Caasi O’Day on Being “Too Much”

Caasi O’Day on Being “Too Much,” Somatic Healing, and Treating the Clients Others AvoidLicensed clinical social worker Caasi O’Day, founder of Las Vegas practice Polarized Parts, shares her path from being a “lost cause” teen in a small Iowa town—angry, self-harming, using drugs, and distrustful of therapy—to becoming a clinician known for radical honesty, dark humor, and working with clients often judged or labeled “treatment resistant.”She explains why she centers nonjudgment, authenticity, and self-disclosure, and outlines DBT’s four modules (mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, interpersonal effectiveness) alongside internal family systems and somatic work. The conversation explores intimacy, attachment, rejection fears, her fast engagement and later divorce (requested June 2024), and her practice of taking a year off dating after breakups.O’Day discusses ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, her own first experience (panic attack, then joy after letting go of control), and the importance of integration and body awareness. She also covers therapist self-care, private practice boundaries, and future plans for more somatic workshops, teaching, and nature-based offerings, ending with what she’d tell her 16-year-old self: “You are not too much.”00:00 Meet Caasi O'Day01:09 Early Life Template02:25 Acting Out and Therapy05:31 Sent Away and Too Much06:56 Becoming the Therapist09:37 Working With Outcasts12:13 DBT Skills Breakdown14:56 Nonjudgmental Client Care19:21 Intimacy and Self Worth23:53 Marriage Divorce and Growth28:47 Talking About Sex Safely34:39 Curiosity Over Assumptions34:57 Erotic Communication Skills37:41 Puberty And Mixed Signals41:10 Receiving Honest Feedback43:05 Desire Changes Over Time44:20 Somatic Clues In The Body46:53 Beyond Talk Therapy51:39 Ketamine And Integration58:00 Therapist Burnout Boundaries01:01:59 Rebuilding And Future Vision01:05:26 Advice To The Sixteen Year Old Cassihttps://polarizedparts.com/https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61587040433132https://www.instagram.com/polarized_parts