About Face explores a wide range of themes around identity and self including addiction, sex and relationships, trauma, LGBTQ issues, and family of origin stories. Through reflection, interview, and narrative storytelling this podcast deconstructs personal, family, and cultural narratives to better understand our ourselves and access authenticity. Hosted by Kate Marlene, writer and therapist.
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Episode 52. The Power of Single-Mothering w/ Ruby Russell
1:23:15
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As a single mom myself I've had to battle the negative stereotypes and stigmas around single motherhood and what happens after a marriage/parenting relationship breaks down. In this episode I am talking with Ruby Russell is a journalist, author, and single mom from London, also living in Berlin, and the author of Doing it All: The Social Power of S…
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51. I Went to Jail! The Stories We tell About Ourselves
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Somewhere there is a mugshot of me after I got arrested at a house party in Seattle when I was 20. There is also a picture of me graduating law school a few years later. Both of these pictures tell a story, and both are true. But how do I make meaning from these stories and these truths? What do these stories tell me about myself and my life? In th…
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50. Family Estrangement & Going No Contact w/ Janice Formichella
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59:18
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"Just because someone is related, doesn't mean they love you," can be a difficult idea to accept, but recognizing that family relations don't always serve us can be empowering. Family estrangement is a taboo topic and those of us who have had to go no contact with famly members never make the decision lightly. Kate speaks with break-up coach and fa…
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49. PSA: Stop Texting When You Should Be Talking!
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When it comes to texting- I am the worst! I have a history of sending break-up texts, having serious conflicts by text message, and trying to communicate my emotional reactions and needs by text message. The thing is- we don't get anywhere by dumping on others through text message. We lose nuance, accountability, and the opportunity for conflict re…
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48. Burnout in Mid-Life and 'The Way Home' w/ Ben Katt
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I started this podcast after my own 'rock bottom' story and recovery journey, really in effort to capture the essence of personal growth and transformation coming out of darkness. But, what if there is no rock bottom? What if you simply feel, or hear a voice deep down that tells you ... something isn't right? 'Rock bottom’ stories can be inspiring,…
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I wanted to share a difficulty that I have been struggling with the last month and how I was able to manage some hard, even shameful emotions that came up for me. When my kids' father got sick and ended up in the hospital for the last month I had to accept my new role as a single mom, without the help of a co-parent. In this episode I discuss the s…
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46. Love Stories in Art and Life w/ Olivia DeRecat
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Love stories captivate all of us, but how do narratives of love influence how we date, make meaning, and tell our own stories? What do we look for in the love stories of our own lives and how do larger narratives about love influence how we pursue and experience romance? In this episode, I interview Olivia de Recat, author, illustrator, and cartoon…
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45. Illness, Negative Self-Talk, and Healing
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Being sick can have a negative impact on our sense of self and mental well-being. Do you feel unproductive, unable to be a good parent, or isolated and lonely when you're sick? When we are ill, a myriad of stories, beliefs, and negative associations can surface. These stories can impact our sense of self and, in my case, even lead to questioning my…
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44. Break Ups, Broken Hearts, and Moving On w/ Janice Formichella
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One of the greatest pains we will ever endure in life is heartache, either from a break-up, rejection, divorce, or the severance of a relationship. In this episode I talked with Janice Formicella, a break-up coach and host of the podcast, "Break-ups, Broken Hearts, and Moving On." We talked about recovery from our own divorce and other break-ups, w…
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43. College Pregnancy: An Interview with the Father (20 Years Later)
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Almost exactly 20 years ago I got pregnant. I was still in college and my boyfriend at the time was getting ready to start a Ph.D. at Harvard. We had big life dreams, that for both of us, seemed inevitable, not to be disrupted by an unexpected pregnancy. A couple years ago I met up with Jeremie when we were both in Paris and he agreed to let me rec…
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42. My (Ex) Mother in Law Thinks I'm Cray! Dealing with Multiple Truths
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Any time we try to convince others of our truth and convictions we lose power. When I got divorced I heard a lot of rumors about myself-- I'm crazy, left my husband for a younger boyfriend, etc. This experience taught me a lot about how to stand in my own power and truth and to not let myself be vulnerable to the thoughts and opinions of others.…
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41. I Am Trapped in a Foreign Country!- Reimagining Limitations
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I got on a dating app in 2012 and met my now ex-husband. Now I have two German kids and I can't leave the country! On a bad day this really gets be down, however, it has taught me a lot about the power of reimagining possibility within the very real limitations of our lives and circumstances. This episode is for anyone who has felt held back back o…
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I took a break from podcasting because I didn't know how to tell my own stories anymore. There was shame, confusion, fear, and hardship around what I was going through- leaving my marriage, becoming a single mother, and learning to embrace the truth about my situation and my life. This episode is about the reality of why I had to leave my marriage,…
