BrainCog, LLC

08/04/2026

In this episode Mary Turos explains learned helplessness—how repeated uncontrollable outcomes teach kids, teens, and adults to stop trying—and illustrates it with everyday examples (from untied shoes and classroom embarrassment to stalled careers and health habits).She then offers practical prev...

07/28/2026

Mary Turos breaks down expressed emotion—the family patterns of criticism, hostility, and over-involvement—and how they affect relapse and everyday functioning across mental health issues.She shares practical, research-based approaches for critics (emotion coaching and psychoeducation) and for p...

07/21/2026

In this episode Mary explains the concept of "doom boxes"—places where people dump items they intend to sort later—and why they’re common, especially with ADHD. She covers the psychological and neurological reasons we hold on to things, including executive function challenges, the endowment ef...

07/14/2026

Mary Turos explains why anxiety produces real, measurable fatigue: chronic HPA axis activation (cortisol and adrenaline), constant threat scanning and rumination, sleep disruption, and post-anxiety crashes that deplete energy. She outlines how unfinished tasks and working-memory overload drain cogni...

07/06/2026

In this episode Mary Turos explains why digital devices harm developing and adult brains and why reading comprehension drops when we read on screens. She summarizes research showing screen time substitutes for crucial social and play experiences in young children, compounds executive-function proble...

07/02/2026

Mary Turos examines why questioning drops from early childhood into adolescence, showing how classrooms, social risk, and rewarded answers suppress curiosity rather than brain changes.She shares brief, practical strategies—pause before answering, respond before correcting, model uncertainty, and p...

06/22/2026

Host Mary Turos explains what uncertainty tolerance is and why it matters for executive function, anxiety, and everyday decisions.She breaks the concept into three parts—cognitive flexibility, distress tolerance, and willingness to act—and gives examples of how low tolerance shows up at school, ...

06/12/2026

Mary Tarros guides parents of recent high school and college graduates on how to use summer as a high-leverage window to build executive functioning. She emphasizes shifting from managing to consulting, and highlights four key levers: consistent sleep, regular exercise, metacognitive reflection thro...

06/12/2026

Mary Turos offers concise, practical guidance for recent college graduates: reset timeline expectations, use early jobs to build "identity capital," focus on proactive first-90-day behaviors at work, and prioritize financial basics like emergency savings and retirement contributions.She also covers....

12/16/2025

We've all done it. Laughed at jokes we don't understand, or forced eye contact even though we felt uncomfortable, or acted “fine” even when we were completely overwhelmed.

Maybe you feel like you have a “work self,” “family self,” and “real self." These behaviors might be signs of 'masking'.

In this week’s episode of The Brain Coach podcast, Mary explores how and why we mask in social situations, and why it's more common in people who are neurodivergent (autism, ADHD, etc.) or have a history of trauma.

This episode discusses:
- Social, emotional, and sensory masking
- The impact: exhaustion, burnout, anxiety, and feeling fake
- Trauma-based masking and people-pleasing
- Realistic ways to start unmasking and set healthier boundaries

Listen here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0oigTRD58uab9gZmuEAqfX?si=wJqTeM6GTlaRi3jcQpAGOg

The Brain Coach · Episode