Mental State: Straight talk about all things mental health and more

Mental State is a mental health podcast exploring emotional well-being, personal growth, and the human experience.Hosted by Mary Barbour, LMFT, each episode features insightful conversations with therapists, mental health professionals, and individuals sharing their lived experiences. Topics include anxiety, trauma, relationships, identity, self-compassion, and healing.Whether you’re a mental health professional, in therapy, or simply curious about how to feel better and live with more clarity, this podcast offers practical tools, relatable stories, and expert guidance to support your journey.Mary Barbour web: https://marybtherapy.comIG: https://www.instagram.com/marybtherapy

Mental State: Straight talk about all things mental health and more is a society podcast hosted by Mary Barbour, LMFT, with 55 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Mary Barbour, LMFT hosts Mental State: Straight talk about all things mental health and more, a society show with 55 episodes published.

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  Episode #59

  Rediscovering Your Self Worth Part 3

  Jul 14, 202629 min

  Mary Barbour hosts Dawna Daigneult on the final episode of a three-part series on Daigneult’s worth conscious theory, reviewing birthright self-worth, false selves, and how therapy can nurture disowned “parts” with permission, compassion, and integrative approaches like transactional analysis and overlaps with IFS. Dawna explains worth-affirming “building blocks” that honor lived truth across development, including respecting a child’s voice while providing structure, illustrated by a parenting example about eating peas. She introduces the “yes and no knot,” formed when a child’s internal yes meets contradictory caregiver no’s (e.g., being told feelings are allowed but punished for expressing them), leading to impaired relationships and sometimes personality disorder dynamics. They discuss untangling knots without villainizing parents by recognizing intergenerational limits and universal worth, and suggest a practice of recalling an early felt memory of worth, such as Dawna's grandmother brushing her hair, ending with a reflection on where one still tries to earn conditional worth. Learn more about Mary and her therapy practice here: https://marybtherapy.com Learn more about Dawna here: https://zestoflife.com/ Buy Dawna's Book here: https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Self-Worth-Worth-Conscious-Psychotherapeutic-Practice-ebook/dp/B0F9TR71FS?ref_=ast_author_mpb This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and is not a substitute for therapy, medical care, mental health treatment, legal advice, or individualized professional support. The conversations shared here are intended to explore ideas related to mental health, trauma, relationships, healing, and personal growth. Listening to this podcast does not create a therapist-client relationship with me, my guests, or any clinician mentioned on the show. If you are experiencing emotional distress, a mental health crisis, or thoughts of harming yourself or someone else, please call 988 in the United States, go to your nearest emergency room, or contact a licensed mental health professional in your area. Please use your own judgment and consult with an appropriate professional before applying anything discussed on this podcast to your personal life, health, relationships, or treatment decisions.

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  Episode #58

  Rediscovering your Self Worth Part 2

  Jul 7, 202630 min

  Mary Barbour continues a conversation with Dawna Daigneult about Worth Conscious Theory, focusing on how birthright self-worth becomes buried under layered family conditions and injunctions, leading some people to build fragile false selves and pursue “counterfeit” goals that serve family values rather than personal truth (e.g., a child pressured to stay in TaeKwonDo to be a “winner”). Donna explains how clients often feel humiliation and relief when realizing they built on the wrong foundation, and she uses imagery, somatic awareness, and reframing to replace heavy, conditional beliefs (e.g., “I have to be thin to be beautiful”) with lighter, worth-based alternatives. She introduces the “conscious moment technique,” adapted from Russ Harris’ ACT “choice point,” to help clients notice moments they default to self-consciousness and practice worth-conscious internal dialogue, including empowering the “inner child” to talk back to an internalized critical voice. Learn more about Mary and her therapy practice here: https://marybtherapy.com Learn more about Dawna here: https://zestoflife.com/ Buy Dawna's Book here: https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Self-Worth-Worth-Conscious-Psychotherapeutic-Practice-ebook/dp/B0F9TR71FS?ref_=ast_author_mpb This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and is not a substitute for therapy, medical care, mental health treatment, legal advice, or individualized professional support. The conversations shared here are intended to explore ideas related to mental health, trauma, relationships, healing, and personal growth. Listening to this podcast does not create a therapist-client relationship with me, my guests, or any clinician mentioned on the show. If you are experiencing emotional distress, a mental health crisis, or thoughts of harming yourself or someone else, please call 988 in the United States, go to your nearest emergency room, or contact a licensed mental health professional in your area. Please use your own judgment and consult with an appropriate professional before applying anything discussed on this podcast to your personal life, health, relationships, or treatment decisions.

