Grove: Beyond The Couch

Ask most couples what is wrong and you will hear the same three words: we don't communicate. But what if that is almost never the real problem? Melissa and Susan sit down with fellow therapist Christina, who works largely with couples, to unpack what people actually mean when they say communication has broken down, why even silence is its own kind of message, and how being understood is a different skill than simply speaking. Along the way they talk about staying human in the therapy room, knowing when to send someone to the right person, and why no one is meant to help everyone.
Remember that listening to this podcast is not therapy. It might be therapeutic, but it isn't a replacement for good mental health treatment. We can help with getting you connected with a good therapist. Check out our website. Grove: A Healing Collective

Some days the world hands us more than we ever agreed to carry. The constant stream of news and noise can leave us drained and flattened without our quite knowing why. Melissa and Susan sit down to talk about what all that information does to a nervous system that was never built to hold it, why staying endlessly informed is not the same as being well, and how small, honest boundaries around what we take in can help us feel like ourselves again. It is a warm, practical conversation about staying grounded when everything feels heavy.
Remember that listening to this podcast is not therapy. It might be therapeutic, but it isn't a replacement for good mental health treatment. We can help with getting you connected with a good therapist. Check out our website. Grove: A Healing Collective

Before her first official day at Grove, Kendall Deaver sits down with Susan to talk about the three and a half years she spent in residential treatment and what that work asked of her. Reaching young men who had been handed off between adults their whole lives meant giving up the idea that she needed to arrive with answers. Along the way, a belief she had absorbed growing up, that people are not trustworthy and guardedness keeps you safe, quietly came apart. There is a conversation here about what actually builds trust between two people, and it has far less to do with training and credentials than most of us expect. Kendall also shares the children's book she reads to her daughter that says it better than most clinical language can.
Remember that listening to this podcast is not therapy. It might be therapeutic, but it isn't a replacement for good mental health treatment. We can help with getting you connected with a good therapist. Check out our website. Grove: A Healing Collective

Some people know at twelve that they want to be a counselor. Diana took the long way, starting in music and songwriting before a class in disguise, a chance conversation, and a feeling that kept resurfacing led her back to the work she was meant for. In this warm conversation, Melissa sits down with Diana, a former Grove intern stepping into a new chapter on the team, to talk about the winding road into counseling and what it taught her. They get into the myth that creative people have to suffer, the way music and therapy speak to the same part of us, and why healing so rarely looks like just sitting and talking. It is a conversation about paying attention to what keeps calling you back, and about the many doors that lead toward getting well.
Remember that listening to this podcast is not therapy. It might be therapeutic, but it isn't a replacement for good mental health treatment. We can help with getting you connected with a good therapist. Check out our website. Grove: A Healing Collective

Most of us treat rest like a reward we have to earn, saving it for the moment we can barely function. By then it is rarely enough. In this conversation, two therapists get honest about why we wait too long to step away, why slowing down can feel so uncomfortable, and why the size of a break matters far less than the willingness to take it. From two-week vacations to five quiet minutes in the backyard, they make the case that rest, play, and presence are not luxuries but the things that keep us sustainable.
Remember that listening to this podcast is not therapy. It might be therapeutic, but it isn't a replacement for good mental health treatment. We can help with getting you connected with a good therapist. Check out our website. Grove: A Healing Collective

What does it actually feel like to sit on the other side of the room? This time the questions turn toward the therapists themselves, exploring why they were drawn to this work, how confidence slowly replaces the script, and what it means to hold hope for someone who cannot yet hold it for themselves. It is an honest look at the real difference between a friend and a professional, the slow and quiet nature of change, and why the person doing the hard work always deserves the credit.
Remember that listening to this podcast is not therapy. It might be therapeutic, but it isn't a replacement for good mental health treatment. We can help with getting you connected with a good therapist. Check out our website. Grove: A Healing Collective

First responders show up for everyone else, but who shows up for them? In this episode, Melissa and Susan explore the particular mental health challenges that come with being a paramedic, firefighter, law enforcement officer, dispatcher, or rescue worker: the accumulated weight of repeated trauma exposure, the pressure to compartmentalize, and the fear that asking for help means admitting weakness. They talk about what it looks like to decompress after a hard call, why certain incidents stay with you in ways others don't, and how debriefing (whether with a team or one-on-one) can make a meaningful difference. If you love a first responder, or if you are one, this conversation is for you.
Remember that listening to this podcast is not therapy. It might be therapeutic, but it isn't a replacement for good mental health treatment. We can help with getting you connected with a good therapist. Check out our website. Grove: A Healing Collective

Every morning at school, before the first lesson begins, something important is already happening. In this episode, Melissa and Susan sit down with Sarah Harvick, a vice principal in Putnam County, Tennessee, to talk about what schools see that most people don't: the pulse of a building, the kids who are quietly struggling, and the adults who notice first. From TCAP season to summer slide, from bullying investigations to the art of the car chat, this conversation goes deep into the invisible work that holds schools together. Sarah brings warmth, candor, and a perspective earned from years of standing at the door and greeting every child who walks through it.
Remember that listening to this podcast is not therapy. It might be therapeutic, but it isn't a replacement for good mental health treatment. We can help with getting you connected with a good therapist. Check out our website. Grove: A Healing Collective

Most people picture therapy as two people in chairs, facing each other, talking. That image captures something true, but it's only part of the story. Melissa and Susan are joined by Marissa Fike, a therapist at Grove who has built her practice around the idea that healing can arrive through many unexpected doors: a carefully blended cup of tea, a poem you didn't know you were ready to write, a walk through the woods with a card asking what grounds you. Marissa shares her path from English teacher to therapist, the ways she weaves mindfulness and experiential work into sessions, and her belief that the skills people practice in the therapy room are most powerful when they follow someone home.
Remember that listening to this podcast is not therapy. It might be therapeutic, but it isn't a replacement for good mental health treatment. We can help with getting you connected with a good therapist. Check out our website. Grove: A Healing Collective

The early days of parenthood are celebrated more than they are prepared for, and a lot of new parents end up in that season feeling like they're doing something wrong. In this conversation, Melissa and Susan dig into what postpartum mental health actually looks like: not just depression, but anxiety, anger, and intrusive thoughts that can feel alarming without being dangerous. They share their own experiences, talk about why fathers experience postpartum struggles far more than most people realize, and make the case for why connection might be the most important resource a new parent can find. If you've ever wondered whether what you were feeling was normal, or something worth bringing up with someone, this conversation is worth your time.
Remember that listening to this podcast is not therapy. It might be therapeutic, but it isn't a replacement for good mental health treatment. We can help with getting you connected with a good therapist. Check out our website. Grove: A Healing Collective