Untangled Mind, LLC hosted by Piper Harris

What does it really mean to be seen? In this episode, Piper Harris explores the tension between recognition and transformation, what the Greeks called anagnorisis and epignosis. Drawing from her love of studying Greek and Hebrew (and the words she’s literally tattooed on her body at pivotal points of change), Piper shares how understanding these concepts can reshape the way we think about therapy, faith, and personal growth. Through stories from her own life and insights from her Untangled Mind Pathway, she unpacks how we uncover the D.I.B., the Deepest Irrational Belief, that quietly shapes our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. As she says, “Transformation doesn’t have an endpoint. It’s a way of life. It begins, always, with the courage to be seen.” Stay until the end for her announcement about Transformation Week, a lighthearted, meaningful Halloween tradition for clients to celebrate what they’re becoming. Want to learn more about being Seen? Read below: https://www.untangledmind.net/post/_seen #untangledmindllc #UMPodcast #anxiety #trauma #faith #Greek #exposed #therapy #deepestirrationalbelief #dansiegel

In Episode 3 of the Empathy Series, I move beyond the emotional and physiological effects of empathy to examine its cognitive distortions, the ways empathy can quietly reshape how we think, reason, and define morality. Empathy feels virtuous, but when it becomes a cognitive reflex, it can lead to emotional reasoning, bias, and identity fusion. In this episode, I unpack how empathy functions like a mental shortcut, a heuristic that tells us we’re “good” simply because we feel, while quietly eroding discernment, accountability, and boundaries. Drawing from neuroscience, CBT, and social psychology, I explore: *How empathy activates cognitive distortions such as personalization and catastrophizing. *The role of the prefrontal cortex in regulating emotional reasoning. *Why over-identifying with others’ suffering reinforces ego and moral confusion. *What to do when you find yourself trapped in someone else’s cognitive loop. *How to climb the empathy ladder toward compassion and clear thinking. Empathy as a Cognitive Trap challenges the assumption that feeling deeply is always virtuous and invites listeners to move from reflexive empathy to disciplined compassion, where emotion and reason finally work together. #untangledmindllc #empathy #empathyseries #UMpodcast www.untangledmind.net

In this episode of the Untangled Mind Podcast, Piper Harris unpacks Carl Jung’s famous quote: “The best political, social, and spiritual work we can do is to withdraw the projection of our shadow onto others.” Drawing from a recent dialogue on LinkedIn, Piper explores how projection shows up in the therapy profession itself through defensiveness, appeals to authority, and circular reasoning that protect therapists but fail clients. The conversation examines why modern therapy has drifted toward validation over transformation, how this drift leaves clients turning to AI for answers, and why the profession must confront its own shadow if it wants to remain relevant. This is a call to action for therapists to stop projecting, start owning their blind spots, and return to the real work of psychotherapy: lasting change. #untangledmindllc www.untangledmind.net

This is Episode 2 in my Empathy Series. In this conversation, I explore what happens when empathy doesn’t just drain us emotionally, but actually hurts the brain and body. We’ll look at what neuroscience reveals about empathic distress: the way empathy lights up pain circuits, activates the stress response, and, when left unchanneled, leads to burnout and exhaustion. I unpack why the phrase “compassion fatigue” is misleading, and how what many in counseling, medicine, and caregiving actually experience is empathic distress fatigue. I also examine how our fields too often wear this exhaustion as a badge of honor, and the severe consequences of staying stuck in empathy-only modes, including dissociation and even group-level hysteria. Most importantly, this episode offers a way forward: moving from empathy to sympathy, and ultimately into compassion—the place where resilience and real change live. #untangledmindllc #empathy #trauma #anxiety #compassionfatigue

This is Episode 1 in my new Empathy Series. In this opening conversation, I explore what I call the empathy trap: how unchanneled empathy can paralyze us, reinforce hidden payoffs, and keep both clients and clinicians stuck.We’ll look at where the concept of empathy came from, why it’s been elevated as the highest virtue in therapy and culture, and how it differs from sympathy and compassion. I share composite client stories that reveal how empathy often serves unseen purposes, like giving us identity, attention, or a sense of purpose, while holding us back from real growth.If you’ve ever wondered why “just feeling” doesn’t bring change, this episode will challenge you to climb the ladder: from empathy, to sympathy, and ultimately to compassion.#untangledmindllc #traumatherapist #anxietycounseling #umpodcast #empathy #compassion #carlrogers #psychology #empathytrap