Edge of the Couch
Two good friends and experienced therapists explore the topics that were either shied away from or dismissed because they were too big, too nuanced, too risky, or too uncomfortable to address in school or even in supervision. We want to inspire and encourage therapists to think more deeply, show up more fully, and find humour and self-compassion in navigating the messier parts of being a therapist.
Episodes
165 episodes
Has a Client Ever Hurt Your Feelings?
You guessed it-- we saw something online this week that got us thinking. This time, it was a reel where a therapist claimed that clients cannot hurt her feelings. But... of course they can...? We're human, after all. But knowing when to process...
Confrontation is a Key Part of the Job
This episode is all about confrontation, challenging, 'calling in'. We talk about how gentle confrontation is an essential part of our work as therapists. We believe it is ultimately a disservice to clients to avoid challenging their thoughts, ...
If You Want a Village, You Have to be a Villager
In this episode, we talk about how this phenomenon shows up in the therapy room. Some clients feel their asking for help is burdensome to their friends, so they keep to themselves, even when they want to develop deeper relationships. Some peopl...
PATREON PREVIEW: Therapist Red Flags
This week, we wanted to give you a peek into what our content on Patreon looks like. Breaking with our usual format, we are a little looser, a little more personal, a little more controvers...
Therapists as Wet Blankets
In this episode, we talk about how therapists can be humourless, anti-love, bubble-bursters. Not really... but maybe a little bit? We believe being the wet blanket is actually an important part of our jobs as therapists. We see when humour is b...
Touching in Therapy: A Relational Perspective
You probably heard this in grad school: "Never, ever touch your clients." But you know, for us, things are rarely black-and white. What about high fives? What about comforting touch? Hugs at termination? The conversation about using physi...
It's Not Morbid to Talk About Death
Are you comfortable talking about death with your clients? Not just around their grief and losses, but also about their own future deaths. Some clients will be open about their anxieties, while others unconsciously express their feelings throug...
Where Story Meets Science
Inspired by the new research article critiquing and perhaps 'debunking' polyvagal theory, we are sitting with the tension between adjusting to emerging neuroscience findings while also offering clients frameworks that genuinely help them make s...
Should We Bring Back Shame?
Hear us out... we know that so many of our clients are in therapy specifically to work through chronic shame, and we work alongside them to pull back the layers and find self-compassion. To learn more about that process, you can listen to our e...
The Problem with Therapist Promises and Guarantees
Therapists should not be out here guaranteeing results! That is a big red flag. But false assurances aren't just for those "bad therapists" over there; we, too, can fall into the trap of making promises we can't keep. Have you ever told a clien...
Show and Tell in Therapy: When Clients Want to Share Videos, Text messages, or Poetry with Us
Clients bring in photos, videos, and artwork—and we love it. It helps us see their world more clearly. But what happens when the sheer volume becomes overwhelming, boundaries get blurry, or we take away something they didn't intend to share?
For the Record... Neutrality Doesn't Exist
It's time for a refresher about why it's harmful when therapists put on a front of "neutrality". Especially during this time in history, people need therapists to be a place to land, to meet a real person, to talk about their completely underst...
Our Thoughts on Acceptance and Forgiveness
In the finale of Season 9, we discuss the concepts of acceptance and forgiveness, and how they show up in therapy. Therapists can have strong opinions about these, and we are no exception! While this is the finale, because we have o...
Permissive Parenting, Spanking, and The Therapist's Conundrum
We started this episode with the working title, 'When You Watch Childhood Trauma Happening in Real Time', but as the conversation unfolded, so much of what we were talking about was a mixed bag of parenting choices that often fall within the cu...
Naming The Culture of Thinness in the Room
Inspired by conversations with clients about GLP-1s, today we're talking something particularly tender and nuanced: the cultural shift towards thinness and the myriad ways that is showing up in our work. We talk about our duty to our clients, a...
Heated Rivalry and Why We Need to Know What Our Clients are Watching
In this episode, we talk about how we can use our shared experience of media to enrich therapeutic work and deepen our relationships with our clients. We mention recent media like Heated Rivalry and the Oprah special on parental estrangement. W...
Working with Despair
When despair shows up in session, it can be challenging to know how to respond. It's delicate. You don't want to move too quickly, tip into toxic positivity, and look for the silver lining, nor do you want the client to dive into those feelings...
What Makes Someone a Specialist?
In this episode, we answer a DM about new grads calling themselves 'specialists' right out of school. We share about what we think the standards are (or should be) to consider yourself a specialist in a specific client population, presenting co...