LDS Mental Health Podcast

Ever fill your grocery cart, see the total, and start putting things back? Volleyball fees. Picture day. An AC repair that shows up the same week as everything else. Money stress doesn't stay in the bank account. It follows you into your patience, your sleep, and every part of your day.

This week Laura Nicole is back (her January episode is one of our most popular ever) to talk about how moms are building flexible income from home as virtual assistants. The skills you already have that businesses pay for, and the two thoughts that keep most...

Have you ever promised yourself you would stop scrolling, stop avoiding, stop numbing, or finally get control of a behavior, only to find yourself doing it again?

You may assume the problem is willpower.

But what if the behavior is only one part of a much bigger cycle?

This week Braeden Jensen, LDS therapist and our new monthly youth and young adult host, walks through the cycle that keeps so many of us stuck: pain, escape, shame, repeat.

Braeden also explores how Satan uses shame to turn a choice into an...

Have you ever heard a scripture or a conference talk about losing yourself in service, and felt guilt instead of peace?

For some Latter-day Saints, “lose yourself in service” can sound like “ignore your needs, never say no, and keep everyone happy.” Rest may feel selfish. Boundaries may feel unfaithful. 

This week I'm answering a question from a listener that started out sounding like a boundaries question and turned into something much bigger. We talk about the real difference between selflessness and self-abandonment, why some of us  believe love (even God's) has to be earned, and what t...

Have you ever gotten to the end of the day and thought, why am I so tired? Not physically tired. The kind of tired where your body is on the couch but your mind is still running a marathon, and when you look back at your day, nothing dramatic even happened.

This week I break down three hidden reasons behind that exact kind of exhaustion, and none of them are about doing too much. They’re about carrying too much.

I’m also opening something brand new starting October 5th to help you actu...

Do you ever replay a conversation so many times you basically have it memorized? Or run through every possible way something could go before it's even happened? You're not broken, and you're not doing anything wrong. Your mind is just trying to do a job, and most of us were never taught which job that actually is.

This week I answer a question from someone in my membership: if I stop thinking about my problem and just focus on what's in front of me, am I just avoiding it? I break down the three things your mind...

Teens and young adults are dealing with anxiety, loneliness, comparison, dating, faith questions, difficult decisions, and the constant feeling that everyone else is somehow ahead.

They don’t just need more advice. They need practical tools that make sense for the stage of life they’re in.

In this episode, Niki is speaking with therapist Braeden Jensen about the unique mental-health challenges facing people ages 16–26 and why those struggles need their own conversations and support.

Stick around to the end, because we're also introducing something brand new: The Becoming Membership, a faith-centered mental-health member...

Have you ever promised yourself you’d pray more consistently, exercise regularly, read your scriptures every day, spend less time on your phone, or finally get organized?

You start with good intentions, but then life happens. You miss one day, then another, and suddenly you’re wondering why you can’t seem to stick with anything.

In this episode, Niki explains why struggling with your habits doesn’t mean you’re lazy, failing, or lacking commitment. Sometimes what looks like a habit problem is actually overwhelm, exhaustion, or emotional overload.

If you’re tired of con...

Sometimes the person hurting you is the person everyone else loves. This week's Therapy Insights answers two real listener questions about emotional abuse: one from a woman wrestling with guilt over wanting to leave, and one from a widow still making sense of a marriage nobody else saw the way she did.

We talk about the difference between guilt and guidance, why fear doesn't always mean stay, and why your experience doesn't need anyone else's agreement to be real. If you have a question you'd like answered on a future episode, there's a link below to text...

Fear doesn't always look like fear. Sometimes it looks like overthinking the same decision for the hundredth time, researching something to death or praying about it again hoping it will finally feel different. Most people don't even realize fear is what's happening. They just feel stuck, and start wondering if something's wrong with them for not having peace yet.

This week I'm walking through a simple skill for making decisions when fear is in the driver's seat: name it, separate it, choose anyway. There's a free companion worksheet linked below, use it right alongside the episode.

You've spent your whole life quietly wondering why some things feel so much harder for you than they seem to for everyone else. Scripture study won't stick. Prayers get lost in fifty other thoughts. You forget things you swore you'd remember, and the shame shows up before you even understand what happened.

