On today's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are revisiting the topic: how to stop taking sh*t personally! You can listen to this one on its own, and for more check out the episode: How to Stop Taking Sh*t Personally. Emmalee and Jen pick the topic back up by answering a question about rejection sensitivity and explaining what it looks like. They then discuss how taking things personally can connect to our deepest insecurities, the shame and guilt behind taking things personally, and the ...
Sep 25, 2023•41 min•Season 4Ep. 39
This week on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are covering a highly requested topic: confrontation and how to get more comfortable with it! They start by normalizing how challenging confrontation can be. They share questions to ask yourself like what does confrontation mean to you and what does it look like for you, historically? Then they answer your questions about why confrontation can be so scary, what to do if you freeze or blackout during a confrontation, different ways to approach confrontat...
Sep 18, 2023•44 min•Season 4Ep. 38
Today on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are talking about chosen family. They discuss popular sayings like "blood is thicker than water" and "you only get one (insert family member here)" and why these don't apply to everyone. They explain that it's not all or nothing; a chosen family doesn't require the absence of a biological family. Emmalee and Jen answer your questions about finding and creating a chosen family, how to not feel like you're betraying your biological family by having a chosen o...
Sep 11, 2023•41 min•Season 4Ep. 37
Today on ShrinkChicks, Em and Jen are practicing what they preach by resting and taking the week off from a new episode. They don't want to leave you all hanging of course, so they're re-releasing one of their most listened-to episodes: Carrying The Mental Load. Emmalee and Jen break down the term "mental load," which is also known as cognitive labor. They discuss gender roles and how the mental load has historically fallen on women, the over-functioning/under-functioning dynamic in relationship...
Sep 04, 2023•43 min•Season 4Ep. 36
On this week's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are honored to be joined by Juliane Taylor Shore, LMFT, LPC, SEP. Jules is a therapist specializing in trauma recovery, interpersonal neurobiology, and couples work and she shares her incredible knowledge with us all today! The episode begins with Jules explaining how to use neurobiology as a basis to understand ourselves and our triggers. She shares how trauma - and our own histories - can alter the brain, how our brain systems are sometim...
Aug 28, 2023•53 min•Season 4Ep. 35
Today on ShrinkChicks Emmalee and Jen are communicating about communicating! They discuss how to improve communication in your relationship(s), identifying your specific pain points when communicating, being the external processor or the internal processor, the difference between honesty and being harsh, asserting your needs vs. being controlling, what to do when you're having the same fight or disagreement over and over again, and effective communication strategies! The episode ends with a Dear...
Aug 21, 2023•44 min•Season 4Ep. 34
This week on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are answering all of your questions about therapy! They discuss why they each chose this career, where to start when looking for a therapist, how to break up with your therapist & find a new one, how to know if you've found the right therapist, how to make the most of your sessions, and why it can be hard to be fully honest with your therapist. Emmalee and Jen also read some of your therapist horror stories that leave them shook. The episode wraps w...
Aug 14, 2023•49 min•Season 4Ep. 33
Today on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are covering one of the most requested topics: taking things personally. The episode kicks off with the new intro segment question: how did Em and Jen meet their partners? They then get into the topic and explain where taking things personally may stem from, times when we are more prone to taking things personally, sensitivity to rejection, and how to work toward taking things less personally. They answer your questions about constructive criticism, feeling...
Aug 07, 2023•44 min•Season 4Ep. 32
This week on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are diving into the topic of resentment and how it can be connected to unmet expectations, feelings of unfairness or imbalance, and asking for what we need. They first explain the emotion of resentment, where it can come from, and how they each know when resentment is building for them, personally. Emmalee and Jen then answer your questions about why it can be easier to stew in the resentment than ask for what you need, the discomfort of confronting, if...
Jul 31, 2023•44 min•Season 4Ep. 31
On today's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are covering one of their favorite topics: self-compassion. They are thrilled to sit down with Dr. Kristin Neff, the self-compassion pioneer and expert. Dr. Neff was one of the first to research self-compassion about 20 years ago and shares many of her incredible findings with us all today. Dr. Neff defines self-compassion at the start of the episode and explains how culturally and evolutionarily, self-compassion can be challenging to give to o...
