#149 Today's guests are Dr. Sarah Olivo and Dr. Liz Seidler— two clinical psychologists and hosts of the College is Fine, Everything is Fine podcast who've helped students navigate the highs and lows of college for over a decade. In this episode, we discuss why college students can benefit from using DBT skills, how to manage your emotions, understand others’ states of mind, and use your wise mind as a college student, common dialectics that college students deal with, specific DBT skills for college students on reducing emotional vulnerability, improving relationships, and self-advocacy, and advice for college freshmen who are struggling.

Today's guest is Emi Nietfeld— an author, mental health advocate, and speaker whose works include her 2022 memoir Acceptance and her viral New York Times essay on her experience working at Google. In this episode, we discuss how she incorporated her mental health journey into her Harvard admissions essays, how to navigate the college admissions process when your mental health has affected your transcripts, how to disclose your mental health experiences on college applications, what types of support systems can make an impact on college admissions, how competition with your peers can affect the application process, and mental health reminders you need to hear when applying to college.

Today's guest is Dr. Bianca Busch— a board-certified adult and board-eligible child & adolescent psychiatrist who specializes in helping college students flourish. In this episode, we discuss why exactly college students experience so many mental health challenges, signs your mental health may be at a breaking point in college and when/where to reach out for support, ways to boost your mental health while transitioning to college and key mental health skills to use while you’re in college, and what she wishes student health services could do differently to support students’ mental health.

Today's solo episode is all about how to maintain your mental health (aka avoid making your mental health WORSE) during times when you're struggling! We discuss the background on why keeping your mental health at a net neutral is effective from a DBT perspective and then dive into coping mechanisms and skills you can use to prevent your mental health from getting worse in the short AND long-term. These skills include the STOP, TIPP, distraction, and riding the wave skills as well as the radical acceptance, cope ahead, and accumulating positives skills. This episode is a MUST LISTEN if you struggle with maladaptive coping skills and are looking for manageable ways to keep your mental health from deteriorating during difficult times.

Today's guest is Nicole Shallow— a sleep expert, behavior coach, and public speaker who works to help others develop habits that ultimately improve their overall quality of life. In this episode, we discuss signs that you might be struggling to get good sleep, why teenagers often struggle most with getting good sleep, an ideal sleep schedule for teens and how teens can begin to try out this schedule, why getting good sleep is so important for your mental health, what to do during the day to get better sleep at night and the optimal nighttime routine for good sleep, and popular sleep myths debunked.

Today's guest is Dr. Nicole LePera, a clinical psychologist, author, podcaster, and creator of the "Holistic Psychologist" platform that has amassed over 6.5 million followers on Instagram. Dr. LePera shares her holistic psychology approach—which involves a united philosophy of mental, physical, and spiritual wellness—with her mass audience to equip people with interdisciplinary healing tools. In this episode, we discuss what it means to treat mental health holistically and how it can make therapy more effective, how intergenerational trauma is passed on and how teens can begin to heal from it, what ego states are and how they can be impacting your mental health, what anxiety can look like in the body and how you can start to teach your body to be peaceful, and her number one piece of advice for teens.

Today's solo episode is all about exposure therapy! We discuss what exactly exposure therapy is, how it works, and who can benefit from it, the four different types of exposure therapy, my most embarrassing experiences with exposure therapy and how they ultimately lowered my anxiety, and a step-by-step method for how you can try out exposure therapy yourself. This episode is a MUST LISTEN if you struggle with anxiety and are looking for manageable ways to reduce it!

Today's guest is Kristen Carder— an ADHD expert, top podcast host, and internationally-recognized mindset coach for adults with ADHD. In this episode, we discuss differences between presentations of ADHD in adults, children, and teens, the most common symptoms of ADHD, how parents can best support their children and teens with ADHD, the ADHD spectrum and why certain people are under-diagnosed, advice for someone who has recently been diagnosed with ADHD, difficulties that students with ADHD can face at school, resources for people looking to learn more about their ADHD diagnosis, and opinions on popular online discussions about ADHD.

Today's guest is Alexandra Wyman— an author, podcaster, speaker and grief navigator. After losing her husband to suicide, Alexandra wrote The Suicide Club: What to Do When Someone You Love Chooses Death to offer a road back to peace and joy for anyone who has lost someone close to them to suicide. In this episode, we discuss Alexandra's journey to becoming an advocate for people whose loved ones died by suicide, what the initial days of grieving a suicide can be like and ways others can best offer support during these times, boundaries she wished she had set while grieving and reminders she wishes she had heard, maintaining your personal identity while grieving, tools and resources that are helpful throughout the grieving process, and thoughts on how people react to suicides in the news and popular misconceptions about suicide.