This week, therapist Brittney King, LPC joins Niki to talk about what ADHD actually looks like in adults, and why it usually has nothing to do with how hard you're trying. There's a reason your brain works this way, and it's more treatable than you...

How do you know when a family relationship needs stronger boundaries, more distance or possibly no contact? When family relationships are tied to faith, loyalty, traditions, and belonging, it can be hard to separate Christlike love from the pressure to keep everyone comfortable.

In this first LDS Therapy Insights episode, I am explaining how to look for repeated unhealthy patterns, why a difficult relationship is not automatically a toxic one and the many levels of boundaries available before full cutoff. You’ll also learn why forgiveness does not require unlimited access and how to seek personal revelation fr...

If you've been praying and the answer is just...silence, you're not alone. A lot of LDS women are doing everything right on the outside but quietly feeling disconnected from God. And the hardest part? They feel guilty even admitting it. Like maybe if they had more faith, they'd feel something.

In this episode, Niki talks about the real reasons prayer can start to feel difficult and why that disconnect has way less to do with worthiness than most people think. 

Plus: Niki's new 10-day prayer practice to help you start reconnecting through simple, intentional m...

Have you ever prayed, gone to the temple, or begged Heavenly Father for help and felt absolutely nothing? No peace, no comfort, no emotional reassurance. And then immediately wondered what's wrong with you spiritually? In LDS culture we talk a lot about "feeling the Spirit" and those experiences are real. But many of us have accidentally started believing that emotional feelings are the only evidence the Spirit is present.

In this episode, Niki unpacks the many ways the Spirit actually works, especially for women who are emotionally overwhelmed, numb, burned out, or grieving. Grab the free companion...

Some experiences just stick. No matter how much time passes, or how hard you try to move on, they keep showing up in how you feel about yourself, your relationships, even your ability to hear God. And the frustrating part? You can't just decide to be over it.

In this episode, Niki sits down with therapist Allie Allen LCMHC to unpack why painful memories get stored wrong, how anxiety makes it nearly impossible to tell the difference between worry and a prompting, and the therapy tool that has people saying, "It doesn't bother me anymore." 

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You wake up already feeling behind. There are a hundred things in your head, you're trying to be present, you're trying to pray, and your thoughts are still louder than everything else. You're not failing. Your mind is overwhelmed, and when your mind is overwhelmed everything feels harder. There are specific patterns that show up when you get to this place, and once you can see them, you stop fighting yourself all day long.

In this episode, Niki walks through the 4 mental health skills that change everything when your mind feels chaotic. The third skill she teaches...

You love God. You want to feel Him. But your mind is loud, life feels heavy, and you feel stuck in your own head. If that's you, please hear me. That doesn't mean you're failing spiritually. It doesn't mean God left. It means you're human.

This week I'm walking through why the still small voice gets so quiet when your nervous system is overloaded, the four "noise voices" that drown it out. You haven't drifted. You're buried under noise. There's a difference.

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Join the FREE LIVE CLASS on how to...

As an LDS therapist, one of the most common things I hear from women is, "I feel torn inside." 

There' is a part of you that wants to be calm and faithful, and another part that's anxious, or exhausted, or just done. Both can be true on the same day. That's not hypocrisy. That's being human.

In this episode, I sit down with JoAnna Bethea, an Associate Clinical Mental Health Counselor and the very first therapist to join me at Aligned Counseling. JoAnna walks us through Internal Family Systems, the modality she uses with her c...

Ever feel like disappointing someone is basically the worst thing that could happen? Like your whole body goes on high alert the second you sense someone might be upset with you?

That's not just anxiety. It might be rejection sensitivity dysphoria, and in this episode, ADHD and executive function coach Kelly Dyches breaks it all down in a way that finally makes sense.

We talk about why fear of letting people down can feel so physical and so urgent, how it quietly blocks your ability to hear the Spirit, and what small steps actually help...

You can feel it the second someone’s mood shifts.

The tension. The urgency. The need to fix it… fast.

And before you even think about it, you’re carrying something that was never yours to hold.

In this conversation with Dr. Amanda Harms, we get honest about what’s really happening when you feel responsible for everyone’s emotions. Why it feels so real. Why it’s so exhausting. And the small shift that starts to change everything.

You’re not broken. You just learned a pattern that doesn’t fit your life an...

