S1, Ep 5 Best Friend Therapy: Special Occasions - How do we feel about them? Who are they for? What's so special about them anyway?
Dial Emma
Emma Reed Turrell
4.8 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 25 April 2022
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week we're talking about special occasions - from the happiest day of your life to the most wonderful time of the year - and why they're not always what they're cracked up to be. Ironic, given that today is actually Emma's birthday (but don't mention it, will you?)
Whether it's a wedding, Christmas Day, a birthday dinner, or simply a Sunday lunch, we talk about why special occasions can bring more pressure than pleasure, and how to design an occasion that's special for *you*.
Find out why Emma is allergic to birthdays and take a chilling trip down Memory Lane with Elizabeth, as she relives her magic candle nightmares.
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Gary Chapman's book "The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts" is widely available. You can take the Love Language quiz here: https://www.5lovelanguages.com/
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Best Friend Therapy is hosted by Elizabeth Day and Emma Reed Turrell, produced by Chris Sharp. To contact us, email contact@bestfriendtherapy.co.uk
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Social Media:
Elizabeth Day @elizabday
Emma Reed Turrell @emmareedturrell
Best Friend Therapy @best.friend.therapy
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Best Friend Therapy. I'm Elizabeth Day, author and |
| 0:05.8 | podcaster and for over 20 years I've been best friends with a therapist. |
| 0:10.5 | That's me. Hello, I'm Emma Reed-Tarell and I'm a psychotherapist. In my private |
| 0:15.2 | practice I talked to clients about the challenges they face in daily life and |
| 0:18.5 | we work together in a non-judgmental supportive space to increase their |
| 0:22.0 | sense of well-being and as her BFF I get all the benefit of her expertise and |
| 0:27.0 | wisdom for free. Emma makes me feel better about life but also helps me to |
| 0:31.8 | understand why I act the way I do. Ah, thanks Liz. She's also one of the only |
| 0:37.2 | people allowed to call me Liz. We wanted to open the doors to our friendship and |
| 0:41.8 | throw a light on the therapy we all need in our everyday lives. Each week we |
| 0:46.5 | chat about what's on our minds to get deeper in our minds. Two best friends, one |
| 0:51.7 | therapist, no filter. That's Best Friend Therapy. Happy birthday to you! Yes, Emma, |
| 1:02.6 | that song I know strikes the fear of all that is holy into your very soul because |
| 1:08.5 | you hate special occasions and that's what we're talking about today, not my |
| 1:12.6 | terrible singing, but about special occasions, what they demand of us, how we feel |
| 1:17.9 | about them, the expectation, the curse of expectation, and whether you feel like |
| 1:25.3 | you're in the wrong if you don't enjoy them. What's so special about a special occasion? Nice! |
| 1:33.0 | Emma, tell us about how you feel on your birthday. Oh, well better now, but I have had some |
| 1:42.4 | humdingers, haven't I really, over the years. Birthdays, exactly as you said, they do |
| 1:46.2 | strike the fear of God into me. There is a set of performances and rituals that must |
| 1:52.4 | ensue and I must have a specific reaction to them which is going to please other people, |
| 2:01.0 | going to make me seem like a nice person and all in all my birthday becomes a source of |
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