Don't Get A Therapist... Yet!

About Don't Get A Therapist... Yet!

Welcome to "Don't Get a Therapist - Yet!" with Wendy Castelino, a psychotherapist with over 35 years of experience, aims to support individuals with mental health challenges to achieve their full potential. Although Wendy is passionate about providing individual therapy, there are limitations with this approach. This platform, therefore, is dedicated to offering self-help strategies which are designed to enhance personal well-being. The objective is not to discourage people accessing therapy but to motivate a broader audience to explore therapeutic resources that are simple and effective to use.This podcast aims to encourage people to make positive choices about therapy and to find a therapy that suits their individual needs. Additionally, the podcast features interviews with individuals who have successfully overcome mental health struggles. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

Publisher

Wendy Castelino

Category

education · health & fitness

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

28 May 2024

Latest episode

16 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

98 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   16 Oct 2026

   Getting Unstuck with ACT: Values, Regret and How to Build a Life That Matters (Part 2 of 2) with Lou Lasprugato

   This is part two of Wendy’s conversation with Lou Lasprugato, licensed psychotherapist, internationally recognised ACT trainer and ACBS Fellow. If you haven’t listened to part one yet, it covers the foundations of ACT and the hexaflex model, and is well worth starting there. Part two gets practical. Lou opens with one of the most common experiences that brings people to therapy: feeling stuck. Not stuck in one dramatic way, but in the quieter, more persistent sense of repeating the same patterns, being unable to move forward, or living in a way that feels smaller than it should. From an ACT perspective, two processes sit at the root of most stuck loops: cognitive fusion, where we are so entangled with our thoughts that we cannot see them as thoughts, and experiential avoidance, where we repeatedly reach for relief from discomfort in ways that end up restricting our lives rather than expanding them. Lou explains how negative reinforcement works and why avoidance strategies tend to grow rather than shrink over time, using opiate addiction as a clear and sobering example of where that trajectory can lead. He then walks through how ACT helps people build willingness gradually, always in the service of something that matters to them. The couples work section introduces a concept not covered in part one: yearnings. Distinct from values, yearnings are the deep enduring longings we carry into our closest relationships, for connection, partnership, validation, shared meaning and security. Helping partners recognise and meet each other’s yearnings, Lou explains, is some of the most meaningful work he does. The episode closes with two perspective-taking exercises that are simple, memorable and immediately usable. One asks what you would want someone to say about you at your 100th birthday. The other asks what one small but meaningful thing you would want to have done by the time your head hits the pillow tonight. Both are grounded in the same ACT insight: values are not just a direction to aim for, they are a daily source of motivation, and regret, rather than being something to avoid, can point us clearly towards what still matters. Free guided ACT meditations, including Lou’s hexaflex exercises of one to two minutes each, are available on YouTube and Insight Timer without a premium subscription: 👉 https://www.youtube.com/c/LouLasprugato (https://www.youtube.com/c/LouLasprugato) 👉 https://insighttimer.com/loulasprugato (https://insighttimer.com/loulasprugato) Further resources, blogs and training information at: 👉 http://loulasprugato.com/ (http://loulasprugato.com/) Training and consultation information via the ACBS website: 👉 https://contextualscience.org/lou_lasprugatos_training_page (https://contextualscience.org/lou_lasprugatos_training_page) To learn more about Wendy’s work, explore resources, or stay up to date with future episodes, visit: 👉 https://wendycastelino.com/ (https://wendycastelino.com/) If you found this episode helpful, please consider subscribing, leaving a review, or sharing it with someone who might benefit. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

2. 

