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The fastest way to burn out in therapy is to believe you have to be available for everyone, all the time, no matter what your body is doing. We’ve both lived that lie, and after a powerful AAMFT leadership weekend, we can’t unsee what it costs. A workshop from Ashley Hicks on Leadership and Radical Self-Care gave us language for what we’ve been trying to practice: radical self-care is not a treat, it’s a leadership skill and an act of self-love that keeps clinicians sustainable.

We talk about the weird double standard in our field: we tell people to set boundaries, then we call them “unethical” when they use them. We connect burnout to real-life health realities, including surgery recovery and the cycle of working to pay medical bills while work makes health worse. If you’re a therapist, supervisor, or practice owner, we dig into what accountability actually looks like: not just saying “take care of yourself,” but building norms that support time off, slower response times, and honest check-ins.

You’ll also get practical ideas you can try immediately: do-not-disturb rules that protect family time, deleting the email app during vacation, turning off notifications, setting admin blocks for documentation, and finding an accountability partner when “no” feels hard. We end with a values-based prompt to sketch your radical self-care vision and take one small step toward it.

If this conversation hits home, subscribe, share it with a colleague who needs permission to breathe, and leave us a review so more therapists can find it. What boundary are you ready to protect this week?

A Hero's Welcome Podcast © Maria Laquerre-Diego & Liliana Baylon

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What if dissociation isn’t the enemy but a form of wisdom your nervous system uses to protect what’s most sacred? We sat down with Marshall for a candid, grounded conversation about dissociation, spirituality, and why mental health’s obsession with neat categories can unintentionally harm the people we’re trying to help.

We unpack the four domains: thought, feeling, body, and time as a practical way to notice what goes offline and why, without shaming the system for doing its job. Marshall shows how clinicians often overvalue coherent talk while missing the quiet exits of the body or time, and he offers a simpler path: think with complexity, act with simplicity. We talk about mixed states that don’t fit tidy regulation charts, the reality of living in a high-threat, high-input world, and how strategic distance can be an act of love. Along the way, we explore how to pace reconnection with full consent so clients feel met, not handled.

We go deep on cultural humility and ancestral knowing, naming the risks of pathologizing altered states that some lineages have cultivated for centuries. We also address trend-chasing and monetization: how to vet teachers, respect the communities that shaped these practices, and avoid repeating colonized patterns in the name of healing. Marshall draws a clear line between religion as a potential anchor and dogma as an override, inviting a spirituality that restores intuition and autonomy. Together we practice non-duality, two things can be true, so people can hold grief and hope, distance and presence, critique and care.

If you’re a therapist, supervisor, or curious listener who’s tired of fear-based hierarchies and ready for ethics that expand choice, this conversation offers language, maps, and courage. Subscribe, share with a colleague, and leave a review with one insight you’re taking into your next session.

Marshall Lyles @ https://www.marshalllyles.com

A Hero's Welcome Podcast © Maria Laquerre-Diego & Liliana Baylon

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The moment someone said, “Just write the note and get back to work,” we knew this conversation had to happen. Kara returns to help us put words to the wounds so many clinicians carry in silence, Adverse Psychological Events that hit confidence, corrode safety, and quietly push talented therapists out of the field.

We dig into six APEs Kara is tracking through an anonymous multi-state survey: client violence, client suicide, client sudden death for other reasons, subpoenas, grievances, and professional betrayal. The stories are raw and real, from tragic headlines to everyday micro-injuries that add up. We talk about why the highest-reported harm is client violence, how a predominantly female workforce experiences unique pressure under patriarchy, and what happens when leadership responds to loss with productivity demands instead of protection and care.

Rather than selling quick fixes, we focus on meaning-making and practical change. We unpack why “take two days” and a massage is not recovery, and we lay out concrete shifts leaders can make now: delay non-urgent emails, create opt-in critical incident debriefs, budget paid recovery time after APEs, and set real caseload limits. Kara shares insights from The Resilient Therapist—an upcoming book that refuses tidy endings—and explains how honest storytelling can reduce shame and build community. We also explore the likely intersections between early-life adversity and career trauma, challenging the myth that prevention alone can sanitize human work.

This is a candid, compassionate guide for clinicians, supervisors, and anyone who wants mental health care to remain humane. If you’ve ever wondered, “Is it just me?”—it isn’t. Join us to name the harm, protect the helpers, and keep compassion alive in our workplaces.

If this resonated, subscribe, share with a colleague, and leave a review. Want to contribute to the ongoing APE survey or learn more about Kara’s work? Check the links in the show notes and tell us what real support would look like for you.

Confidential grief/free download of current research findings: https://croswaitecounselingpllc.com/confidential-grief

Link to APE anonymous survey: https://forms.gle/w1ajyJZ3t3nCLj4EA

A Hero's Welcome Podcast © Maria Laquerre-Diego & Liliana Baylon