Untangled Mind, LLC hosted by Piper Harris

S7 Ep 78 The Intruder

In this episode, I examine a subtle but increasingly common boundary violation: when strangers use moral or spiritual language to create unsolicited intimacy. This conversation is not about faith or intention. It is about psychology. I break down the behavioral pattern behind forced significance, why these interactions often provoke disgust rather than fear, and why women experience them disproportionately in public spaces. I also explore the broader cultural forces that enable this behavior, including the erosion of private meaning, the confusion of expression with virtue, and the growing discomfort with restraint. If you’ve ever left an interaction thinking, “That felt off, but I couldn’t explain why,” this episode gives language and psychological clarity to that experience. #untangledmindllc #premiercounseling #integrativeCBT #traumatherapist #UMpodcast

S7 Ep 77 What Happens After Therapy Works?

When symptoms resolve, functioning improves, and measurable outcomes indicate success, most people appropriately move on. But for a smaller subset, often those who have resolved trauma and reached psychological stability, progress gives way not to clarity, but to ambiguity. In this episode, Piper Harris, LPC explores the often-unspoken space that can follow symptom resolution. Drawing from developmental theory, integrative CBT, and existential psychology, she examines why this phase is not pathological, why not everyone reaches it, and why clinicians are rarely trained to recognize it. This episode is not about extending therapy indefinitely or searching for new problems to solve. It is about understanding a developmental transition that only becomes possible once survival-driven symptoms no longer organize the mind. If you’ve ever wondered why things can feel disorienting even after you’re “doing better,” this conversation offers orientation without pressure and clarity without forcing answers. #untangledmindllc #premiercounseling #integrativeCBT #traumatherapist #anxietycounseling #UMPodcast

S7 Ep 76 Predictions, Presumptions, Assumptions

In this episode of the Untangled Mind Podcast, Piper Harris explores a common but often unnoticed cognitive sequence: predictions, presumptions, and assumptions. Rather than treating these as personal flaws, this episode examines them as core functions of how the brain manages uncertainty. Drawing from neuroscience and data-driven CBT, Piper breaks down how the brain uses prediction to reduce cognitive load, how presumptions harden into certainty, and how assumptions quietly replace curiosity and learning. The episode focuses on what happens when the mind prioritizes efficiency over understanding and how this can stall insight, integration, and change. Listeners are guided to recognize when their thinking has moved ahead of evidence, how silence and certainty can feel protective while limiting growth, and what it looks like to reintroduce curiosity in a way that works with the brain rather than against it. This episode is part of the Bearing Reality: Thinking About Thinking series and is designed for those who want to understand how the mind organizes experience and how awareness can interrupt unhelpful patterns. #untangledmindllc #premiercounseling #integrativeCBT #traumatherapist #anxietycounseling #EMDR #prolongedexposure #PTSD #GAD #therapythatworks #datadriven #Georgiacounselor

S7 Ep 75 Bearing Reality: Thinking About Thinking Part III-What I Missed

Part III of the Bearing Reality series examines the spaces between the highlights: the ideas I didn’t mark, the comforts I didn’t select, and the sentiment I instinctively bypassed. Using vacation reading from Peterson and Sapolsky as evidence, I explore how omission reveals worldview, clinical orientation, and personal history. What we overlook is not accidental; it is patterned, and therefore instructive. Blog series: https://www.untangledmind.net/blog/categories/bearing-reality #untangledmindllc #premiercounseling #integrativeCBT #traumatherapist #anxietycounseling #EMDR #prolongedexposure #PTSD #GAD #therapythatworks #datadriven #Georgiacounselor

S7 Ep 74 Bearing Reality: Thinking About Thinking Part II-Patterns of Attention

Part II of Bearing Reality: Thinking About Thinking examines what my highlights revealed about how I tend to think. Reading is never passive; what we attend to discloses our values, fears, and assumptions long before we put them into words. In this podcast, I explore patterns of attention around responsibility, coherence, suffering, sentimentality, and the search for meaning. This isn’t about self-analysis for its own sake, but about modeling a discipline of orientation; learning to observe how thinking forms over time. #untangledmindllc #premiercounseling #integrativeCBT #traumatherapist #anxietycounseling #EMDR #prolongedexposure #PTSD #GAD #therapythatworks #datadriven #Georgiacounselor