On today’s episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen introduce you all to Nikki, their ShrinkChicks producer and Head of Operations of The Therapy Group! She talks about how she got her job (hint: she was a listener who DM’ed Em and Jen), the steps she took to make a major career shift, the biggest surprise about working for Emmalee and Jen, imposter syndrome, her fear of public speaking, what she’s calling BS on, and so much more! Tune in to hear her story! Thanks to this week's sponsors for supporting ShrinkChicks! We have these exclusive offers for our listeners: Dipsea: Sign up for an extended 30 day FREE trial when you go to dipseastories.com/shrink  TrueBill: TrueBill is the new app that helps you identify and stop paying for subscriptions you don’t need, want, or simply forgot about. Go to truebill.com/shrinkchicks to start cancelling today - it could save you thousands a year!

ShrinkChicks

Career Transitions & Trusting Your Gut with Nikki Cox

Today on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen have the pleasure of sitting down with Terry Real, an internationally recognized Couples & Family Therapist, speaker, and best selling author. Terry has worked with thousands of women and men, parents and non-parents, to help them create the connection they desire in their relationships. Emmalee and Jen talk with Terry about honesty and how important it is to speak up in our romantic relationships, vulnerability and how to encourage our husbands, boyfriends, partners to share their emotions, why women are the ones who initiate divorce 75% of the time, and that it’s okay (and often smart) to take a break during a disagreement. To access Terry's online course, Staying in Love, go to terryreal.com & you can also text your email address to 415-813-1025 to opt in for more from Terry! Thanks to this week's sponsors for supporting ShrinkChicks! We have these exclusive offers for our listeners: Dipsea: Sign up for an extended 30 day FREE trial when you go to dipseastories.com/shrink  ZocDoc: Go to zocdoc.com/shrinks and download the ZocDoc app to sign-up for FREE and book a top-rated doctor. Many are available as soon as today!

The Power of Fierce Intimacy with Terry Real

This week on ShrinkChicks, we cover one of our most requested topics: Emmalee interviews Jen about her decision to be childfree. She asks Jen all of your questions including how she knew she didn't want kids, the way she brought it up to her now husband, the initial reactions of her family, in-laws and friends, and how she plans to handle things when she's elderly. They discuss why having doubts is okay and inevitable, the fear of regret, society's expectations of women, and the different stories of shaming Jen has received over the years. Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! Thanks to this week's sponsors for supporting ShrinkChicks! We have these exclusive offers for our listeners: Dipsea: Sign up for an extended 30 day FREE trial when you go to dipseastories.com/shrink  Headspace: Go to headspace.com/shrinkchicks for a FREE one month trial with access to Headspace’s full library of meditations for every situation!

Exploring The Decision to be Childfree

Today on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen explore the differences between our personal and professional selves. They talk about starting their business, imposter syndrome, authenticity in the workplace, different work environments, and how therapists are taught to be a blank slate. Emmalee and Jen share the fears they both had when deciding to start The Therapy Group and the story of when they got their first call from a potential client. Dear Em & Jen answers the question: Any tips on dealing with my significant other's toxic family? Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! Thanks to this week's sponsors for supporting ShrinkChicks! We have these exclusive offers for our listeners: Dipsea: Sign up for an extended 30 day free trial when you go to dipseastories.com/shrink  Nutrafol: Go to nutrafol.com and use the promo code SHRINK to get fifteen dollars off your first month’s subscription + free shipping!

Personal Self vs. Professional Self

On this week’s episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen give us a glimpse into the communication skills we didn’t learn in school. We are ALL sometimes bad communicators, even two couples therapists. They highlight a portion of their Making The Most Of Your Marriage e-course: communication. Em and Jen take us through 15 different types of “bad” communication tactics that can appear in our relationships like: passive aggression, hopelessness, denial, and sarcasm. They give us real life examples of when these characteristics appear in their own romantic relationships and which ones are most common for each of them. On Dear Em & Jen, they give their best break-up advice. Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! To access the Making The Most of Your Marriage e-course for communication and more, visit the link and use the code TALKITOUT for $50 off the original price! thetherapygroup.mykajabi.com Thanks to this week's sponsors for supporting ShrinkChicks! We have these exclusive offers for our listeners: True Bill: Truebill is the new app that helps you identify and stop paying for subscriptions you don’t need, want, or simply forgot about. Go to truebill.com/shrinkchicks to start cancelling today - it could save you thousands a year! Dipsea: Sign up for an extended 30 day free trial when you go to dipseastories.com/shrink 

