On today's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are joined by Hilary Truong, one of their wonderful clinicians, who is a Mother-Daughter relationship expert and coach! Hilary shares her expertise around this unique relational dynamic. She answers your questions about the guilt around setting boundaries with your Mom, why Mom might be competitive/jealous of daughter, healing without the possibility of closure, blatant favoritism of a sibling, being the emotional support for your Mom, generational patterns around body image and dieting, the grief that can come up watching your mother as a grandmother, and so much more! Hilary digs into the complexities of this relationship while normalizing and validating the many emotions that come along with it. Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! PS: There is no intro for today's episode - tune in right away for the content! Fill out this form to work with Hilary for a coaching session or an intensive! The Mother-Daughter Puzzle book

This week, ahead of Thanksgiving, Emmalee and Jen are re-releasing their most downloaded episode: Why Are In-Laws So Triggering? They know that the start of the Holiday season can be activating, overwhelming, and bring up a lot of emotion, which is why they picked this particular episode to remind you that you're not alone. Emmalee and Jen answer your questions like: why are mothers-in-law, specifically, triggering, 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! Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! PS: There is no intro for today's episode - tune in right away for the content! Get Matched With One of Our Therapists! ShrinkChicks on Instagram Our Know Yourself Grow Yourself Journal!! SHRINKCHICKS MERCH Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube by subscribing here! https://youtube.com/channel/UCrxuhDqoL4ML3UE8b2J2BBg

This week on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are helping you to answer the question: should I stay or should I go? They talk about how to know when something is no longer serving you and the nuances that exist around that, how to decipher between needing to give something more time vs. knowing it's time, and working through the guilt of making the decision to leave. Emmalee and Jen answer your questions about understanding your own dealbreakers, the difference between an ultimatum and a boundary, external validation making this decision extra challenging, the fear of regret, and so much more! Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! PS: Fast forward to around 6:45 into their convo to skip the intro and get straight to today’s content. Get Matched With One of Our Therapists! ShrinkChicks on Instagram Our Know Yourself Grow Yourself Journal!! SHRINKCHICKS MERCH Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube by subscribing here! https://youtube.com/channel/UCrxuhDqoL4ML3UE8b2J2BBg A special than

On today's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen have the pleasure of sitting down with Dr. Tracy Dalgleish! Dr. Tracy is a clinical psychologist, couples therapist, and author who specializes in the topics of resentment, the mental load, and other challenges that can show up in our partnerships. They start the episode off by diving into the complicated emotion of resentment and how resentment connects to the mental load. Dr. Tracy shares about the common relationship dynamic that includes an overfunctioner and an underfunctioner and how we can get stuck in these roles. She answers your questions about getting out of the tit-for-tat/keeping score mentality, how to explain what the mental load is to a partner, guilt that comes up around sharing the mental load, releasing control to lighten your mental load, why we may resent the things that initially attracted us to our partners, and so much more! Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! PS: There is no intro for today's episo

This week on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen sit down with Jenny Wise Black, LMFT, who specializes in how our phones affect our mental health. Jenny shares her personal journey of being without a phone for FOUR years and how it changed her life and informed her work. Emmalee, Jen, and Jenny discuss social media breaks and FOMO, living in our daily reality vs. our social media reality, the addiction to our phones and some research behind it, the impact that scrolling and keeping our phones on us "in case of emergency" has on our bodies, navigating social media breaks as a business owner, and so much more! Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! PS: There is no intro for today's episode - tune in right away for the content! Our Digital Soul Book Lose the Phone Podcast Jenny's Website Get Matched With One of Our Therapists! ShrinkChicks on Instagram Our Know Yourself Grow Yourself Journal!! SHRINKCHICKS MERCH Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube by subscribing here! https://youtube.com

Today on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are covering the highly requested topic of hyper-independence! They start the discussion off by defining hyper-independence, also known as ultra-independence, and where it can originate from. They talk about the relationship between hyper-independence and parentification and birth order, the societal praise hyper-independence receives, and how hyper-independence can affect our romantic and platonic relationships. Emmalee and Jen distinguish between hyper-independence and typical independence and share some questions to ask yourself if you're having a hard time understanding the difference in your life. The episode wraps with a Dear Em & Jen that asks: is it wrong/bad that I don't want help from others? Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! PS: Fast forward to around 7 minutes into their convo to skip the intro and get straight to today’s content. Get Matched With One of Our Therapists! ShrinkChicks on Instagram Our Know Yourself Grow You

