Is Therapy The Best We've Got? Megan Cornish Wants More

The Anxious Achiever

Morra Aarons-Mele

Business, Careers, Management, Health & Fitness, Mental Health

4.7 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2026

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Have you started expecting therapy to do too much? In this episode, I sit down with therapist and writer Megan Cornish to talk about the pressure we place on therapy to solve problems that may actually stem from isolation, lack of community, and modern life itself. Megan shares that many of the struggles we now label as “mental health problems” were once held by friends, neighbors, faith communities, and everyday human relationships. She also breaks down ACT therapy exercises that can help you hold painful thoughts more lightly and reconnect to your values instead of chasing constant happiness. Get ready to rethink therapy, connection, and what makes a meaningful life. Check out our sponsors: Shopify - Sign up for a $1 per month trial, just go to shopify.com/anxiousachiever Chime - Head to chime.com/achiever to sign up Monarch - Use code ACHIEVER at monarch.com to get 50% off your first year Physician’s Choice - Use code PCPODCAST10 at physicianschoice.com to get 10% off your entire order Whatnot - Get free shipping on your first order. Just search W-H-A-T-N-O-T in the app store and start scoring amazing deals In this Episode, You Will Learn 00:00 How capitalism and work culture affect mental health. 04:15 Megan’s viral experiment with AI, LinkedIn, and gender bias. 10:00 Can therapy really work in the workplace? 14:30 How therapists became substitutes for friendship and community. 21:00 How therapy evolved beyond treating severe mental illness. 25:00 Did people cope better emotionally before therapy existed? 29:15 How AI relationships remove friction from connection. 33:30 The ACT therapy exercise that changed how Megan approaches friendship. 36:30 Why discomfort doesn’t always mean something is wrong. 45:30 Why non-attachment to suffering exists across many traditions. 47:45 Do we actually need life to make perfect sense? 49:00 The “80-year-old self” exercise for perspective and gratitude. Resources + Links Get a copy of my book - The Anxious Achiever Watch the podcast on YouTube Find more resources on our website morraam.com Follow Follow me: on LinkedIn @morraaronsmele + Instagram @morraam Follow Megan Cornish on LinkedIn: @megan-cornish

Transcript

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0:00.0	Sellers can build real thriving businesses and you can download the What Not app today and get free shipping on your first order.
0:09.6	Just search Whatnot. That's WHATNOT in the app store and start scoring amazing deals.
0:18.6	Chime is changing the way people bank. You get savings that grow faster with a 3.75 APY.
0:25.5	Head to chime.com slash achiever. That's chime.com slash achiever.
0:33.7	Use code achiever at monarch.com to get your first year of monarch core half off at just $50.
0:40.9	That's 50% off your first year at monarch.com with code achiever.
0:49.2	The simplest thing you can do for better gut health, one capsule a day. Just go to Amazon or
0:56.1	Physicianschoice.com and use code PC podcast 10 and get 10% off your whole order. You can also
1:02.1	find Physicians Choice at all your favorite retailers. Start your business today with the
1:09.4	industry's best business partner, Shopify, and start hearing.
1:13.6	Sign up for your $1 a month trial today at Shopify.com slash anxious achiever.
1:20.1	That's Shopify.com slash anxious achiever.
1:27.1	I'm Maura Aaron Smiley, and this is the anxious achiever.
1:31.4	Today, I talk to one of the most thought-provoking and fascinating thinkers on mental health
1:38.1	and community and AI and society that there is. Her name is Megan Cornish and she is a therapist by training and you should follow her
1:49.1	on subspe.
1:50.5	You know, one of Megan's recent posts really arrested me besides the one where she posed
1:57.2	as a man in order to see if her content would perform better on LinkedIn, which it did a lot better.
2:04.4	She asked, is therapy the best we've got?
2:09.3	And she wasn't dissing therapy.
2:11.4	She is a therapist.
2:13.1	But what she sees and what I agree with is that in a society that is lonely and divided and where so many of us are lacking in community, we expect too much of therapy.
	...

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