Today, we are covering an important topic today, but maybe not in the way you expect. I’m joined by Rachel Mulholland (aka Shug CM), a therapist whom I met on TikTok because of her incredible content around sex education for children. Today’s focus is on how our lives as adults are impacted if we don’t get comprehensive sex education as children. Join us for the conversation!

Show Highlights:

• How KC’s story from her teenage years illustrates the gaps that most people have in their education about sex and the fact that sex ed is NOT a one-time conversation
• How “purity culture” is impacting teenagers in certain places in the US in damaging ways
• How even most comprehensive sex ed doesn’t address the pleasurable side of sex–and (for females) that the pleasure doesn’t have to come from another person
• How sexual predators take advantage of the lack of information in sex ed from SAFE places
• Why parents have real fear about talking to their kids about sex ed
• The effects of NOT educating kids that sex and pleasure don’t always go together
• Rachel’s Four Pillars of Safe Sex: confirmation, communication, lubrication, and enthusiastic participation
• Why parents should be aware when their kids are ready to hear and learn–and begin at the most basic level appropriate for their age
• How to answer those first little-kid questions around, “Where do babies come from?”
• Why curiosity is a foundational part of body talk for kids–not just around sexuality
• How parents can work through their own feelings around sex ed with their children
• Why Rachel’s next project is a book about body talk

Resources:

Connect with Rachel: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Website (coming soon!)

Recommended by Rachel: How Do You Make A Baby by Anna Fiske

Connect with KC: TikTok, Instagram, and Website 

Get KC’s book, How to Keep House While Drowning

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You have probably heard me say, “You can’t save the rainforest if you are depressed.” The truth is that eco-shame and eco-perfectionism can get in the way of our taking steps toward better functioning. If you have ever felt guilty for not being “eco-friendly enough,” this episode is for you! 

Rebecca Gray is an environmental epidemiologist. With her master’s degree in public health, she studies disease, the patterns of disease, and health at population levels within communities and countries. She also studies how factors in the environment impact health by causing and promoting disease. Rebecca works with government agencies like the EPA and CDC to develop water guidelines to keep pollutants out of the water supply. 

Show Highlights:

• How Rebecca has experienced forms of eco-shame in her profession
• How some people push the environmental movement in ways that are able-ist
• The trap we fall into to “embody the archetype” of the space we occupy
• How social media plays into the eco-perfectionism pressure we feel
• Why functionality matters more than the morality of what we do in care tasks, eating, the environment, etc. 
• Rebecca’s view of today’s environmental movement
• Why we should ask ourselves how an eco-behavior affects our health and well being
• What really does need to happen to prevent climate change
• How our capitalistic society colors what we can do to be eco-friendly
• How differing narratives make us feel pressured to make individual changes and collective changes to “save the world”
• How to identify what we need to function well, fill in gaps with eco-friendly behaviors, and learn how to conserve our energy
• How to take a more reasonable–and less stressful–view of sustainability swaps
• Actions that have the least impact and the most impact on environmentalism
• Rebecca’s advice about letting ourselves off the hook for the decisions we make

Links & Resources:

Connect with Rebecca: LinkedIn 

Connect with KC: TikTok and Instagram

Get KC's Book, How to Keep House While Drowning

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I’m back with one of my favorite guests who is always up for the challenge of a podcast–no matter what the topic is! I want to explore the term rejection sensitivity dysphoria and get Dr. Lesley Cook’s take on it because I have so many questions. Let’s learn more together!

 Dr. Lesley Cook is a psychologist who works with those with ADHD and other kinds of neurodivergence. Born and raised in Hawaii, she now lives in Virginia and works with children, adolescents, adults, couples, and families.

