Meet Your Favorite DBT Therapists (Feat. Kate & Michelle of DBT and Me podcast)
Meet Your Favorite DBT Therapists (Feat. Kate & Michelle of DBT and Me podcast)

Bold Beautiful Borderline

Two DBT therapists share their contrasting mental health journeys, from childhood self-harm and a BPD diagnosis to secure attachment and divorce. They talk openly about stigma, self-doubt as clinicians, and how DBT and honest relationships have supported their recovery.

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49:02•5 Apr 2026

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DBT Therapists Get Real About Self‑Harm, Stigma, and Being “Well Enough”

Episode Overview

Lived experience can deepen a therapist’s empathy, but Kate and Michelle stress that it needs to be paired with solid training and boundaries.
DBT skills and structure helped Kate survive chronic self-harm and intense self-hatred, giving her enough stability to keep going.
Even neurotypical, securely attached therapists like Michelle grapple with people-pleasing, criticism, and worries about being “good enough” for clients.
Attachment patterns and subtle “casual criticism” in families and marriages can quietly erode wellbeing, even without obvious big-t trauma.
Strong, honest friendships can help name unhealthy dynamics and validate gut feelings long before someone is ready to make a major change.

“I’d rather learn about sex from a sex worker than a nun.”

How do people cope with the challenges of staying sober, staying alive, and staying kind to themselves? This conversation brings together two DBT therapists who are just as open about their own messiness as they are skilled in helping others. Host Sarah chats with therapists Michelle Henderson and Kate Sherman from the “DBT and Me” podcast, focusing entirely on their lived experience with mental health rather than textbook theory.

Michelle shares how she grew up relatively “unscathed”, fell in love with psychology after a ballet career-ending injury, and uses therapy as a steady anchor through life’s curveballs, from long-term relationships to divorce and parenting. She describes herself as fairly regulated and neurotypical, yet still hit by people-pleasing and self-doubt in her work, admitting she often leaves sessions thinking, “That felt just like it was a terrible session.” Kate’s story sits on the other end of the spectrum.

She talks about suicidal thoughts from age six to eight, a long history of self-harm, and a diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder as a young adult. DBT quite literally kept her going: “I don’t know why it always feels melodramatic to me when I say it, but I think it saved my life.” She explains how self-harm functioned as survival, not a wish to die, and how medication side effects once felt worse than the self-harm itself.

You’ll also hear frank talk about stigma in graduate school, what it’s like to be a therapist who still struggles, and the comfort of learning from professionals who actually know what pain feels like. The dynamic between Kate and Michelle is a highlight: one neurotypical, securely attached list-maker; one emotionally intense, neurodivergent, self-confessed chaos gremlin. Together they show that being a “good therapist” can look very different from the outside.

If you’ve ever wondered whether your therapist really understands, or if your own mental health history disqualifies you from helping others, this conversation might make you rethink what being “well enough” truly means.

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