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  Episode #57

  Rediscovering Your Self Worth Part 1

  Jul 1, 202629 min

  Part one of a three-part conversation features author and therapist Donna Daigneault discussing her book, Understanding Self-Worth: A Guide to Worth-Conscious Theory and Psychotherapeutic Practice, and introducing “birthright self-worth,” the idea that worth is inherent from birth rather than earned. Daniel distinguishes self-worth from self-esteem, explains how family systems can condition worth through transactional acceptance, and connects self-worth needs to early survival needs, emphasizing that the “how” of meeting needs (e.g., attunement vs. apathy or anger) shapes worth. She expands Eric Berne’s parental injunctions into intrusive versus abusive forms (e.g., “Be someone I like”) and describes how children prioritize attachment over authenticity, influencing adult relationships. Daniel outlines four rebuildable pillars—awareness, self-respect, self-esteem, and self-confidence—and describes therapeutic strategies for gently identifying conditions, protecting worth, and reducing shame and self-loathing. Learn more about Mary and her therapy practice here: https://marybtherapy.com Learn more about Donna here: https://zestoflife.com/ Buy Donna's Book here: https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Self-Worth-Worth-Conscious-Psychotherapeutic-Practice-ebook/dp/B0F9TR71FS?ref_=ast_author_mpb This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and is not a substitute for therapy, medical care, mental health treatment, legal advice, or individualized professional support. The conversations shared here are intended to explore ideas related to mental health, trauma, relationships, healing, and personal growth. Listening to this podcast does not create a therapist-client relationship with me, my guests, or any clinician mentioned on the show. If you are experiencing emotional distress, a mental health crisis, or thoughts of harming yourself or someone else, please call 988 in the United States, go to your nearest emergency room, or contact a licensed mental health professional in your area. Please use your own judgment and consult with an appropriate professional before applying anything discussed on this podcast to your personal life, health, relationships, or treatment decisions.

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  Episode #56

  Exploring Toxic Relationships Part 3

  May 16, 202631 minS0

  <p>Breaking Toxic Relationship Cycles: Gabrielle Tattersall on Anxiety, Self-Worth, and Healing on the Mental State podcast. Mental health expert Mary Barbour interviews love and relationship coach Gabrielle Tattersall about her journey from chronic anxiety, depression, self-sabotage, and toxic relationships to building self-worth and healthy love.</p> <p>Gabrielle describes feeling “lost” in her twenties, believing at 28 it was too late to change and hoping a “Prince Charming” would rescue her. She traces her low self-worth to age 11 after classmates criticized her appearance, leading to obsession with external validation, an eating disorder, and later a boob job. She recounts early relation...

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  Episode #55

  Exploring Toxic Relationships Part 2

  Mar 31, 202625 minS0

  <p>Mary Barbour hosts Mental State with guest Gabrielle Tattersall, a love and relationship coach who shares how she broke decades of anxiety, self-sabotage, and toxic relationships. Gabrielle says she currently coaches women and describes her first major boundary: cutting off men quickly when she noticed inconsistency, game-playing, or disrespect. She explains that healing doesn’t stop toxic people from appearing, but helps you recognize misalignment, trust intuition, and choose peace over desperation. Gabrielle contrasts past relationships—exhausting, anxious, and performative—with her current partner’s calm consistency, acceptance, and support during hard times. They discuss generational messaging about women needing...

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