Each week, Lisa Reidsema, a licensed mental health counselor, takes one pattern, the kind of thing you've felt but never quite had language for, and does what her Library of Care does: she names what's happening underneath, explains the mechanism instead of moralizing, and leaves you with one small practice you can try the same day. These are short, unhurried episodes, closer to a real conversation than a lecture. You'll hear why a feeling that makes no sense on paper can run so much of your life, the difference between the story you tell about a pattern and the mechanism actually driving it, and honest talk about what these tools can and can't do, from a clinician who won't oversell them. Nothing here is a sales pitch. The podcast is free, and it stays free. If it becomes your way in, every episode points to a resource built for exactly what it covers, a kit, a workbook, or an exercise from the same method. Start with what hurts, and let's understand it together.
People-Pleasing: Why the Yes Comes Out Before You've Felt the No
The yes before the no. Making yourself small is a strategy learned in rooms where taking up space had a cost, and it generalized until it got applied to every room. In this episode, Lisa explains why the shrinking happens before you can catch it, why advice to be more assertive misses the reflex underneath, and how to tell an accommodating yes from a real one before the automatic answer runs the show. The Full Permission Kit is available at craftyourwellness.com/kits/the-full-permission-kit. Every episode is written, reviewed, and clinically directed by Lisa Reidsema, LMHC, and narrated in her own approved voice. This podcast is educational and isn't therapy or a substitute for care from a licensed clinician.
29 Sept 2026
Depressed but Still Functioning: The Emptiness Behind Looking Fine
Standing up well is not the same as being well. Getting by is not the same as being okay. A low, flat depletion can run underneath a life that still looks capable, and the competence that holds the outside together is exactly what keeps the need invisible, so no rest and no help ever arrive. In this episode, Lisa names the hidden depletion experientially rather than as a diagnosis, traces the loop where reliability keeps care from coming, and shows how to give yourself permission to not be fine and find one safe place to set the mask down. The Getting By Kit is available at craftyourwellness.com/kits/the-getting-by-kit. Every episode is written, reviewed, and clinically directed by Lisa Reidsema, LMHC, and narrated in her own approved voice. This podcast is educational and isn't therapy or a substitute for care from a licensed clinician.
22 Sept 2026
Why Betrayal Keeps Happening: It's a Pattern, Not Proof Something's Wrong With You
What the betrayals left behind. Repeated betrayal builds a pattern in the nervous system, a set of adaptations a body makes after being hurt in the same place more than once.
15 Sept 2026
Why Your Anxiety Won't Go Away, No Matter What You Try
Anxiety is a signal, not a malfunction. Anxiety that doesn't respond to coping skills usually isn't a malfunction. It's a signal from a nervous system trained by an earlier environment, firing whenever the present resembles the past. In this episode, Lisa explains why the usual tools work on the alarm rather than the training, how to ask whether the feeling is about now or about then, and why getting precise comes before getting calm. The Signal Kit is available at craftyourwellness.com/kits/the-signal-kit. Every episode is written, reviewed, and clinically directed by Lisa Reidsema, LMHC, and narrated in her own approved voice. This podcast is educational and isn't therapy or a substitute for care from a licensed clinician.
8 Sept 2026
Your Inner Critic: Why the Cruel Voice Feels Like the Truth, and How to Quiet It
The critic is an old protector. The inner critic is an old protector that learned to attack you first so nothing could catch you off guard, and it speaks in your own voice, which is why it feels like the truth. In this episode, Lisa explains why arguing with the critic and repeating affirmations don't work, how to recognize the critic's signature the instant it speaks, and how to hear the steadier voice underneath that sees you clearly without cruelty. The Self Compassion Kit is available at craftyourwellness.com/kits/the-self-compassion-kit. Every episode is written, reviewed, and clinically directed by Lisa Reidsema, LMHC, and narrated in her own approved voice. This podcast is educational and isn't therapy or a substitute for care from a licensed clinician.
1 Sept 2026
Setting Boundaries Without Guilt: Why the Guilt Is an Alarm, Not a Verdict
25 Aug 2026
Irritability: Why You're Not Too Much, You're Too Full
You're not too much. You were too full.
The snap is a discharge event, not a character flaw. A day's load fills your window of tolerance until the smallest trigger tips an already full system over, and the built-up charge releases as irritability. In this episode, Lisa explains why the size of the reaction is about fullness rather than character, why trying harder to stay calm has failed you, and how to make the load visible and release the pressure before you reach the edge.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
00:36 The snap is a full system, not a flaw
01:39 The jewelweed
02:34 Why trying harder to stay calm fails
03:44 Tending the fullness
05:23 What changes
The Overflow Kit: craftyourwellness.com/kits/the-overflow-kit
Read the companion article: craftyourwellness.com/blog/why-do-i-snap-over-small-things
Every episode is written, reviewed, and clinically directed by Lisa Reidsema, LMHC, and narrated in her own approved voice.
The Craft Your Wellness Podcast is educational. It isn't therapy, and it isn't a substitute for care from a licensed clinician. If you're in crisis, please reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline in the US, or your local emergency services.
18 Aug 2026
Anticipatory Anxiety: How to Stop Worrying About What Hasn't Happened
Anticipatory anxiety explained: why your body braces for a future that hasn’t arrived, why reassurance wears off in an hour, and how to come back to the present.
11 Aug 2026
Imposter Syndrome: Why Your Wins Never Feel Like Yours
Imposter feeling isn’t missing ability, it’s an attribution asymmetry that sends every win outward to luck and keeps every failure inward, so the evidence of your competence gets discounted the moment it appears. The fix isn’t affirmations but catching that discount in the act, with the bee orchid as the image: a real orchid that survives by looking like something it isn’t, and the mimicry never once makes it fake.
5 Aug 2026
You're Not Lazy, You're Afraid
You’re not lazy. Procrastination is an emotion regulation strategy — the pull to avoid a task is the pull to avoid what the task makes you feel. Lisa explains what the not-starting is protecting, why every planner you’ve tried kept losing, and the two-minute door that drops the cost of beginning below what your nervous system reads as a threat.
27 Jul 2026
Welcome to Start With What Hurts
A 60-second welcome to Start With What Hurts, a weekly podcast with Lisa Reidsema, LMHC. Each episode takes one pattern you've felt but never quite had language for, names what's happening underneath it, and leaves you with one small practice you can use that day. It's short, unhurried, and free. Follow the show so you don't miss the first episode.
Every episode is written, reviewed, and clinically directed by Lisa Reidsema, LMHC, and narrated in her own approved voice. Start With What Hurts is educational. It isn't therapy or a substitute for care from a licensed clinician. If you're in crisis, please reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline in the US, or your local emergency services.
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