Reimagining Healthy Relationships
ShrinkChicks
Jennifer Chaiken, LMFT and Emmalee Bierly, LMFT
4.9 • 755 Ratings
🗓️ 2 February 2026
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week on ShrinkChicks, Em and Jen are joined by one of their all-time favorite guests, Alexandra Solomon, licensed clinical psychologist, adjunct professor at Northwestern University, and host of the Reimagining Love podcast, for a conversation about healthy relationships and the patterns we carry from our families of origin.
Together, they explore why it’s so hard to break old dynamics even when you can name them, why change happens in degrees, and how learning to receive (kindness, consistency, care) can feel just as vulnerable as giving. The discussion also touches on embodiment, tolerating discomfort, and the grief that can surface when you start doing relationships differently. Plus, feeling turned off by healthy love, staying open without waiting for things to fall apart, and navigating big relational shifts…like when a partner changes their mind about family. You can find everything about today’s guest by visiting DrAlexandraSolomon.com!
Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We think of change as linear, but change is not linear. |
| 0:04.1 | It's like it's, it is by degree. |
| 0:06.4 | It is by iteration. |
| 0:07.8 | I think I think 90% of my job as a couple therapists is helping couples see the one degree of how that conflict went differently. |
| 0:15.9 | Like I think that part of my brain is always looking for the one degree of how it went differently. |
| 0:31.2 | Welcome back to another episode of shrink chicks. |
| 0:34.1 | Take a seat on our virtual therapy couch and get ready to learn all about, well, |
| 0:38.5 | you. I'm Emily Beirley. And I'm Jennifer Chakin. And we're both licensed, marriage and family |
| 0:43.6 | therapist and relationship experts. We're the owners and founders of the therapy group, a nationwide |
| 0:48.8 | psychotherapy practice with down-to-earth therapists just like us. Your session is starting, so get ready to know |
| 0:55.4 | yourself and grow yourself. |
| 1:00.8 | We are so thrilled to have one of our all-time favorite guests back with us today, Dr. Alexandra |
| 1:09.1 | Solomon. Dr. Solomon is a licensed clinical psychologist in |
| 1:13.4 | private practice, an adjunct professor at Northwestern University, an author and host of the podcast |
| 1:19.6 | Reimagining Love. She is internationally recognized as one of today's most trusted |
| 1:25.3 | voices in the world of relationships, and her framework of |
| 1:28.8 | relational self-awareness has reached millions of people across the globe. |
| 1:33.1 | We can't wait to pick her brain today about healthy relationships, patterns from our |
| 1:37.1 | families of origin, and more. |
| 1:39.0 | Welcome back, Dr. Solomon. |
| 1:40.6 | We are so thrilled to have you. |
| 1:42.6 | It's so good to be with both of you. And I just, |
... |
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