The Morning Stream - The Therapy Show S2E0: New Beginnings

Episode Date: May 18, 2024

An important word from Scott & Wendi. :) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey, everybody. Oh, that didn't work. Hey, everybody. You got to turn down the thing, say. See? It's me, Scott Johnson and my sister, Wendy Dunford. Hi, Wendy. Hi.

And you might wonder what we're doing here. And the answer is a simple one. We're here to talk to you. And you. Yeah, and all of you, really. It's exciting because we've decided to revive the therapy show. And if you are an old-time listener, then you'll remember, what was it, circa 2014? 2015, 14. Here, drop your mic a tiny bit so I can see her.

Oh, you know what it is. Hey, this is all very casual. Hold on. Quality stuff. Yeah, quality stuff. Oh, I know why. Oh, it goes down and up. Yeah, and then you adjust that up to where you're comfortable. Okay.

And then tighten that when you're like. Okay. That way people can see you. There we go. Is that sound audio good? Yeah. It's not looking at you anymore. Just looking at that skeleton in the room.

Here, get a little closer to your face. The mic. Okay. Oh, hi. Okay. All right, I think you're good. Anyway, so we decided we'd get in front of you a little bit and talk about what the plans are.

It's early. I can tell you that. Okay. We don't know exactly how every single aspect of this is going to go. But we've had some discussions about a few things. So, for example, we want to do seasons. Yeah. Six episodes.

seasons. Yeah. Easy to digest. They're all right there. You just get them week to week and you listen and you go, ah, I feel different now, right? Yeah. And not just, you know, fluff. We're talking deep dives, six sessions.

Yeah, big deep dive, six sessions will be at least an hour each and they will be put out on our weekly basis for six weeks straight and then what we'll do is have a little bit of a break and then we'll do six more potentially. Basically, it kind of depends on you guys in your participation. whether or not these are helping and working and, you know, making a difference in your lives. So Wendy, give me some examples of some of the topics we might cover.

Yeah. I got a long list. Some feedback I've been hearing from many folks is some needs around co-parenting, parenting at all, maybe some grandparenting, maybe dog parenting or dog grandparenting. But we'll cover it all. Just what works,

what doesn't, what you could do to, improve things in your life. So that's one of them. And that's not going to apply to everyone. So we've got lots of other ones, right? I'm a big fan. This sounds a terrible sentence, but I'm a big fan of grief and loss. Yeah. You like the grief and loss, but just such a powerful thing to really understand and do on a regular basis whether you think there's anything official to grieve or not. So that's one. Relationships, every relationship. You know, we can tackle communication. We could do it a nice little health.

one. Draw our bloods right in front of you are draw our bloods. Draw our bloods. Yeah. You know, life stages, lots of developmental stuff that would be really fascinating to go into. It's almost like you're here this weekend partially, not just hang out and be here and you are and that's great, but also there's a little bit of that going on in our lives.

A lot of that going on. So we have some personal experience with it so we can speak to some of that. But also I'm guessing there's a lot of, I don't know, historical data on how end of life care and preparing for financial, emotional, physical needs. There's probably a lot there. Yeah, we can talk about Swedish death cleaning. There's lots of things that. I don't even know what that.

That sounds like a movie. Yeah, I asked a bunch of Swedes. No one had ever heard of it. So I don't know if it's just a branding thing. But the concept is that you clean out your world and life so your kids don't have to. But there's some specifics to it, which are kind of fun. But we can look at like all away from like early developmental stuff. And we could talk about how hard it is to be in your 20s.

You know, like there's a lot of, a lot of wisdom we have just from our own experience, but also, you know, we'll dive into like what to do with certain things. Yeah. Rather than just like, oh, that's hard to be old. And as somebody with some kids in their 20s, I got questions. So a lot of these episodes, like if you heard the old episodes, you'll know, or if you listen to TMS Therapy Thursdays, I tend to pipe in with sometimes bad questions. But that'll be my job is to say, oh, because I met a guy.

