What if the “big reaction” your client is having to everyday things isn’t manipulation, defiance, or attention-seeking… but a younger part stepping forward asking for care and trying to protect?

In this episode of The Gettin’ Gritty Podcast for Mental Health Therapists, we walk you through one of our favorite trauma-informed interventions: the nesting dolls intervention for working with younger parts of self, attachment wounds, shame, and emotional triggers.

Using simple stacking dolls, we explain how therapists can help both children and adults begin making sense of why certain situations pull them into “kid logic,” dysregulation, or deeply wounded emotional states.

This is not about pathologizing clients or diving straight into trauma processing. It’s about building insight, compassion, regulation, and a cohesive narrative before the deeper work begins.

Inside this episode, you’ll learn:

✨ How to introduce the nesting dolls intervention with kids and adults
✨ The difference between parts of self and dissociation
✨ Why “triggered” behavior often comes from younger wounded parts
✨ How this intervention reduces shame and builds self-compassion
✨ Ways to incorporate attachment-focused resourcing and EMDR concepts
✨ Tips for using this intervention with parents in the room
✨ Practical “pro tips” for choosing and using nesting dolls in session

We also share how this intervention naturally bridges into EMDR resourcing, attachment repair, and building therapist confidence in trauma work.

You'll find that this intervention will help clients understand the younger parts of themselves that still need safety, attunement, and connection. 💛

⭐ Love the show? Share it with another therapist and leave a review to help us grow this gritty little corner of the mental health world.

Connect with us! Check out our freebies and our NEW Grit School:

• Therapist AF: Grit School for the Real World, practical skills, nervous system grounding, and the reps grad school skipped
• The Gritty Therapist freebies, tools, and support: thegrittytherapist.com
• The Cord Where Science Meets Connection attachment/trauma-focused therapy.

Follow along on Instagram @grittytherapist and go get your gritty on.

Do you feel like you are a "good therapist" but there's just something missing?

In this honest and practical episode of The Gettin’ Gritty Podcast for Mental Health Therapists, we dive into the difference between good intentions and clinical grit. Because empathy, active listening, and caring deeply about clients matter... but they are not always enough to create transformation.

This episode explores the uncomfortable but necessary actions therapists must sometimes take to help clients move forward: asking hard questions, challenging patterns, setting boundaries, involving families, and stepping outside our own comfort zones as clinicians.

We share real clinical examples from trauma therapy, attachment work, therapist supervision, and family systems work to show how therapists can get “lost in the weeds” of being well-intentioned without taking the gritty clinical actions that foster actual change.

You’ll also hear:

• Why good intentions can sometimes make therapists feel better more than clients
• How nervous system regulation and therapist discomfort are connected
• The importance of relational and attachment-focused therapy
• Why self-exploration is critical for therapist growth
• How therapist grit builds confidence, resilience, and stronger clinical outcomes
• A practical “call to action” challenge you can use immediately in your sessions this week

If you’re a mental health therapist struggling with burnout, self-doubt, stuck cases, people-pleasing in the therapy room, or fear of challenging clients and families, this episode will feel like a deep exhale and a gentle push forward all at once.

Now go get your gritty on!

Connect with us! Check out our freebies and our NEW Grit School:

• Therapist AF: Grit School for the Real World, practical skills, nervous system grounding, and the reps grad school skipped
• The Gritty Therapist freebies, tools, and support: thegrittytherapist.com
• The Cord Where Science Meets Connection attachment/trauma-focused therapy.

Follow along on Instagram @grittytherapist and go get your gritty on.

What happens when a fourth-grade teacher walks into a counseling class… and never looks back?

In this episode, we sit down with Becky Caldwell, therapist and co-host of the Probably Bad Advice Podcast to talk about her unconventional path into the therapy world and the real, unfiltered experience of becoming a clinician later in life.

We get into the stuff that doesn’t make it into textbooks:
– The shock of hearing trauma for the first time
– Carrying clients’ stories home in your body
– Imposter syndrome that whispers, “Who do you think you are?”
– And the moment you realize… you don’t actually have to have all the answers

Becky shares how her age and life experience became an unexpected superpower in the therapy room, why connection matters more than technique, and what it really means to build grit as a therapist (hint: it’s not about pushing harder).

We also talk about:
-Letting go of perfection and embracing presence
-The power of slowing down instead of “fixing”
-Navigating rejection when a client doesn’t come back
-Creating spaces for women to rediscover who they are outside of their roles

If you’re a new therapist who's a little "older" (don't worry Becky says the same thing), a seasoned one, or somewhere in the messy middle, which is ALL of us, this episode will remind you:

You’re not alone, you’re not doing it wrong, and the work is deeper and grittier than you think.

You can find Becky on Instagram @probablybadadvicepodcast

Connect with us! Check out our freebies and our NEW Grit School:

• Therapist AF: Grit School for the Real World, practical skills, nervous system grounding, and the reps grad school skipped
• The Gritty Therapist freebies, tools, and support: thegrittytherapist.com
• The Cord Where Science Meets Connection attachment/trauma-focused therapy.

Follow along on Instagram @grittytherapist and go get your gritty on.