Shame Resilience & the Myth of Competence with Maddie Tonjes, LCSW, Group Practice (R)evolution
Conversations With a Wounded Healer
Release Date: 12/10/2025
324 - The Fall of the Traditional Therapist (and What’s Next) with Josie Rosario
Conversations With a Wounded Healer
What if the future of therapy asks clinicians to stop checking their humanity at the door? I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: There’s a gap between the world we were trained for as therapists and the world we find ourselves in now. And here to explore that gap with compassion, curiosity, and a dose of reality is relational therapist, writer, mentor, and founder of Venus + Legacy, Josie Rosario. Keep listening if you are curious about: The evolving role of the therapist to meet the needs of today’s clients Therapists doing their own healing work and examining one’s...
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323 - The Therapists’ Toolkit for Challenging Times | Sarah Buino Live at the Revolutionary Practice Summit
Conversations With a Wounded Healer
What if the biggest challenge facing therapists isn't burnout… but evolution? In this special bonus episode, Sarah shares her keynote from the inaugural Revolutionary Practice Summit, exploring why therapists must evolve—not just professionally, but personally—to meet the realities of practicing in today's world. Drawing from trauma theory, developmental psychology, leadership research, systems thinking, and her own experience as a therapist and group practice owner, Sarah offers a compelling vision for the future of psychotherapy. Rather than asking therapists to simply become more...
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Group Practice After Capitalism? with Donna Sky, Project Equity - Group Practice (R)evolution
Conversations With a Wounded Healer
Donna Sky on Employee Ownership, Legacy, and the Future of Private Practice. Lemme ask the group practice owners a question: What’s your business plan for the end of capitalism? OK, so we’re not quite there yet, but “something” is pushing private practices closer to the cliff’s edge of capitalism, the inevitable collapse of unbridled growth for no other reason than greed. Group practice owners who want to land safely should prepare for what comes next. Employee ownership (EO) could be what’s next. Donna Sky is senior manager of business and engagement and partnerships at Project...
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322 - The Ethics of Taking Politics into the Therapy Room with Jordan Conrad
Conversations With a Wounded Healer
Can therapists ethically work with clients whose values oppose their own? Sarah Buino and Jordan Conrad explore professionalism, self-disclosure, political identity, and the future of psychotherapy in an increasingly polarized world. Is therapy political? That's a good question and one that provokes an array of answers (just peruse any therapists' Facebook group). I've talked with a decent number of therapists who possess vastly different political views than their clients. Every one of these compassionate providers mentions how difficult it is to hold space for healing amid political discord....
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321 - Dissociative Identity Disorder Is a Brilliant Adaptation with Sally Maslansky
Conversations With a Wounded Healer
What therapists often misunderstand about DID, childhood trauma, shame, attachment, and the therapeutic relationship—with psychotherapist and author Sally Maslansky. **If you find conversations about childhood sexual abuse activating, please take care with this episode. Although our discussion doesn’t contain explicit details, abuse is a central theme.** Because hindsight is 20/20, allow me to add a bit of self-evaluation to this conversation with Sally Maslansky, LMFT, my emotionally wise and accomplished guest. Sally is a licensed psychotherapist, speaker, consultant, and author of...
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320 - Practicing Therapy in a World on Fire
Conversations With a Wounded Healer
Why therapists must do their own work: leadership, integrity, and the future of therapy with Sarah Buino and Lane Essex. We made it! To the middle of 2026. I realize that’s a bit of a good-news/bad-news scenario given the current political climate. Still, the fact that we’re all here is something worthy of celebration. Or, at the very least, reflection. Where do we, as therapists, want to grow next? How do we get there? I literally cannot fathom any other solution for how we evolve the profession, get better at running businesses, or treat each other and our clients than by working...
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The Hidden Cost of Leadership: Sarah Buino on Lonely at the Top
Conversations With a Wounded Healer
Sarah reflects on selling her therapy practice, surviving burnout, and discovering that healing sometimes means walking away. This week we're sharing a conversation that originally aired on Rachel works with CEOs, founders, executives, and high performers navigating the emotional weight of leadership, so it makes sense that this conversation was about one of the most transformative—and painful—chapters of my professional life. In this episode: Why leadership can become profoundly lonely—even when you're surrounded by people The hidden relationship between trauma, workaholism, and...
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Ordinary Trauma, Agency & the Myth of Being Okay: Sarah Buino on The Unburdened Leader
Conversations With a Wounded Healer
Sarah and Rebecca discuss trauma culture, healing, political consciousness, and building the capacity to stay present with life's messiness. This week, we're sharing a conversation originally recorded in 2024 for with my friend and colleague, Rebecca Ching. Truthfully, this felt less like an interview and more like one of those conversations you have with someone who speaks the same language you do. We talk about what I call ordinary trauma—the relational wounds that often go unnoticed because they're so common—and why reclaiming our agency is essential to healing. We also dive into...
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The Courage to Do Your Own Work: Sarah Buino on The Innovative Therapist
Conversations With a Wounded Healer
Chronic shame, developmental trauma, healing in community, and why the future of therapy depends on therapists embracing their own growth. This week, we're sharing a conversation originally recorded for What started as a typical podcast interview quickly became a conversation that helped me better understand my own work (thank you very much!) We talk about how chronic shame disconnects us from our agency, why therapists need to be honest about power dynamics, and what happens when we stop trying to "arrive" at healing and instead embrace the lifelong journey of becoming. In this episode: ...
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319 - Therapists vs. AI? Earl Wagner, PhD on the Future of Human Healing
Conversations With a Wounded Healer
AI researcher and former Google employee Earl Wagner helps unpack AI therapy bots, emotional attachment to technology, and what makes healing deeply human. You know how I’m always encouraging therapists to sit with the unknown? Well, fair warning: this episode may test your limits in the same way that a good fitness coach might test your stamina. It’s time for the AI conversation. AI’s growing role in therapy, healing, and emotional support Why loneliness and disconnection make AI companions appealing What human therapists can offer that AI can’t replicate How therapists may...
info_outlineGen Z is at the mic, and they have some thoughts. I can feel my fellow “olds” getting their hackles up. But, hold on! I’m asking all of us to stay curious, regardless of generational or career-stage identity. Isn’t that what we instruct our clients to do when faced with new information or complicated emotions? Time to take our own advice!
Maddie Tonjes, LCSW, is an early-career therapist at Centered Therapy Chicago with keen insights into what her generational cohort needs to thrive. And, honestly? I’m here for two suggestions in particular: creating space for client population preference to develop and fostering shame resilience related to the learning curve.
GUEST BIO
Maddie Tonjes, LCSW, (she/her) is passionate about creating a space for healing and growth through empathy, warmth, and vulnerability. She is also the Coordinator of Play + Expressive Therapies at Centered Therapy Chicago, focusing on supporting fellow clinicians in engaging in creative and play-based work with clients of all ages.
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