The Podcast
Lumen is a mental health podcast that explores the psychological patterns shaping our relationships, choices, and inner lives. Hosted by Lumen Therapy Collective founders Christopher Mooney, LCSW and Kenyon Phillips, LMSW, each episode offers grounded, compassionate conversations rooted in clinical insight and real human experience. No jargon. No judgment. Just clear, thoughtful dialogue designed to help listeners better understand themselves and the people around them.
People-Pleasing and the Cost of Losing Yourself
What if your kindness isn’t kindness at all, but a survival strategy? In this episode of Lumen, hosts Christopher Mooney, LCSW and Kenyon Phillips, LMSW unpack the often-overlooked link between the trauma response of fawning and people-pleasing by reframing the habit of saying “yes” as a survival mechanism rather than a personality trait. Together, they explore how the fawn response develops as a way to stay safe—appeasing others to avoid danger, conflict, rejection, or loss—and how that pattern can quietly take over our relationships, jobs, and identity. From staying in relationships too long to overextending at work, Christopher and Kenyon connect the dots between fear, early conditioning, and the compulsive need for validation while breaking down the four distinct types of people-pleasers. They also examine the emotional and physical toll of chronic self-abandonment, including resentment, anxiety, and stress held in the body. At its core, this episode is an invitation to recognize the fears that drive most people-pleasing—and to begin the work of reclaiming your boundaries, your voice, and your sense of self.
Move a Muscle, Change a Thought
In this episode of Lumen, hosts Christopher Mooney, LCSW and Kenyon Phillips, LMSW explore the powerful connection between movement and mental health. What begins as a conversation about running quickly expands into a deeper look at how physical activity, sleep, hydration, and nutrition shape emotional well-being. Drawing from both clinical experience and insights from Harvard metabolic health advocate Dr. Chris Palmer, they challenge the idea that mental health exists only in the mind—introducing a more integrated view of brain and body. From winter stagnation and “freeze mode” to the cultural pressure to overwork and under-rest, Christopher and Kenyon unpack how disconnection from the body can quietly fuel anxiety, depression, and a loss of motivation. The conversation also explores how neglecting our basic needs can erode confidence, strain relationships, and limit our ability to feel present in our own lives. Rather than offering extreme solutions, Christopher and Kenyon return to something more fundamental: the small, consistent choices that help regulate the nervous system and restore a sense of balance. At its core, this episode is a reminder that we are not machines built for constant output. We are human beings who require movement, rest, and connection to function. Because sometimes the path out of a mental spiral isn’t more thinking. Sometimes it’s as simple, and as difficult, as getting up and moving.
Good Grief: Companioning Loss, Love, and the End of Life with Kat Hurley, LCSW (Part Two)
In Part Two of this two-part conversation, hosts Christopher Mooney, LCSW and Kenyon Phillips, LMSW continue their dialogue with grief, loss, and bereavement therapist and Fordham University professor Kat Hurley, LCSW—exploring what grief actually looks like in the mind, body, and daily life. Kat shares powerful ways of understanding loss, including the idea that grief doesn’t shrink over time and that the real work of grief is learning how to carry it. The conversation expands into grief literacy, and unpacking the emotional, cognitive, and physical symptoms—like brain fog, irritability, exhaustion, and dissociation—that often make grieving people feel like they’re “going crazy." Along the way, they explore concepts like anticipatory grief, disenfranchised grief, and ambiguous loss—forms of grief that often go unrecognized or unsupported. Ultimately, this episode invites listeners to rethink their relationship with loss and mortality by reminding us that confronting grief can deepen our compassion, clarify what matters most, and help us live more fully while we’re here.
Good Grief: Companioning Loss, Love, and the End of Life with Kat Hurley, LCSW (Part One)
In Part One of this two-part conversation, hosts Christopher Mooney, LCSW and Kenyon Phillips, LMSW sit down with grief, loss, and bereavement therapist and Fordham University professor Kat Hurley, LCSW to explore what it really means to companion people through life’s most vulnerable moments. Kat shares her unexpected journey from professional dancer to “grief nerd,” and unpacks the often-misunderstood world of palliative care—what it is, what it isn’t, and why it matters long before the moment of death. The conversation moves into grief beyond death, including divorce, identity shifts, empty nesting, and the loss of the “assumptive world”—the moment when life no longer looks the way we thought it would. This episode is about courage, clarity, and the power of having honest conversations before, during, and after we experience a loss. It's also a reminder that we don't have to face our grief alone.
Boys Don’t Cry: Men, Vulnerability, and the Cost of Silence
"I'm fine." It's a lie that so many men tell. Not only to others, but to themselves. In this episode of Lumen, hosts Christopher Mooney, LCSW and Kenyon Phillips, LMSW explore the quiet conditioning that teaches boys to “shake it off,” “man up,” and never let anyone see them cry. From scraped knees and hockey rinks to boys’ dormitories and adult relationships, they unpack how early praise for toughness can harden into emotional isolation. When vulnerability is equated with weakness, many men are left with only two socially acceptable settings: silence or anger. Drawing from clinical experience and personal reflection, they examine how suppressed emotion can morph into depression, anxiety, explosive rage, or a painful sense of disconnection—and how the pressure to fix rather than feel keeps real intimacy at bay. At its core, this conversation challenges a cultural script that rewards stoicism while quietly eroding connection, and offers a radical reframe: expressing what hurts is not weakness, but strength. Because healing doesn't always begin with solving the problem. Sometimes it begins with simply being heard.
