Sound advice

25 Mental Health Podcasts That Might Help You Understand Yourself Better

Or at least make you feel less alone.

April 7, 2023

Colorful illustration of podcast or radio microphone

Listening to a mental health podcast isn’t going to cure clinical depression or an anxiety disorder. A licensed clinician (or comedian, or writer) with a microphone is no substitute for connecting with a great therapist or finding another treatment that works for you, with help from a professional. One thing a mental health podcast can do, though? Validate your experience and, in some cases, offer expert-backed advice for how to live with whatever you’re dealing with…and we’re all dealing with something, whether you’ve received an official diagnosis for a mental health issue or, perhaps, you’re having near-constant urges to take a mental health day.

Of course, somber interviews about the latest scientific research on anxiety aren’t everyone’s thing. Some listeners prefer looser-format, conversational podcasts to escape from their intrusive thoughts and get lost in the (informative) chatter. Several of the picks on this list, like The Mental Illness Happy Hour and Depresh Mode, leverage humor to shed light on dark topics. Don’t have the time or attention span for a lengthy dialogue? Try a meditation that’s shorter than your morning commute, or a show like NPR’s Life Kit, which teaches you how to handle countless situations in just 30 minutes or less. If you’re seeking a Black mental health podcast or another that speaks to your particular experience, you’ll hopefully find options on this list as well.

Whether you love to hear relatable stories from people who have been there, or you want actionable mental health tips to lighten your load, these are some of the best mental health podcasts you can listen to right now.

All products are independently selected by our editors. If you buy something, we may earn an affiliate commission.

iHeart Radio
1
Dear Therapists
Therapists, advice columnists, and authors Lori Gottlieb, LMFT, and Guy Winch, PhD, come together in this ultimate fly-on-the-wall therapy podcast. In each episode, Gottlieb and Dr. Winch guide a guest through a personal challenge, providing insight and actionable advice. It’s a mix of Gottlieb and Dr. Winch talking directly with the guest and conferring with each other behind the scenes, which allows them to go more in-depth than they would in a typical therapy session. After, they bring their guests back to discuss how they applied the guidance to their life (and how it went).
Listen: Spotify and Apple Podcasts
Maximum Fun
2
Depresh Mode
Host John Moe isn’t a licensed therapist, as he takes every opportunity to tell listeners. But the writer does have an extensive history of living with, and talking about, mental illness (his previous podcast, The Hilarious World of Depression, became a book). On Depresh Mode, Moe welcomes fascinating people—such as Jamie Lee Curtis, NBA star Kevin Love, and Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy, MD—for brutally honest, darkly comic conversations about topics like addiction, bipolar disorder, and anxiety through the lens of their firsthand experiences.
Listen: Spotify and Apple Podcasts

iHeart Radio
3
Therapy for Black Girls
You might know Therapy for Black Girls as an excellent space to find a therapist as a Black woman, but in case you didn’t know that there’s also a podcast, I have some good news for you. In this companion podcast, Therapy for Black Girls founder and clinical psychologist Joy Harden Bradford, PhD, shares weekly mental health advice and resources.
Listen: Spotify and Apple Podcasts
Cariad Lloyd
4
Griefcast
This long-running podcast explores two things that make many of us uncomfortable to think about, despite the fact that we all experience them eventually: grief and death. Host Cariad Lloyd is a comedian, which you might think is an unconventional choice for such a dark subject, but it works. Listeners love it for its careful balance between seriousness and humor.
Listen: Spotify and Apple Podcasts

American Public Media
5
Terrible, Thanks for Asking
It’s no secret: “How are you?” is an easy question to answer with a lie. But the host of Terrible, Thanks for Asking, Nora McInerny, wants the real answers. She asks real people to share how they’re really doing, and the result is a great blend of sad and funny.
Listen: Spotify and Apple Podcasts
Panic & Anxiety Coach, LLC
6
Not Another Anxiety Show
Whether you’re occasionally anxious or live with an anxiety disorder, there's something for you in this helpful podcast. Host and registered nurse Kelli Walker talks with guests about what anxiety is, why it happens, and, most important, how to deal, from specific anxiety-busting tips to broader self-care practices.
Listen: Spotify and Apple Podcasts

Gimlet Media
7
Where Should We Begin?
Where Should We Begin? is a relationships podcast first and foremost, but it naturally has a ton of overlap with mental health. You can listen in as therapist Esther Perel, LMFT, counsels real couples through their problems. The couples talk through issues like the impact mental illness has on relationships, infidelity, polyamory, parenting, divorce, and more.
Listen: Spotify and Apple Podcasts
Brown Girl Self-Care
8
Brown Girl Self-Care
Hosted by Bre Mitchell—known as the Self-Care Pusher from Southern California—Brown Girl Self-Care is all about how to nourish your physical, spiritual, and emotional well-being as a woman of color in the world. It features a mix of current events, product recommendations, and, yep, a whole lot of self-care tips.
Listen: Spotify and Apple Podcasts