In today's solo episode, I am answering a bunch of your questions! I share my tips on how to advocate for your needs with others, why we sometimes look for unhealthy attention and how to avoid this behavior, how to cope when someone needs space from you, how to build trust with yourself, what to talk about in therapy sessions, and how to navigate a loved one's willfulness.

Today's guest is Britt Frank—a licensed psychotherapist, trauma specialist, speaker, award-winning adjunct instructor, and author of The Science of Stuck. In this episode, we discuss why people get stuck in the first place, signs you may be getting stuck with your personal goals or relationships, the truth behind laziness, the neuroscience behind getting stuck and pursuing goals, how to set and prioritize achievable goals, how to make promises to yourself that reduce shame, and tips that stop you from being stuck.

Today's solo episode is all about how to cope when you are experiencing a panic attack or other forms of intense anxiety. We discuss three DBT distress tolerance skills that will help you stop a panic attack in its tracks: The STOP skill, the TIPP skill, and the ACCEPTS and IMPROVE skill. If you struggle with anxiety, this is a MUST LISTEN & I share a coping skill that is 100% effective, every single time!!

Today's guest is Dr. Lisa Strohman—an attorney, clinical psychologist, and author who has widely become known for her advocacy and education around mental wellness as it relates to our digital lives. She is also the founder and director of Digital Citizen Academy, one of the first organizations to address the global issue of technology addiction and overuse. In this episode, we discuss the dangers of technology use and how teens can use social media in healthier ways, the symptoms of screen addiction, the worst social media platforms for mental health, and advice for parents on setting technology boundaries and helping their teens avoid dangers online.

Today's guest is Dr. Justin Mohatt— an internationally recognized, double Board-Certified Psychiatrist at Ohana, a program for child and adolescent behavioral health at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula. In this episode, we discuss advice for both parents and teens on different types of teen mental health treatment programs. For parents, we share tips on how to find the right treatment program for your child, including how to start the search process, program must-haves and red flags, how to motivate your teen to seek treatment, and how families can participate in the treatment process. For teens, we share what to expect when starting a mental health treatment program and how you can benefit most from residential treatment.

In today's solo episode, I am answering a bunch of your questions! I share my tips on avoiding social media addiction, finding a self-care routine, taking mental health breaks and avoiding burnout, dealing with imposter syndrome, coping with your child's depression as a parent, experiencing medication side effects, reaching out for help when struggling with suicidal ideation, and caring for your mental health when on your period.

Today's guest is Ellie Zeiler, an 18-year-old social media influencer, model, actress, and podcaster who boasts almost 11 million followers on TikTok. In this episode, we discuss Ellie's experiences as a social media creator and her advice for teens, including how to find your identity and build self-confidence, overcome bullying, use social media in a healthy way, become more independent, navigate relationships with friends and family, and stay on top of your mental health.

Today's guest is Dr. Sam DeCaro— a licensed psychologist who provides individual, family, and couples therapy. Dr. DeCaro also served as an Assistant Clinical Director at the Renfrew Center for Eating Disorders and currently shares her eating disorder expertise as a writer and speaker. In this episode, we discuss common risk factors for eating disorders, signs that someone may be developing an eating disorder, ways that parents and loved ones can support someone with an eating disorder, how social media can affect body image and contribute to eating disorders, common eating disorder myths, and eating disorder resources that people can turn to for help.

Today's solo episode is all about coping skills! I discuss all of my favorite DBT coping skills geared toward tolerating distress and regulating emotions and share how you can easily do them at home. These coping skills include the TIPP skill, Opposite Action skill, STOP skill, Check the Facts skill, and ABC skill.

Today's guest is Jay Fields, an educator, coach and author who has taught the principles of embodied social and emotional intelligence to individuals and organizations for twenty years. In this episode, we talk all about emotional regulation, including emotional difficulties faced by college students, how your childhood and parents can impact your ability to emotionally regulate and form healthy relationships, ways to improve your relationship between your body and your emotions, tips for managing your nervous system and building better emotional habits, and the power of self-empathy.

Today's guest is Kate Stone, an actress, founder of the HeartSpeak Empowerment School, college coach, and creator of The 30-Day Motivation Text Challenge. In this episode, we discuss how to create and prioritize goals, why people struggle to be motivated and achieve their goals, hacks and mantras for boosting daily motivation, why teenagers in particular can struggle with motivation, and how teens can make goals that boost their self-esteem and college admissions chances.