In this episode of Clinically Awkward, I, Alyssa Zimmerman, sit down with trauma therapist Carly Falk to unpack surviving your twenties through the chaotic millennial time capsule that is HBO’s Girls.

We get into trauma work, EMDR, and why I don’t believe embarrassment belongs in therapy. Substance misuse, hypersexuality, sensory seeking, and messy friendships aren’t moral failures; they’re data about unmet needs. Neurodivergent women deserve care that is holistic, honest, and shame-resistant.

Then we use Girls as a neurodivergent case study. Ray’s rigidity and info-dumping. Shoshana as the masked, competent autistic little professor. Hannah’s chaotic hyperbole, glossed-over OCD, and relationship dynamics that still make me wince.

We revisit our millennial youth, six-beers-is-fine culture, warehouse parties, and the normalization of self-destruction in your twenties.

And yes, my special interest, the Enneagram, inserts itself. I cannot watch fictional characters without typing them. Hannah as a Four as so is Jessa and they’re both spiraling into sabotage. Marni’s need to be chosen as intergenerational trauma. Shoshana’s possible Six energy sending me into a live wing crisis.

We also touch on AuDHD patterns versus borderline personality disorder, including the difference between a “favorite person” and a “safe person,” and why black-and-white thinking hits differently in different neurotypes.

We close with a radical idea: friendships can end without anyone being the villain. Sometimes growth looks like letting go.

Carly shares about her practice, Lotus Embodied Counseling in Columbia, Maryland, and as always, I’m just out here saying what I needed to hear at 25.

0:00 - Welcome to Clinically Awkward: Quarter-Life Crisis Survivors (Feat. Carly)

3:54 - Therapist Origin Stories: The Practice I Accidentally Built

9:42 - Girls as a Neurodivergent Case Study (Respectfully)

15:46 - Millennial Optimism: Dollar Ubers, Chunky Necklaces, and Hipster Vibes

19:35 - Your Boyfriend Owns One Towel: Dating in Your Twenties

23:36 - We're Talking Too Much About Men Again (Derogatory)

27:22 - Shoshana, Masking, and the Little Professor Pipeline

32:30 - Hannah: Hyperbole, Bad Choices, and the Audacity of It All

37:01 - Shoshana's Six Energy & My Live Seven Wing Crash Out

41:10 - Jessa Is a Four and It's Not Fun: Chaos as Self-Sabotage

47:44 - Marnie Would Rather Be Chosen Than Be Okay

51:14 - Justice for Noreen: Second Adolescence, Please

52:51 - Okay We Have to Stop: Carly's Info + Emotional Aftercare