Show Highlights:

●      What RSD (rejection sensitivity dysphoria) is and how it is manifested

●      KC’s personal experience with RSD and feelings of worthlessness

●      How RSD is different from sensory sensitivity and autism

●      Thoughts about the strong word dysphoria in RSD

●      KC’s personal experience with RSD and being told she is “too sensitive”

●      How we can grow, change, and find regulatory strategies for RSD

●      Why it is difficult to communicate the facets and nuances of RSD and other interpersonal difficulties

Resources and Links:

Connect with Dr. Lesley Cook: TikTok

Connect with KC: Website, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook

Get KC’s book, How to Keep House While Drowning

We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: www.strugglecare.com/promo-codes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What’s your organizing style? Are you a bee, ladybug, cricket, or butterfly? Find out in today’s episode as professional organizer, Cassandra Aarssen explains how to tidy and organize according to your natural organizational style. Cas is a self-proclaimed “recovering super slob” on a mission to help other families who struggle with disorganization and clutter. Join us!

Show Highlights:

• Cas’s journey to Chief Clutterbug status
• Four organizational types, according to how you naturally sort and store your everyday things:
• Butterfly: You are a visual person who wants simple, quick, and easy organizational systems.
• Bee: You love visual and organizational abundance and are meticulous and detail-oriented, preferring to see your everyday items instead of hiding them away. 
• Cricket: You love visual simplicity and organizational abundance, wanting to hide items out of sight, but you are detail-oriented and methodical.
• Ladybug: You love visual and organizational simplicity and prefer all your items hidden out of view with fast, easy solutions.
• Find your balance between wanting to put things away easily and wanting to find things easily. (You can’t have it both ways!)
• Parenting challenges in helping your kids learn to organize
• Cas’s best organizing advice for butterflies: Use plastic bins, baskets, buckets, and labels.
• Consider your “valuable real estate” from waist to eye level.
• Establish a “drop zone” in your home.
• Best tips from Cas and KC for keeping and organizing all the kids’ papers and artwork
• Cas’s best organizing advice for bees: Use clear, stacking bins and pegboards for meticulous organization. (Fun fact: Most hoarders are actually bees!)
• Cas’s best organizing advice for crickets: Use lots of styles for traditional organization.
• Cas’s best organizing advice for ladybugs: Use drawer dividers, bins, and baskets (with no lids).

Resources and Links:

Connect with Cas: Website (and Resources)

Preorder my new book: Struggle Care Website, Amazon, and Bookshop

Connect with KC: Website, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook

Get KC’s book, How to Keep House While Drowning

We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: www.strugglecare.com/promo-codes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We’re bringing back one of our most insightful and impactful episodes! In our very first episode, you heard my conversation with Dr. Lesley Cook about executive functioning. She had so much wisdom to share that I couldn’t wait to have her back—this time, to explore the topic of self-compassion.

Is it possible to have too much self-compassion? How do we find the balance between being kind to ourselves while still striving for progress? Dr. Lesley shares her expertise, breaking down the complexities of self-compassion and how it plays a crucial role in our personal growth.

About Our Guest:

Dr. Lesley Cook is a psychologist specializing in ADHD and neurodivergence. Born and raised in Hawaii, she now lives in Virginia, where she works with children, adolescents, adults, couples, and families.

Show Highlights:

✅ Finding the balance between self-compassion and personal growth

✅ Understanding self-compassion through Dr. Kristin Neff’s work

✅ The role of shame and how it connects to self-compassion

✅ Strategies for shifting from shame to self-compassion

✅ How self-compassion can become a learned behavior we pass down to our children

Link and Resources: 

Connect with Dr. Lesley: TikTok and Instagram

Connect with KC: TikTok and Instagram

Get KC's Book, How to Keep House While Drowning

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I have big news! Starting now, we will follow a new release schedule for the podcast, going to twice-a-month releases on the first and third Mondays. We’ve done weekly episodes for a couple of years now, and I need to free up some time for exciting upcoming projects. My new book releases on May 6 and is available now for preorder: Who Deserves Your Love? How to Create Boundaries that Start, Strengthen, or End Any Relationship. My next project is a cookbook that focuses on easy, stress-free meals and gentle nutrition with my compassionate philosophy. I’m also trying my hand at fiction writing with my first draft of a fantasy romance novel. I want every project to reflect my full passion and energy, and I feel strongly that it’s time to reallocate my focus toward these other endeavors. I’ll stick to the twice-monthly podcast release schedule for March, April, and May. The last episode in May will be the final episode of the Struggle Care podcast—for now. You never know what might happen in the future! Let’s keep in touch! Sign up for my newsletter at Struggle Care, and I promise not to overload your inbox!