Joy as Medicine: Making Therapy Creative, Collaborative, and Human
In this uplifting episode of Lumen, hosts Christopher Mooney, LCSW and Kenyon Phillips, LMSW carve out some time with guest Andrew Tepper, LCSW, founder of BODA Therapy in New York, to talk about something that often gets overlooked in mental health work: joy. Andrew shares how his program blends short-term retreats in the Catskills, skill-based therapies like CBT and DBT, and real-world accountability to support clients beyond the traditional therapy hour. Together, the three clinicians discuss the power of experiential therapy, creative expression, and collaborative connection as pathways to healing. Drawing on Andrew’s 15 years of experience as a clinician in an inpatient psychiatric hospital, the conversation explores how music, theater, and shared creative experiences can lower defenses, build trust, and make therapy feel more human. Instead of focusing solely on pathology or pain, this episode asks a simple but radical question: What if recovery could also include fun? By celebrating the spark that happens when a clinician and a client create something together, Christopher, Kenyon, and Andrew demonstrate how skill-building, connection, and joy can coexist in the therapeutic process.
To learn more about Andrew Tepper, LCSW, visit the BODA Therapy website and connect with him on Instagram and LinkedIn.
Why Are We So Tired?
In this episode of Lumen, hosts Christopher Mooney, LCSW and Kenyon Phillips, LMSW explore the quieter epidemic beneath so much modern distress: exhaustion. Not just physical tiredness, but the kind of mental and emotional fatigue that comes from living in a constant state of alert. The conversation explores how being tethered to our phones—a nonstop source of information, notifications, breaking news, and social comparisons—keeps our nervous systems activated long after any real threat has passed. From doomscrolling and political overwhelm to the subtle pressure to stay informed, responsive, and “engaged,” Christopher and Kenyon examine how helplessness and overexposure quietly wear us down. The conversation also touches on how poor sleep, alcohol use, hustle culture, and the constant pressure to perform can compound this exhaustion—leaving the body working overtime even when we're supposedly resting. Ultimately, this episode is an invitation to rethink what’s actually draining us, to understand exhaustion as a nervous system issue rather than a personal failure, and to consider what real rest, regulation, and care might look like in a world that rarely stops demanding our attention.
Good Enough: Letting Go of Perfectionism
What if perfectionism isn’t your greatest strength, but your most exhausting defense? In this episode of Lumen, hosts Christopher Mooney, LCSW and Kenyon Phillips, LMSW approach perfectionism not as a badge of honor, but as a trauma-informed coping strategy rooted in fear, shame, and the need for control. They explore how the drive to be flawless often comes from a deeper belief that we are only lovable or worthy when we perform at our best, and how all-or-nothing thinking and emotional “masking” keep us stuck in cycles of anxiety, burnout, and self-criticism. Ultimately, the conversation moves toward a gentler truth: Life is mostly gray area, not black or white—and real connection begins when we allow ourselves to be imperfect. If we can take off our masks, something more honest—and more sustainable—can take its place. From relationships to parenting to the quiet voice in our own heads, this episode invites listeners to trade the pressure of perfection for the relief of “good enough"—and to practice the radical act of accepting life on life’s terms.
The Negativity Buffet: Why Your Brain Always Goes Back for Seconds
In this episode of Lumen, hosts Christopher Mooney, LCSW and Kenyon Phillips, LMSW unpack the runaway train of negative thinking—how a single mistake can spiral into shame, catastrophizing, and the feeling that you’re about to get fired from life. Drawing from everyday moments, clinical work, and a surprisingly accurate all-you-can-eat buffet metaphor, Christopher and Kenyon explore common unhelpful thinking styles like catastrophizing, all-or-nothing thinking, fortune-telling, and permissive thinking. In the process, they discuss why the brain is wired to scan for danger, how these patterns once helped us survive, and what happens when they get taken too far. The episode also proposes practical ways to challenge negative thinking, such as approaching obligations from a place of gratitude, possibility, and privilege. With humor, honesty, and zero jargon, this conversation invites you to notice your own negativity buffet—and gently question whether you really need to load your plate the way you always have.
Connected, But Alone: Why Being Seen Is Harder Than Ever
We’ve never had more ways to connect—and yet so many of us feel profoundly alone. In this episode of Lumen, hosts Christopher Mooney, LCSW and Kenyon Phillips, LMSW explore the modern loneliness epidemic and how social media, curated identities, and fear of being fully seen have quietly reshaped the ways we relate to one another. From the awkward reality of needing to “text before calling” to the illusion of intimacy created by followers and likes, they unpack why connection can feel thinner than ever since the pandemic. Through a simple yet revealing relationship exercise, reflections on people-pleasing and fawning, and a hard look at the technology that has permanently altered how we relate to one another, the episode examines what gets lost when we hide our messy, human insides. Ultimately, this conversation begs a larger question: What would it take to let our outsides finally match who we really are—and to let ourselves be known, not just noticed?
Seeing, Being Seen, and the Survival Responses That Shape Us
In the inaugural episode of Lumen, hosts Christopher Mooney, LCSW and Kenyon Phillips, LMSW explore the meaning behind the name Lumen and how it reflects the heart of therapy: seeing, being seen, and creating a shared sense of understanding. Drawing from clinical work, creativity, music, dance, improv, and lived experience, they describe therapy as a collaborative, living process rather than a one-sided exchange. The conversation also touches on what happens when we don’t feel seen, how disconnection activates deep survival responses in the nervous system, and how the often-misunderstood stress responses of fight, flight, freeze, and fawn can show up in our relationships, families, work, and culture. Grounded, accessible, and reflective, this episode sets the tone for Lumen: no jargon, no judgment—just thoughtful conversation to help listeners better understand themselves and one another.