It's our very 9th episode, can you believe it? Thanks for sticking with us! Since we talked about anxiety in our last episode, which is a high-energy state, today we're talking about depression, which at it's core is a natural low-energy reaction state that shows up as a response to feeling overwhelmed, overtaxed, and not-enough for too long. But we can get stuck in what was intended to be a temporary state when the "hop-ons" pile on. We'll talk about when (and why) depression is helpful and how to know when it becomes unhelpful, including three key things to watch for: (1) are they threatening our safety (i.e. harm to self, lethal or non-lethal), (2) is it causing us distress? and (3) is it getting in the way of our ability function in important areas of our life? In other words, is being stuck in a depressive state getting in the way of living a meaningful life?

As always, thanks to our producer Erik for doing all the things, and a huge thanks to YOU for listening, liking, subscribing, following, downloading, and sharing our podcast with a friend!

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• No Bad Parts: Healing Trauma and Restoring Wholeness with the Internal Family Systems Model - Dr Richard Schwartz
• The Happiness Trap: How to Stop Struggling and Start Living - Dr Russ Harris

• "We’ve Got Depression All Wrong. It’s Trying to Save Us: New theories recognize depression as part of a biological survival strategy." (PsychologyToday)
• Recognizing Depression: 6 Nonverbal Signs

Are you looking to get connected with a therapist near you? Visit PsychologyToday to find a therapist who specializes in what you're looking for. We aren't sponsored or partnered with them, this is NOT an ad, it's just a good way to find a provider!

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Hello, friends of the show! Today we are talking about one of Gloria's favorite subjects: AnXiEtY!!! Even that formatting makes us feel uncomfortable. In this episode Jr Top Knot makes a special guest appearance to talk about his own experience with anxiety and how it shows up in his body to let him know it doesn't like things like roller coasters. In fact, he helps us transition into our topic brilliantly because that is what anxiety is, at it's core: a big alarm system run amok. If you've seen Inside Out: 2, you know what we're talking about here! And if you haven't, go watch it immediately (right after listening to our podcast of course).

Thanks to our producer Erik for doing all the things. Thanks to YOU for liking, subscribing, following, downloading, and sharing our podcast with a friend!

Follow us on instagram at @notgreathowareyoupod

• Taming Your Amygdala: Brain-Based Strategies to Quiet the Anxious Mind - Catherine Pittman, PhD
• Good Inside: A Guide To Becoming the Parent You Want to Be - Dr. Becky Kenney, PhD (she has great content in here about kids and anxiety!)

Are you looking to get connected with a therapist near you? Visit PsychologyToday to find a therapist who specializes in what you're looking for. We aren't sponsored or partnered with them, this is NOT an ad, it's just a good way to find a provider!

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Hey sports fans, welcome back to the second episode in our 2-part mini-series on relationships and couples. This week we focus on the therapy side of things - in other words, what it's like to facilitate couples therapy (cue ominous music)! Speaking from the LPC track, therapists don't get a lot of couples counseling training in graduate school, so starting to learn and gain experience in couples work can feel very intimidating. Here are some things we've experienced as therapists working with couples, our struggles and our strategies.

We talk about common things couples come to counseling for and dig down to the root of it all. Couples want to communicate, but the truth is that we almost always know how to communicate - what we get to do in therapy is figure out how to identiy and heal what gets in the way of being able to truly listen and hear our partners (and even express our own wants and needs clearly).

We do away with the "I just want my partner to know what I want/need without me having to tell them" nonsense (even though we get why that's appealing) and we talk about how, as therapists, we can get hooked by our Yeah-Butter clients, losing sight of just what makes therapy sessions so uniquely valuable (spoiler alert: it's YOU, hi! You're the treatment, it's you).

As always, thanks to our producer, Mr. Fun Buns, who does all the techy things and keep this train on the tracks. Make sure to like, share, follow, subscribe, and share with your friends.

Find us on instagram at @notgreathowareyoupod

Very important book recommendations:

• Secure Relating: Holding Your Own in an Insure World - Ann Kelley PhD and Sue Marriott LCSW CGP
• Passionate Marriage: Keeping Love and Intimacy Alive in Committed Relationships - David Schnarch, PhD

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Tag Team, back again, check it to wreck it, let's begin... Dr. Fun Buns really left us with a hook at the end of our last episode saying we need to love our kids unconditionally but partners conditionally, didn't she? Today we get into what that means. Is "to death to us part, no matter what?" realistic for everyone? When does that get tricky? What if a partnership is unbalanced or lopsided? We talk about "the flow of needs" and how that applies differently to parents/kids and partners - who/what are we responsible for? And sadly we spend a little time at the beginning paying respects to the best little Kitty that ever did live, who had to cross the rainbow bridge a few days prior to recording this episode. Dang it, Kevin!