who set his hair on fire. What does that say about him and his mother or whatever? That's going to be my job. Wendy's job is to bring like hard science and quantitatively good advice from years of not only her experience, but others, and bring it to bear here at the show. And the other one I have on my list, and this really is more of a question because I think not everyone finds this as interesting as me, so I'm just doing a reality check here. But I think six sessions on diagnosis would be really interesting. Oh, interesting. And like what do you give me an example? Like if I, is it because we're over diagnosing today? Is that where this comes from? No, I don't think that's the case. I think we could talk about that exact thing. Um, and how as we get

better, um, at understanding things and the nuances of different presentations. Yeah. We're better at doing it. There's better access. There's less stigma. So you're going to have things like that. But we could talk about like ADHD, for example. as a as a diagnosis we could talk about the history of it the where that came from autism i think is going to be a really important one to discuss um you know it be nice if we could dispel some myths around all of it you hear people say well all of it yes but you hear people say all the time my mark or my day you never heard about autism i'm like yeah but you knew like six kids in your class that were kind of weird and a different and you didn't know why there was an entire home where those kids were

sent yeah so that we could all ignore them and have them not be part of society like i really I love dispelling those sorts of stigmas because people think it's like, well, you're just, this is just a modern construct. There's no such thing as autism. You didn't even hear about the first cat. I'm like, yeah, that's what progress is called. Yeah. You didn't hear about the first planet until we figured out there were more.

100%. So we'll go through that. But I mean, even just like, how do dual diagnosis work when you've got two things going on? How do you pull stuff apart? How it affects people? I think, I mean, everyone needs an abnormal psych class in their life to diagnose everyone. in their world. And so we'll just do a mini one for everybody. I like that. Um, break some of that apart. And even, we can even go really, uh, fundamental sorts of things of like how to stop

procrastination or manage your time better, stuff like that. So we really want your feedback of what are the things you're craving to go deeper on. If you could go to therapy, but just listen to Scott and I do it. Yeah. Yeah. What do you want to know? What do you want to hear? What do you want to hear in that tiny, that tiny, uncomfortable room? Here's the thing, though, uh, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, We are going to do this in a way that everybody publicly, if they want to get a hold of this thing, they can. All right. So it'll be publicly available on a public RSS feed.

No weirdness there. It'll also, there'll be an alternate version that goes up on YouTube every time. Wherever we can put audio, we'll put it. But we're going to support the thing via Patreon. And that's where things get interesting because specifically, I think it provides us an opportunity for those who are most interested, not only in their own mental health, perhaps in the mental health around them

and the folks they're related to or otherwise with, I think that they're going to want to belly up and maybe have more access to even broader content. And we'll give them that. We're not ready to announce what those levels are or how they're going to break down exactly, but we have a few ideas, them are bouncing them around.

Before that goes, that won't be live for a while anyway. So when it does, though, we'll have a good idea of the kind of benefits you can get if you want to support the show directly. we think that you know fan support is really the best support these days and so we look forward to doing that but if you're worried about it you're like oh I got no money and my phone barely works but if I didn't have podcasts I go crazy don't worry we still have this will all be out there

and available to people one other note I want to make is even though Wendy's got a pretty broad idea of some of the stuff we want to cover it's not everything and we do want to hear from you directly. Some of this is based on things that we've heard from you already. So take advantage of a brand new category I just put inside of our Discord. So it's a server in our Discord called the Therapy Show. And it's just under General for now. It's real easy to find. And our Discord takes nothing to sign up for. You just go to FrogPants.com slash Discord. All the details will be on the on the therapy page as well. I'll get to that in a second. But flood over there and just start posting in there the things you want to hear and see, all right?

Like, if you want to hear about, I don't know, how come grandma, who used to be so careful, is now just farting up a storm? I don't know what it is. Would anyone like to know what just happened in Scott's brain? We could go into that as well. We could do some of that if you'd like. But I think that there's enough diversity of life experience out there

that you're going to have some questions that we're not thinking of. So please contribute over there. That would be great. That's, again, frogpants.com slash discord. It'll get you in. Just look for the therapy show and you're in like Flynn. Start leaving your ideas. So we're looking forward to that.

Because if not, I might just talk about what I want, which might be potential studies I'd like to see done. Sure. And none of you will care. Well, you've got your finger on the pulse of things and you probably have a broader sense of what is going on. But I know there's specifics that we're not going to know or that we're not going to be thinking about.

and no discrimination. Like you may think your thing is small or big. Just post it in there and we'll talk about it and we'll see what's what, all right? And we'll do it all anonymously. We're not going to take your, you know, we're not going to drag your name around or anything like that. So do you have trauma in your life? Do you have something unresolved? Was there abuse when you were young?

Are you, I don't know, are you older now and you're used to think midlife was a myth? And now you're starting to feel it. or whatever, whatever those things are. I think we're going to probably have episodes that will help people like that. And we want to make sure we cover them. So I think of, you know, in my typical workday, I've got, let's say, eight clients, and we've got one struggling with burnout, someone with social anxiety, somebody with, you know, they got to keep their camera off and they cannot, you know, sort of function or leave their house.

