Send us Fan Mail

The fastest way to burn out as a therapist is to believe the pressure is your fault. We sit down with our friend Val, a Colorado Springs small business owner building a practice for neurodivergent and marginalized communities, and we get painfully honest about what clinician life looks like right now: the medical model, the no-show hit to income, the endless notes, the supervision hours, and the quiet expectation that you’ll keep saying yes until you collapse.

From there, we shift into what “real self-care” actually means for working clinicians. We talk boundaries that hold up in the real world: naming your peak hours, giving yourself permission to be different, setting response-time expectations with simple email language, and stopping the reflex to apologize for being unavailable. We also explore why tiny changes beat total reinventions for neurodivergent brains, and how community helps us notice when our “normal” is sliding toward burnout.

We go deeper into decolonizing mental health and what it means to unlearn systems that treat people like commodities. If you supervise, lead a team, or you’re a new clinician trying to survive, you’ll leave with language, mindset shifts, and practical ways to protect your energy while staying relational in the work. Subscribe for more honest conversations, share this with a clinician friend who needs it, and leave a review with the boundary you’re practicing next.

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

Send us Fan Mail

Conferences can feel like a gamble: hundreds (or thousands) of dollars, time away from clients, travel fatigue, and the hope that you’ll walk out with something that actually changes your work. We’re Maria and Liliana, and we’re naming the quiet frustration a lot of therapists carry, especially if you’re balancing caretaking, dynamic disabilities, or the financial realities of private practice. When conferences used to “fill the bucket” and now leave you thinking “Was that worth it?”, you’re not alone.

We dig into how we choose conferences with intention instead of pressure. We talk CE credits and licensure requirements, the difference between networking goals and skill-building goals, and why unclear “who this is for” session descriptions waste everyone’s time. We also call out the rinse-and-repeat problem: recycled slides, stale keynotes, and content that feels stuck in grad school while clinicians are dealing with modern anxiety, depression, isolation, and real-world complexity across settings like agencies, schools, and private practice.

Then we get into what we wish more conferences would do right now: bridge legacy models with innovation and talk honestly about AI in therapy. AI is already shaping how we search, learn, and create materials, so we explore how conferences can address AI tools, ethics, and adult learning without shaming clinicians. We also touch on the tone of conference culture itself, because our field should be leading the way in welcoming learning environments, not “you don’t belong” spaces.

Listen, then share your take: What conferences or trainers are truly worth it lately, and why? If this resonates, subscribe, leave a review, and send this to a colleague who’s debating whether to register.

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

Send us Fan Mail

Your heart can be broken and you can still lead well, but you have to stop treating that ache like evidence you’re failing. We sit down with Marisol, a former mental health therapist of 21 years turned resilience consultant and trauma-informed leadership trainer, to name what so many helping professionals are carrying right now: grief that doesn’t resolve neatly, emotional labor that doesn’t get seen, and the pressure to keep performing competence when the world feels unstable.

Marisol shares a deeply personal story from kinship care and godparenting that reveals the real work behind “showing up” over time. We talk about the moment a therapist told her that staying in a child’s life meant learning to live with a broken heart, and how that truth translates to clinicians, nonprofit leaders, immigration advocates, and anyone trying to serve others in high-stakes systems. Instead of chasing a fantasy of fixing everything, we explore how to stay present, keep healthy boundaries, and let grief exist without turning it into frantic over-responsibility.

We also dig into therapist burnout versus brokenheartedness, the kintsugi metaphor of repairing cracks with gold, and why identity can get dangerously fused with the role of “helper.” If you’ve ever thought “my clients need me,” felt disposable in a commodified therapy culture, or wondered who you are outside your job title, this conversation offers language and practical reframes to build resilient teams and a sustainable career while staying fully human.

Subscribe for more honest conversations, share this with a colleague who’s carrying too much, and leave a review so more helpers can find it. What part of your identity do you want to strengthen outside of work?

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

Send us Fan Mail

We open with a simple image: sometimes you really do have to set things on fire. Not to destroy for fun, but to make room for a cleaner rebirth, the kind that doesn’t pretend the old “phoenix” left no ash behind. From there, we get practical fast, talking with Waldo, a clinician in southern New Mexico known for his trainings in EMDR and sand tray work, about what it actually means to help children heal inside the systems they live in.