The Communication Skills We Didn't Learn in School

Today on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are joined by the amazing Erica Smith, M.Ed., sex educator and creator of the Purity Culture Dropout Program. Erica educates us all on purity culture and what it looks like in our world today. They discuss Erica's path to becoming a sex educator and the work she does to help her clients recover from the effects of purity culture. They cover topics like dress codes in schools, abstinence only sex education and why it doesn't work, how abortion became a central part of American politics, and so much more. Tune in to find out what Erica is calling BS on and why Emmalee got sent home from middle school during Home Ec class.  The various resources (and then some!) that Erica mentioned in today's episode: Erica's Purity Culture Dropout program: https://www.ericasmitheac.com/the-purity-culture-dropout-program Jo Luehmann Twitter account Shameless by Nadia Bolz Weber Sex Positive Families for all things raising children with a healthy, shame free sense of sexuality Pure by Linda Kay Klein Jamie Lee Finch Church Too: How Purity Culture Upholds Abuse and How to Find Healing by Emily Joy Allison  Shameless Parenting: Tina Schermer Sellers  Thanks to this week's sponsors for supporting ShrinkChicks! We have these exclusive offers for our listeners: ZocDoc: Go to zocdoc.com/shrink and download the ZocDoc app to sign-up for FREE and book a top-rated doctor. Many are available as soon as today! Dipsea: Sign up for an extended 30 day free trial when you go to dipseastories.com/shrink 

Purity Culture Dropout with Erica Smith, M.Ed.

Spoiler alert: there’s no magic trick. After a few weeks of guests, today's episode of ShrinkChicks is just with Em and Jen! They give us an update on their lives and some things they've been facing, personally. They discuss how the world is on fire! And with that, the false sense of control that we can feel when we take in information, the emotion of fear and how it's been ever present over the past year and a half, and how to cope with the uncertainty. Dear Em & Jen asks the question: how do I shut off my brain so that I can just relax? Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! Thanks to this week's sponsors for supporting ShrinkChicks! We have these exclusive offers for our listeners: HelloFresh: Go to hellofresh.com/shrinkchicks14 and use the code shrinkchicks14 for up to 14 free meals, including free shipping! Dipsea: Sign up for an extended 30 day free trial when you go to dipseastories.com/shrink 

What To Do When The World Is On Fire

Welcome to Pelvic Floor Health 101! This week on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen are joined by Pelvic Floor Physical Therapist, Gina Cunningham. She clues us in to what a pelvic floor actually is and why pelvic floor health matters. Gina explains the reasons why someone might need pelvic floor physical therapy and takes us through what a typical evaluation looks like. She answers some of your questions like: is it possible to do anything to prepare your pelvic floor for childbirth? What is diastasis recti? Do kegel exercises actually work? Is it normal to pee a little when you sneeze, cough, run, etc.?Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! The resources Gina mentioned to locate a practitioner near you: https://pelvicrehab.com https://ptl.womenshealthapta.org Thanks to this week's sponsor Dipsea for supporting ShrinkChicks! We have an exclusive offer for our listeners: an extended 30 day free trial when you go to dipseastories.com/shrink 

WTF is a Pelvic Floor with Gina Cunningham

Trigger Warning: death and serious illness. Healthcare workers are on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic and the stories shared in this episode, from an inside, firsthand perspective, are heavy and potentially triggering.  On today's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen have a powerful conversation with Katie Duke, who worked on the frontlines of the COVID-19 crisis as a Nurse Practitioner. They discuss Katie's first hand experiences from a New York Hospital (right after a major break-up, mind you), her own severe case of COVID, how the work affected her mental health, burnout, and switching careers. Katie shares why she left the nursing profession all together, what she's doing now, and why part of her new mission is to help nurses find their passion.    Thanks to this week's sponsors for supporting ShrinkChicks! We have these exclusive offers for our listeners: Lord Jones: For years people in the know have been using Lord Jones premium CBD products in their self-care rituals— why not see what they can do for you? Go to lordjones.com/shrinkchicks to get 25% off your first order! TrueBill: Truebill is the new app that helps you identify and stop paying for subscriptions you don’t need, want, or simply forgot about. Go to truebill.com/shrinkchicks to start cancelling today - it could save you thousands a year!

