A therapist's conversations, made available to everyone.
Kat, a licensed therapist, opens up the kind of conversation that usually happens behind a closed office door. Episodes move between solo reflections on motivation and gift-giving overwhelm and long guest talks about love, divorce and closure, always with the reminder that a podcast is not a substitute for care.
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Kat opens each episode the same way. She is a human first, she says, and a licensed therapist second. That ordering is the whole editorial stance of You Need Therapy. The show exists because of a specific problem she names in conversation: she works in private practice, does not take insurance, and keeps a sliding scale for only a limited number of clients. That leaves a lot of people outside the room. So the conversations she would otherwise have with a client, or in her own head, get made public instead. The format alternates. Guest episodes stretch long and sometimes split in two, as with the pair of conversations with JP Saxe about love and closure, or the dating-after-divorce episode with Amy Brown. Solo episodes take a smaller starting point. One begins with not wanting ants in the kitchen and ends up somewhere useful about why motivation follows importance rather than willpower. The voice is measured and unhurried. Listeners are told what a conversation is about and why it matters before it starts, which makes even the heavier material feel navigable. Sentences run long and circle back. A point gets made, then made again with different words, which reads less like padding than like someone making sure it landed. One of the show's more durable ideas is the split between discomfort and danger. Stepping outside the lines a culture drew can feel worse and be safer at the same time, and the host argues people routinely confuse the two. There is loss in that move, and loss is uncomfortable, and that is allowed to be true without being fixed. Another running thread is what people signal without meaning to. If someone accepts inconsistent contact, they may be teaching the other person that inconsistency is fine. The conversation does not stop at blame in either direction. It sits with the possibility that a person simply does not know how you want to be treated. Attachment theory comes up as something that used to be therapist-only vocabulary and now circulates more widely, which the show treats as progress worth extending. Practical topics get the same care as the psychological ones, including gift-giving overwhelm and boundaries held with positive intent. A standing disclaimer runs early: the podcast is not a replacement or substitute for actual treatment. Sponsor reads and network promos sit at the edges of episodes and are easy to spot. What holds it together is the sense of a guide who would rather a listener feel oriented than impressed.
Made for: Listeners already curious about therapy language who want attachment, boundaries and self-worth explained without clinical distance. It suits anyone working through dating patterns, divorce, motivation slumps or the ordinary overwhelm of getting through a week.
What sets it apart: The host frames the show as a deliberate response to the limits of private practice, where sliding scales and insurance gaps leave people without access. That access motive shapes the tone: explanatory and patient rather than diagnostic, with the disclaimer that it is not a substitute for care stated plainly rather than buried.
Kathryn DeFatta, who has earned her Masters of Education from Vanderbilt University in Human Development Counseling, is inviting you into conversations around what it’s like to live fully in a world where we’ve become accustomed to shut parts of ourselves off. Here you will find a space that welcomes in discomfort, tough questions, and hard truths, all while showing how to find joy through it all.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Kathryn DeFatta turns therapy concepts into clear questions about vulnerability, motivation, access to care and the boundaries people reinforce through their choices.
You Need Therapy keeps psychological ideas close to the decisions that expose them. Kathryn DeFatta moves between guest conversations and solo guidance, returning to emotional safety, vulnerability, boundaries and the trouble with waiting for motivation.
This is the therapy pregame that helps you stop mistaking discomfort for danger.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A measured look at why emotional safety can feel unfamiliar when old relationship expectations fall away.
Love and closure sit here in the uneasy gap between inherited expectations and emotional safety. The episode draws a useful line between discomfort and danger, especially when cultural or relational rules that once felt reliable no longer seem right.
A grounded conversation about loneliness, attachment, and finding the right kind of mental-health support.
The episode treats mental-health guidance as useful but limited, offering language and possible paths toward support without acting as if every listener can reach the same level of professional care.
A practical, household-level review of motivation as something rooted in what a person decides matters.
The episode frames motivation less as a mood that arrives on cue and more as a judgment about what deserves attention. It keeps that idea close to home, using kitchen pests, a sink that might start to smell, the wish to feel clean in a room, clean clothes, and care for things…
A cautious Health & Fitness fit for listeners interested in gift-giving overwhelm, with limited detail to confirm the episode's approach.
Overcoming Gift Giving Overwhelm sits best as a cautious Health & Fitness pick for listeners already interested in the stress that can gather around giving gifts.
A clear relationship discussion about how repeated responses can turn expectations into quiet permission.
The episode uses a familiar dating frustration, uneven contact, to look at the standards people communicate through what they repeatedly allow. The host follows the case of a man who checks in only now and then, then is still received when he wants to hang out.
A clear, focused look at how shame can teach men to keep vulnerability at arm’s length.
The episode centers on a familiar but often unspoken rule of masculinity: a man can show up for the game, yet a direct “How are you?” may still feel loaded.
Jonquilyn Hill chases one listener question per episode to the experts who can answer it.
Hard conversations, patiently held, with room to laugh.
Care, culture, and the choices shaping Black women's lives.
Root-cause health, explained plainly.
Hope, tested in real conversation.
JP Saxe tells Kat that his songwriting grew out of a childhood shaped by an alcoholic mother, an absent sense of safety, and a need to stay "the mature one" at 11 or 12.
Therapist Kat Van Buren interviews Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter JP Saxe in part one of a two-part conversation about relationships, masculinity, and heartbreak.
Therapist Kat Van Buren, host of You Need Therapy, reframes 'lack of motivation' as clients confusing a missing desire with a missing sense of importance.
Kat, a licensed therapist and host of You Need Therapy, examines why searching for the “perfect” gift can create purchasing paralysis and last-minute stress.
Kat, host of You Need Therapy and a licensed therapist, examines how assuming positive intent connects to personal boundaries and relationship expectations.
Host Kat DeFatta invites listeners into conversations about living fully, embracing discomfort, and finding joy through self-awareness and therapy.
A licensed therapist invites listeners into conversations about living fully, embracing discomfort, and finding joy through self-awareness and hard truths.
A licensed therapist hosts a solo episode discussing the importance of curiosity and self-acceptance in mental health.
A licensed therapist discusses the pitfalls of seeking validation on social media and the importance of embracing discomfort for personal growth.