We keep coming back to one uncomfortable question: why do we place the biggest burden of change on the most vulnerable person in the room? Kids rarely ask to start therapy, yet we often treat them like they volunteered, pushing goals and timelines that make adult life easier. We dig into child consent in therapy, how power and hierarchy show up in schools and families, and why expecting a child to “use words” for the worst thing that ever happened to them can become another form of pressure. Waldo also shares how he thinks about readiness in trauma treatment and what it looks like to advocate when a teen is not prepared for deeper processing.

Then we zoom into the “how.” Waldo breaks down his approach to dyadic therapy and attachment-based family play therapy: mixing joint sessions with parent-only sessions, focusing on adult triggers, and teaching skills through play rather than PowerPoints. We also widen the lens to systems theory in the real world, including clinician burnout, uneven access to training, and why agencies, licensing boards, and associations must be held accountable for lasting change for families.

If you’re a therapist, supervisor, or caregiver who’s tired of “fix the child” thinking, this conversation offers a different map. Subscribe, share this with someone who works with kids, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

Contact Waldo at waldo@winbornwc.com

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

Send us Fan Mail

If you’ve ever watched a room light up with phone screens the moment a slide gets good, you already know the problem we’re naming today. We’re Maria and Liliana, and we’re done pretending that screenshotting trainings, recording workshops, and passing around paid handouts is harmless. In a field that talks nonstop about ethics, consent, and respect, it’s wild how normalized “just grabbing the slide” has become.

We break down what listeners don’t always see: the unpaid labor behind a high-quality, evidence-based presentation, the hours of research and updates, and the extra layers required to teach responsibly through a multicultural lens. We also talk about why many conference speakers and continuing education presenters are underpaid or not paid at all, how the “pay your dues” mindset devalues expertise, and why boundaries aren’t rudeness, they’re professionalism. Along the way, we name the real-world risks when outdated training content gets copied and repeated, especially by people who never check new research or cite original sources.

We also get practical. We share better alternatives to taking photos of slides, including thoughtful handouts, note-taking that helps integration, and the simplest move of all: ask permission. We talk disability accommodations, the gender double standard around saying no, and how attendees can support speakers in ways that matter more than any screenshot.

If you care about ethical therapist training, intellectual property, evidence-based practice, and creating a healthier professional culture, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a colleague who leads trainings, and leave a review so more clinicians find the conversation.

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

Send us Fan Mail

What if the heart of OCD isn’t just compulsion and control, but grief steady, daily, and often unnamed? We sit down with our returning guest, Bryn Murphy, a clinician who lives with OCD, to map the hidden losses that shape this diagnosis: time swallowed by rituals, spontaneity crushed by rigidity, identity tugged by relentless doubt, and relationships frayed by reassurance cycles. From there, we build a gentler, fuller way forward, one that pairs evidence-based therapy with grief literacy, community care, and practices that restore presence in the moments that matter most.

We talk candidly about how Western grief norms rush people back to “functioning” and how that pressure collides with the realities of OCD. You’ll hear why ERP and inference-based CBT remain essential and where they can miss the emotional core unless we add rituals of mourning, narrative reframes, and family involvement. We unpack egodystonic thoughts, shame, and the nervous system’s hijack, then offer simple prompts that help reclaim a minute, a conversation, or a sunset from OCD’s demands. Our guest also shares personal stories of loss, including parental death, and how openness, not secrecy, created space for healing and resilience.

This conversation challenges stigma and ableism by humanizing OCD and acknowledging its surprising gifts alongside very real pain: meticulous care that serves craft, deep empathy born from struggle, and hard-won capacity for presence. If you’ve ever wondered who you might have been without OCD or how to live more fully with it, you’ll find language, tools, and hope here. Listen, reflect, and share with someone who needs a gentler map. If this resonated, subscribe, leave a review, and tell us: what loss are you finally ready to name?

Bryn Murphy @ www.blueravenfamilycounseling.com

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

Send us Fan Mail

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

Send us Fan Mail

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