PSYCHO THERAPIST

WE'RE BAAAA-AAAAAACK! Well, almost. For now, Renée is back with an update. And, as with all episodes in which Renée is the guest, this one is unplanned, unedited, and a little unhinged. It's exactly what you're used to! Support the show

You know the drill: unplanned, unscripted, a bit unhinged. Renée has big news about some big changes. We'll let her explain... Support the show

Claire found a glass pipe at home when she was 10 years old and brought it to school. At that age, she had no frame of reference for her parents' addictions. "When other people were like, 'Dude, what's your mom on?' it really started to sink in," she explained to Renée. The violence and instability at home led Claire to a lot of risky behavior as an adolescent, and at 16 she was a pregnant high school sophomore. Spoiler alert: Claire is now married to a supportive partner; she found her caree...

"Things started to get hard...when I realized there were beauty standards," LJ told Renée. LJ was adopted from South Korea by when she was 6 months old. Growing up in Vermont, she found herself paradoxically situated between the progressive political spirit of the Northeast and its pervasive, problematic whiteness. LJ is a mental health counselor and smart as a whip, so she is able to explain beautifully the complicated intersections of her racial and sexual identity development. As she does,...

Megan's earliest memory is of being abused, and that abuse remained a defining feature of her childhood, along with significant neglect. She spent part of her childhood in foster homes, part with her grandparents, and part navigating her mother's mental illness and addiction. Her history is so traumatic that Renée can barely control her reactions (and, you know, she barely tries), but Megan is remarkably resilient and ready to sort out the horrors of her upbringing and the abusive relationshi...