ABC News
9
Ten Percent Happier With Dan Harris
This franchise started with a book by Dan Harris, a self-described meditation skeptic turned believer, and has since spun off into a meditation app and this podcast—all designed to help out people who also have their doubts about things like meditation. The show isn’t all about meditation, though. It touches on a wide range of mental health topics, like social anxiety, compassion, productivity, relationships, and happiness, with the help of leading researchers.
Listen: Spotify and Apple Podcasts
WBUR
10
Dear Sugars
“As someone who loves therapy and reading advice columns, I appreciate that all of the episodes involve people getting advice about how to navigate conflicts and other issues,” former SELF senior commerce editor Lori Keong wrote when she shouted out this podcast in March 2020. “Cheryl Strayed is one of the hosts and the show covers everything from body image to relationships to more existential questions about finding meaning in your life and work.”
Listen: Spotify and Apple Podcasts

Latinx Therapy
11
Latinx Therapy
Adriana Alejandre, LMFT, is the founder of Latinx Therapy, a network of Latinx therapists, and she hosts this weekly podcast by the same name. In it, she discusses mental health topics related to Latinas, Latinos, and Latinx individuals and answers questions from listeners. Each episode is available in both Spanish and English.
Listen: Spotify and Apple Podcasts
Cadence13
12
Happier With Gretchen Rubin
Like the name suggests, this podcast is all about how listeners can, well, become a little happier. Author and host Gretchen Rubin is full of tips for anything from habit formation to managing loneliness. If you don’t know where to start, Rubin curated some of her best podcast episodes on her website here.
Listen: Spotify and Apple Podcasts

Metro.co.uk
13
Mentally Yours
Hosts Ellen Scott and Yvette Caster talk to guests about how to “survive and thrive.” It’s not all tips and tricks, though. Guests bring their own experiences to the table and talk through how they’re staying afloat, whether they’re a new parent struggling with postpartum depression or a social media star making content around her borderline personality disorder.
Listen: Spotify and Apple Podcasts
ABC Podcasts
14
No Feeling Is Final
This memoir-in-podcast is only eight episodes long, but it packs a punch that is equally darkly funny and heartbreakingly vulnerable. The show’s creator, Honor Eastly, narrates her own experiences with depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, and living under the scrutiny of what she calls The Voice. I promise you’ve never heard anything like it. Eastly describes it best herself: “No Feeling Is Final is a show for anyone who’s ever wondered if life is worth living.”
Listen: Apple Podcasts

Tara Brach
15
Tara Brach
Like her bestselling book Radical Acceptance, this frequently updated podcast from Tara Bach, PhD, interweaves Buddhist mindfulness concepts with Western psychology principles. As befits a meditation teacher, Dr. Brach speaks with the relaxing cadence of someone with all the time in the world, and even if her (often hour-plus) lectures on topics like “Realizing Your Deepest Intention” aren’t for you, her excellent Wednesday meditations might be. Check out her interview episodes too, beginning with “Meditation, Psychedelics, Mortality,” a conversation with psychopharmacologist and Johns Hopkins professor Roland Griffiths.
Listen: Spotify and Apple Podcasts
CBC
16
Other People’s Problems
Another fly-on-the-wall therapy podcast, Other People’s Problems opens the door to what actually happens in a therapy session. Listen in on real people working through their problems with host Hillary McBride, PhD. Not only is it deeply fascinating, but you inevitably learn something about yourself too.
Listen: Spotify and Apple Podcasts

Lemonada
17
In Recovery with Dr. Nzinga Harrison
“Addiction is mental health,” physician and addiction treatment specialist Nzinga Harrison, MD, has said on her podcast, and In Recovery explores the many ways that mental health directly connects to dependencies of all types. Dr. Harrison educates listeners in question-and-answer sessions, and interviews people who treat addiction, are recovering themselves, or lost someone and want to make sure no one else does. Busting the persistent stigma around addiction is a major goal of the podcast, so Dr. Harrison calls for compassion whenever she can, and leads by example.
Listen: Spotify and Apple Podcasts
Parcast
18
Unlocking Us With Brené Brown
At its heart, this podcast from author and psychology research professor Brené Brown, PhD, is about connection and all the messy emotions and experiences that make us human, covering anything from using joy as an act of resistance to dealing with shame while holding yourself accountable. The guest lineup is no joke, either. Dr. Brown has spoken to fascinating mental health researchers as well as public figures like Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Dolly Parton, Laverne Cox, Reese Witherspoon, Kerry Washington, and more.
Listen: Spotify and Apple Podcasts

