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What if the heart of OCD isn’t just compulsion and control, but grief steady, daily, and often unnamed? We sit down with our returning guest, Bryn Murphy, a clinician who lives with OCD, to map the hidden losses that shape this diagnosis: time swallowed by rituals, spontaneity crushed by rigidity, identity tugged by relentless doubt, and relationships frayed by reassurance cycles. From there, we build a gentler, fuller way forward, one that pairs evidence-based therapy with grief literacy, community care, and practices that restore presence in the moments that matter most.

We talk candidly about how Western grief norms rush people back to “functioning” and how that pressure collides with the realities of OCD. You’ll hear why ERP and inference-based CBT remain essential and where they can miss the emotional core unless we add rituals of mourning, narrative reframes, and family involvement. We unpack egodystonic thoughts, shame, and the nervous system’s hijack, then offer simple prompts that help reclaim a minute, a conversation, or a sunset from OCD’s demands. Our guest also shares personal stories of loss, including parental death, and how openness, not secrecy, created space for healing and resilience.

This conversation challenges stigma and ableism by humanizing OCD and acknowledging its surprising gifts alongside very real pain: meticulous care that serves craft, deep empathy born from struggle, and hard-won capacity for presence. If you’ve ever wondered who you might have been without OCD or how to live more fully with it, you’ll find language, tools, and hope here. Listen, reflect, and share with someone who needs a gentler map. If this resonated, subscribe, leave a review, and tell us: what loss are you finally ready to name?

Bryn Murphy @ www.blueravenfamilycounseling.com

A Hero's Welcome Podcast © Maria Laquerre-Diego & Liliana Baylon

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The fastest way to burn out in therapy is to believe you have to be available for everyone, all the time, no matter what your body is doing. We’ve both lived that lie, and after a powerful AAMFT leadership weekend, we can’t unsee what it costs. A workshop from Ashley Hicks on Leadership and Radical Self-Care gave us language for what we’ve been trying to practice: radical self-care is not a treat, it’s a leadership skill and an act of self-love that keeps clinicians sustainable.

We talk about the weird double standard in our field: we tell people to set boundaries, then we call them “unethical” when they use them. We connect burnout to real-life health realities, including surgery recovery and the cycle of working to pay medical bills while work makes health worse. If you’re a therapist, supervisor, or practice owner, we dig into what accountability actually looks like: not just saying “take care of yourself,” but building norms that support time off, slower response times, and honest check-ins.

You’ll also get practical ideas you can try immediately: do-not-disturb rules that protect family time, deleting the email app during vacation, turning off notifications, setting admin blocks for documentation, and finding an accountability partner when “no” feels hard. We end with a values-based prompt to sketch your radical self-care vision and take one small step toward it.

If this conversation hits home, subscribe, share it with a colleague who needs permission to breathe, and leave us a review so more therapists can find it. What boundary are you ready to protect this week?

A Hero's Welcome Podcast © Maria Laquerre-Diego & Liliana Baylon

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What if dissociation isn’t the enemy but a form of wisdom your nervous system uses to protect what’s most sacred? We sat down with Marshall for a candid, grounded conversation about dissociation, spirituality, and why mental health’s obsession with neat categories can unintentionally harm the people we’re trying to help.

We unpack the four domains: thought, feeling, body, and time as a practical way to notice what goes offline and why, without shaming the system for doing its job. Marshall shows how clinicians often overvalue coherent talk while missing the quiet exits of the body or time, and he offers a simpler path: think with complexity, act with simplicity. We talk about mixed states that don’t fit tidy regulation charts, the reality of living in a high-threat, high-input world, and how strategic distance can be an act of love. Along the way, we explore how to pace reconnection with full consent so clients feel met, not handled.

We go deep on cultural humility and ancestral knowing, naming the risks of pathologizing altered states that some lineages have cultivated for centuries. We also address trend-chasing and monetization: how to vet teachers, respect the communities that shaped these practices, and avoid repeating colonized patterns in the name of healing. Marshall draws a clear line between religion as a potential anchor and dogma as an override, inviting a spirituality that restores intuition and autonomy. Together we practice non-duality, two things can be true, so people can hold grief and hope, distance and presence, critique and care.

If you’re a therapist, supervisor, or curious listener who’s tired of fear-based hierarchies and ready for ethics that expand choice, this conversation offers language, maps, and courage. Subscribe, share with a colleague, and leave a review with one insight you’re taking into your next session.

Marshall Lyles @ https://www.marshalllyles.com

A Hero's Welcome Podcast © Maria Laquerre-Diego & Liliana Baylon