This week on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are answering your questions about childhood wounds. They start the episode with a question about what a healed person looks like and what their own healing journeys have looked like. Then they discuss how our childhood wounds do not always originate from our families; that some of us have deep wounds from friendships or other formative relationships. Emmalee and Jen share questions to help identify what wounds from childhood may be showing up for you today, and how to work on responding vs. reacting. They discuss the grief that can come in recognizing childhood wounds, the concern of offending your parent(s)/caregiver(s), why an apologetic parent doesn't mean the emotions surrounding our childhood wounds must go away, and so much more. Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! PS: Fast forward to around 7 minutes into their convo to skip the intro and get straight to today’s content. Get Matched With One of Our Therapists! ShrinkChicks

On today's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are covering the highly requested topic of shame. They start the episode off by distinguishing between the emotions of guilt and shame as they can feel quite similar but are very different. Then they share some of Brene Brown's research including the 3 things shame needs to survive and how to get out of a shame spiral with tangible steps. Emmalee and Jen discuss healing from shame, shame and judgment and how they can go hand in hand, the difference between secrecy and privacy, a therapist's perspective on client's shame, overcoming body shame, the shame and stigma surrounding mental health, and the shame that can come from holding onto shame for so long. How many times can we say shame in one episode description? Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! PS: Fast forward to around 6 minutes into their convo to skip the intro and get straight to today’s content. Books Mentioned in Dear Em & Jen: Mother Hunger by Kelly McDaniel Lo

This week on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are talking all about decisions and why decision-making can be so challenging. They share what they each do when struggling to make a decision, a tangible exercise to help you with decision-making, and answer your questions about feeling stuck in a decision. They discuss their thoughts on "the one," making "the right" decisions, managing other people's/society's opinions and expectations, why you may have analysis paralysis, the fear of regret, decisions and confidence, and so much more! The episode ends with A Dear Em & Jen about being on the fence about having kids. Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! PS: Fast forward to around 7 minutes into their convo to skip the intro and get straight to today’s content. Get Matched With One of Our Therapists! ShrinkChicks on Instagram Our Know Yourself Grow Yourself Journal!! SHRINKCHICKS MERCH Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube by subscribing here! https://youtube.com/channel/UCrxuhDqoL4ML3U

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 link between personalization and people-pleasing. Emmalee and Jen share their mantras to pull yourself out of taking things personally, explain how we internalize taking things personally from a young age, discuss taking an association with a family member personally, and so much more! The episode ends with a Dear Em & Jen about a listener feeling second best compared to their partner. Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! Get Matched With One of Our Therapists! ShrinkChicks on Instagr

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 confrontation, how to decipher between when to confront and when to let it go, and why assertive people can be harder to confront. Emmalee and Jen share strategies for confrontation, remind you that it's okay to cry, and give you direct tips on how to bring up something that you've been putting off for a long time. The episode concludes with a Dear Em & Jen about "therapizing" your partner. Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! Get Matched With One of Our Therapists! ShrinkChicks on Instagram Ou

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 one, grieving the fact that your biological family can't be there for you or support you in certain ways, and so much more! The episode ends with a Dear Em & Jen about navigating the wedding planning process with divorced parents and how it brings back a flood of emotions from childhood. Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! Get Matched With One of Our Therapists! ShrinkChicks on Instagram Our new Know Yourself Grow Yourself Journal!! SHRINKCHICKS MERCH Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube

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 relationships and what it might look like, why the mental load falls onto the person who cares more, being the default parent, what to do when you feel like you’re the only one who knows how to do it "right," and so much more. Dear Em & Jen answers a listener's question about constantly having to remind her partner to help around the house. Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! Emmalee and Jen will be back with a new episode next week! Get Matched With One of Our Therapists! ShrinkChicks on Instag

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 sometimes in conflict, the science behind why self-compassion is more successful than self-criticism, rage as a bid for connection, and so much more! Jules teaches us how to work toward creating a pause between what we feel and what we do as well as shares tangible tools to have more productive communication within our relationships. She even does a live example of an exercise she practices with Emmalee! You do not want to miss this insightful and important episode!  Pre-order Juliane's Book! Juliane's