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
19
All in the Mind
If you’re the type to eagerly click on every “new study says…” headline, you’ll love this BBC Radio4 podcast, which unpacks the findings and flaws of buzzy research and explores topics like “The Psychology of Regret” through interviews with experts. Presenter Claudia Hammond holds a master’s degree in health psychology, and she brings an informed curiosity and a refreshing amount of skepticism to conversations with leading researchers in the fields of psychology and neuroscience.
Listen: Spotify and Apple Podcasts
Mayzie Media
20
Self Care IRL
Ty Alexander, wellness blogger and author of Things I Wish I Knew Before My Mom Died, is a wealth of practical but realistic tips for dealing with your very human problems, whether it’s dealing with feelings of guilt or being way too much of a people pleaser. Along with her advice, Alexander doesn’t hold back on sharing her own experiences.
Listen: Spotify and Apple Podcasts

NPR
21
Life Kit
Life Kit is more of a “how to do life” series than a just-mental-health-focused podcast—though therapists are certainly among the experts that host the show, and reporter Marielle Segarra interviews. Its clear, actionable tips on topics like perfectionism, job hunting, caregiving, and cleaning your teeth will leave you feeling soothed (and a little smarter) by each episode’s end—because you’ve just learned how to take even better care of yourself.
Listen: Spotify and Apple Podcasts
Wave Podcast Network
22
This Changes Everything
Sarah Rice, AMFT (who you may recognize from MTV’s The Challenge), and Jeff Guenther, LPC (known on TikTok as TherapyJeff) launched this podcast in August 2022. Guenther’s even-tempered energy balances Rice’s effusiveness as they trade off sharing strategies for how to deal with hard things; breakups, divorce, and other romantic struggles are most often the focus. The therapist pals kick off every episode by sharing something they’re dealing with in their own life, since even mental health professionals aren’t perfect—often just more self-aware.
Listen: Spotify and Apple Podcasts

23
The Mindful Muslim Podcast
Finding a culturally competent therapist who understands how your background informs your approach to life can help foster trust and understanding, paving the way for a more successful mental health journey. In this podcast, mental health experts from Muslim communities talk through issues like Islamophobia’s impact on mental health, domestic violence, and disordered eating. The common thread: The clinicians’ holistic approaches to treatment incorporate their clients’ Islamic beliefs, as opposed to treating them like a separable part of their identity.
Listen: Spotify and Apple Podcasts
Headspace Studios
24
Radio Headspace
Headspace has been a leading app for guided meditation for more than 10 years and its podcast reflects the brand’s ethos of bite-size self-improvement. Each weekday, a rotating roster of guest hosts like Washington Post health and wellness columnist Gretchen Reynolds share a tip or personal experience meant to inspire and inform. And since every episode is less than seven minutes long, it’s easy to incorporate into your daily routine.
Listen: Spotify and Apple Podcasts

Paul Gilmartin
25
The Mental Illness Happy Hour
No list of mental health podcasts is complete without a shoutout to this fan favorite. With more than 500 episodes, The Mental Illness Happy Hour delivers weekly conversations with comedians, artists, friends of the host, and doctors about all things mental illness, trauma, addiction, and more.
Listen: Spotify and Apple Podcasts

Samantha Vincenty is a Brooklyn-based writer and editor covering relationships, sex, culture, and identity, all in the pursuit of understanding how we can better connect as humans. She spends her free time jogging, making up songs with her son, and watching her favorite TV genre, "sexy supernatural students attend a... Read more

Anna is a freelance writer and former senior health editor at SELF who covers mental health, relationships, and general wellness. She received her B.S. in journalism with a specialization in psychology from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. You can find her work here on SELF, at places like... Read more

SELF does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Any information published on this website or by this brand is not intended as a substitute for medical advice, and you should not take any action before consulting with a healthcare professional.

Topicsmental health podcasts anxiety depression

Dear Therapists

Depresh Mode

Therapy for Black Girls

Griefcast

Terrible, Thanks for Asking

Not Another Anxiety Show

Where Should We Begin?

Brown Girl Self-Care

Ten Percent Happier With Dan Harris

Dear Sugars

Latinx Therapy

Happier With Gretchen Rubin

Mentally Yours

No Feeling Is Final

Tara Brach

Other People’s Problems

In Recovery with Dr. Nzinga Harrison

Unlocking Us With Brené Brown

All in the Mind

Self Care IRL

Life Kit

This Changes Everything

The Mindful Muslim Podcast

Radio Headspace

The Mental Illness Happy Hour