Being a Nurse is F*cking Hard with Katie Duke

This week on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen sit down with Scout Sobel (@scoutsobel): co-host of the Okay Sis Podcast, host of SCOUT Podcast, founder of Scout's Agency and most recently an author! They discuss Scout's diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder, why the diagnosis felt so isolating, and how it impacted her especially as it related to a career. Scout explains the importance of finding the right therapist for YOU and tells Em & Jen her favorite story from her therapeutic journey, which you don't want to miss. We learn about how becoming an entrepreneur changed Scout's life for the better and about her debut book, The Emotional Entrepreneur, available for purchase here! Thanks to ZocDoc for supporting today's episode! Go to zocdoc.com/shrink and download the Zocdoc app to sign-up for FREE and book a top-rated doctor. Many are available as soon as today!

Feeling Our Feelings with Scout Sobel

Today on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen discuss a type of therapy called Narrative Therapy. They explain what Narrative Therapy is, how it's used with clients, and how we can begin to challenge the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. They talk about where these stories can originate, the roles we take on in our families of origin such as "the shy one," the narratives Em and Jen learned to believe about themselves, personally, and how the two of them challenge those stories now. We also meet Jen's new kitten, Nelly, and learn some exciting news about Emmalee and Jen's therapy practice. (Hint: The Therapy Group is expanding to two new states!) Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! Thanks to HelloFresh for supporting today's episode! Go to hellofresh.com/shrinkchicks14 and use the code shrinkchicks14 for up to 14 free meals, including free shipping!

Challenging the Stories We Tell Ourselves About Ourselves

On this week's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen dive into the topic of social media and the apps we spend so much time on. They discuss the positives and negatives of social media, comparing ourselves to someone else's highlight reel, the things that exist beyond the highlight reel, why Jen is struggling with the idea of posting pictures of her summer so far, and being conscious of our feelings when we scroll. They also touch on taking social media breaks and the fear that can come along with that. Dear Em & Jen tackles the question: how to tell your boss you need a mental health day when they don't understand. Tune in to gain insight, awareness and action!

Social Media's Affect on Our Mental Health

Today on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee tells Jen two stories from her weekend that Jen is hearing for the first time on air. Hint: you won't believe them, either! In processing these stories, Emmalee and Jen discuss how some parts of ourselves can feel healed while others can feel like a work in progress. They talk Mom shaming, society's expectations of Mom's and women and how those expectations are wildly different than they are for Dad's and men, and why on Earth people feel that they can make comments about someone they know nothing about. Dear Em & Jen features a question on finding the right therapist. Tune in to gain insight, awareness and action! If you are interested in the University of Pennsylvania study mentioned in today's episode and would like to find out more information, please email bluemood@pennmedicine.upenn.edu or call 215-746-6419.

Parts of Ourselves that are Healed vs. The Parts that are Still Healing

In this week's episode of ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen answer the question: what do you do when your friends are in a different stage of life than you? Such as being the only mom in your group of friends, the only single friend, the only married friend, the only childfree friend, or in financially different places than your friends, the list goes on. They discuss the grief process that comes along with missing a former version of your friendship and/or yourself and how to cope with that grief. Em and Jen touch on the things that can trigger us when it comes to these differences, what fears come up, and their personal experiences with being in different places in life than their friends. Tune in to gain insight, awareness and action! Thanks to Lord Jones for sponsoring and supporting today's episode! Go to lordjones.com/shrinkchicks to get 25% off your first order! If you are interested in the University of Pennsylvania study mentioned in today's episode and would like to find out more information, please email bluemood@pennmedicine.upenn.edu or call 215-746-6419.

How To Stay Connected To Friends Through Different Life Stages

Today on ShrinkChicks, Emmalee and Jen catch up. They check in to see how each other is doing (hint: it's been a tough few weeks) and dive into the topic of magical thinking, which is one of many cognitive distortions. For instance: I will be happier once I get married. Or my life will magically improve once I lose X amount of weight. They discuss the myth of magical thinking, how happiness is an emotion, not an ultimate destination, and so much more. Tune in to gain insight and awareness! Thanks to HelloFresh for sponsoring today's episode! Go to hellofresh.com/shrinkchicks14 and use the code shrinkchicks14 for 14 free meals, including free shipping! If you are interested in the University of Pennsylvania study mentioned in today's episode and would like to find out more information, please email bluemood@pennmedicine.upenn.edu or call 215-746-6419.

The Myth of Magical Thinking

Emmalee Bierly, LMFT AND Jennifer Chaiken, LMFT, owners of The West Chester Therapy Group (@wctherapygroup), are excited to launch their new podcast ShrinkChicks. Shrinkchicks explores “Helping you to find the balance in all of the bullshit” - offering you relatable therapeutic topics leaving the tiresome psychobabble behind. If you have a topic you’d like discussed or question you’d like answered send them a message @shrinkchicks and your question will be shared and answered anonymously!

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ShrinkChicks

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