Jul 24, 2023•49 min•Season 4Ep. 30
Today on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen dig into the topic of complicated relationships with our parents/caregivers. They start the episode off with a hilarious story about Emmalee's version of a "lovie" when she was young. Hint: it was not a blanket or a stuffed animal. They then define the term enmeshment as it relates to our family of origin, talk about the difference between a close knit family and an enmeshed family, and touch on the (sometimes maladaptive) patterns that get passed down from...
Jul 17, 2023•45 min•Season 4Ep. 29
On this week's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen cover the topic of being the partner, friend, family member, etc. with anxiety and the shame, guilt, and other emotions that can bring up. They noticed a theme with the listener questions that came in for this topic around the word "burden." Emmalee and Jen answer your questions about being a burden or too much when it comes to anxiety in your relationship and where that feeling may have originated. They discuss validating our own feelings,...
Jul 10, 2023•44 min•Season 4Ep. 28
Today on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are practicing what they preach and taking the week off from a new episode for the July 4th Holiday. They of course never want to leave you all hanging, so they are re-releasing one of their most popular episodes from last year: Jealousy is a Complex Emotion. They start off by discussing jealousy as a very human emotion. They then go into the difference between jealousy and envy, why jealousy is normal, and the reaction to jealousy vs. the feeling of jealou...
Jul 03, 2023•45 min•Season 4Ep. 27
On today's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen have the honor of sitting down with the boundary and relationship expert herself, Nedra Glover Tawwab, MSW, LCSW! You may recognize Nedra's name from her incredible Instagram account or as the author of two amazing books Set Boundaries, Find Peace & Drama Free. Nedra starts the episode by sharing how she got into boundary work, why she doesn't always like using the term "boundary," and her approach as a therapist. She then answers listener ...
Jun 26, 2023•51 min•Season 4Ep. 26
This week's episode of ShrinkChicks is all about life stage transitions and the anxiety that can come along with them. Emmalee and Jen start the episode off with another new listener intro idea and share the highs and lows of their weeks. They then dive into listener questions about various life transitions like the difference between a period of transition vs. making the "wrong” choice, decision paralysis with change, coping when friends' lives are changing but yours isn't, being "ahead" or "be...
Jun 19, 2023•41 min•Season 4Ep. 25
On today's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen talk all about things not going according to plan. Any planners out there? This one's for you (and also to share with anyone in your life who you want to explain your perspective to)! The episode starts off with a new intro idea from an amazing listener that has Emmalee and Jen share something they learned about themselves over the past week. They then dive into the episode topic and share how they both feel about plans and planning. Em and Jen...
Jun 12, 2023•43 min•Season 4Ep. 24
This week on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen dive into the topic of parentification aka parenting our parents and/or siblings as a child or adolescent. They start the episode by defining parentification, sharing the different types, giving examples of what it could have looked like in your childhood/adolescence and explaining the short & long term effects. Emmalee and Jen answer your questions like: what to do if it's showing up in adulthood, can we parentify ourselves, how to set boundaries w...
Jun 05, 2023•44 min•Season 4Ep. 23
Today on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen have the pleasure of sitting down with Dr. Richard Schwartz, fellow psychotherapist and the creator of the therapeutic modality Internal Family Systems (IFS). Dick has written some of Em & Jen's favorite books to recommend to you all like No Bad Parts and You are the One You’ve Been Waiting For, which was just re-released earlier this month! Dr. Schwartz shares the basic concepts of IFS, what it means to have different "parts" of ourselves and where the...
May 29, 2023•39 min•Season 4Ep. 22
On this week's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are talking about the need to be right and why it can be so hard to let this go. They start off the episode by sharing how each of them feels about being right in their relationships and also with one another. They expand on the importance of feeling heard and seen, why it can be easier to let arguments go with some people and not others, where stubbornness can come from, and being right vs. being close. Emmalee and Jen tell us how to work ...
May 22, 2023•40 min•Season 4Ep. 21
Today on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are talking about fear and resistance and what to do when they get in the way. They highlight the various responses we all can have to fear: fight, flight, freeze, and fawn and share which responses the two of them typically experience. Emmalee and Jen discuss the nuances that exist with fear and how fear can both help us and hurt us. They answer your questions about a fear of being less than, the shame spiral that can occur when fear wins, how to work on r...
