Psychotherapist and host Jessica Fowler welcomes Dr. Michael Uebel to discuss his book, "Seeds of Equanimity: Knowing and Being.” Dr. Uebel explores equanimity as a flexible, spacious, and open way of relating to experience rather than changing external reality. Drawing on Stoicism, Daoism, Zen Buddhism, and ACT, Dr. Uebel explores the importance of the "what" of experience over chasing "why”. We explore mindfulness and Dr. Uebel offers a listening practice.

Psychotherapist and host Jessica Fowler interviews therapist Oona Metz about divorce and her book “Unhitched: The Essential Divorce Guide for Women.” For the past 15 years, Metz has specialized with working with women going through divorce and during todays episode, shares what she has learned and how to support women going through this transition. Previously, rates of divorce often surrounded addiction, affairs and abuse.  Metz shares that the reasons are more nuanced now.  Metz shares ways that women can grow through this difficult time.

Psychotherapist and host Jessica Fowler interviews CBT specialist Deborah Dobson, PhD about her book, “Living Well with Social Anxiety: Practical Strategies for Improving Your Daily Life.” Dobson shares her definition of social anxiety, which includes avoidance and reassurance seeking from partners, friends, and therapists. Dobson shares psychoeducation, values-based goal setting, coping and grounding skills, as we discuss social anxiety.

Psychotherapist and host Jessica Fowler interviews Shaina Siber, LCSW—founder of Affirm Mental Health and host of the Affirming Minds podcast—about burnout and Shaina’s book, Using ACT and CFT for Burnout Recovery: Beyond the Blueprint. Shaina shares about her own burnout after working in a hospital during COVID, where burnout and moral injury were pervasive. Shaina explores symptoms of burnout such as exhaustion, cynicism/disengagement, cognitive impairment, and emotional impairment.  Shaina explores how values and self-compassion play a role in recovery of burnout. 

Psychotherapist and host Jessica Fowler interviews Laura Knauss, PhD all things ADHD as we discuss her book Living Well with Adult ADHD: Practical Strategies for Improving Your Daily Life. DR. Knauss describes adult ADHD as a disorder of self-regulation affecting school, work, parenting, driving, and relationships, often involving emotional impulsivity and follow-through challenges. The book can be read cover to cover or as a practical, pick-what-you-need resource with brief assessments that identify a problem and then directs its readers to targeted strategies, while also building in acceptance and self-compassion to counter self-mistrust and negative self-talk. Dr. Knouse explains CBT for adult ADHD as skills-focused support for executive functioning plus working on thoughts and feelings, including “permission-giving” thoughts.

Psychotherapist and podcast host Jessica Fowler interviews Jesse Finklestein, PsyD. who is the co-author of the book Skills for Real Life: A DBT Guide to Navigating Stress, Emotions and Relationships with Shireen L. Rizvi, PhD. In this episode, we explore the modules of DBT which include mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness can be used to help people in everyday life.  In addition, Dr. Finklestein explains DBT’s skills can help toward change not just in behavior but in creating hope and tolerating pain. He describes the book’s accessible, design-driven format, including having visual elements and “skills paths” to help readers choose tools for specific situations.  

Psychotherapist and host Jessica Fowler interviews sports and health psychologist Dr. Carly Hunt about her book, Train Your Brain to Beat Chronic Pain: How to Harness the Power of the Mind-Body Connection.  In addition to sharing about her history of childhood medical trauma and intermittent pain, Dr. Hunt explores many aspects of chronic pain including how trauma can contribute to nervous system sensitization.  Dr. Hunt emphasizes building a multidisciplinary care team, activity pacing with time-contingent rest, and mindfulness to reduce pain-related worry.

Psychotherapist and podcast host Jessica Fowler interviews Bethany (Beth) Warren, LCSW, PMH-C about reproductive trauma as we explore her book, Healing from Reproductive Trauma:  A Workbook for Survivors of Traumatic Infertility Journeys, Pregnancies and Births.  During our discussion Bethany Warren shares about her 25 plus years working with the birthing population and what this population will need for support.  During our conversation we explore the definition of reproductive trauma, common triggers, the impact on family, the need for support for the partner and much more. 