In this episode, I sit down with Talmage Erickson from Screen Guys to talk about the impact of kids using cell phones and what's actually happening inside their brains when they're on screens… and what we can do about it without going extreme or losing connection.

We get honest about the all-or-nothing trap parents fall into, why screens are regulating emotions more than we realize, and how to respond when things get really hard… including discovering pornography use.

This isn’t about control.
It’s about connection, awareness, and leading your home on purpose.

You...

You’re trying.
You’re praying.
You’re doing all the “right” things.

So why do you still feel stuck?!

If your mind feels loud, your emotions feel heavy, and your connection with God feels quiet, this episode is going to challenge what you’ve been believing about your mental health.

Not everything your brain tells you is truth.
Not everything you feel means you’re failing.

And what if the thing you’ve been blaming yourself for is actually the place your healing starts?

In this episode, I’...

When trust breaks like this… it touches everything. How safe you feel. How you see yourself. Even how you hear God.

In this week's episode, I sit down with therapist David Dodini who works in this space every day. And we talk about what’s actually going on beneath the surface.

Not the shame.
Not the assumptions.
The real reasons this pattern sticks… and why so many women end up carrying responsibility that was never theirs.

We talk about betrayal, what your reaction means (and what it doesn’t), and how to move...

Sometimes the hardest part isn’t leaving.
It’s realizing something is wrong in the first place.

You just feel… off. Confused. Second-guessing yourself. Walking on eggshells and calling it “being patient.”

In this episode, I sit down with Becky Bytheway Wengreen, a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist, who shares her personal story of living through emotional abuse and what it actually looks like when it’s not obvious.

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Get to know our guest:

Becky Bytheway Wengreen

Website: www.theedifygroup.com

Podcast: Hungry For Healing

Some pain doesn’t feel forgivable.
Not because you don’t want peace… but because it feels unfair to let it go.

In this Sister Connection episode, two women share what it actually looks like to wrestle with forgiveness when the hurt runs deep.

One is navigating forgiveness after years of abuse from her mother.
The other is grieving the loss of her 17-year-old daughter from a preventable accident.

This isn’t surface-level “just forgive and move on.”
This is about what happens when anger, grief, faith, and healing all collide.

Forgiveness gets talked about a lot.

But for many women, it feels like pressure. Like you’re supposed to “move on” from something that still hurts… or make peace with something that never felt okay in the first place.

In this episode, we’re clearing that up.

You’ll learn what forgiveness actually is… what it is not… and how to begin releasing the weight of resentment without minimizing your pain or removing wise boundaries.

Because healing doesn’t come from pretending it didn’t hurt.

It comes from finally giving your...

There’s a moment many women don’t see coming.

The house gets quieter.
The kids grow up.
Roles begin to shift.

And suddenly you find yourself wondering:

Who am I now?

For years you’ve poured your heart into motherhood, marriage, family, and service. And while those things matter deeply, they can quietly become the only place your identity lives.

So when life transitions happen, it can feel disorienting. Lonely. Even a little scary.

In this episode, psychologist Dr. Christy Kane and...

Some grief doesn’t have a clear place to go.

Infertility can quietly unravel so many things at once. Your plans. Your faith. Your sense of identity. Even the way you see God.

In this deeply honest conversation, I sit down with the women behind this Sister Connection episode to talk about the layered reality of infertility. The kind that includes miscarriages, stillbirth, unanswered prayers, and long seasons of wondering where God is in all of it.

If you’ve ever wrestled with God, felt forgotten, or wondered if your story still has purp...

Some losses split life into a before and after. And no one hands you a map for the after.

In this deeply tender conversation, Lawrence and Melissa Stone share what it actually looks like to grieve the loss of children while trying to stay married, stay faithful, and stay human. Not the polished version. The real one. Silence. Anger. Distance. Small moments of connection. Starting over more than once.

They talk honestly about how differently grief can show up inside the same home, why couples often drift apart without meaning to, and what helped them...

Some wounds don’t just hurt. They change how you see God, yourself, and everyone else.

In this conversation, Elisha Harris shares how unresolved trauma can keep you stuck in survival mode even while you’re trying to do all the “right” things spiritually. We talk about the emotional armor many women carry, why staying busy can feel safer than being honest, and how healing through the Savior is less about performing and more about surrender.