We go from that to, you know, I just need to learn how to get out of a fight with my wife and make this more effective. or something, right? So there can be just a range of things, and I want to cover what is important to people, and then also hopefully surprise you with some things you didn't think were on your radar, but they are, or they're coming for you. Sure, and we'll do it in a nice, concise way. There may be an opportunity to do some live stuff. I can tell you for one example, one of the benefits I want to give patrons is the ability to have like maybe a special live streamed edition where we talk directly to those supporters about maybe, maybe even more personal stuff, very specific to them or whatever. We don't know what this all looks like yet, but the plan is obviously to have a wide range

of stuff so that you guys can get the most out of it. The truth is, I mean, yes, we need to, you know, do a Patreon to pay some bills to make this thing happen. But really, the main goal is to help people with stuff. And you've all got stuff, whether you want to admit it or not, all of you do. So it's a chance to maybe deal with some of that and, you know, help us come up with some ideas for the kinds of things you want us to cover. It's going to be very exciting. It's going to be great. Yeah, because we haven't done this since, like I said, like 2014. Yeah. It's been a minute. It was a long time ago. And a few things happened. A lot has happened. Like, I got pandemic questions up the wazoo. Yeah. As dad would say. Remember, he liked the wazoo.

Up the wazoo on a daily basis. They were into wazoo. He said wazoo, wazoo, daily basis and X number of dollars. yep. The big three. So we'll cover that. Yeah, but I got questions about, like, so many questions about why did that time frame feel so weird and compressed? And has anybody really dealt with the collective trauma of it? You know? Yeah. And I know we haven't. Yeah. I feel like I haven't. Right. So some of that. I'm going to peel back that onion. Yeah. And try not to cry. All right. Yeah. And there's a bit of like, you know, you might have had a a different experience than maybe someone near you or maybe your entire family just stopped talking to each other, right? And sort of, we want to also solve stuff, right? So what do you do in

that case? What if the divide in your relationships just feels too big? Yeah. What are some things we can do? And I'm also going to throw some health things in here. So please ask some health questions. Oh, yeah. And it's all tied together anyway. It's all good. Yeah. So we're, yeah, we're here for it. Like I was that my grumpiest and my fattest during the pandemic? Yeah, same. And so it's Raise your hand if you weren't. I know. I feel like everybody and their dog knows what we're talking about. But why was that? And we'll get into the why. And we'll also get into the how to get out of it because I'll bet there's people still sort of trapped in that. I was until not long ago. And I finally started getting all that stuff back on track. Or even take the decision making

fatigue or the burnout that I think collectively everyone felt. So we could talk about how How do collective groups of people deal with trauma or not process different things, right? But if you take that, just I can't look forward to something. I think that was a pretty universal experience because it was going to get canceled on you or there would have been conflict or whatever. And I know with folks in my stage that had kids in school, it was like, just please, don't email me and never tell me something might happen. But just how that's the long-term impact of that, of making plans.

or decisions and what happens to humans. So there's a lot. That's a bottomless pit. So we can always go there as well. I know there are people who had kids in school during all that. And I have huge amounts of sympathy for those people. But I also have a hard time relating to it because in my case, it was more like my kids had just gotten done and were in college and doing other things and it affected them.

But in a different way, they were being told their whole lives, hey, you turn 18, you hit the ground run and let's go. Your whole life, your career, your plans, your college, or this. that and in a lot of ways like in carter's case she did she did all the paint by number stuff you're supposed to do the part that was not normal is the part she had zero control over which is this huge change across the world in a very sudden way right and also now we're on the other side of it with crazy inflation and job weirdness and the industry specifically that she studied for is in all kinds of turmoil and you don't plan for that no we got a whole thing on

what you think you're planning for versus the reality of what you get, it's never what you think it is. And if it isn't, it's usually because someone else is pulling the strings for you. Right. When you're on your own, freaking stuff happens, man. Yeah. And, you know, the flexibility to zig and zag and figure life out. And this is how you know you're getting old when, you know, the other night we're with a bunch of family and some people that were not family.

And I'm talking to these young women about their goals and what they just, they're studying and graduating in. And they're saying all this stuff. The 18-year-old was just like, I'm going to study criminal justice. Wow. And, you know, all the optimism. And then someone who had graduated was just like, well, I've studied apparel and it kind of ruined my vibe. And I thought, oh, honey, honey, all of this will change 10 more times. And it's just nobody wants to hear that from anybody.