Show Highlights:

• An exclusive sneak peek into my new book, Who Deserves Your Love? How to Create Boundaries that Start, Strengthen, or End Any Relationship
• My second book has the same disability advocacy perspective as my first book.
• You’ll find counter-culture messaging for communication and relationships.
• My book avoids standard attachment types and the language of codependency.
• An overview of the three parts of my book
• Listen as I read ch. 7 about The Decision Tree.
• It’s tricky to occupy the space between wanting to have compassion and grace for people while still having boundaries for yourself.

Resources and Links:

Preorder my new book: Struggle Care Website, Amazon, and Bookshop

Connect with KC: Website, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook

Get KC’s book, How to Keep House While Drowning

We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: www.strugglecare.com/promo-codes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I’m excited to have Rev. Lizzie return to the show today to discuss her new book, God Didn't Make Us To Hate Us. Rev. Lizzie is an Episcopal priest who has become a good friend–and is always a fun guest! Join us!

Show Highlights:

• Rev. Lizzie’s new book—and why she wrote it
• Considering the question, “Why do I believe what I believe?”
• The truth about Christianity means telling the WHOLE story.
• The comfort in being loved by God when we’ve been told by people that we are “bad and broken”
• Living in joy is THE goal.
• The four parts of Rev. Lizzie’s book
• A list of books which are foundational pieces of Rev. Lizzie’s faith journey
• Listen in while Rev. Lizzie reads a moving excerpt from her book about her birthing experience, sin, and God’s perfect love.

Resources and Links:

Connect with Rev. Lizzie: TikTok, Instagram, and God Didn't Make Us To Hate Us

Connect with KC: Website, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook

Get KC’s book, How to Keep House While Drowning

We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: www.strugglecare.com/promo-codes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Money, money, money—-today’s show is all about money! I’m joined by Dana Miranda, the author of You Don't Need a Budget: Stop Worrying about Debt, Spend without Shame, and Manage Money with Ease. Dana is here to discuss debt from a refreshing perspective, and she shares her best advice about how to proceed after finding your financial footing. Having a budget is NOT the answer to all of your money problems. Join us for expert advice from Dana!

Show Highlights:

• Dana’s path to the work she does today
• Money decisions are not purely black and white.
• What it means to be “Healthy Rich” (Check out Dana’s podcast: Healthy Rich.)
• Financial education is more than the demonization of debt.
• The fascination with shame as a way to bring behavior change around money (Does it really help to yell at people?)
• A healthy (and different) approach to debt
• Debt is strategic for the wealthiest 1%?? How?
• Understanding how debt products work and impact your credit score
• With debt, negotiation is always a possibility. Give it a try.
• Dana’s advice about debt products and red flags to look for
• Societal attitudes toward “acceptable debt”
• Addressing the gaps in financial knowledge for the typical American who finally achieves financial stability
• Accessible financial advice is available—where to look and who to trust
• Dana’s book: Who is it for and how can it help?

Resources and Links:

Connect with Dana Miranda: Healthy Rich podcast and You Don't Need a Budget book

Connect with KC: Website, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook

Get KC’s book, How to Keep House While Drowning

We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: www.strugglecare.com/promo-codes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today’s episode is about surviving abuse, and I’m joined by Lisa Phillips, an abuse survivor. She shares her horrifying experience of surviving abuse at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein, along with so many other young girls. Lisa hosts a podcast called From Now On, where she dives headfirst into stories of abuse and recovery. Join us.

