "you're welcome" without qualifying it, dismissing it, or deflecting it. Practice saying, "Thank you." Period.

Doug Friedman

Meredith Levy

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Doug helps Drew acknowledge and process feeling down in the dumps, for seemingly no reason. They talk about the difference between feeling depressed or being in a depressive episode. Drew explains what an "episode" means to him after Doug reads him a portion of a transcript from their session a year ago when he felt something similar.

Doug Friedman

Meredith Levy

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Doug helps Sarah process grief in real time after she just learned of a family member's failing health while in the hospital. Sarah is able to acknowledge having different feelings spiraling at the same time right now. Doug walks with her through some of the stages of grief that are actively coming up in the session - shock, denial, guilt, bargaining, and anger.

Doug Friedman

Meredith Levy

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Drew looks at his new 26-year-old life as an adult feeling his independence and confidence growing. He acknowledges that his parents can still be a safety net. While separated from his current girlfriend, he tests himself by having lunch with his ex-girlfriend. Drew is actively building ego strength – he's applying what he's been learning in therapy by seeing things externally and making changes internally.

Doug Friedman

Meredith Levy

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Doug helps Sarah acknowledge that she is actively creating new neural pathways by doing things differently from her patterned way of being and doing. Sarah gives herself permission to see the changes in her behavior this past week as growth and progress in her therapeutic journey – it's not just a fluke! She is seeing in real time how defense mechanisms that were necessary for her survival are no longer necessary in her everyday life at every moment. We're starting to walk the path of thriving, not just surviving!

Doug Friedman

Meredith Levy

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Drew is allowing himself to be who he really wants to be in his relationships with family, friends, and work – as well as with his girlfriend while they're separated. He is actively letting go of old ideas and discovering what it's like to not go "over and above" or "put on the cape" to rescue everyone, everywhere, all the time. It's the middle way! Doug is joined by his colleague and practice mate, Sasha Brodsky, for the clinical breakdown. They discuss issues of trust, judgement, awareness, and the internal preparedness and sense of safety that Drew is developing.

Doug Friedman

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We explore Sarah's conditioning from her upbringing in the Children of God cult. "Trauma is a radioactive spider that bites." It can lead you to develop powers of protection and systems of safety for your survival. Then we've got to learn what to do with that power because we might not need those defenses and protections in our life anymore at every moment. We also explore the idea of value – especially as it impacts self-worth.

Doug Friedman

Meredith Levy

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We explore the "systems of safety" that Sarah developed as a child growing up in a cult to protect herself because no one else did. We can thank those defense mechanisms for doing such a good job of protecting us when a threat was real. We needed them to survive and now we need to say goodbye to them in order to thrive. Doug helps Sarah look deeper into those systems to see two sides of her - one that can be easy going and one that can be "mama bear," rigid, and take up a righteous quest for justice. The goal is not to keep the two sides separate, but rather to integrate them as pieces of the whole person she is and wants to become. Sarah is bringing awareness, understanding, and compassion to how she sees herself. Bonnie Rae joins Doug in the breakdown and they discuss OCPD (Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder) and how Sarah is processing her history of being wronged and abused by people in power (cult leader, boss, ex-husband).

The guest co-host:

Bonnie Rae psychotherapy

Doug Friedman

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Doug and Drew explore the idea that being solo is not just not about being alone or lonely. Drew is finding his confidence and strength in life outside of a relationship instead of making that one person in his life into the everything of his life. Drew is calibrating "the middle" rather than going all-in or all-out in situations, both in his personal life and his work life.

Doug Friedman

Meredith Levy

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Drew explores what it means to experience life solo rather than go through his separation feeling lonely or alone. He and Doug talk about learning to balance the fairy tale, fantasy world version of love with the reality of what feels healthy and supportive. Doug helps Drew connect the anxiety about not knowing everything that's going on for someone with people lying or concealing things – historically like his mom using substances. Doug and Meredith discuss balancing highs and lows, and not just staying flat in the middle.

Doug Friedman

Meredith Levy

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