Show Notes
Who are you, really, underneath everything else? In this solo, Travis Heath questions a common assumption in therapy and everyday life: that a true, authentic self is waiting beneath our cultural expectations, family influences, and insecurities to be uncovered.
Travis explores why showing up differently with our kids, friends, and clients doesn’t make us fake, why “I don’t care what anyone thinks” isn’t the freedom it claims to be, and how the search for authenticity can turn into pressure and exhaustion in therapy and beyond. He also separates behaving authentically in a moment from finding an authentic self, and makes the case for living with contradiction, loosening our grip on self-certainty, and leaving room for growth and change we can’t yet predict. If “just be yourself” has ever left you wondering which self that means, this one is for you.
Go deeper:
Reimagining Narrative Therapy: Rewriting Stories and Reclaiming Identities
Tyranny of Niceness: A Psychotherapeutic Challenge
The post Be Yourself, But Which One? Rethinking the Authentic Self appeared first on Psychotherapy.net.
More from Therapist Confidential
What happens when the “text me” is better than the actual me?
“In a dimensional approach, no person is left behind … no two people fit in exactly the same place.”
What do you say when a stranger in line at Universal Studios taps you on the shoulder and announces, “We all have a bet going — what are you?” Derrick Paladino, professor of counseling and department chair at Rollins College, has spent decades turning that question into “me-search.”
What if the goals we chase are quietly working against us? In this solo episode, host Travis Heath admits something that feels almost taboo for a therapist to say out loud: he thinks goals are overrated. He unpacks why the clients and grad students he works with so often hit a wall of “what’s next?” right after reaching a long-sought goal, why “achievement culture” quietly raises the bar until yesterday’s dream becomes today’s minimum expectation, and why chasing “more” may be the most dangerous goal of all.
What is a therapy session actually worth—and what makes it valuable?