Welcome back to Dial Emma! Each week, I'll be answering your dilemmas with honesty, empathy, and a few therapeutic truth bombs to help you make sense of life's stickiest moments. If you've ever wished you had a therapist in your back pocket, Dial Emma is here to help. This week, we have a dilemma from a listener who shares how it feels to continue in friendships after bereavement. At 53, our listener was very sadly widowed, a devastating loss which came after seven other significant bereavements...
Jul 14, 2025•20 min•Season 8Ep. 42
Welcome back to Dial Emma! Each week, I'll be answering your dilemmas with honesty, empathy, and a few therapeutic truth bombs to help you make sense of life's stickiest moments. If you've ever wished you had a therapist in your back pocket, Dial Emma is here to help. This week, we explore a dilemma that will feel all too familiar to recovering people-pleasers: What happens when your efforts to support a struggling colleague backfire? Is it toxic complaining?! Our listener shares the challenge o...
Jul 07, 2025•24 min•Season 8Ep. 41
TW: miscarriage, abortion and fertility struggles Welcome back to Dial Emma! Each week, I'll be answering your dilemmas with honesty, empathy, and a few therapeutic truth bombs to help you make sense of life's stickiest moments. If you've ever wished you had a therapist in your back pocket, Dial Emma is here to help. This week's dilemma comes from a listener who is navigating a complex and painful fertility journey - but not one that necessarily fits into our pre-conceived ideas of what fertilit...
Jun 30, 2025•39 min•Season 8Ep. 40
Welcome back to Dial Emma! Each week, I'll be answering your dilemmas with honesty, empathy, and a few therapeutic truth bombs to help you make sense of life's stickiest moments. If you've ever wished you had a therapist in your back pocket, Dial Emma is here to help. This week, we hear a deeply personal and vulnerable dilemma from a listener who feels like an imposter in her own life. She struggles to feel like she 'belongs' in her friendship groups and her family unit, and often leans into sel...
Jun 23, 2025•22 min•Season 8Ep. 39
Welcome to the first episode of Dial Emma! Each week, I'll be answering your dilemmas with honesty, empathy, and a few therapeutic truth bombs to help you make sense of life’s stickiest moments. If you've ever wished you had a therapist in your back pocket, Dial Emma is here to help. This week, our listener dilemma involves ageing parents in a toxic marriage, and an only child who often gets stuck in the middle of their conflict. How do we manage responsibility for people we love and care about,...
Jun 16, 2025•19 min•Season 8Ep. 38
If you’ve ever wished you had a therapist in your back pocket, Dial Emma is here. Each week, I'll be answering your dilemmas with honesty, empathy, and a few therapeutic truth bombs to help you make sense of life’s stickiest moments. Got a tricky situation, emotional tangle, or just need a fresh perspective? I’d love to hear from you. Be sure to follow the podcast so you don't miss the first episode, coming soon!
Jun 09, 2025•38 sec
Welcome back to the last episode of Dial Emma for this season! You share your dilemma, any dilemma, and Emma shares her reflections as a therapist to give you the tips and tools you need to navigate it. This week, Emma hears from a listener who is navigating feelings of insecurity in her romantic relationship, which started as an affair with her boss and is now a complex dynamic with an ex-partner and children involved. In this episode, Emma explores how we can address feelings of insecurity con...
Dec 27, 2024•11 min•Season 8Ep. 37
Welcome to this week's episode of Friendship Therapy, the podcast in which we look at friendships through a therapeutic lens. This week, Emma is joined by Katherine to talk about just how hard it can be sometimes to ask for help in friendships. Emma and Katherine talk about the specifics of how to get help that's actually helpful in the present, as well as Katherine's experience growing up as the youngest sibling with the smallest voice, and the impact that her parents' separation in her twentie...
Dec 23, 2024•38 min•Season 8Ep. 36
TW: loss, suicide Welcome back to this week's episode of Dial Emma. You share your dilemma, any dilemma, and Emma shares her reflections as a therapist to give you the tips and tools you need to navigate it. This week, we hear from a listener who tragically lost her husband when he took his own life, and is now navigating the loss of the friends that they shared in the wake of his death. In this episode, Emma challenges the societal expectation that friendships can only be joyful, fun, happy spa...
Dec 20, 2024•9 min•Season 8Ep. 35
Welcome to this week's episode of Friendship Therapy, the podcast in which we look at friendships through a therapeutic lens. This week, Emma is joined by Elliot to talk about what it's like to be an, as he puts it, emotional male within male friendship groups. Elliot shares an experience that many of us might be able to relate to: being unceremoniously exited from a friendship group chat, with no real explanation or conversation beforehand. In this episode, Emma and Elliot talk about why being ...
