I got the idea for this podcast in late 2019.

I had been in the field for several years at that point. Long enough to work through the first wave of impostor syndrome, experience my first episode of burnout, bounce back from burnout, get high on the grandiosity when I realized I really was helping people and changing their lives, go through the second wave of impostor syndrome when I realized there were some people I really WASN’T helping, and then settle somewhere relatively comfortable between confidence and humility.

When you’ve been in a field for a while, you start to get a sense of its parameters–the things you’re allowed to say, and allowed to think, the things regarded as self-evident truths that are off-limits for questioning.

And if you’re like me, after a while, you start to feel really constricted. Because outside those parameters a lot of things are happening, but aren’t being talked about, and there are unallowable ideas and perspectives that might contain pieces of the truth.

Truths that, if we confronted them, might actually make our work better.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

The first time I said something a therapist can’t say
Why therapists aren’t supposed to admit that they have unmet needs–or that their clients might meet some of them
Why breaking down clichés and archetypes of the good therapist needs more nuance than Instagram can handle
What’s coming up on the podcast

Learn more about Riva Stoudt:

Ep 01 - Why I Started A Therapist Can't Say That