But you're going to hear it in this format where you will not feel like I'm pointing at you and saying, oh, sweetie. Yeah. And I think young or old, you know, wherever you are in your life. span. I think you're going to get something out of this. We'll make sure of it. We will make sure of it. And look, we already kind of do this on TMS in a small way. And this is just a bigger way of doing similar stuff and going just a little bit further with it. So your involvement matters the most. Please come and talk to us via the Discord. I'm also going to have a website set up for this, although it's not up yet, but it will be shortly at frogpans.com slash therapy. Right now,

it just says coming soon. But by the time most people hear this, it should have at least links to the things we've talked about so far and we'll keep building that up as the show gets ready to launch. And you can expect a week to week format for the season. So it'll be, you know, when one launches, let's say it starts on the first, you'll get the whole thing within six weeks straight with some sort of break in between. So just to give you an idea of how the cadence is going to work. And then as always, we'll take your emails, we'll take your texts and your phone calls and whatever other way you want to communicate with us.

And sprinkle those throughout as well because I think that kind of feedback is good. So anyway, anything else we want to tell these fine people about our plans? I mean, my job is just to be the dork. Yeah. My job is to run the controls and act like I don't know nothing.

In a lot of cases, I won't. Wendy's the professional with years of information behind her and all her experience. And I'm quite good at steering you. She's very good at steering me. She's interesting to watch drive a Tesla for the first time. I know. I can't believe I drove a car I make fun of.

Yeah. You did good, though. We got here. We made it here in one piece and the battery is still charged somehow. So everything's fine. I didn't crash or harm anyone. It all worked out. But that's my point is we also will make this fun.

It's always a good time. I'm going to misinterpret something or I'm going to hear something and go a completely weird way. And Wendy's going to get us all the correct information so that all the other dummies out there like me, maybe learn something. All right? Yeah. That's the goal. So anyway, go bookmark it, frogpants.com slash therapy and all the links to everything will be there, including the Patreon when that's ready and all that other stuff.

And if you have questions, let us know in the Discord. We'd love to hear them. You can also text us 801-471-0462. And you can also leave voicemails there if you are inclined to do so. I think that's it. Yeah. You good? I'd love a stumper too.

So if anyone is like, you know what, I have been holding this back because I don't think Wendy's capable. Bring it. I would love the hardest thing you can throw at me And we will make sure I figured it out for you I mean I have so many that I just hope come up in passing Like I'm not going to make them the subject of anything But I know there's going to be episodes where Like mother-in-law issues will come to bear

And I'll have something to throw in there Because right now I got stuff You got a mother-in-law Yeah And she's sometimes she's a little hard Yeah And her and I I don't know

That's one of those things. But everybody's got these relationships. That's what we are. We're humans. Nobody's living in a cave. If you are, you're not even getting the show. So what do you care? You don't care.

You're in the cave. You're fine. You found a way out. Good luck to you. Well, and also just like, how do I handle the... So often we can have like an intellectual understanding. So I'm hoping a piece of this also is practical, right? Like, I'm going to have you practice some stuff.

Yeah. You know, I'm a fan of homework. She loves homework. I might be given you some things you can... So you can go as deep as you want or this can be just, you know... No, homework in the traditional, like, school system way where they just throw paper at you and tell you to do it, like specific exercises or things you need to do and then report on, like, there's accountability for that homework. Yeah. Like, that's a great way to challenge yourself.

Even if you're just virtually doing it on the other end of this show, you'll benefit from that stuff. It's a good, it's a good process to go through. It's good stuff. Well, I'm looking forward to it. Me too. It's a whole new world. 2014, eat your heart out. It's time for a new day.

2024. Here we are. Yeah, it'll be great. I'm looking forward to it. Now, as far as how often Wendy and I will be able to do these live, whenever we can be in the same space, we'll do that. But we'll be doing them, you know, remotely. I might even have my camera on. She might even have her camera on.

I will. We might even live stream this every time we do it. These decisions haven't been completely solidified. But if we do that, we have the technology. Yeah. And Wendy might need one of you to help her with a microphone. phone. I got recommendations.

We're going to get that. I got good recommendations I can make. And Adam, Adam can give you a Mother's Day or something. Well, anyway, that's going to do it. Thank you all for listening. We look forward to having you here soon. So do check back.

And we'll talk to you soon. Bye.