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39. Healing in Sex and Love w/ Quintin Mecke
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Dating after divorce or after 40 can be messy, but it's also a great time for self-growth, healing, and introspection. In this episode, Kate talks with Quintin Mecke, social activist, politician, and former mayoral candidate of San Francisco about healing in sex and love. This episode is a funny reflection on how they met doing storytelling in San …
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38. Truth Telling: if you want to heal, you have to be real
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This is the first episode in a new season of About Face. Kate shares her personal journey with creating the podcast, what it means to be authentic, why being honest with ourselves is crucial to recovery. She shares about losing a guest to overdose, divorce, addiction recovery, sex and love addiction, her inspiration in the trans community, and the …
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37. I Got Hypnotized: Subconscious Storytelling
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Last summer I got hypnotized for over two hours and I wanted to share about this experience as well as the relationship I found between narrative healing and subconscious imagery. In this episode I interview Marta Styczen about her hypnotherapy practice and we talk about my session, including the process of going under hypnosis, what it is really l…
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36. Suffering is Optional- Attachment Stories
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Today I want to talk about something I call “Attachment Stories,” and it’s the stories that attach themselves to events, issues, or traits about ourselves, our families, communities etc. Basically, it’s the accompanying stories that might crop up in a damaging way. Many of you have probably heard this expression: “Pain inevitable, suffering is opti…
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I used to think I could insulate myself against pain or hardship by doing the right thing or making "good decisions." When my daughter was diagnosed with a rare brain condition, I had to face my greatest fears of illness, vulnerability, and a total loss of control. In this episode I share about going through the transition from denying and fighting…
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34. I'm Successful, How Could I Be An Addict?
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52:04
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I hated the thought of being an addict or an alcoholic. I would often point to my external successes as a straight A student, a lawyer, having a good job and other markers of "well-being" to distract from my problem with alcohol, my depression, anxiety, and my pain. After going through recovery I've noticed that so many addicts are actually "succes…
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33. Sick of Gratitude Lists? Try My Shit List
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14:07
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I love gratitude lists, but I think sometimes the pressure to focus on the positive (and shaming for negative thinking) can be destructive. In this episode I want to share my experience with learning to acknowledge some of the challenges in my life, taking an honest approach to hardship. This is about self compassion and learning to get real when t…
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E12- Getting Over a Break-Up, Divorce, Love Lost
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Break-ups are HARD and the heartache can last years. This episode explores the relationship between self-identity and break-ups and why the pain is often because of the stories we tell ourselves about why things ended. Whether you left a 20 year marriage or you got ghosted after a few Tinder dates, this episode is for you. Kate explores four steps …
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E11- Collective Grief and Rising Hope in a Pandemic
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25:37
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So. many of us are suffering from the collective grief of this pandemic and it's been manifesting in various ways- pressures on our relationships, money stress, health fears, feelings of isolation, and the unknown. There is also a depressive element- not knowing how we will be moving forward for the next year, the inability to make plans, and this …
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E10- Challenging Our Food and Body Narratives
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53:21
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Food is so basic and primal and yet so many of us suffer from disordered eating--why? This isn't about extreme cases of anorexia, bulimia, or overeating (though it could be), but the many little ways that we are tortured by food management, food restriction, and the disordered relationships we have with food because of personal, family, cultural an…
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When you think of the most important stories of your life, they are often about relationships. What stories you tell about yourself and your life often begin with family, parental bonds, siblings, and events that involved these important relationships. Whether you have strong bonds with your family or you have severed ties, you likely continue to h…
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E8- When Fear is Real: Medical Fears, Money & Loss
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42:31
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In 2017, my 18-month old daughter had to have brain scans for a suspected tumor. While in the hospital, she didn't wake up from the anesthetic. It turned out she had caught a superbug while being tested, but the doctors told me that she should also be tested for lung cancer, blood cancers, among other really scary diagnoses. All of this was somethi…
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E7: Fear Narratives: Finding Self and Truth
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Fear is so basic, primal, but also gets at the role of narrative in our lives is fear. Fear is an instinct of course, it drives us to make decisions, to do or not do things. It can get in the way of moving forward, but of course it also has this evolutionary advantage of keeping us safe from harm. Fear narratives can be based on societal messaging,…
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