Whitney teams up with Samantha Dalton, group facilitator at Calling Home and host of the Nuance Needed podcast, to unpack season three of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. As someone who grew up in the Mormon church and is still actively deconstructing, Samantha provides invaluable cultural context for understanding the relational patterns, power dynamics, and trauma responses playing out in the show. They explore how religion and culture interweave to shape everything from marriages and gender roles to emotional maturity and family loyalty, and how even reality tv moments can create powerful moments of destigmatization and healing for viewers who have dealt with similar experiences.
Whitney Goodman is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) and the founder of Calling Home, a membership community that helps people navigate complex family dynamics and break harmful cycles.
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This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health advice.
Content warning: This episode discusses childhood sexual abuse, sexual assault, emotional abuse, and complicated relationship dynamics.
00:00 Introduction and content warning
01:43 Samantha's deconstruction journey
05:57 How Mormonism gets woven into every aspect of life
12:34 Early marriage and the impact on emotional development
23:51 Dad talk and coming to terms with their wives’ success
34:48 Therapy culture in the show
57:24 The power and consequences of sharing trauma on reality tv
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