*Information shared on this website and podcast is for informational and educational purposes only.

Psychotherapist and podcast host Jessica Fowler interviews licensed clinical social worker and author Sophia Valle Galano about teen anxiety and her book, Calming Teen Anxiety: A Parent’s Guide to Helping Your Teenager Cope with Worry. Sophia Valle Galano explains that teen anxiety often looks different than adult anxiety and may appear as overwhelm, school refusal, panic symptoms, isolation, or irritability. Adults should assess frequency and the degree of impairment. Sophia and Jessica explore what to do when teens refuse therapy, including brainstorming alternative supports.  Sophia emphasizes boundaries around teen therapy, not over-involving parents or grilling teens afterward, and highlights listening, collaboration, preventive approaches, and not avoiding difficult topics like substance use and sexual health to build trust and safety.

About the author:

Sophia Vale Galano is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, author, speaker, teacher and practicing therapist. Sophia was born in Los Angeles, raised in London, and holds a Master’s degree in Social Work from New York University. She has been providing therapy since 2015 and has over a decade of experience working with adults and adolescents. Sophia has treated individuals and families in her private practice while also providing therapy in medical, educational, residential and outpatient settings. She is an expert at treating teenage anxiety, and is the author of the book, Calming Teenage Anxiety: A Parent’s Guide to Helping Your Teenager Cope with Worry.

Psychotherapist and host Jessica Fowler closes season nine of “What Your Therapist Is Reading” with Dr. Dana E. Crawford, licensed clinical psychologist and trauma-informed care expert, to discuss her book “Healing Bias: Your Guide to Individual, Interpersonal and Institutional Change.”  We explore how bias shows up for people and Dr. Crawford shares about her Bias Reduction Theory and Training (CBRT) as a framework for addressing culture-based countertransference and projection in therapy and beyond.

*information provided in this program is for informational and educational purposes only.

Psychotherapist and host Jessica Fowler interviews licensed clinical social worker and author Phil Lane about his book, "Overcoming Panic and Panic Attacks." Lane shares that the book is rooted in his own experience with intense panic attacks. Listen in as we explore the topic of panic, causes and how to handle it through various interventions. We also address fear of recurring panic, framing episodes as temporary “flare-ups,” and note that panic symptoms can mimic medical emergencies, so ruling out health issues and keeping up with checkups is important.

Highlights:

Challenging Panic Thoughts

What Panic Really Is

Book Roadmap Overview

Why Panic Happens

Baseline Habits

Therapy Tools That Help

Fear of Panic Returning

Somatic Mimics and Medical Checks

Self Awareness and Triggers

*Information shared is for informational and educational purposes only.

Psychotherapist and host Jessica Fowler interviews Katyee Gillis this week about parental abandonment.  We are discussing her book: Healing from Parental Abandonment and Neglect: Move Beyond Insecure Attachment to Build Safety, Connection and Trust with Yourself and Others (affiliate link). Katyee Gillis defines parental abandonment as a parent or caregiver severing the relationship through rejection, being kicked out of the home, or loss of a caregiver after divorce, and notes it can occur across the lifespan and overlaps at times with family estrangement. There are a variety of causes including family dysfunction, abuse, and homophobia/transphobia.  This in as we discuss how abandonment can impact the child and how to move forward with healing,

Information shared is for informational and educational purposes only.

Psychotherapist and host Jessica Fowler interviews Lisa Gray this week about relationships and chronic illness.  We discuss her book:  Thriving in a Relationship When You Have Chronic Illness: Navigate Challenges and Keep Your Relationship Strong Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.  We explore how chronic illness changes couple dynamics and how acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) can help.

Information shared in this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only.