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 Em & Jen about moving back in with your parents as an adult. Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! Feelings Wheel Sticker mentioned in the episode! Get Matched With One of Our Therapists! ShrinkChicks on Instagram Our new Know Yourself Grow Yourself Journal!! SHRINKCHICKS MERCH Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube by subscribing here! https://youtube.com/channel/UCrxuhDqoL4ML3UE8b2J2BBg A special thank you to this week's sponsors for supporting ShrinkChicks! We have these exclusive offer

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 with a Dear Em & Jen about changing careers to become a therapist. Tune in for some Therapy 101 and tangible tips to get started on your therapeutic journey! Get Matched With One of Our Therapists! ShrinkChicks on Instagram Our new Know Yourself Grow Yourself Journal!! SHRINKCHICKS MERCH Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube by subscribing here! https://youtube.com/channel/UCrxuhDqoL4ML3UE8b2J2BBg A special thank you to this week's sponsors for supporting ShrinkChicks! We have these exclusive offers for

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 like other people's moods are our fault, getting out of the habit of mind reading, and so much more! The episode ends with a Dear Em & Jen about building self-worth and confidence. Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! Get Matched With One of Our Therapists! ShrinkChicks on Instagram Our new Know Yourself Grow Yourself Journal!! SHRINKCHICKS MERCH Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube by subscribing here! https://youtube.com/channel/UCrxuhDqoL4ML3UE8b2J2BBg A special thank you to this wee

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 resentment can be solved by expressing your needs, how to become more assertive, assertiveness vs. aggression, and displacing resentment onto others. The episode ends with a Dear Em & Jen about balancing time between friends/roommates and a significant other. Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! Get Matched With One of Our Therapists! ShrinkChicks on Instagram Our new Know Yourself Grow Yourself Journal!! SHRINKCHICKS MERCH Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube by subscribing here! https

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 ourselves. Ahead of the episode recording, Emmalee and Jen asked their listeners why it's hard to give yourself compassion, and they share some of the answers with Dr. Neff for her to comment on. Dr. Neff shares about barriers to overcome in order to give ourselves self-compassion, why no one has to earn the right to compassion, the #1 block to self-compassion, where to start in giving yourself compassion, self-indulgence vs. self-compassion, and perfectionism as it relates to compassion. She ans

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 generation to generation. Emmalee and Jen answer listener questions about emotionally immature parents, being a parent's "therapist" or confidant, accepting who our parents are & the grief that can come with that, setting and shifting boundaries as our familial relationships evolve, the guilt and other uncomfortable emotions that can arise when setting boundaries with parents, and so much more! The episode wraps with a Dear Em & Jen question about the complicated relationship that can develop w

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, helping those who don't experience anxiety understand it, finding a balance between leaning on our partners for support and self-soothing, holding space for a partner's emotions when yours feel "more severe," responding vs. reacting, and so much more! Stay tuned until the end of the episode where Emmalee and Jen bring back their personal vs. professional segment re: seeing your therapist in public!  Check out our new Know Yourself Grow Yourself Journal!! SHRINKCHICKS MERCH Check out ShrinkChick

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 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 play within jealousy and envy, control as it relates to jealousy, and questions to ask yourself if you feel jealousy surfacing. They wrap the episode up with a Dear Em & Jen that you do not want to miss! Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! They'll be back with a new episode next week! Check out our 

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 questions about how to approach people who don't respect boundaries, the guilt and anxiety that can arise when setting boundaries, how to know when to set a boundary, working to break generational patterns through boundaries, and so much more! Nedra gives tangible tips, laugh out loud examples, and amazing insight for us all to apply to our lives. You don't want to miss this one! Nedra's website Check out our new Know Yourself Grow Yourself Journal!! SHRINKCHICKS MERCH Check out ShrinkChicks on YouT

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 "behind" others, becoming an empty nester, social anxiety when making friends in a new place, preparing for parenthood and so much more. The episode ends with a Dear Em & Jen about a listener and her partner's life choices no longer aligning. Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! Check out our new Know Yourself Grow Yourself Journal!! Books Mentioned in today's episode: 1. The Shit No One Tells You About Pregnancy 2. The Shit No One Tells You: A Guide To Surviving Your Baby's First Year S

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 answer your questions about pivoting when life doesn't go as expected (re: both big things like a wedding being canceled due to COVID and small things like running late due to traffic). They discuss grieving those unmet expectations, radical acceptance, tangible tips to let go of plan-related anxiety, and so much more! The episode wraps up with a Dear Em & Jen about differing levels of anxiety in a relationship when it comes to plans changing. Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! Che

