It’s officially that time of year; the holiday stretch where your nervous system is doing the most and your calendar is acting like you don’t need sleep. So consider this your gritty little holiday check-in.

In this quick episode, we keep it real about what actually helps us stay sane during the holidays: the traditions that bring comfort, the boundaries we're holding (even when guilt shows up), and why keeping a few anchor routines can be the difference between “holiday magic” and total burnout.

You’ll hear:

• The simple family traditions that keep things grounded (food, movies, Christmas Eve appetizers… all the cozy)
• A reminder you don’t have to wear your therapist hat at family gatherings
• How routines can be regulating and even more enjoyable when you’re not racing to session
• Permission to let the mess exist (hello, chaos) while you stay connected to what steadies you

If you’re a newer therapist, or you’re in the messy middle and feeling stretched thin, this one’s for you: a little grit, a little glitter, and a whole lot of “you’re not alone.”

Happy holidays, friend and don’t forget: subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and come hang with us on Instagram.

✨ Check out our freebies and our NEW Grit School:

• Therapist AF: Grit School for the Real World, practical skills, nervous system grounding, and the reps grad school skipped
• The Gritty Therapist freebies, tools, and support: thegrittytherapist.com
• The Cord Where Science Meets Connection attachment/trauma-focused therapy.

Follow along on Instagram @grittytherapist and go get your gritty on. 💛

The holidays can be magical… but for therapists? They can also feel like a pressure cooker filled with client crises, family expectations, over-responsibility, and the quiet fear that taking time off means you’re “letting someone down." and going broke.

In this candid, cozy, and surprisingly hilarious episode, we get grinchy, in the best, most therapeutic way possible.

If you’ve ever:
✨ booked clients during a holiday week and immediately regretted it
✨ felt guilty for wanting (or needing) actual time off
✨ questioned whether you’re doing “enough”
✨ found yourself emotionally over-involved in clients’ family chaos
✨ struggled to turn your therapy brain off

…this episode is a must-listen.

We share four grounded, grit-building strategies that have changed not just our holiday seasons, but our entire careers as trauma-trained therapists, supervisors, and practice owners. Through stories from the courtroom, client sessions, foster care work, family traditions, and classic holiday movies (yes, even the Grinch), you’ll get the permission, validation, and practical tools you didn’t know you needed.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why you must schedule like a Grinch (and how to stop feeling guilty about it)
• How to remember you are enough, even when you're not actively “helping”
• How to release over-responsibility and stop holding every family system together
• A simple visualization to “take off your therapy hat” and reclaim your actual life
• How to create emotional boundaries that make you a better therapist

This episode mixes warmth, humor, clinical wisdom, and the exact kind of honesty therapists rarely get. Consider it your holiday reset button, packed with reminders that therapists are human beings first and that gritty self-compassion is not optional… it’s essential.

Whether you're walking into the holidays feeling connected, depleted, overwhelmed, or somewhere in-between, this conversation will help you breathe deeply, soften your shoulders, and choose what you need this season.

✨ Check out our freebies and our NEW Grit School:

• Therapist AF: Grit School for the Real World, practical skills, nervous system grounding, and the reps grad school skipped
• The Gritty Therapist freebies, tools, and support: thegrittytherapist.com
• The Cord Where Science Meets Connection attachment/trauma-focused therapy.

Follow along on Instagram @grittytherapist and go get your gritty on. 💛

As a mental health therapist, do you ever secretly think, “How did I even get here… and do I actually know what I’m doing?” 👀

This episode is for every new, provisionally licensed, early-career therapist or even someone who's been doing this a while, who’s quietly spiraling over imposter syndrome, boundaries, and “faking it till you make it.”

In this episode, we welcome our very first guest, Jamie Adler, a therapist at The Cord who went from intern, to provisional, to a fully licensed clinician and practice leader at our Fremont location.

Jamie gets honest about:

• What it was really like going from grad school to the therapy room.
• The moment she told her supervisors, “Just tell me what to do,” and got both a loving cheerleader and a gritty reality check.
• Why “fake it till you make it” was actually grit in disguise.
• How her primal question, “Am I wanted?”, fed her imposter syndrome as a new therapist
• Cringey, funny early-therapist moments (hello, doing dishes and teaching double-boiling on telehealth 👋).
• Learning to invite rupture and repair instead of avoiding conflict with clients, colleagues, and supervisors.
• How she learned to protect her time and set boundaries with work, email, and after-hours crisis texts.
• Finding “her one person” for mentorship and how that changed everything.
• Using RO-DBT work to understand herself and support her clients.

If you’re a therapist who:

• Feels like a rookie and is terrified someone will “find out” you don’t know enough.
• Wants mentorship, consultation, and real-talk more than another theory chapter.
• Struggles to turn work off when you get home to your partner, kids, or pets.
• Is trying to balance being a “good therapist” with being a whole human with a life.

…this episode will help you see that you’re not failing, you’re growing, and that discomfort is actually your confidence showing up.

You’ll walk away with:

• A new way to think about success vs. failure (hint: it’s really about growing vs. staying stuck).
• Practical language for talking about rupture and repair with clients.
• Permission to set boundaries around your time without abandoning your clients.
• Encouragement to seek mentorship, supervision, and community instead of white-knuckling it alone.
• A grounded reminder that you belong in this field, even on the days you feel like you don’t.

✨ Check out our freebies and our NEW Grit School:

• Therapist AF: Grit School for the Real World, practical skills, nervous system grounding, and the reps grad school skipped
• The Gritty Therapist freebies, tools, and support: thegrittytherapist.com
• The Cord Where Science Meets Connection attachment/trauma-focused therapy.

Follow along on Instagram @grittytherapist and go get your gritty on. 💛