On this week's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are taking us through the different stages of romantic relationships: from the beginning stages of dating, to the end of the honeymoon phase, to moving in together, getting married, having kids, to becoming empty nesters. They discuss the insecurity that comes with the early stages of dating, the worry about being seen as “needy” at the start of a relationship, when the honeymoon phase ends and the feelings that accompany that shift, expect...
Jul 18, 2022•47 min•Season 3Ep. 63
Today on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen dive into part two of their in-laws series! The focus this week is all about setting boundaries with in-laws and where to begin when doing so. Emmalee and Jen answer your questions about HOW to set healthy boundaries, what to do when your partner still consults their parents about big life decisions, how to discuss in-law issues with your significant other, protecting your energy around your in-laws, what to do when your partner's family does not respect yo...
Jul 11, 2022•47 min•Season 3Ep. 62
This week on ShrinkChicks, we present part one of our multi-part in-laws series! Emmalee and Jen kick off the series by answering your questions about conflict & confrontation with your in-laws. They answer questions like: why are mothers-in-laws so triggering? They also speak on how to prepare for in-laws, what to do when your partner won't speak up to their parents, how to handle a deceitful and aggressive sister-in-law, how to tell overbearing in-laws that you're eloping, and so much more...
Jul 04, 2022•48 min•Season 3Ep. 61
On today's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are joined by one of their amazing clinicians, Natalia Addona, LPCC! Natalia is a therapist at The Therapy Group and works with clients residing in California and Florida. The three of them dive into the term "people pleasing," their own experiences in "recovery" from being people pleasers, and answer your questions about it! They touch on topics like: finding your own path as a people pleaser, where people pleasing stems from and why we might ...
Jun 27, 2022•46 min•Season 3Ep. 60
Today on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen break down the buzz term "the mental load" AKA cognitive labor! They discuss gender roles and how the mental load has historically fallen on women, the overfunctioning/underfunctioning dynamic in relationships and what these terms mean and look like, the mental load falling onto the person who cares more, being the default parent and how to divide the mental load when parenting, what to do when you feel like you’re the only one who knows how to do it "right...
Jun 20, 2022•44 min•Season 3Ep. 59
On today's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen have the honor of sitting down with the brilliant Dr. Alexandra Solomon! Dr. Solomon is a therapist, author, teacher, fellow podcast host and relationship expert! They start the episode off by talking about the challenges and nuances of Instagram and TikTok therapy. They then ask Dr. Solomon about the class she teaches at Northwestern University called Marriage 101. This leads them into the episode topic: hard conversations to have with a partn...
Jun 13, 2022•55 min•Season 3Ep. 58
This week on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are thrilled to have a listener favorite guest, and one of their mentors, Terry Real, back on the podcast to tell us all about his new book: Us: Getting Past You and Me to Build a More Loving Relationship. Terry shares some stories and concepts from the book, how Bruce Springsteen writing the forward of "Us" came to be, the difference between “us” vs. “you and me”, two parts of our brains: the wise adult and the adaptive child and what they mean, fight,...
Jun 06, 2022•50 min•Season 3Ep. 57
On today’s episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen share their expertise on how to repair after a rupture in our relationships a.k.a. how to make up after a fight, disagreement, or argument. They discuss why rupture is inevitable in all of our relationships, why being "right" doesn't matter, why tit for tat can be harmful, how to hold onto ourselves when the other person is dysregulated, whether make-up sex is a real thing, how to argue in a healthy way, stubbornness when in a disagreement and ...
May 30, 2022•41 min•Season 3Ep. 56
This week on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are talking all about emotional boundaries, starting off by defining emotional boundaries and where to begin when setting them. They discuss separating our emotions from others' emotions, how to recognize when you need to do so, and the importance of tone and context. Emmalee and Jen answer your questions like: how to set emotional boundaries when working in a helping field, the concern about coming off as rude or demanding, how to set boundaries when y...
May 23, 2022•40 min•Season 3Ep. 55
On today’s episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen answer one of our most popular listener questions: how to ask for what you need! They discuss why it can be so hard to ask for what you need, how to begin learning what you need, and give us tangible steps to do so. Emmalee and Jen share how they learned what it was they needed through trial and error, why our childhood experiences can play a big role in asking for what we need, the difference between wants and needs, and so much more! Dear Em ...