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 when you've had to parent a parent in the past, what to do with the guilt that can arise when setting boundaries, how to handle if your in-laws do this to your partner, and so much more. Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! SHRINKCHICKS MERCH Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube by subscribing here! https://youtube.com/channel/UCrxuhDqoL4ML3UE8b2J2BBg A special thank you to this week's sponsors for supporting ShrinkChicks! We have these exclusive offers for our listeners: Lume: Control Body O

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 they might have originated, how to start uncovering those parts, and the way IFS has become integrated with psychedelic-assisted therapy. Dick answers a listener's question about applying IFS principles to daily life by doing an enactment with Jen of an exercise. The episode wraps with Dick calling some BS in the field of therapy. Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! SHRINKCHICKS MERCH Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube by subscribing here! https://youtube.com/channel/UCrxuhDqoL4ML3UE8b2J2BBg

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 toward getting underneath the need to be right and examining where it might come from. They answer your questions about making mistakes at work, how to navigate the need to be right with a partner, the fear of being wrong and so much more! The episode wraps up with a Dear Em & Jen question about a listener who may be compromising their own growth just to prove a point. Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! SHRINKCHICKS MERCH Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube by subscribing here! https:

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 rewiring our brains from triggers we learned in our childhood, feeling paralyzed by fear, our appetites for risk, and so much more! The episode wraps up with a Dear Em & Jen about a listener's Mother in Law violating her and her partner's boundaries. Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! SHRINKCHICKS MERCH Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube by subscribing here! https://youtube.com/channel/UCrxuhDqoL4ML3UE8b2J2BBg A special thank you to this week's sponsors for supporting ShrinkChicks! We

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 social media, finding joy through depression, starting a routine with ADHD, and so much more! Lastly, they answer a Dear Em & Jen question about a sibling always one-upping/copying. Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! SHRINKCHICKS MERCH Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube by subscribing here! https://youtube.com/channel/UCrxuhDqoL4ML3UE8b2J2BBg A special thank you to this week's sponsors for supporting ShrinkChicks! We have these exclusive offers for our listeners: Lume: Control Body Od

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 discuss the many nuances and gray areas around dating. Tune in to find out why Lauren thinks closure is BS and to gain some insight, awareness, and action when it comes to red flags, deal breakers, and if there's room for flexibility! Lauren's TikTok: @leltherapy SHRINKCHICKS MERCH Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube by subscribing here! https://youtube.com/channel/UCrxuhDqoL4ML3UE8b2J2BBg A special thank you to this week's sponsors for supporting ShrinkChicks! We have these exclusive offers for our

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, how challenging and triggering it was to take their parent’s advice as young adults, the nuances that exist in our relationships with our parents, love languages being passed down, and so much more! Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! SHRINKCHICKS MERCH Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube by subscribing here! https://youtube.com/channel/UCrxuhDqoL4ML3UE8b2J2BBg A special thank you to this week's sponsors for supporting ShrinkChicks! We have these exclusive offers for our listeners: Lu

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 with a Dear Em & Jen about a listener's partner still being in touch with their ex. Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! SHRINKCHICKS MERCH Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube by subscribing here! https://youtube.com/channel/UCrxuhDqoL4ML3UE8b2J2BBg A special thank you to this week's sponsors for supporting ShrinkChicks! We have these exclusive offers for our listeners: Lume: Control Body Odor ANYWHERE with Lume deodorant and get $5 off off your Starter Pack (that’s over 40% off) with pro

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 how anxiety can tie into it. They answer a Dear Em & Jen about only having one child and the desire for external validation to support this listener's decision. Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! SHRINKCHICKS MERCH Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube by subscribing here! https://youtube.com/channel/UCrxuhDqoL4ML3UE8b2J2BBg A special thank you to this week's sponsors for supporting ShrinkChicks! We have these exclusive offers for our listeners: Lume: Control Body Odor ANYWHERE with Lu

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 the second, about the difference between postpartum anxiety and baseline worrying. Emmalee, Jen, and Erica discuss postpartum in COVID, societal expectations of mothers, intrusive thoughts, the “perfect mother myth,” and so much more! Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! Book mentioned in today’s episode: Good Moms Have Scary Thoughts Erica's Instagram Momwell Podcast Momwell Website SHRINKCHICKS MERCH Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube by subscribing here! https://youtube.com/channel/U

