Welcome to the Therapy Thoughts podcast.

This is Tiffany Rowe.

I'm a clinical mental health counselor and psychology teacher in Utah.

And I want to change the mental health game.

The Therapy Thoughts podcast is all about breaking down therapy-related topics and making mental

health information easy to understand and super accessible. So join me for quick and direct

educational episodes and some deeper dives with experts from around the world. Together, we are

going to break down stigma. We're going to help each other make peace with mind,

body, and food. We're going to make therapy cool and invest time in our mental health.

Let's do it here, the Therapy Thoughts podcast. We are back and today's therapy thought is all about mom guilt. This one is personal. This one is for all the clients on my therapy couch. And for those of you who

ask about this on Instagram all the time, mom guilt. Let's jump right in. So guilt is a feeling.

It's an emotion. I use the two words interchangeably. But how do you experience

that feeling of guilt in your body? What about it is so uncomfortable and we want to resist it?

It's heavy and throbbing and intense. Mom guilt is an ongoing guilty experience. And let's think about

where guilt comes from. Guilt is a natural emotional response to thoughts that say you should be

doing something differently or this conflicts with your values.

Or maybe this is wrong or bad or this isn't good enough.

So we can absolutely connect expectations and guilt.

Expectations on yourself of others in your job.

I mean, we can have guilt in any arena.

But when we fail to meet our own expectations

or maybe society's expectations or whatever, expectations are going to feel resentment and

...