Show Highlights:

• Lisa’s experience with Jeffrey Epstein when she was a young model in NYC
• Understanding the scope of sex trafficking and sexual predators
• Common questions survivors ask themselves: “Am I the crazy one? How could I not have known? How could I have been so stupid?”
• Red flags, boundaries, predators, and “the switch”
• Look out for “love bombers”!
• The irony of sharing a history of sexual abuse with a partner (“They want to abuse you in the same way you were abused.”)
• It’s hard to leave a relationship if you are trauma-bonded to that partner.
• Abuse makes you more at risk of being abused again.
• Lisa’s podcast guests, their stories, and universal experiences of abuse
• Talking to our kids about evil people and “bad guys”
• The main danger is NOT from strangers.

Resources and Links:

Connect with Lisa Phillips: Instagram, From Now On Podcast, Podcast Instagram, Podcast TikTok, and From Now On YouTube

Connect with KC: Website, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook

Get KC’s book, How to Keep House While Drowning

We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: www.strugglecare.com/promo-codes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Food rules, pop culture messaging, pressure, and the demonization of certain foods have huge impacts on the meals being eaten every day across the US. There is a better way to ensure we get the nutrition we need without beating ourselves up over the meals we eat. Dalina Soto, Your Latina Nutritionist, joins us for this eye-opening conversation. Join us!

Show Highlights:

• Including your culture is an important part of nutrition.
• Racial bias, demonized foods (like white rice), and pop culture messaging
• Food IS fuel—but there’s more to it than nutrition!
• Rethinking your nutritional hierarchy
• Decision-making fatigue in meal planning 
• Reevaluating the “food rules” we follow
• The “eating out” vs. “buying more groceries” dilemma for American families
• Dalina’s top tips for quick meals and easy hacks (An air fryer saves the day!)
• We, as women, put much of the pressure around nutrition on ourselves.
• Dealing with kids: the key is to keep offering new fruits and vegetables
• The beauty in finding a good nutritionist who doesn’t demonize cultural foods
• Dalina’s new book, coming in March: The Latina Anti-Diet

Resources and Links:

Connect with Dalina Soto: TikTok, Website, and The Latina Anti-Diet book

Connect with KC: Website, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook

Get KC’s book, How to Keep House While Drowning

We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: www.strugglecare.com/promo-codes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Where can you turn when a loved one is in the throes of addiction and needs help? How do you know what professionals to trust and if a treatment center is reputable? So many questions surround the topic of addiction treatment, and it’s a murky industry. We are discussing the seedy underbelly of the addiction industry with my guest. Heidi Voet, LPC, is a longtime mental health professional and the owner of Chapter House Counseling and Sober Living. Heidi and I take on this important topic and explain why, despite the problems, we would still send a loved one into treatment. Join us to learn more!

Show Highlights:

• Heidi’s take on the ugliness of the treatment industry
• Understanding the medical model of treatment vs. the community model
• 12-step programs, legalism, insurance corruption, and integrity
• The truth: Exploitation has bled into addiction treatment.
• The real dilemma for family members
• The struggle for political correctness while trying to intervene for an addict
• Heidi’s advice to families who want to intervene:
• Don’t intervene too fast. 
• Find the lowest level of appropriate care (think of a ladder of options).
• Be wise and ask questions of the consultant, case manager, or interventionist. (“Are you on the payroll of a treatment center?”)
• Speak to current clients, alumni, and families of the center.
• Red flags in your interaction with a treatment center and helpful questions to ask
• The need to consider gender-specific treatment
• Why KC would never recommend a wilderness treatment center
• Assessing a center’s approach to trauma, medications, and religious philosophies/affiliations

Resources and Links:

Connect with Heidi Voet and Chapter House Counseling: Website

Connect with KC: Website, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook

Get KC’s book, How to Keep House While Drowning

We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: www.strugglecare.com/promo-codes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices