As a mentally ill hot girl who has struggled with unrealistic beauty standards since the womb and could use a (theoretical but maybe literal) lobotomy, therapist and author Alegra Kastens intertwines her clinical wisdom and lived experience to gab about books of all genres. Not a bookworm? Have no fear (or do because #anxiety): she has done the reading for you. All you have to do is tune in, Lobotomommies!
Neuroscientist Uma Chaterjee joins us to discuss OCD and the brain! If you are wanting to know more about your brain and body as they relate to mental health symptoms, this is the episode for you.This podcast is made possible by NOCD. NOCD offers effective, affordable, and convenient OCD therapy. Schedule a free 15-minute call today at https://learn.nocd.com/alegrakastensFollow Alegra on Instagram and TikTok!Episodes edited by Donny Hadfield
Did you know that your unconscious accounts for 95% of your behaviors, thoughts, and emotions? That our consciousness accounts for 5%? In this groundbreaking book, Dr. Courtney Tracy teaches us how to better consciously manage the unconscious through her three-part unconscious model and 12 steps of consciousness. Every single human could benefit from this book!Run, don't walk, to get it. Purchase here!This podcast is made possible by NOCD. NOCD offers effective, affordable, and convenient OCD therapy. Schedule a free 15-minute call today at https://learn.nocd.com/alegrakastensFollow Alegra on Instagram and TikTok!Episodes edited by Donny Hadfield
Lily Womble, an intersectional feminist dating coach and former top matchmaker, talks her revolutionary book Thank You, More Please: A Feminist Guide To Breaking Dumb Dating Rules and Finding Love. Lily addresses the impact of the patriarchy on dating while teaching you how to joyfully attract the relationship of your dreams. 10/10, no notes!This podcast is made possible by NOCD. NOCD offers effective, affordable, and convenient OCD therapy. Schedule a free 15-minute call today at https://learn.nocd.com/alegrakastensFollow Alegra on Instagram and TikTok!Episodes edited by Donny Hadfield
Dr. Patrick B. McGrath, a Licensed Clinical Psychologist with over 20 years of OCD treatment experience, joins Alegra to talk about the intersection of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Substance Use Disorders (SUD). It's an important conversation and one that is not had enough given the prevalence of these co-occurring conditions. Studies have shown that about 25% of people with OCD also live with a substance use disorder. Dr. Patrick McGrath discusses the relationship between OCD and substance use disorders, treating both conditions concurrently, barriers people with co-occurring OCD & SUD face, and more.This podcast is made possible by NOCD. NOCD offers effective, affordable, and convenient OCD therapy. Schedule a free 15-minute call today at https://learn.nocd.com/alegrakastensFollow Alegra on Instagram and TikTok!Episodes edited by Donny Hadfield
Trigger warning: domestic violenceChelsea Bieker joins Books, Looks, and Lobotomies to discuss her national bestselling novel, Madwoman, a Book of the Month club pick the New York Times calls “brilliant in its depiction of the long shadows cast by domestic violence.” Chelsea talks the realities of domestic violence, motherhood, intergenerational trauma, survival, motherloss, and her flourishing creative life as an author of three books (she's writing a fourth!). Additional works include Chelsea's first novel, Godshot, which was longlisted for The Center For Fiction's First Novel Prize and named a Barnes & Noble Pick of the Month, and her story collection, Heartbroke won the California Book Award and was a New York Times “Best California Book of 2022.”She is the co-creator of The Fountain and writes about creative practice at her bestselling substack, Make Up Your Life. This podcast is made possible by NOCD. NOCD offers effective, affordable, and convenient OCD therapy. Schedule a free 15-minute call today at https://learn.nocd.com/alegrakastensFollow Alegra on Instagram and TikTok!Episodes edited by Donny Hadfield
OCD can look a lot like an eating disorder, making it difficult for clinicians to make a differential diagnosis. In this episode, Alegra shares her lived and clinical experience with OCD and Eating Disorders to debunk myths, discuss the intersection of this co-morbidity, and more.This podcast is made possible by NOCD. NOCD offers effective, affordable, and convenient OCD therapy. Schedule a free 15-minute call today at https://learn.nocd.com/alegrakastensFollow Alegra on Instagram and TikTok!Episodes edited by Donny Hadfield
Emma Noyes talks How To Hide In Plain Sight, the first mainstream fiction book to cover POCD (!!!), breaking Book Tok, self-publishing, and finding her real life Manuel who loves her not despite her OCD but because of her beautiful mind. Emma's works have been published in over a dozen languages and include Guy's Girl, How to Hide in Plain Sight, The Sunken City series, and The Soul of Shadow series. She was named a 2025 Forbes 30 Under 30.This podcast is made possible by NOCD. NOCD offers effective, affordable, and convenient OCD therapy. Schedule a free 15-minute call today at https://learn.nocd.com/alegrakastensFollow Alegra on Instagram!Episodes edited by Donny Hadfield
I am joined by my very own dietician Gabby Barreto to talk about my journey with intentional weight loss after eating disorder recovery. For so long, I felt trapped by both diet culture and anti-diet culture. I thought I had two choices: extreme restriction and an ED or staying in a body I didn't feel good in because I've had an ED in the past. Finding a dietician to help me lose weight in a non-disordered way (it's possible) has changed my entire life. I no longer believe it's anti-feminist, bad, or always unhealthy to pursue weight loss. Every person is unique. People with eating disorders histories are not a monolith. If you're about nuance, this is for you.This podcast is made possible by NOCD. NOCD offers effective, affordable, and convenient OCD therapy. Schedule a free 15-minute call today at https://learn.nocd.com/alegrakastensFollow Alegra on Instagram!Episodes edited by Donny Hadfield
Stephen Smith, co-founder of the teletherapy platform NOCD, joins us to share his lived experience with OCD (sexual obsessions, relationship obsessions, and more) that fueled him to create a a virtual therapy platform specializing in the treatment of OCD. Like many, Stephen did months of general talk therapy with a therapist who didn't understand OCD, which made his OCD worse. It wasn't until he found effective treatment, Exposure & Response Prevention (ERP) therapy, that he started to feel better. Stephan compares OCD to an earthquake in the brain, talks the loss of identity that comes from OCD attacking one's identity, being homebound when his OCD was at its worse, and more. This podcast is made possible by NOCD. NOCD offers effective, affordable, and convenient OCD therapy. Schedule a free 15-minute call today at https://learn.nocd.com/alegrakastens Follow Alegra on Instagram! Episodes edited by Donny Hadfield
Stephanie Foo, author of the New York Times bestseller What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma, brought CPTSD to the forefront of mental health care. She joins us to talk about her healing journey, what CPTSD recovery means to her, emotional flashbacks, the painstaking search for a therapist, “the dread”, and more. This podcast is made possible by NOCD. NOCD offers effective, affordable, and convenient OCD therapy. Schedule a free 15-minute call today at https://learn.nocd.com/alegrakastens Follow Alegra on Instagram! Episodes edited by Donny Hadfield
Susannah Cahalan, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Brain on Fire, joins the Lobotomommies today! She talks the doctor who saved her life, the importance of holistic mental health care, physiological causes of mental health conditions, and more. As the 217th person to be diagnosed with anti-NDMA receptor autoimmune encephalitis, naturally escaping the psych ward or death, Susannah has made it her mission to raise awareness about autoimmune encephalitis and how the body can attack the brain. You don't want to miss this! This podcast is made possible by NOCD. NOCD offers effective, affordable, and convenient OCD therapy. Schedule a free 15-minute call today at https://learn.nocd.com/alegrakastens Follow Alegra on Instagram! Episodes edited by Donny Hadfield
In part two of this discussion, Chrissie opens up about her suicide attempt that led to her hospitalization and OCD diagnosis. She also shares her OCD treatment experience utilizing Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) and recovery journey. This podcast is made possible by NOCD. NOCD offers effective, affordable, and convenient OCD therapy. Schedule a free 15-minute call today at https://learn.nocd.com/alegrakastens Follow Alegra on Instagram! Episodes edited by Donny Hadfield
Peer support specialist and OCD advocate Chrissie Hodges joins Books, Looks, and Lobotomies to talk about her memoir Pure OCD: The Invisible Side of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. In part one of this discussion, Chrissie shares her journey with emetophobia and sexual orientation OCD that nearly ended her life. This podcast is made possible by NOCD. NOCD offers effective, affordable, and convenient OCD therapy. Schedule a free 15-minute call today at https://learn.nocd.com/alegrakastens Follow Alegra on Instagram! Episodes edited by Donny Hadfield
On this week's episode of Books, Looks, and Lobotomies, licensed therapist and OCD specialist Alegra Kastens talks Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and mental compulsions. She provides information about specific mental compulsions, how Exposure & Response Prevention (ERP) works with mental compulsions, stopping mental compulsions, and whether or not mental compulsions can be automatic or involuntary. This podcast is made possible by NOCD. NOCD offers effective, affordable, and convenient OCD therapy. Schedule a free 15-minute call today at https://learn.nocd.com/alegrakastens Follow Alegra on Instagram! Episodes edited by Donny Hadfield
Welcome back, Lobotomommies! This week, Alegra chats with Amanda Montell (Wordslut, Cultish, Sounds Like A Cult Podcast) about her latest book, The Age of Magical Overthinking. While discussing the cognitive biases that run wild through our brains, Alegra and Amanda also get deep about past relationships and "overpacking" their lives. This podcast is made possible by NOCD. NOCD offers effective, affordable, and convenient OCD therapy. Schedule a free 15-minute call today at https://learn.nocd.com/alegrakastens Follow Alegra on Instagram! Episodes edited by Donny Hadfield
In the first episode of her new podcast, Alegra reads "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath; a semi-autobiographical novel that covers all of this podcast's talking points: books, gender issues and feminism, and mental health. Alegra dissects the book, pausing to give personal anecdotes from her life, while also breaking down some of the backstory of the novel itself. With the Madonna Wh*re Complex, high functioning depression, and the history of lobotomies all covered in the first episode, where else is there to go in future episodes? There's only one way to find out... come back soon, Lobotomommies. This podcast is made possible by NOCD. NOCD offers effective, affordable, and convenient OCD therapy. Schedule a free 15-minute call today at https://learn.nocd.com/alegrakastens Follow Alegra on Instagram! Episodes edited by Donny Hadfield
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