Dec 16, 2024•41 min•Season 8Ep. 34
Welcome back to this week's episode of Dial Emma! This is where you get to dial Emma, with your dilemma (see what we did there?!) You share your dilemma, any dilemma, and Emma shares her reflections as a therapist to give you the tips and tools you need to navigate it. This week, our Dial Emma voicenote comes from a listener who is navigating the feeling of having a platonic crush, or 'squish', on someone who they really want to experience friendship with. In this episode, Emma digs deeper into ...
Dec 13, 2024•8 min•Season 8Ep. 33
Welcome to this week's episode of Friendship Therapy, the podcast in which we look at friendships through a therapeutic lens. This week, Emma is joined by Sarah, who has been navigating feelings of loneliness and being an outsider in her friendship groups. In this conversation, Emma and Sarah explore what it means to fit in, what it's like when you don't get joy from the same things that your friends find enjoyable, or at least seem to, and whether what we're all really seeking is a U-shaped spa...
Dec 09, 2024•38 min•Season 8Ep. 32
TW: Miscarriage Welcome back to this week's episode of Dial Emma! This is where you get to dial Emma, with your dilemma (see what we did there?!) You share your dilemma, any dilemma, and Emma shares her reflections as a therapist to give you the tips and tools you need to navigate it. This week, we hear from a listener who is dealing with complex emotions surrounding grief, in the context of recurrent miscarriage and its impact on friendships. In this episode, Emma explores the feelings of isola...
Dec 06, 2024•16 min•Season 8Ep. 31
Welcome back to Friendship Therapy, the podcast in which psychotherapist and author Emma Reed Turrell talks to real people about real friendships and looks at these pivotal relationships through a therapeutic lens. This week, Emma meets Kelly, a smart, self-aware woman who's nearly 50, yet who finds herself stuck with some big feelings about a friendship that ended 18 months ago, when her friend of 17 years became her boss and the friendship fell apart. In this episode, Emma introduces Kelly to ...
Dec 02, 2024•44 min•Season 8Ep. 30
Welcome back to this week's episode of Dial Emma! This is where you get to dial Emma, with your dilemma (see what we did there?!) You share your dilemma, any dilemma, and Emma shares her reflections as a therapist to give you the tips and tools you need to navigate it. This week, we're bringing you something a little different. We hear from a long-time friend and listener of the show, who shares her reflections on a previous episode of Friendship Therapy in which Emma and her 10-year-old daughte...
Nov 29, 2024•14 min•Season 8Ep. 29
Welcome back to Dial Emma from Friendship Therapy! This is where you get to dial Emma, with your dilemma (see what we did there?!) You share your dilemma, any dilemma, and Emma shares her reflections as a therapist to give you the tips and tools you need to navigate it. This week, Emma hears from a listener who is navigating the loss of a beloved companion and friend: her cat, Minnie. In her voicenote, this caller describes how she has struggled to do life without Minnie and is now considering g...
Nov 22, 2024•8 min•Season 8Ep. 27
Welcome back to Friendship Therapy, the podcast in which we look at friendships through a therapeutic lens. To kick off season three, Emma chats to Poppy, who is struggling with a friendship dilemma that many of us can relate to. We've all been on the receiving end of a friend who has ditched us temporarily for a new relationship; perhaps we've been that friend who has, for a period of time, chosen to spend more time with a new partner than with our friendship group. But what happens when histor...
Nov 18, 2024•47 min•Season 8Ep. 26
Hello, and welcome to season three of Friendship Therapy! This is the podcast in which author and podcaster Emma Reed Turrell talks to real people about real friendships and looks at these pivotal relationships through a therapeutic lens. This week, a special bonus episode to kick off a new season: Emma chats to Michelle Elman, bestselling author, speaker and life coach whose fifth book, Bad Friend: Why Friendship Breakups Hurt and How to Heal , is due to be published in May 2025. Michelle joins...
Nov 11, 2024•42 min•Season 8Ep. 25
Welcome back to Dial Emma from Friendship Therapy, and the season 2 finale! This is where you get to dial Emma, with your dilemma (see what I did there?!) You share your friendship concerns, and I share my reflections as a therapist to give you the tips and tools you need to build better bonds. This week, our Dial Emma caller wants to talk about accountability in friendship. Should we adjust our expectations when friends let us down, or should we hold them to higher standards? Why is there often...
Oct 03, 2024•14 min•Season 8Ep. 24
Welcome back to Friendship Therapy, the podcast in which we look at friendships through a therapeutic lens. So many of our wonderful guests talk about childhood friendships and how those early experiences shape the friendships that we'll make as adults - so who better to help us talk about the way those friendships form than someone who's in the middle of making them right now? This week, Emma chats to Elsa. She's 10 years old. She's an expert on childhood friendship. And she also happens to be ...
