Episodes

In this episode, I answer three of your questions: How do I deal with feeling ashamed of staying married to someone with a lot of problems? How do I communicate with someone with no communication skills? What are reasonable vs. unreasonable marriage expectations?

I’m back after a one-year break. Welcome to season 2. This season is going to focus more on unscripted responses to your questions submitted via Instagram (@DrAdamMoore), Facebook, and email. In this episode, I offer three unscripted responses to these questions: 1) How can marriage partners build a friendship? 2) How do I deal with my spouse’s mental illness? 3) What are your top tips for couples?

Everyone is stuck in their homes, practicing social distancing, and trying to plan ahead for when the toilet paper runs out. My wife, Lindsay, and I talk candidly about our thoughts, feelings, hopes, and dreams as they relate to the current global COVID-19 pandemic.

You’ve probably heard of the placebo effect at some point. But did you know that placebo is much more than a false treatment used in research studies? Did you know that you can access the power of placebo using hope, expectancy, and faith, in addition to a healing ritual? In this episode, I’ll go into some practical ways you can use your mind to heal itself.

We all need a default marital strategy that works in most situations. I dive into the dynamics of game theory to see if we can start to create a strategy that will give you the best chance at maximizing happiness for yourself and your spouse at the same time. We talk about how best to overcome past betrayal, without becoming an impenetrable emotional fortress or the ultimate doormat.

In this episode, I talk with marriage and family therapist, Micah Ingalls about how he can make a metaphor about fly fishing work to explain how starting out in “sex addiction” recovery

There are some people who just love the holidays with their whole soul. Then there’s everyone else. While holidays can be enjoyable, there is so much about that time of year that really makes life difficult. Relatives, too many get-togethers, gift giving and receiving, and way too much food. In this episode, I’ll give you six practical tips that will work wonders for helping you have a truly enjoyable holiday season, without needing six months of therapy starting in January.

What on Earth would possess someone to become a mental health professional? What kind of mental and emotional gymnastics are required to sit with people in pain all day long and want to wake up the next morning and do it all over again? Join me as I talk to Sam Major, our newest hire at Utah Valley Counseling, about why he and I decided to pursue therapy as a career, how we survive each day, and what skills you might need if you ever consider becoming a professional counselor.

I hope you enjoy another very personal episode as I join my wife again to discuss our experiences with pregnancy loss and infertility. We talk about some of our personal experiences, what we learned, and our recommendations for those who hope to help and support others who are going through similar situations. Here is a link to the song we reference in this episode: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/almost-single/1108273146

In this episode, I talk about mental health stigma and I share some of my own history of depression. I talk about a few of the key things that have helped me cope with depression, which include: awareness and public acknowledgement medication therapy getting outside myself

A follow-up conversation with Dan Solen about the window of tolerance. In this episode, we discuss ways to keep ourselves out of fight, flight, or freeze. We also talk about using mindful, physical movement to increase our window of tolerance.

We’ve all heard of “fight or flight.” But have you heard of the third option–freeze? Dan Solen, CMHC joins me in this episode to talk about the theory behind fight, flight, or freeze and something called the “window of tolerance.” We’ll get you armed with the information you need to know so you can start to understand why you sometimes can’t get things done when it counts the most. Understanding window of tolerance will help you get into the “sweet spot” of stress that helps you get things done ...

What is it really like being married to a therapist? My wife joins me in this episode for a candid and unscripted dialogue about our relationship, what it’s like being married to a therapist, and some of our own life struggles. We talk about working together and share a lot of laughs in the longest episode of Pocket Therapist so far.

In this episode of the podcast, I answer three listener-sent questions totally unscripted. The questions revolve around addressing unresolved feelings about a husband’s affair, separating out happy and painful memories from the past, and addressing chronic illness or fatigue and the desire to do more. It’s a bit of a departure from previous episodes, and I’m excited about being less scripted and feeling more like I do in my therapy office when I get questions without any time to prepare. More e...

It’s probably THE classic marital-conflict question: how do I know when to push for things that are important to me and when to just accept things as they are? In this episode, I open up a little window into the wold of hypnotism with a concept called the “yes set.” I offer some language you can use if you’re in a relationship where you really want to push for change but you’re not sure how to bring it up. Fighting for Your Marriage is a book I reference in the episode.

This episode answers a Pocket Therapist listener’s question: What’s the best way to respond to my friend, who occasionally opens up about how troubled her marriage is, but then apologizes for not being kind about her husband the very next day? There are so many things to pay attention to here. How much should friends be privy to the details of each other’s marriages? What’s the best way to provide support without taking sides? How do you help your friend be honest about feelings they might just ...

When it comes to how to live the good life, everyone’s got an opinion. But not all opinions are created equal. As a therapist, I need to know how to improve people’s life satisfaction. People come to therapy to feel better, to live better, to love better. Having training and experience in helping people change is important. It’s even better when you can back your opinions up with research. That’s what this episode is about: What the research says about how to life the good life. I share eight sp...

Trying to convince people to change is a tough business. Actually, it can feel downright impossible at times. The harder we try to convince people’s minds about a new idea, the more it seems they hunker down in their mental bunkers. In this episode, I review two techniques to help you bypass people’s mental defenses so you can create space for new ideas or the possibility of behavior change–without having to engage in a frontal assault of the psyche. This works great for any relationship, includ...

In this episode, I answer a question about “Disneyland parents.” How do you handle concerns about the overly fun-loving half of the parenting duo when you feel like you’re carrying most of the burden of making sure the kids grow up to be responsible adults?

I don’t know about you, but trying to get my kids to help out around the house is just torture. Of course, they’re perfectly content to make messes, but cleaning up after themselves is out of the question. I’ve been trying for years to whip them into shape to no avail. But now I’ve got psychology and human motivation research under my belt and it’s time for all of us parents to take back some free time and get the kids to actually show up to the cleaning party. Let’s do this!

In this episode, I answer my first question from a listener. We get into stopping emotional spirals and talk about methods of using self-talk to keep emotions from taking over causing a meltdown. I even finally get my answer about what “full bore” means. My wife told me that a toe pick (on an ice skate) is used for control–to navigate jumps, footwork, and spins. It’s pretty important. Thus, the name of the episode.

Everybody lies. Kids start lying at a really young age. As adults, we lie, often thinking we’re doing a service or helping someone by keeping the truth from them. But lies are dangerous when you’re trying to build or maintain trust in a relationship. What happens when you find out your partner is lying to you about something big? How do you confront it without blowing up the relationship?

This is where it begins. I’ll talk some about why I’m focusing a mental health podcast on words and language. I’ll share some starter insights and set it up for the adventure to come.