The Difference Between Anxiety & Intuition
ShrinkChicks
Jennifer Chaiken, LMFT and Emmalee Bierly, LMFT
4.9 • 755 Ratings
🗓️ 5 January 2026
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week on ShrinkChicks, Em and Jen delve into a question that many people struggle with: How do I distinguish between anxiety and intuition?
They break down how each shows up (urgency versus steadiness, fear versus values, repetitive spirals versus one-time clarity) and how anxiety and intuition can sometimes be linked. Listener questions explore whether it gets easier to tell the two apart, how anxious people can learn to trust their gut, what to do when intuition feels uncomfortable, and how to know when anxiety should actually be taken seriously.
In Dear Em & Jen, they respond to a newly married listener navigating real family dynamics and discuss how to honor valid concerns without letting anxiety take over.
Episode of Invisibilia mentioned in today’s episode: https://www.npr.org/programs/invisibilia/377515477/fearless
Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! PS: Fast forward to around 7 minutes to skip the intro and get straight to today’s content.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I need to really sit with my feelings, whether it is my anxiety, whether it is my intuition, |
| 0:04.2 | I need to be able to sit with whatever it is to be able to really understand it. |
| 0:09.8 | And just as Emily was saying, we tend to want to get away from it. |
| 0:13.2 | We tend to want to find something to distract us from it or push it down or make it go away. |
| 0:19.7 | And when those are our coping skills, it doesn't give us |
| 0:22.8 | the opportunity to ask ourselves enough questions to be able to decipher the difference. |
| 0:27.5 | Yeah. |
| 0:31.9 | Welcome back to another episode of shrink chicks. |
| 0:40.5 | Take a seat on our virtual therapy couch and get ready to learn all about, well, you. |
| 0:45.8 | I'm Emily Beirley. |
| 0:47.0 | And I'm Jennifer Chakin. |
| 0:48.2 | And we're both licensed, marriage and family therapist and relationship experts. |
| 0:52.1 | We're the owners and founders of the therapy group, a |
| 0:54.6 | nationwide psychotherapy practice with down-to-earth therapists just like us. Your session is starting, |
| 1:00.9 | so get ready to know yourself and grow yourself. I'm so excited to tell you about our |
| 1:09.4 | sponsor today, Bobby. When it came time to choose a formula, I did a ton of research. I'm so excited to tell you about our sponsor today, Bobby. |
| 1:13.7 | When it came time to choose a formula, I did a ton of research. |
| 1:17.3 | I'm talking Reddit threads, galore, late night Googling, you name it. |
| 1:22.6 | I wanted something that felt safe and thoughtfully made because feeding your baby comes with enough questions already. |
| 1:26.9 | That's how I landed on Bobby, and I felt so confident feeding Bobby to my daughter. |
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... |
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