Scratch That: Parenting & ReParenting Off Script

🎙️ An Ode to Therapy : Internal Family Systems with Sacha Mardou

Jan 6, 2025

In a riveting conversation, Sacha Mardou, the author of the graphic memoir "Past Tense," opens up about her battle with anxiety and her transformative journey through therapy. She discusses the importance of self-compassion and creativity in healing, and shares insights on Internal Family Systems therapy. Sacha also reflects on how these experiences shape her parenting, especially with her teenager. With honesty and clarity, she navigates the messy, nonlinear path of personal growth and advocates for open communication within families.

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ANECDOTE

Sketchbook Therapy

Sacha Mardou meticulously documented her therapy sessions in a sketchbook diary during her commute.
This practice helped her process the sessions and ensured she felt she got her "money's worth."

INSIGHT

Difficult Truths

Therapy provides valuable feedback that friends might not offer.
Sacha's therapist pointed out her lack of empathy, which she found initially hurtful but ultimately transformative.

ADVICE

Navigating Therapy

Communicate openly with your therapist about your needs and goals.
Sasha successfully switched therapists and later returned to her original therapist with new goals.

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We wish every single one of you could sit in the presence of Sacha Mardou. Until that day, we offer you this hearts-out, into-the-depths-of-it-together conversation. Author of the graphic memoir, Past Tense, Sacha shares her story of developing anxiety when she turned 40, going to therapy for the first time, and learning that her childhood story was still with her, waiting for her self-compassion. Rich with insight and never trite, she honors the mess, the nonlinear, the unfixable alongside the hope for meaningful change. Not only did Sacha share her own stories and wisdom, but she embodied a sharp clarity and generosity in her presence with us, showcasing, in real time, her hard earned therapy tool belt.

A heads-up for caution and care – around 36 minutes into this episode, Sacha references her mother being sexually assaulted at the age of 13.

Tune in to hear us talk about:

📝 How to adult through therapy – e.g. How do you know how long to go? When to go back? When to switch therapists? How do you process/document what you’re learning? How do you act as a self-advocate in therapy?

💓 Naming the parts of ourselves trying to hold us together with harshness and rigidity, and the importance and challenge of self-compassion.

🌈 Creativity as a bridge to connecting with and understanding Self.

📓 Sacha’s mini lesson on Internal Family Systems.

🧑‍🧒 How therapy shapes the way Sacha shows up as a parent (and how that’s changed now that she has a teenager).

🔓 Closed family communication systems versus open family communication systems.

🔄 Legacy burdens and repeated family traumas.

🔨 Grappling with the reality that we can’t fix ourselves enough to be perfect parents and learning to model owning our mistakes and repairing relationships.

⏰ Having the tools but feeling like we don’t have the time, energy, or wherewithal to implement them.

To learn more about Sasha Mardou, you can find her on Instagram and through her website. Also, check out her books, Past Tense and Sky and Stereo.

We would love to hear from you! What has your experience been with (or without) therapy? What has been the best and hardest, most and least meaningful, frustrating, fulfilling, disappointing, healing part of it?

Find us on instagram @sitting_pretty ✨ @caitlinhasfeels