Sep 29, 2024•48 min•Season 8Ep. 23
Welcome back to Dial Emma from Friendship Therapy! This is where you get to dial Emma, with your dilemma (see what I did there?!) You share your friendship concerns, and I share my reflections as a therapist to give you the tips and tools you need to build better bonds. This week, we meet a listener who is grappling with feelings of guilt after moving away from their hometown - especially when the friends they left behind make comments about how little they get to see each other, and how they wi...
Sep 26, 2024•11 min•Season 8Ep. 22
Welcome back to Friendship Therapy, the podcast in which we look at friendships through a therapeutic lens. This week, Emma is joined by Scott, a man who, now in his 40s, has experienced a sudden turnover in the friends he made in his 20s. A repeating pattern of rupture and loss has made him more defensive in the friendships he has left and wary of making new friends, and friendship has gone from being something he felt he could count on in the past to being something that feels much more risky ...
Sep 22, 2024•51 min•Season 8Ep. 21
Welcome back to Dial Emma from Friendship Therapy! This is where you get to dial Emma, with your dilemma (see what I did there?!) You share your friendship concerns, and I share my reflections as a therapist to give you the tips and tools you need to build better bonds. This week, we hear from a listener who recognises that they have a tendency to initiate very intense friendships, only to end them abruptly after a short time. This listener travels frequently for work and struggles to hold on to...
Sep 19, 2024•11 min•Season 8Ep. 20
This week, Emma is joined by Annie to talk about her friendship with Katie, one that was born out of tragic circumstances and one that others have struggled to accept. Katie had been engaged to Annie's brother and a cherished member of their family since she'd first arrived on the scene at 15, but some years later, they decided to take a break from their relationship. When Pete was tragically killed in a road traffic collision, Annie and Katie continued to be an active presence in each other's l...
Sep 15, 2024•49 min•Season 8Ep. 19
Welcome back to Dial Emma from Friendship Therapy! This is where you get to dial Emma, with your dilemma (see what I did there?!) You share your friendship concerns, and I share my reflections as a therapist to give you the tips and tools you need to build better bonds. This week, we hear from a listener who is struggling to navigate an imbalance in communication styles in a friendship, especially when it comes to making plans and responding to messages within a perceived timeframe that, current...
Sep 12, 2024•10 min•Season 8Ep. 18
Welcome back to Friendship Therapy, the podcast in which we look at friendships through a therapeutic lens. This week, Emma is joined by Holly to talk about friendship heartbreak and how it feels to be dumped by a friend. When Holly’s two closest friends got engaged, she found herself waiting for an invitation to be a part of the bridal party that never came. What happened next was a slow and painful reevaluation of the terms of a friendship that had formed such a significant and meaningful part...
Sep 08, 2024•57 min•Season 8Ep. 17
Welcome back to Dial Emma from Friendship Therapy! This is where you get to dial Emma, with your dilemma (see what I did there?!) You share your friendship concerns, and I share my reflections as a therapist to give you the tips and tools you need to build better bonds. This week, we hear from a listener who has experienced a rupture in a friendship and is struggling to set boundaries with the friend who has hurt them, within the larger friendship group that they are both an active part of. How ...
Sep 05, 2024•12 min•Season 8Ep. 16
Welcome back to Friendship Therapy! This is the podcast in which author and psychotherapist Emma Reed Turrell talks to real people about real friendships and looks at these pivotal relationships through a therapy lens. This week, Emma is joined by Emily to explore why a long-term friendship with someone who was maid of honour at her wedding would become someone who now gives her, in Emily's words, the 'ick.' Emma and Emily talk about the function of the ick, a primal human response that we feel ...
Sep 01, 2024•56 min•Season 8Ep. 15
Welcome to the first episode of Dial Emma from Friendship Therapy! This is where you get to Dial Emma, with your dilemma (see what I did there?!) You share your friendship concerns, and I share my reflections as a therapist to give you the tips and tools you need to build better bonds. This week, we hear from a listener who wants to make new friends post-university, but as an introvert, they find the prospect of trying to meet new people very daunting. This listener also struggles with fears of ...
Aug 29, 2024•9 min•Season 8Ep. 14
Welcome to season two of Friendship Therapy! This is the podcast in which author and psychotherapist Emma Reed Turrell talks to real people about real friendships and looks at these pivotal relationships through a therapy lens. In our first episode of season two, Emma looks at overthinking in friendship with her guest, primary school teacher and mother of three, Rose. It's a conversation that takes us to an unexpected place, but one that ultimately helps Rose to unpack her overthinking in friend...
Aug 25, 2024•46 min•Season 8Ep. 13
