Episode 31 | Emotional Labor and the Mental Load with Kara Cruz, LMFT

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  In this affirming and insightful episode, host Shaina Siber sits down with Kara Cruz, LMFT — a therapist, clinical supervisor, and women's mental health educator — to unpack the often-invisible forces that contribute to burnout: emotional labor and the mental load. Together, they explore how these burdens show up across caregiving roles, relationships, and professional life, particularly for those who are cisgender, femme-presenting, or socially perceived as women.

Kara and Shaina also explore the societal conditioning that encourages self-abandonment, people-pleasing, and perfectionism in caregiving roles, and how these patterns often show up in the therapy room — both for our clients and for us as clinicians. Listeners will gain tools to better identify and validate these experiences, along with practical interventions rooted in Internal Family Systems (IFS), values clarification, and boundary work.

This episode offers both validation and direction — a must-listen for therapists, caregivers, or anyone who’s ever felt overwhelmed by the invisible labor they carry.