May 15, 2023•41 min•Season 4Ep. 20
This week on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen dive into a topic that many were curious to hear about: finding joy in the day-to-day routine. They discuss how they each find joy in their day to day, tips for how to incorporate it, and the challenge of transitioning out of a chaotic period of life to a calmer one. Emmalee and Jen answer listener questions about minimizing the pressure to always do more, changing up the routine as a stay-at-home mom, comparing to those with “glamorous” lifestyles on s...
May 08, 2023•43 min•Season 4Ep. 19
Today on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are joined by one of their amazing clinicians from The Therapy Group, Lauren Larkin, LMHC, and they are talking all things dating! Lauren shares some of the work she does with her clients around dating, a specific exercise she uses, her own personal red flag/deal breaker story, and how she worked through it. Em, Jen, and Lauren answer your questions about dating red flags, share why they disagree with some of the rigid dating advice that’s out there, and di...
May 01, 2023•47 min•Season 4Ep. 18
Emmalee and Jen often talk about intergenerational trauma/patterns and how to work on breaking those patterns in your adult life. This week on ShrinkChicks, they are talking about the other side of the coin: the things we want to keep from our families of origin, the really great things that are passed down. Em and Jen shift the focus from what we don’t want to take with us to what we do. They share some listener responses to this question, the things from their own families that they hold onto,...
Apr 24, 2023•38 min•Season 4Ep. 17
On today's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are diving into the topic of comparison: why we compare, where it can come from, and the inevitability of it. They answer your questions about different kinds of comparison like body comparison, life stage comparison, career comparison, relationship comparison, and getting in touch with the feeling underneath it. They also cover competition between siblings, jealousy and envy, and the "keeping up with the Joneses" mentality. The episode ends wi...
Apr 17, 2023•39 min•Season 4Ep. 16
This week on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen dig into the topic of external validation: why we want it, where the need/want comes from, and how to start internalizing it so we can give that validation to ourselves. They normalize the desire for it, help us to understand the function of it, discuss when seeking external validation can be risky, and how much is too much. Emmalee and Jen talk about how the times in which we are feeling insecure can create an increased need for external validation and...
Apr 10, 2023•46 min•Season 4Ep. 15
Today on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are talking about all things postpartum! The episode begins with Jen interviewing Em about her postpartum experience through listener questions. Emmalee shares her firsthand and vulnerable perspective on the transition into motherhood, and gives her insight into listener experiences. They are then joined by the wonderful Erica Djossa, fellow therapist and host of the Momwell Podcast, to answer two listener questions in depth, one about postpartum rage and t...
Apr 03, 2023•51 min•Season 4Ep. 14
On today's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen sit down with the one and only Kaitlyn Bristowe! They hear all about Kaitlyn's inner child work retreat experience: her fears before going, what it was like while she was there, what surprised her, and coming back to reality after it was over. Emmalee, Jen, and Kaitlyn discuss what led her to pursue the retreat, why healing doesn't have an ultimate destination, and the people in our lives who aren't doing the work. Kaitlyn calls some BS on rela...
Mar 27, 2023•47 min•Season 4Ep. 13
This week on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen answer your burning questions about attraction in relationships ebbing and flowing. They normalize this and also get into the difference between attraction coming and going vs. no longer being interested. Em and Jen share the many different factors that influence both attraction and sexual desire, if it's okay to discuss these feelings with our partner, how long these periods of time may last, how to work on rekindling attraction, comparing ourselves to...
Mar 20, 2023•41 min•Season 4Ep. 12
On today's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are talking all about control: why it feels so good, where the desire for control can come from, and how to start releasing it. They answer your questions about letting go of perfectionism when it has been a helpful skill, working past what things are "supposed to" be or look like, trusting other people to take the lead, fears behind releasing control, and if control is just an illusion. They then answer a Dear Em & Jen about adjusting goal...
Mar 13, 2023•44 min•Season 4Ep. 11
This week, Em & Jen are joined by the incredible Daniella Pierson! Daniella is the co-founder of Wondermind (with Selena Gomez and her Mom, Mandy Teefey) and the founder/CEO of The Newsette, a women-focused media company and creative agency dedicated to spotlighting diverse voices. Daniella, Emmalee, and Jen discuss the pushback and hardships she endured when starting her own company: The Newsette, the most embarrassing moment of career, being a successful entrepreneur while also dealing wit...
Mar 06, 2023•46 min•Season 4Ep. 10