May 16, 2022•42 min•Season 3Ep. 54
On today’s episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are joined by one of The Therapy Group's wonderful therapists, JoAnne Hanson, LMFT! JoAnne is not only a therapist but also an energy healer. Emmalee and Jen talk to JoAnne about WTF energy healing is, her journey to becoming an energy healer, integrating energy healing into traditional talk therapy, what it was like for JoAnne growing up as a highly sensitive person, the "woo continuum," what JoAnne is calling BS on, and so much more! Tune in ...
May 09, 2022•42 min•Season 3Ep. 53
On today’s episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen cover the topic of rejection. They start the episode off by addressing a listener question that asks “how to get over rejection?” The hard truth is that rejection is inevitable - and so they give us all tangible ways to learn to deal with rejection and the feelings that accompany it. Emmalee and Jen discuss rejection’s connection to shame and embarrassment, the fear of rejection and how to overcome it, how to work on not taking rejection person...
May 02, 2022•43 min•Season 3Ep. 52
This week, Emmalee and Jen talk about their bread and butter: couples therapy! As Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists, couples therapy is one of their favorite topics to demystify. They start by discussing the stigma behind couples therapy and why they wholeheartedly believe in it - from both sides of the couch - because relationships are hard!! They talk about when a couple should seek out therapy, what to expect from couples therapy, the fears going into it, and why it is helpful when thei...
Apr 25, 2022•44 min•Season 3Ep. 51
On today's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are joined by their wonderful Astrologer, Natalie Levin! Natalie shares her expertise with us and starts off with some Astrology 101. She explains what a birth chart is (i.e. sun, moon, and rising signs) and why some people don't feel aligned with their astrological sign. She then does a deep dive into Emmalee and Jen's charts, individually, and also how they intertwine and complement each other. We learn what parts of their personalities their...
Apr 18, 2022•55 min•Season 3Ep. 50
This week on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen cover one of your most requested topics: expectations. They discuss expectations in our romantic relationships, friendships, and with our family members as well as grieving unmet expectations and change and how to categorize this type of grief. They talk about how magical thinking and toxic positivity can play a role in our expectations, realistic vs. unrealistic expectations, and how we develop our own, internal expectations. Emmalee and Jen answer you...
Apr 11, 2022•43 min•Season 3Ep. 49
On today’s episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen have the pleasure of sitting down with Mac Stanley Cazeau, LMHC (@talk2mac_therapist) to talk all about relationships, communication, infidelity, and affair recovery. Mac owns a private practice called Therapy is for Everyone and primarily works with couples recovering from an affair. He shares his insight with us on how to communicate our needs to our partner, the human desire to feel loved, and the number one cause of infidelity. Mac answers ...
Apr 04, 2022•59 min•Season 3Ep. 48
At the end of every episode, Emmalee and Jen always say: "to grow yourself, you gotta know yourself" but what does that really mean? This week on ShrinkChicks, Em and Jen break down their tagline and explain where to start when getting to know yourself. They discuss specific questions to guide us on this journey, how indecisiveness plays a role in knowing ourselves, internal self vs. external self, and the stories they've told themselves about themselves that are no longer true. Emmalee and Jen ...
Mar 28, 2022•45 min•Season 3Ep. 47
This week on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are joined by Kail Lowry and Vee Rivera, hosts of the Baby Mamas No Drama Podcast! If you watched Teen Mom 2, you know that Kail and Vee’s relationship started off rocky, but today, Emmalee and Jen learn about their journey from hating each other, to co-parenting, to hosting a podcast together. They discuss the effect that being on reality TV has had on their mental health, their personal relationships, and their relationship with themselves. Kail and V...
Mar 21, 2022•44 min•Season 3Ep. 46
On today's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen dive into one of their most requested topics: Jealousy! They start off by discussing jealousy as a controversial emotion, the difference between jealousy and envy, why jealousy is a very normal emotion, and the reaction to jealousy vs. the emotion of jealousy. Emmalee and Jen each share the last time they felt jealous or envious and why. They recall times in their business partnership where jealousy crept in, the role radical acceptance can pla...
Mar 14, 2022•47 min•Season 3Ep. 45
Today on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen explain the term "Radical Acceptance," which comes from a therapeutic modality called DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy). They discuss the difference between radical acceptance and invalidating our feelings, how to work towards this kind of acceptance, building up our distress tolerances, how many of us were taught to resist our emotions, toxic positivity, when radical acceptance is not appropriate, why it takes time, and so much more! Tune in to gain insig...
