Augustin Kendall, Minneapolis Therapist

10/21/2025

I have deep platonic love, and it only makes my life better. If you do too, or you want to think more about how to expand friendship and reduce pressure on romance, this book is for you.

“While we weaken friendships by expecting too little of them, we undermine romantic relationships by expecting too much of them.”

09/12/2025

Check out this powerful article critiquing the paradigm of Big Pharma and the false divide between legal and illegal drugs. Interview with the author of a new book, Breaking Awake. Also calls to mind the racist history of the diagnostic system.

"At the top level, I think every drug is used for the exact same reason. That is an oversimplification, but I do believe that the reason over 20 percent of Americans are on antidepressants is the same reason a growing number of people are taking he**in or fentanyl illegally or abusing alcohol or dying from “deaths of despair.” It is also the same reason I see my friends obliterating their brains with GHB and all those “fun” chemicals. It is because we’re all despondent, anxious, and have internalized the violence of capitalism within our own psyches. Obviously, the valences of each drug are different because they each come with different [stereotyped] cultures and class backgrounds. Some people are criminalized for them, some people aren’t. But when we separate [illegal and legal drugs] into “drug” versus “medicine” or “safe drug” versus “not safe drug,” we’re ignoring the fact that we’re all in the same boat."

A conversation with P.E. Moskowitz about the chemical imbalance theory of depression, the false schism between prescription and recreational drugs, and collective psychic pain.

09/04/2025

Inner Liberation through IFS Group
Wouldn’t it be great to feel a sense of freedom within yourself?
By the time we’re adults, many of us feel anything but free inside. That’s because parts of us have been trying to keep us safe using the strategies of social control they know from our families and society. So we get stuck in distressing patterns like perfectionism, resentment, hyper-independence, and over-accountability.
In this facilitated group, we’ll use the IFS framework to meet the “cops in our heads.” You’ll learn why they oppress other parts of who you are—and find ways to achieve a sense of safety without oppressive internal policing. The goal: Liberation for every part of you are.
We meet online from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. CST for eight weeks, October 1 to November 19, 2025. Sliding scale, $240 to $560. Open to folks everywhere.
Message me or send an email to ash@chudgar.com to chat about joining.

08/03/2025

This is what I try to do with clients: have our conversations be a living creation that builds understanding and connection, that creates more space for my client to share their experiences with me. And in speaking those experiences out loud, to have a shift.

08/28/2024

A look inside the broken insurance system.

Those who need therapy often have to pay out of pocket or go without care, even if they have health insurance. Hundreds of mental health providers told us they fled networks because insurers made their jobs impossible and their lives miserable.

08/14/2024

So often, clients talk about their own experiences from someone else's perspective. They've been told a story over and over and may not realize it's someone else's version. They may not even know their own version.
But telling that story, working to find that story, is a powerful step in helping clients find their own voices.

08/07/2024

I love Six Feet Under with a burning passion. I can tell you, in great detail, about all the characters and the entire plot. So I decided to write about them from an existential therapy lens. First up, I'm talking about the mom, Ruth Fisher, and her crisis of connection.

Existential crisis gets at the core of what it means to be human and how we manage it. Today I’m talking about Ruth Fisher’s existential crisis of connection.

07/03/2024

https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2024/06/want-to-talk-to-a-therapist-about-climate-change-here-are-four-things-to-ask/

If feeling helpless, angry, or anxious about climate change is taking over your life, therapy can help. But finding the right person to talk to is critical.

06/22/2024

Each time I see a sparrow inside an airport, I am seized with tenderness for the bird, for living so acutely and concretely a paradox that haunts our human lives in myriad guises — the diffic…

06/18/2024

What's your grief metaphor?

The five stages describe a grief that’s knowable and controlled. An accident in my kitchen helped me find a truer metaphor

06/06/2024