If you’ve ever felt disconnected, numb, ashamed, or like you’re trying so hard but still not feeling peace, this...

When you’re the one everyone depends on, it can feel like there’s no space left for you to fall apart. This episode is for the quiet kind of exhaustion that comes from loving people through hard things while trying to hold your own life together.

Niki answers listener questions about caring for a medically fragile child without losing your marriage, supporting a teen who speaks harshly about themselves, walking beside a spouse with depression, and coping with the heartbreak of an adult child creating distance.

Instead of quick fixes, this episode offers small ways...

Some days, advocating for your child feels like a full-time job you never applied for.

In this episode, Niki sits down with Esperanza Reyes from the Utah Parent Center to talk about what it actually looks like to support a child with disabilities inside the school system without burning out, shutting down, or feeling like you’re constantly fighting uphill.

This conversation is about collaboration instead of conflict. Progress instead of perfection. And learning how to hold high expectations for your child while still honoring where they are right now.

You’ll hear why...

Blended families don’t usually struggle because people don’t care.
They struggle because love feels complicated, loyalty feels divided, and everyone is carrying history into the room.

If you’ve ever wondered, “Why is this so hard?” this episode will help you feel less alone.

Today I sit down with three women who know this life personally. Amanda, Dondra, and Ruth share what it really looks like to build connection in blended families when emotions are messy, timelines don’t match, and expectations clash.

It isn’t about doing things perfectly. It’s about sta...

Helping youth with mental health can feel scary. What if you say the wrong thing. What if you make it worse. What if you don't know enough.

You do not need perfect words or professional training to make a difference. You need presence. Empathy. And a willingness to listen instead of fix.

Listen in to learn what actually helps struggling youth feel safe and supported, what well-meaning phrases can quietly cause harm, and how to normalize real support without shame. We also cover when it is time to involve professional help and why taking mental...

Ever feel overwhelmed and just wonder why you can’t get it together?

In this Ask A Therapist episode, Niki and Julie talk honestly about what overwhelm actually looks like in real life. Not the Instagram version. The real version.

Things like, why anxiety sometimes shows up without a clear reason, why “trying harder” usually backfires, and how small changes can bring real relief. Niki also shares a little of her story of joining the church at 19 and how that has given her a huge perspective on mental health.

So come listen in. Ch...

Have you ever noticed that when life feels the loudest, God can feel the quietest?

If you’ve been feeling spiritually disconnected lately, this episode is for you. 

Hearing the Spirit can feel harder in busy, emotionally heavy seasons. Constant noise, pressure, comparison, and even well-meaning spiritual checklists can actually make connection feel more distant. But that doesn’t mean you’re doing anything wrong!

This episode is about creating space instead of adding more effort. About calming your mind and body so clarity has room to return. And about learning to trust that Go...

Finding peace when life feels overwhelming isn’t about doing more. It’s about having the right tools.

In this episode of the Sister Connection Podcast, Deb, Olivia, and Susan share their personal stories of navigating grief, postpartum depression, workplace stress, and family challenges using skills they learned inside the LDS Mental Health Skills Membership.

They talk honestly about what worked, what surprised them, and how learning practical mental health skills alongside faith helped them feel calmer, more connected, and more emotionally steady, even when life stayed messy.

If you’re loo...

What if working from home didn’t mean burnout, chaos, or hustling yourself into exhaustion?

In this episode of the podcast, we're talking with a pro, Laura Jennings. Not only is she a virtual assistant, she has her own virtual assistants AND teaches women how easy it is to become virtual assistants themselves. 

Becoming a virtual assistant can be a realistic, flexible, and surprisingly peaceful way to earn income. Whether you’re a stay-at-home parent, burned out professional, or someone craving more autonomy, this episode breaks down what virtual assis...

Overwhelm doesn’t mean you’re failing. It often means your system is overloaded.

In this episode, Niki is joined by Mandy-Marie Eldredge, certified professional coach, to explore how women can create mental clarity when life feels chaotic. Mandy shares her journey through depression and the tools she now teaches to help women step out of survival mode and into alignment with mind, body, and spirit.

You’ll walk away with practical techniques that help calm your nervous system and reconnect you with peace and spiritual grounding.

✨ Perfect for women feeling mentally exhausted
✨ Fa...