Feb 28, 2022•43 min•Season 3Ep. 43
This is ShrinkChicks 100th episode!! Thank you to all of the listeners - both old and new - for helping the show get to this point! Today, Emmalee and Jen reflect on this exciting milestone and laugh about the things that have changed over the past two years. They then answer your questions in a fan favorite, Q&A style episode. These questions include: how to mentally prepare before having kids, what to do when your partner doesn't stand up for you with their family, making friends as an adu...
Feb 21, 2022•44 min•Season 3Ep. 42
This week's episode combines Emmalee and Jen's love for therapy and the Disney movie, Encanto, by discussing how Encanto so perfectly depicts family systems. Emmalee and Jen tell us about common, family roles we take on like the “caretaker” or the “scapegoat," how these roles can serve us and be reinforced externally, the story your family tells about you vs. what your story actually is, how trauma can inform these family roles, vulnerability, being the helpful one, and of course, Emmalee’s rend...
Feb 14, 2022•43 min•Season 3Ep. 41
Today's episode of ShrinkChicks is a follow up to the episode from a few weeks ago: Does Sibling Rivalry Ever End. There were so many sibling/birth order specific listener questions, so Emmalee and Jen wanted to answer them for you, today! Some questions and topics they discuss include: can sibling birth order affect you outside of the family dynamic? Why siblings can be so competitive with one another, how birth order affects twins, siblings drifting apart, how trauma affects siblings different...
Feb 07, 2022•45 min•Season 3Ep. 40
This week on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are joined by one of their amazing clinicians, Katie Bongiorno, LMFT, to talk about her new e-course: Achieving Authentic Balance in Your Body. They start off by telling the story of how Katie was hired at The Therapy Group (hint: it involves her dog) and then they dive into her e-course (launching TOMORROW) all about body image and learning to reject diet culture. Katie shares her personal journey that inspired her to create this course. She defines di...
Jan 31, 2022•46 min•Season 3Ep. 39
On today's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen talk all about sibling relationships. They discuss birth order, sibling conflict, only children, reconnecting with your siblings as adults, favoritism and so much more. Emmalee and Jen are both the youngest siblings in their family's of origin and they share some insight into what it was like growing up with older brothers. Dear Em & Jen answers a listener question about a parent favoriting a sibling and how to cope. Tune in to gain insight...
Jan 24, 2022•46 min•Season 3Ep. 38
Why do we lie? On this week's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen dive into the topic of lying and why people - including us - lie! They discuss different kinds of lies, lies the two of them have recently told in their personal lives, prosocial vs. antisocial lies, when lying becomes self-betrayal, the shame that can come with lying, how to evaluate our intentions behind a lie, and so much more. Dear Em & Jen answers a question about confronting a friend about disliking their new signif...
Jan 17, 2022•47 min•Season 3Ep. 37
Today on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen talk all about being alone, their love for it, and ways to become more comfortable with it. They discuss the various benefits of being alone, finding a hobby as an adult, codependency vs. interdependency, the choice to be alone vs. it being circumstantial, what happens if you get too comfortable being alone, avoidance, and so much more! This week's Dear Em & Jen question touches on being the peacekeeper and how to start putting yourself first. Tune in t...
Jan 10, 2022•45 min•Season 3Ep. 36
Fellow therapists, therapists in training, those wanting to become therapists: this one's for you! On today's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen discuss their post-graduate journey to licensure, imposter syndrome, and therapist's "firsts." They answer your questions re: worrying about clients when you're off the clock, feeling guilty for charging a client due to a late cancellation, taking care of yourself while learning to be a therapist, therapists in therapy, specializations, joining wi...
Jan 03, 2022•49 min•Season 3Ep. 35
This week on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen dive into the topic of family dynamics and boundaries and how to navigate them during the Holiday season. Specifically, they discuss the difference of dynamics in our family of origin vs. our in-laws/partner's family, the transition out of our family of origin, expectation setting, and family traditions and rules that may be different from what we’re used to. Emmalee and Jen finish the episode with some tangible examples of boundary setting by doing a r...
Dec 20, 2021•44 min•Season 3Ep. 34
Today on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen sit down with the hosts of the Pillow Talks Podcast, Vanessa & Xander Marin, to talk all about sex. Vanessa is a licensed psychotherapist with 20 years of experience in the sex therapy field and Xander’s a regular dude who’s been married to a sex therapist for over a decade. They start by normalizing the idea of scheduling sex and explain why it can be really wonderful for our sex lives. They then go on to answer your sex life questions like: how to app...
Dec 13, 2021•48 min•Season 3Ep. 33