Psychotherapist and host Jessica Fowler interviews health coach, author, and speaker Esther Avant about her book, "To Your Health: A Lifestyle of Health, Happiness, and Confidence,".  We explore how changing perspective can free people to question beliefs and pursue goals.

On this weeks episode of What Your Therapist is Reading, Jessica Fowler speaks with Dr. Jessica Zucker about her book Normalize it: Upending the Silence, stigma and Shame that Shapes Women’s Lives, which examines women’s experiences from girlhood through menopause, including miscarriage, body image, motherhood, and friendship, and aims to dismantle the silence, stigma, and shame surrounding them.

Highlights

Unspoken Pain and Joy

Replace Silence with Stories

Miscarriage Stigma and Shame

Motherhood Without a Village

Three-part framework—acknowledge it, share it, normalize it

Menopause

Friendship Grief and Loneliness

This week on What Your Therapist is Reading, psychotherapist and host Jessica Fowler is talking with Hannah DeGroot and Khara Croswaite Brindle about their book “Your Enneagram and Money: Transforming Enneagram Edges into Financial Freedom”. Talking about money can be difficult and bring a variety of feelings up for people. During this episode we explore how pairing the Enneagram with money is relational and practical. Understanding ourselves can be helpful in moving forward with our money goals.

In this episode of What Your Therapist is Reading, psychotherapist and host Jessica Fowler interviews education writer Natalie Wexler about her book "The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America's Broken Education System—and How to Fix It.  Wexler explains that many elementary schools, especially since the rise of high-stakes testing around 2000, have reduced time spent on history, social studies, and science in favor of practicing transferable reading “skills” like finding the main idea. Drawing on cognitive science, she argues these skills depend heavily on prior knowledge and vocabulary, and that building knowledge through coherent, topic-based instruction improves reading comprehension by reducing working-memory load (cognitive load theory). In addition, we discuss we explore how mental health and education are connected.

*Information shared in this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only.

After today’s episode, head on over to @therapybookspodcast to learn about the latest giveaway and what else I am reading.

*Information shared on this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only.

 In this episode of What Your Therapist is Reading, host Jessica Fowler, psychotherapist and book enthusiast, chats with Dr. Randall Alfino about his book “Listening in the Raw: Coming Home to Receptivity, which emphasizes deep, empathetic listening and the importance of vulnerability in fostering genuine human connections. Dr. Alfino shares personal anecdotes about reading and listening from his own life, exploring how true listening involves stripping away defenses and embracing curiosity and innocence. The discussion also touches on the psychospiritual dimension of listening and its transformative power in therapy and everyday relationships.

After today’s episode, head on over to @therapybookspodcast to learn about the latest giveaway and what else I am reading.

*Information shared on this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only.

In this episode of What Your Therapist is Reading, host Jessica Fowler chats with Dr. Robert Jason Grant about his book “AutPlay Therapy Play and Social Groups: A Neurodiversity-Affirming Model” cowritten with Tracy Turner-Bumberry. Dr. Grant explains the importance of respecting neurodivergent children's play preferences and avoiding imposing neurotypical standards on them. The conversation covers the concept of neurodiversity, practical examples of affirming care, and details about group therapy models that involve both children and their parents. Listeners are encouraged to learn more about providing affirming care to neurodivergent individuals and are given guidance on how to apply these principles in their practice.

Highlights:

 Discussing and understanding Neurodiversity

Understanding Play Therapy through this lens

Group Therapy Models

Practical Applications and Final Thoughts

In this episode of 'What Your Therapist is Reading,' host Jessica Fowler chats with Dr. Margo Lowy, a psychotherapist, about her book 'Maternal Ambivalence: The Loving Moments and Bitter Truths of Motherhood.' We dive into the complexities of maternal ambivalence, emphasizing the importance of acknowledging and understanding conflicting feelings in motherhood. Dr. Lowy shares personal anecdotes and insights into how these mixed emotions, including the darker ones, can fuel maternal love and growth.  The impact of societal ideals on mothers and the importance of self-compassion and personal reflections in parenting is explored.