   9 Oct 2026

   What Is ACT Therapy? Acceptance, Defusion and the Hexaflex Explained (Part 1 of 2) with Lou Lasprugato

   In this episode, Wendy is joined by Lou Lasprugato, licensed psychotherapist, internationally recognised ACT trainer and ACBS Fellow, who has facilitated over a hundred training events on acceptance and commitment therapy and spent more than 23 years working as a therapist across private practice, crisis intervention, intensive outpatient and integrative medicine settings. Lou also served as Chair of the ACBS Training Committee from 2022 to 2025, and specialises in therapy for intimate partners and anxiety disorders. This is part one of two, and it focuses on the foundations of ACT: what the model is, where it came from, and how its core concepts work in practice. ACT takes a different starting point from many other therapeutic approaches. Rather than trying to reduce or eliminate difficult thoughts and feelings, it asks a different question: can you make room for what is happening inside you while still moving towards what matters most in your life? That shift, from symptom reduction to values-based living, is what Lou describes as the thing that made ACT a game changer for him both professionally and personally. The conversation covers the hexaflex, the six-process model at the heart of ACT, explained clearly and without jargon. Lou walks through the open pillar of acceptance and cognitive defusion, the aware pillar of present moment contact and the observing self, and the engaged pillar of values and committed action. Along the way, he demonstrates several practical defusion techniques, including how singing a self-critical thought to the tune of Happy Birthday can genuinely loosen its grip, and perspective-taking exercises that invite compassion for a younger version of yourself. There is also a really useful clarification of what acceptance actually means in ACT, which is not resignation or giving up, but a willingness to be with our inner experience as it is, particularly when the alternative is avoidance strategies that tend to cost us far more in the long run. Part two continues next week, going deeper into values, committed action and how ACT applies to specific challenges. Lou has over 16 free guided ACT meditations available on the Insight Timer app, accessible without a premium subscription: 👉 https://insighttimer.com/loulasprugato (https://insighttimer.com/loulasprugato) Further resources, blogs and training information at: 👉 http://loulasprugato.com/ (http://loulasprugato.com/) Lou's YouTube channel: 👉 https://www.youtube.com/c/LouLasprugato (https://www.youtube.com/c/LouLasprugato) Training and consultation information via the ACBS website: 👉 https://contextualscience.org/lou_lasprugatos_training_page (https://contextualscience.org/lou_lasprugatos_training_page) To learn more about Wendy's work, explore resources, or stay up to date with future episodes, visit: 👉 https://wendycastelino.com/ (https://wendycastelino.com/) If you found this episode helpful, please consider subscribing, leaving a review, or sharing it with someone who might benefit. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

3. 

   2 Oct 2026

   Is My Relationship Healthy, Unhealthy or Abusive? How to Tell the Difference (Part 1)

   Every relationship goes through stress, disappointment and conflict. You argue. You get irritated with each other. Someone forgets something important. None of that on its own means a relationship is toxic or abusive. What matters most is the pattern. In this episode, Wendy explores one of the questions that comes up in her therapy room more than almost anything else: how do you tell the difference between a relationship going through a hard patch, one that has become unhealthy, and one that is genuinely harmful? Part one begins with what healthy actually looks like, because it helps to know the baseline before looking at where things go wrong. Wendy walks through six building blocks of a healthy relationship, covering emotional safety, mutual respect, trust, responsiveness, closeness and independence, and constructive conflict and repair, bringing each one to life with short examples that make the patterns easy to recognise. From there, the episode moves into unhealthy and toxic dynamics, including the important difference between a tearful apology and actual sustained change, and why some relationships that feel good in the moment can gradually shrink your confidence, your independence, and your sense of who you are. Wendy also covers coercive control, which has been a criminal offence in England and Wales since 2015, and makes clear that abusive patterns affect people of all genders. There are four detailed relationship scenarios, two healthy and two toxic, and a set of honest questions to sit with as you listen. Part two is coming next week and will go deeper into abusive relationships, the cycle of harm and repair, and how to leave safely. A note before you listen: this episode is designed for reflection, not to diagnose your relationship. If anything here stirs something up, please be gentle with yourself and reach out to a therapist or your GP if you need support. To learn more about Wendy's work, explore resources, or stay up to date with future episodes, visit: 👉 https://wendycastelino.com/ (https://wendycastelino.com/) If you found this episode helpful, please consider subscribing, leaving a review, or sharing it with someone who might benefit. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

Who has been a guest on Don't Get A Therapist... Yet!

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Jo-Anne Kelleher
• Kieran Kevan
• Lisa Quait

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

19,482

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Spotify

5.0 / 5

3 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 43 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

57

Social presence

0

YouTube

72

Engagement

0

Contact Don't Get A Therapist... Yet!

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

Questions about Don't Get A Therapist... Yet!