MHNR Network, LLC
Mental Health News Radio
What Real Change Actually Feels Like (From the Therapist’s Chair)
What Real Change Actually Feels Like (From the Therapist’s Chair)
What Real Change Actually Feels Like (From the Therapist’s Chair)
Saturday 28th March 2026
Therapist Cody Gauthier and host Kristen Walker talk about messy growth, endings in therapy, somatic trauma work, and men’s emotional health.
44 minutes
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MHNR Network, LLC
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Body & Mind
Healing Relationships
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Get the buttons here!What Real Change in Therapy Actually Feels Like
Episode Overview
- Real change in therapy often feels worse before it feels better, bringing conflict, discomfort and self-doubt rather than instant relief.
- A key part of the therapist’s job is holding space while clients experiment with new behaviours, instead of rushing in to control or fix.
- Endings and reduced frequency in therapy bring up attachment feelings for both client and therapist, and can become meaningful work in themselves.
- Somatic approaches focus on how incomplete survival responses get stuck in the body and can be released through careful, body-based work.
- Many men arrive feeling ineffective or shut down in relationships, and therapy can help them build emotional honesty without losing their sense of strength.
Oftentimes when we make a change, it feels weird. People come back into session feeling like, ‘This is why I never did this in the first place,’ and you’re like, please keep going.
What makes a recovery story truly inspiring? Mental Health News Radio takes that question into the therapist’s office, as host Kristen Walker chats with mental health counsellor and somatic practitioner Cody Gauthier about what real change actually feels like from the client and therapist side. Instead of glossy before-and-after stories, Cody talks about the messy middle: the point where clients finally set boundaries, speak up, or cut back on sessions—and it feels awful.
He explains how real growth can look like chaos at first, bringing conflict, “backwind”, and the urge to say, “This is why I never did this in the first place.” From his chair, the work is to hold space while quietly saying, “Please keep going,” rather than rushing in to fix or rescue.
You’ll hear them unpack the emotional attachment that forms in therapy, and the bittersweet process of shifting from weekly to fortnightly sessions, or ending altogether once goals are met. Cody admits, with humour and honesty, that he sometimes doesn’t want clients to go: “I love some of my clients.
I love their problems.” The conversation moves into somatic trauma work, where Cody explains how unfinished survival responses get stuck in the body and can show up as anxiety, health issues, or feeling permanently on edge. He contrasts quick techniques like breathing with deeper body-based work that helps release long-held stress. There’s a strong thread around men’s mental health, emotional masking, and how late-diagnosed or highly sensitive men often carry huge inner worlds behind a locked door.
Cody reflects on his own history with an eating disorder, his upbringing around strong female influences, and the pressure many men feel to be both emotionally literate and traditionally “strong”. If you’ve ever wondered why getting healthier can feel worse before it feels better, this conversation might leave you feeling seen—and a little more patient with your own process. Where are you in your change story right now?