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Strides To Solutions

Esther Adams

Strides To Solutions uncovers how animal-assisted psychotherapy—from equine sessions to canine companionship—rewires the brain for lasting cognitive and emotional gains. Join host Esther Adams, a trauma-informed psychotherapist with a doctorate in psychology, as she shares powerful client stories, expert interviews, and hands-on exercises designed to strengthen attention, memory, executive function, and resilience. Tune in for actionable strategies that transform barnyard breakthroughs into real-world success. esthernava.substack.com

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Episodes

172 episodes

  1. Why Do We Feel Guilty When We Start Setting Boundaries? 33:46
  2. Who Are You When You’re Not Defending Yourself? 41:47
  3. Is Self-Doubt Actually a Sign of Intelligence? 30:14
  4. Can We Train People to Recover Like Athletes? 32:04
  5. Why Your Horse Trainer Might Be Burned Out 49:00
  6. When Caring Costs: Burnout and Mental Health in Veterinarians 39:25
  7. Everyone Tells You to Rest 41:18
  8. Ambitious but Exhausted 27:55
  9. 50 Reframes For Chronic Fatigue 2:32
  10. What Your Dog Actually Knows: The Science of Wordless Comfort 34:04
  11. When Closeness Feels Like a Threat To An Avoidant Partner 19:10
  12. The Making of an Avoidant Partner 19:16
  13. Are They Sorry, or Just Sorry They Were Caught? 14:06
  14. When the Person You Trust Keeps Lying: Gaslighting and Infidelity 16:17
  15. Gaslighting, Minimization, and Denial After Confrontation 23:19
  16. The Shame of Staying: Why Many Betrayed Spouses Suffer in Silence 26:03
  17. The Psychology of Betrayal Trauma While the Affair(s) Is Still Happening 34:03
  18. Why Some Breakups Are So Hard to Let Go Of 35:48
  19. Why Relief Can Be More Addictive Than Pleasure 37:37
  20. Why You Can Miss a Life You Did Not Actually Enjoy 34:07
  21. Why Some Brains Stay Young Into Their Nineties 36:01
  22. Why Life Feels Faster as You Get Older 34:53
  23. You Don’t Really Understand It Until You Can Explain It 28:56
  24. Why Effective Learning Often Feels Like Failure 15:59
  25. The Hidden Step Between Feeling Someone's Pain and Actually Helping Them 36:23
  26. Why Naming Your Emotions Changes Your Brain 36:14
  27. The Neuroscience of Social Rejection 41:49
  28. The Psychological Cost of Perfectionism and How to Reclaim Your Creative Courage 43:29
  29. The Voice in Your Head 36:41
  30. Hope When You Have No Control 35:43
  31. The Mechanisms of Emotional Healing — What Horses Actually Do 16:24
  32. Can Your Nervous System Lose Hope? 13:49
  33. The Biology of Hope 24:22
  34. When Meaning Becomes Biology 25:57
  35. Who Creates Your Reality? The Hidden Conversation Between Brain, Body, Environment, and Meaning 14:08
  36. Why Your Brain Loves Certainty More Than Being Right 14:40
  37. Your Brain Predicts Reality Before You Experience It 15:00
  38. Design the Room, Not the Person — What to Do Once You Know Self-Control Isn't Fair 15:03
  39. Is Self-Control Fair? — The Uncomfortable Science Behind Who We Call Lazy 16:15
  40. Willpower Isn't a Thing You Have — The Hidden Landscape Behind Every Choice 17:35
  41. Why Avoidance Makes Anxiety Worse: The Neuroscience of Escaping Fear 19:24
  42. The Neuroscience of Loneliness 21:00
  43. Dopamine Isn't What You Think It Is 23:18
  44. What Stanford Psychology Knows About Show Nerves That Equestrian Culture Has Never Said Out Loud 15:37
  45. You Were Never Too Nervous to Show. You Were Showing in the Wrong Zone 13:19
  46. The Psychology of Online Western Dressage Showing and Why It Actually Works 28:41
  47. The Grief Aging Equestrians Were Never Given Language For 18:10
  48. The Equestrian Trainer-Amateur Relationship Is More Psychologically Complex Than Anyone Admits 26:58
  49. Riding Correctly and Riding Well Are Not the Same Thing — Here Is Why 16:42
  50. Your Brain Left the Barn Before You Did 15:08