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 relationships through the lens of social media and tells us her #1 takeaway from the retreat. Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! Kaitlyn's Podcast Off the Vine Kaitlyn's wine Spade & Sparrows Kaitlyn's Instagram SHRINKCHICKS MERCH Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube by subscribing here! https://youtube.com/channel/UCrxuhDqoL4ML3UE8b2J2BBg A special thank you to this week's sponsors for supporting ShrinkChicks! We have these exclusive offers for our listeners: Apostrophe: Get your first vi

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 other couples, and a Dear Em & Jen about the right person, wrong time. Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! Book mentioned in today's episode: Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski  SHRINKCHICKS MERCH Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube by subscribing here! https://youtube.com/channel/UCrxuhDqoL4ML3UE8b2J2BBg A special thank you to this week's sponsors for supporting ShrinkChicks! We have these exclusive offers for our listeners: Apostrophe: Get your first visit for only $5 at apostrophe.co

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 goals and your life path after getting into a relationship. Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube by subscribing here! https://youtube.com/channel/UCrxuhDqoL4ML3UE8b2J2BBg A special thank you to this week's sponsors for supporting ShrinkChicks! We have these exclusive offers for our listeners: Apostrophe: Get your first visit for only $5 at apostrophe.com/SHRINKCHICKS when you use our code SHRINKCHICKS HelloFresh: Go to HelloFresh.com/shrinkchicks65 and use co

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 with OCD, ADHD, depression, co-founding Wondermind with Selena Gomez & Mandy Teefey, Daniella’s advice on separating your identity from your career, and so much more! Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube by subscribing here! https://youtube.com/channel/UCrxuhDqoL4ML3UE8b2J2BBg A special thank you to this week's sponsors for supporting ShrinkChicks! We have these exclusive offers for our listeners: Apostrophe: Get your first visit for only $5 at apostrophe.co

On this week's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen give a nod to Taylor Swift and focus on the topic: "it's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me" or in other words, what if I'm the problem? They discuss some signs to look inward about certain patterns of behavior, releasing control, how to work on challenging your thoughts and not letting them take over, cutting people off and avoidance, the struggle of keeping promises to yourself, and why boundaries are not personal. Plus a great example from their new favorite show, Shrinking! They then answer a Dear Em & Jen question about finding the right therapist for you! Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! Book mentioned in the episode about challenging thoughts: Feeling Good Handbook by David Burns  Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube by subscribing here! https://youtube.com/channel/UCrxuhDqoL4ML3UE8b2J2BBg A special thank you to this week's sponsors for supporting ShrinkChicks! We have these exclusive offers for our listeners: Apo

Today on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are validating the various challenges that can come when making decisions - both big and small. They talk through what makes us freeze when making decisions, the abundance of choices we have these days, regret, people pleasing, the ability to see things from all sides, different fears behind making decisions, questions for introspection into your decision-making process, and working to make decisions without external validation. They answer your questions about disagreeing with your partner on a big life decision, making a job change, leaving your comfort zone, and so much more! Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube by subscribing here! https://youtube.com/channel/UCrxuhDqoL4ML3UE8b2J2BBg A special thank you to this week's sponsors for supporting ShrinkChicks! We have these exclusive offers for our listeners: Apostrophe: Get your first visit for only $5 at apostrophe.com/SHRINKCHICKS when you use our cod

Today on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen tell us about their origin story! How they met, why they decided to start a private practice, their lack of a business plan, the mistakes they made along the way, and some of the hardships they faced together. Then they are joined by the co-hosts of the HERself Podcast, business coaches Amy Kiefer and Abby Green! The four of them sit down to discuss going into business with a friend. They address topics like hard conversations to have before starting a business, how a business partnership is quite similar to a marriage, conflict styles and resolving conflicts, how to avoid resentment, questions to ponder if you're considering this, and so much more! Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! HERself Podcast HERself Instagram HERself website Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube by subscribing here! https://youtube.com/channel/UCrxuhDqoL4ML3UE8b2J2BBg A special thank you to this week's sponsors for supporting ShrinkChicks! We have these exclusive 