If you don't like our catch-up chit-chat, we start digging into our topic at the 12:40 mark.

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See? We told you that last episode was a bonus! Here’s our regularly scheduled programming where you can hear both of us clearly. Please excuse Gloria’s momentary confusion about her Stage Name (Top Knot? Skeletor? Who can remember anything anymore?) – she is indeed “Professor Top Knot.”

Today we are talking about being parented (yes, you read that correctly) AND being parents. Being parented WHILE being parents. Parenting while being watched BY parents who you don’t know at Target while your kid is having a heck of a time coping with not getting something they want. We talk about how parents do the best with what they’ve got (we know we do) and how the wisdom changes as we learn more about how, as humans, we grow and adapt. It makes sense that the “best practices” of the 1960s might not be “best” today. We touch on differentiating between your kiddo and their behavior, and finally do away with the “I love you but I don’t like you right now” nonsense for good. Thanks for sticking with us! We love you and we like you.

Very Important Book Recommendation: Good Inside – Dr. Becky Kennedy

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Welp. Who could have foreseen that Dr. Fun Buns would turn her mic off *literally right after the sound check* and we wouldn’t notice it – AT ALL?? Not us. You can hear her in this episode, but she is very quiet because it’s Gloria’s mic that picks her up. (Also, to be fair, it was actually a mic cord issue and not Courtney's fault.)

We debated what to do with this episode once Mr. Fun Buns broke the bad news. Do we scrub it? Re-record? Release as-is? Ultimately we believed the conversation was too important to scrub, and too time-sensitive to re-record (we’d miss the realness of what it was really like for us that day). So we decided to release this as a bonus episode and let you figure out how to modulate your volume if you so choose. We've also linked the transcript below so you can read along (because you are very, very, very dedicated and committed to the show....no worries if not!).

What’s the topic, you ask? Well, if you recall we recorded episode 2 on election day and we were feeling excited, nervous, and hopeful. This episode was recorded two weeks later. While we don’t wax political here, we do talk about how to hold brave space with clients when you are both grieving, sad, heartbroken, and scared. We feel it is EXTRA pertinent to release today, January 20, 2025. I'm sure you can guess why.

Click here for the show transcript.

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Hey! We’re back and you’re back and we’re all here for episode three (but actually four) of Not Great, How Are You? – a podcast about therapy. You’re getting this episode first before the actual episode three (which will be released as a BONUS EPISODE) because of some *sound issues* we just couldn’t have foreseen. Anyway – today we are talking about BECOMING A THERAPIST. If you are thinking about getting into therapy from the professional side of things, this episode is for you. We cover things from what to look for in a graduate program to what to look for in internship and residency sites, to why it feels scary when you’re first starting out (and even when you’re a seasoned veteran), and we try to clarify some misconceptions along the way. We hope you enjoy, and, as always, like/follow/subscribe.

Also, please follow us on instagram at @notgreathowareyoupod

Episode notes and clarifications:

• CACREP standards: Council for Accreditation of Counseling Related Educational Programs - graduate programs in professional counseling that meet CACREP standards "measure up to standards developed by a national consensus of those in the field of Professional Counseling. Thus, federal agencies, state licensing boards and national certification agencies are assured that programs accredited by CACREP provide a consistent, quality education in preparation for counselor credentialing." (Credit: www.cacrep.org) In the episode, Gloria said CACREP standardization means the program meets licensure requirements but that is somewhat misleading - always check with state licensing boards to determine license requirements.
• LPC vs LPCC: Types of licenses vary, as do the training/education and scope of practice. We found a good article highlighting some basic differences between some common license types (LPC, LPCC, LMHC, LPMHC, LCPC, LMNOP...) https://www.psychotherapynotes.com/decoding-counselor-alphabet-soup-lpc-lpcc-lmhc/

Are you looking to get connected with a mental health provider? Check out PsychologyToday to find therapists in your area who specialize in what you're looking to address. (This isn't an ad, it's just a good resource.) Another good option is to check your insurance provider to find providers in your network!

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Welcome back for a second episode of Not Great, How Are You! Today we're talking all about first appointments - what to expect if you're a client and what to expect if you're a brand new therapist! Producer Erik told us we made those appointments sound "too scary" but he's never been a new therapist so he doesn't know. We made no changes after that feedback. We recorded this on Election Day and were so hopeful and excited... Stay tuned to see how that turned out! Thanks in advance for following, liking, subscribing, five-star-reviewing, all the things. Tell the others! And don't forget to follow us on instagram at @notgreathowareyoupod

Are you looking to get connected with a mental health provider? Check out PsychologyToday to find therapists in your area who specialize in what you're looking to address. (This isn't an ad, it's just a good resource.) Another good option is to check your insurance provider to find providers in your network!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.