My Take: Mental Health Podcasts That Resonate
By Asma G
I started listening to podcasts during the pandemic, when I began walking around my building, in an effort to avoid going stir-crazy. During my hour-long walks, I discovered a number of delightful podcasts that I still listen to. Some are so good that I have even ended up listening to them a second time. Below are some personal favourites:
Dear Therapists
The Dear Therapists podcast began airing in 2020 and features therapists Lori Gottlieb (the author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, which I reviewed here) and Guy Winch (the author of Emotional First Aid). In each episode or session, Gottlieb and Winch read a letter from a listener and engage in a one-time therapy session with them.
Both therapists provide actionable advice to the person who has written-in to the show and follow-up with the “fellow traveler” (as they call their listeners) a few days later to understand how things have progressed. Occasionally the show also has ‘one year later’ follow up sessions with guests to understand how they have fared and what went well and what didn’t over the course of the year since their one-time session with Gottlieb and Winch.
With a podcast fairy godmother as formidable as Katie Couric, two podcast hosts who are also acclaimed writers and have their own therapy columns – Gottlieb writes the Ask the Therapist column for the New York Times while Guy used to answer writers’ questions in the Dear Guy column in TED) – it is no wonder that Dear Therapists is a popular podcast. It’s also my favourite podcast.
Parents who write cruel letters to their children, jealous siblings, shopping addictions, infidelity, bereavement – the podcast has it all. Each episode is unique and the team behind the podcast does a wonderful job of selecting complex queries to delve into each week.
Given how access to therapy is incredibly limited, the podcast is a great listen for all adult audiences. It serves as an introduction to therapy and each episode is filled with incredible stories from listeners and fascinating insights from both therapists. On some walks, I actually stop to process what I have heard on the podcast because of how profound it is and how much I resonate with it. That might defeat the purpose of the walk, but hey, at least I got some of my steps in along with the benefit of being a fly-on-the-wall in someone’s therapy session.
Note: The podcast has 4 seasons but the ordering of the episodes on Spotify and Apple Podcasts is erratic. The original episodes from seasons 1-4 have been re-posted (not in chronological order) with the word ‘Encore’ as a prefix in the episode title.
Best Friend Therapy
Best Friend Therapy features Elizabeth Day, a well-known author and podcaster, and her best friend Emma Reed Turrell, a therapist and author, in conversation about various topics relating to mental health, hence the name of the podcast.
Episodes focus on boundaries, introversion and extroversion, gaslighting, attachment styles, amongst a host of other topics. In some episodes, Reed Turrell also demonstrates how she would help Day if she were a client of hers through the help of Live Therapy sessions by dissecting Day’s behaviour and patterns.
Both hosts are authors, with Day having several books to her name and hosting the podcast How to Fail (she has written a book of the same name). Reed Turrell released her latest book titled What Am I Missing in 2024. What makes the show such an enjoyable podcast to listen to is Day and Reed Turrell’s banter and their conviviality. While the show is obviously scripted and well-planned, that doesn’t come across at all while listening to the show. In fact, it feels more like you’re listening in on a conversation between two best friends, with all their inside jokes and backstories that you are somehow privy to. Since the show spans 7 seasons, it has given an opportunity to listeners like myself to really feel like we know both Day and Reed Turrell.
Their tagline “Two best friends, one therapist, no filter, that’s Best Friend Therapy”, plays on a loop in my mind every time I come across any of Day’s written work.
The podcast was renamed Friendship Therapy in 2024 and now features only Emma Reed Turrell, but the previous episodes featuring Day and Reed Turrell are still available on both Spotify and Apple Podcasts under the original name, Best Friend Therapy.
The Anxious Achiever
Host Morra Aarons-Mele, an author and marketing executive, who has a book by the same name (The Anxious Achiever), engages in conversation with business leaders, executives, and public personalities about mental health, mental illness and the impact mental illness has had on their lives.
What makes the podcast incredibly powerful is the podcast’s guests’ willingness to delve deep into their struggles and their honesty in narrating moments of self-doubt, failure, and illness. Guests include Harley Finkelstein, the president of Shopify, and Russell Glass, the former CEO of Headspace.
As an anxious achiever myself, I remember being taken aback by how many of my own traits I saw reflected in the podcast’s guests. In fact, it was through the course of listening to the podcast that I came to realise and accept that I was in fact, quite anxious.
The show is a great reminder that everyone has mental health, that mental illness can affect anyone, and that being proactive about one’s mental health is always a good idea.
Share your take! Do any of these resonate with you? Do you have other podcasts you’d like to recommend? Keep us posted!
About the Author: Asma G is a feminist writer with an interest in public policy and mental health. You can read more of her pieces right here, and find her on Instagram at @asmag7