Today on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen help us approach a topic many of us avoid: having hard conversations. Whether with a family member, partner, friend, or coworker, confrontation is challenging! Em and Jen discuss where to start when having these conversations (and their #1 tips in doing so), how each of them approaches hard conversations in their lives, and the importance of speaking up when something is bothering you. They then answer your questions like: how to find the right time, how to not avoid them, how to break up with your therapist, how to talk about the hesitancy of having children with your spouse, and how to be okay without an immediate resolution. Dear Em & Jen addresses a listener question about moving in with a partner and some hard conversations to have beforehand. Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube by subscribing here! https://youtube.com/channel/UCrxuhDqoL4ML3UE8b2J2BBg A special thank you to this week's sponsors fo

This week on ShrinkChicks, we are taking you back to our most popular episode of 2022: WTF is Radical Acceptance? Something Em & Jen are asked every time they do a Q&A is: "how do I not feel x, y, or z emotion?" Radical acceptance is a skill that they do a deep dive into in this episode, to help us work towards accepting unpleasant emotions rather than avoiding them. 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, where to start with working toward acceptance, building up our distress tolerances, how many of us were taught to resist our emotions, instances where radical acceptance is not appropriate, why it takes time, and so much more! Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! The article referenced in the episode. Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube by subscribing here! https://youtube.com/channel/UCrxuhDqoL

On today's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen share their experiences of taking an intentional break from social media. They discuss how the break affected each of them and their relationships with social media in general. They then go on to answer your questions about the reality of a social media break, the FOMO that can stop you from taking a break, comparison on social media, accepting that you may miss something while you're off, how social media affects you physically and emotionally, social media as part of your job and so much more! Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube by subscribing here! https://youtube.com/channel/UCrxuhDqoL4ML3UE8b2J2BBg A special thank you to this week's sponsors for supporting ShrinkChicks! We have these exclusive offers for our listeners: Apostrophe: Get your first visit for only $5 at apostrophe.com/SHRINKCHICKS when you use our code SHRINKCHICKS HelloFresh: Go to HelloFresh.com/shrinkchicks21 and use c

This week on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen explain WTF Inner Child work actually entails! They discuss inner child wounds vs. the work we can do to heal them, signs you might want to start doing this work, paying attention to our triggers, and what it means to reparent your inner child. They talk about how we all adapted to our environments as children and how some of the survival tactics we used back then might not be serving us now. Emmalee and Jen share the inner child work they've personally done, as well as answer your questions about where to begin with this work in both the short and long-term. Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube by subscribing here! https://youtube.com/channel/UCrxuhDqoL4ML3UE8b2J2BBg A special thank you to this week's sponsors for supporting ShrinkChicks! We have these exclusive offers for our listeners: Apostrophe: Get your first visit for only $5 at apostrophe.com/SHRINKCHICKS when you use our code SHRINKCHICKS H

Today on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are talking all things stress: stress about being stressed, stress management, stress reduction, and the different kinds of stress. They share the skills we can work on to manage our stress, talk about their first experiences with stress, explain how they handle stress now, and dive into why certain kinds of stress are not always bad (hint: procrastination). Emmalee and Jen answer your questions about work/life stress, how to notice stress, and explaining stress to a partner. Plus, a Dear Em & Jen about stress and anxiety when dating and repeatedly getting the "ick." Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube by subscribing here! https://youtube.com/channel/UCrxuhDqoL4ML3UE8b2J2BBg A special thank you to this week's sponsors for supporting ShrinkChicks! We have these exclusive offers for our listeners: FIGS: Head to wearFIGS.com and use code SHRINK to get 15% off your first order! HelloFresh: Go to HelloFresh

Welcome back to Season 4 of ShrinkChicks! On today's episode, Emmalee and Jen sit down with Tori Dunlap, the amazing woman behind the social media accounts HerFirst100k! Tori is a globally-recognized personal finance educator, podcast host, social media star, and author. They start off the conversation by learning about Tori’s story and how she got started as a financial educator. Emmalee and Jen then ask Tori your questions about guilt and shame surrounding finances and debt, why it can be so hard to talk about money, financial mindsets that have been ingrained in us from a surprisingly young age, Tori’s top two tips for being smart with money, what she's calling BS on, breaking free from generational mindsets around money, and so much more! Tori's new book that hit stands last week! :  https://www.amazon.com/Financial-Feminist-Overcome-Patriarchys-Bullsh/dp/0063260263 Tori's Website & Instagram Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube by subscribing here! https://youtube.com/channel/UCrxuhD