In the first episode of 2026, Laura and Bridget take a lovingly skeptical look at the idea of “coping skills”...what we’re taught they should look like, why so many of them fail us, and what actually helps when life feels tender, overwhelming, or just plain unmanageable. Set in that disorienting space between Christmas and New Year’s, coping skills are on the top of their minds.

They unpack how coping skills can morph into another form of self-pressure, especially in therapy culture and productivity culture, where “doing the right thing” can override what our bodies are actually asking for. From sensory regulation to the radical permission to do nothing, they explore the difference between caring for ourselves and controlling ourselves (and how often we confuse the two).

Warm, honest, and subversive, this episode is for anyone who’s ever felt like they were “failing” at coping. It offers a gentler reframe: that the skills that actually work aren’t always pretty, impressive, or Instagrammable. Instead, they’re the ones that help you stay with yourself when everything else feels like too much.

In this episode of Transitional Objects, Laura and Bridget do what they do best...gently dismantle a culturally accepted idea and see what actually resonates. This time, it’s New Year’s resolutions (and yes, they dislike them).

Using the end of 2025 as a reflective pause rather than a self-improvement launchpad, the conversation moves through what this past year held, what it demanded, and what it reshaped. Instead of goal-setting or productivity theater, they talk about noticing. About patterns that revealed themselves slowly. About the difference between forcing change and allowing clarity to arrive on its own timeline.

Together, they explore why the language of “resolutions” often feels disruptive to the nervous system - rigid, moralized, and disconnected from how humans actually grow. In its place, they experiment with something softer for 2026; intentions rooted in capacity, curiosity, and truth-telling rather than performance.

There’s humor, skepticism, tenderness, and a shared rebellion to the notion that January 1st has magical powers. This one is for anyone who feels allergic to “new year, new you” energy.

In this episode of Transitional Objects, Laura and Bridget welcome their first-ever guest, psychic medium and energy healer Ashley Rosales. Together, they step into the space between what we can explain and what we feel but don’t always have language for, exploring intuition and the ways those we’ve loved can come through after death. Later in the episode, Ashley gives a medium reading to Bridget.

Together, they explore what it means to stay connected to the people (and animals) who have died, how grief can open doors we didn’t know existed, and why some relationships don’t end so much as they change form. Ashley shares her own path into mediumship, what shaped it, and how learning to listen (to energy, to spirit, to the body) altered her forever.

The conversation is tender, curious, and deeply human. There’s laughter, skepticism, awe, and a live reading that invites reflection on ancestry, care, and the unseen ways we’re supported.

Ashley Rosales is a spirit communicator and energy healer. Her practices are based in curanderismo, or traditional Latino Indigenous medicine and healing. She has been using her gifts to intentionally guide and bring healing to my life since 2011 and to help others since 2022.
She offers intro-level classes to help you develop your own intuition and monthly subscriptions for personal and collective card readings.
If you want to work with her directly, she offers 60-minute mediumship sessions on Zoom and limited in-person energy healing sessions in Bellingham, WA. You can find out more about Ashley at ashdelasrosas.square.site/

In this episode of Transitional Objects, Laura and Bridget explore the idea of self as story. They talk about the narratives we inherit, the roles we fall into, and why all of it gets especially weird around the holidays. Because nothing says “personal growth” like returning home and instantly feeling like the kid who used to mediate every argument.

They talk about how identity shifts over time, what happens when your family still interacts with the old version of you, and why boundaries, consent, and emotional responsibility hit differently this time of year. With plenty of laughs and some therapist-level real talk there are a few moments that might make you go, “Okay…maybe it’s not just my family.”

In this episode of Transitional Objects, Laura and Bridget get real about the inner child - that messy, magical, occasionally rebellious little part of us that still shows up in adult life (often uninvited). From tantrums over Monday mornings to teenage-style rebellion with a glass of wine, they share the moments when their younger selves totally hijacked the wheel and what it looks like to gently take notice.

They talk parts work, unmet needs, and how sometimes our most “un-grown-up” behaviors are just our childhood selves trying to get attention. They unpack why self-soothing often looks like overeating, overthinking, or overscheduling, and how to meet those old needs in kinder, more conscious ways.

By the end, you might be rethinking the way you talk to yourself (and maybe offering your inner kid a well-deserved nap).

In this episode, Laura and Bridget get ghostly (and not just because they recorded on Halloween). From confession booths and catechism to growing up with zero religion and a healthy dose of skepticism, they unpack how early beliefs - or the total absence of them - shape the way we think about life, death, and whatever lingers in between.

They talk about being raised Catholic versus being raised to think all of it was “bullshit,” and what happens when those childhood teachings collide with adult grief, spirituality, and the strange sense that maybe the dead aren’t really gone after all. There’s talk of guilt, heaven and hell, meditation-as-prayer, and the surprising ways rituals can still feel holy even without a church pew in sight.

Laura shares her experiences of staying connected with those who have died, from soul retrievals to synchronicities that made her question everything she thought she didn’t believe in. Bridget opens up about what it means to find grounding, grace, and even humor in the messy in-between -- and how sometimes using your voice (literally, on this podcast) can be its own kind of healing.

In this episode, Laura and Bridget get gutsy (literally and emotionally) diving into the strange and scientific link between intuition, digestion, and all the feelings we try (and sometimes fail) to swallow. From Crohn’s and colitis to cosmic gut instincts, they unpack how the body keeps the score, what it means to trust your gut, and why sometimes your belly knows the truth before your brain catches up.

They swap stories about mediumship, chronic illness, and that mysterious mind–body conversation happening along the vagus nerve highway - with plenty of laughter, a few cringe memories, and one or two “did my intestines just text me?” moments.

Part science, part soul talk, and fully human, this episode reminds us that intuition isn’t woo, it’s wisdom (with digestive side effects).

In this episode, Laura and Bridget dive into the world of intrusive thoughts and fantasies...the unsettling images, urges, and daydreams that slip in (mostly) uninvited. They share stories from their own lives and practices, from postpartum spirals and highway what-ifs to everyday brushes with mortality, and unpack why our minds come up with these scenarios in the first place.

The conversation explores the difference between intrusive and intentional fantasies, how shame can make them heavier, and why saying the unspeakable out loud can actually help loosen its grip. They wander through sex, grief, chronic illness, and even social media fights, tracing how fantasies sometimes hold our unprocessed fears, our need for control, or simply the energy that has nowhere else to go.

Equal parts candid and compassionate, this episode reframes intrusive fantasies not as proof of brokenness, but as the mind’s ingenious ( and maybe unnerving?) way of working things out.