This New Podcast Lets You Listen In On Actual Therapy Sessions

By The Minneapolis Egotist / November 11, 2022 /

They say that showing is better than telling, but can that premise apply to therapy?

COOL STORY believes so, and they’re using their own founder Alex Frecon as a guinea pig to prove it. Their new podcast My Therapist and I is the first-ever podcast that isn’t just about therapy—it is therapy. More specifically, Alex’s therapy.

Each week listeners can tune into Alex Frecon’s actual therapy sessions, as he sits down with LMFT and U of M professor Dr. Steven Harris to talk about the many things on his mind.

The goal? To give people a glimpse of what therapy can be like, all from the privacy of their own device.

Is this crazy? Hopefully not. But Alex Frecon admits it’s a unique premise. 

“We’ve definitely gotten a few ‘that sounds crazy’ remarks, but I think that plays into the big misconception about therapy” says Alex Frecon, founder of COOL STORY. “Therapy doesn’t always have to be this scary, intense thing. It doesn’t have to always be about confronting your deepest darkest secrets. Yes, you can do that,” (Alex does it on the podcast) “but sometimes therapy can be as simple as saying ‘hey, I feel like I could be doing a better job at being a human.’ The goal of this podcast is to give people a chance to experience that.”

Sharing his thoughts and feelings with the internet wasn’t the biggest hurdle for the project. The real challenge was finding a therapist who was willing to sign on.

“It was VERY hard to find a therapist who was willing to do it,” Frecon says. “To take such a private thing and make it public-facing scared off a lot of the therapists I talked to. When Dr. Steve agreed, I saw his resume was 39 pages long and was like ‘damn this dude’s legit!’”

So why did Dr. Harris decide to join? 

“I’m interested in reducing the stigma associated with seeking help for mental and emotional issues,” he says.  “If the podcast helps people see that therapy is not so scary or intimidating and people actually seek out and receive mental health services, the podcast will have been a success.”

Mental health has been a talking point for a lot of brands in 2022. But as COOL STORY hopes to prove, actions speak louder than words.