it’s nothing. I’m fine.

Some people seem to glow with joy. My friend Mary is one of them. But here's what I've learned after seventeen years of sitting with people's stories: joy like hers doesn't just happen. It's tended.
Mary Morris Solomon is the watercolor illustrator behind MaryGold Tales in Ferndale, Washington, where snails, moths, bunnies, and the occasional juicy cheeseburger come to life on paper. For about twenty years, she built a career as a makeup artist. Then, during the pandemic, the quiet pull toward art got too loud to ignore, and she made the leap to full-time artist.
In this episode, we talk about:
The little girl who drew to feel safe, and how art became home base
The real, unglamorous mechanics of leaving one career for another, including the fears
Why creative work is never just inspiration, and the structure that protects her joy
How she keeps her studio a place of delight instead of burnout
Her honest advice for anyone wondering if it's time to bet on themselves
If you've ever set down the thing you love because adult life got loud, this conversation is for you. Fear doesn't always mean stop. Sometimes it means this matters.
Find Mary's work at marygoldtales.com.

In Part 2, Amy and Ada Gore of Unfawning with Ada get personal. They're both married to what they call gold-star men: good, loving, imperfect husbands. They talk honestly about the idea that women often lead the way emotionally in a marriage and a good man will follow, and why that idea can land as one more task on an already overloaded plate. They explore the difference between leading relationally and managing relationally, what it looks like to let your partner grow into something you used to do for him, and how making space can actually feel like relief instead of more work.
The conversation turns to red flags, yellow flags and preferences and how to tell the difference.
This is a warm, real, sometimes funny conversation between two women who have lived it, for anyone who loves their partner and is tired of doing all of the heavy lifting or a single woman who wants to choose with careful intention.
Missed Part 1? Go back and start there. And find Ada at @unfawningwithAda on Instagram.

Do you keep the peace by doing more? More reminding, more planning, more smoothing things over, more carrying the emotional weight of your marriage so nobody has to feel uncomfortable? You might be overfunctioning, and it might be costing you more of yourself than you realize.
In Part 1 of this two-part conversation, Amy sits down with Ada Gore, the relationship coach behind Unfawning with Ada. Ada works both with women who want to stay married but are exhausted from trying everything to get their husbands to engage and with single women who are still in the choosing process. Together they unpack what self-abandonment looks like in ordinary daily moments, why fawning so often gets mistaken for being a "good wife," and how to tell the difference between advocating for your needs and managing your partner's engagement for him.
If you've ever said "it's nothing, I'm fine" while quietly running the whole relational show, this one is for you.
Follow Ada at @unfawningwithada on instagram, and come back for Part 2, where we talk about the gold-star men we're married to and what it really means to make space for him to step up.

A little truth from the yurt: dismissiveness is one of the most common things I hear about in my practice — and one of the hardest to catch, because it's never one big moment. It's the eye-roll before the story's finished, the half-listen, the "it's not a big deal." In this Yurtism, I break down why these small moments quietly teach your partner to stop bringing you things — and what to do instead when you catch yourself only half-landing on something they've shared.
In this episode:
Why dismissiveness feels small but costs so much
How tiny moments of being brushed off add up to real distance
The attachment question underneath every "so this happened today"
A simple way to repair it in real time when you catch yourself dismissing
A short, honest truth for anyone who's ever felt like a roommate instead of a partner.

What happens when the life you spent almost twenty years building comes apart in your late forties?
My friend and colleague Keri, joins me for an honest conversation about divorce at midlife: the good, the bad, and the ugly. We talk about the slow shift before the ending, the grief nobody prepares you for, and the strange logistics of untangling a shared life. We also talk about what surprised her most, including what she found out she was capable of.
This episode is really about connection. We look at who shows up when your world changes and who quietly disappears, and at how friendships shift when you're no longer half of a couple. Keri describes what it took to ask for help and how she built community again, and we get into the difference between being alone and being lonely. As an Emotionally Focused Therapist, I share why divorce hits our attachment system so hard, and why falling apart shows how much the bond mattered, not that you're weak.
Keri also talks about what her life looks like now, and she has words for the woman sitting in her car in a parking lot right now, wondering how she'll get through this.
If you're going through a divorce, coming out the other side, or loving someone who is, this one's for you. Please share it with a friend who might need to hear it.
Content note: this episode includes conversations about divorce, grief, and loss.
Find out more about my work with individuals and couples at amyprieb.com.
Reach Keri at Psychology Today, Keri Wallace, LMHC

A little truth from the yurt: defensiveness doesn't end relationships with a bang — it ends them quietly, one shut door at a time. In this Yurtism, I unpack why defensiveness feels so justified in the moment, but actually tells your partner their experience doesn't matter. We'll look at the attachment fear hiding underneath most defensive reactions, and one simple shift — curiosity over defense — that keeps your partner feeling safe enough to keep reaching for you.
In this episode:
What defensiveness really communicates to your partner
Why it shuts down communication faster than almost anything else
The vulnerable fear underneath most defensive reactions
One practical shift to try the next time you feel criticized
A quick, honest truth for anyone who's ever caught themselves explaining instead of listening.

Picture a young man, very drunk and barely conscious, alone in a room with seven women. What happens to him? Now picture a young woman in the same state, alone with seven men. You didn't have to think hard about either answer, and that tells us a lot about the world we live in.
In this episode, Amy asks a big question: why matriarchy? Not patriarchy flipped, and not "women are better." She means a different answer to a simple question: who does this group exist to protect?
Amy starts by explaining what matriarchy really means. She then compares patriarchal and matriarchal values side by side: who gets loyalty, what we do when harm happens, how we treat vulnerability, and whose future we protect.
Next she turns to the alleged assault at a Cornell University fraternity and the civil lawsuit that brought it to light. She imagines what a matriarchal response would look like at each of those layers. Drawing on 17 years as an Emotionally Focused Therapist, Amy explains why so many people stay silent. She covers the bystander effect, the fear of losing your place in the group, and why our institutions often respond like an avoidant partner when someone is in distress.
Amy also takes on the pushback directly: due process, "reverse sexism," and whether real matriarchies ever existed. She closes with practical steps for parents of sons and daughters, for couples and families, and for anyone in a group chat who sees something wrong.
Matriarchy isn't a world where women rule. It's a world where care does.
To work with Amy: amyprieb.com
To find out more about The Crew: the crewcc.com
Content note: This episode discusses an alleged sexual assault. If you need support, contact the RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or rainn.org. If you're in danger right now, call 911.

Ever caught yourself worried that needing your partner this much means something's wrong? You're not alone — it's one of the most common fears I hear in my practice, and honestly, most of the time it's a sign of a healthy relationship, not a broken one.
In this episode, I'm breaking down the real difference between codependency and healthy interdependence — through the lens of Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) and attachment theory. We'll talk about why American culture has taught us to be suspicious of our own need for connection, what rugged individualism actually costs us, and how to tell whether your relationship is fused and unhealthy or simply two whole people who genuinely enjoy leaning on each other.
By the end, you'll have a clearer, more compassionate way to understand your own relationship — and a better answer to the question underneath all of this: not "how do I need people less," but "how do I learn to need people well."
In this episode:
What codependency actually is (and isn't)
Why attachment and connection are biological needs, not weaknesses
The myth of the self-made individual — and what it costs us
Simple ways to tell codependency apart from secure interdependence
What healthy interdependence looks like day to day
Whether you're in a relationship that others have called "codependent," or you're just tired of feeling guilty for needing the people you love — this episode is for you.
thecrewcc.com
amyprieb.com