The mental health and personal growth podcast brings candid conversations about grief, identity, relationships, and resilience to the network.
The NBG Podcast Network welcomes Rooted & Rising, hosted by mental health professional, author, and educator Dr. Carmela Maxell. Blending clinical insight with personal storytelling, the podcast creates space for honest conversations about the challenges of everyday life and the possibilities for growth.
Rooted & Rising is where mental health, storytelling, and real life collide. Episodes explore relationships, burnout, grief, boundaries, leadership, identity, and resilience through a thoughtful, compassionate lens. Maxell delivers professional insight without jargon, pairing candid reflections with humor and an understanding that even those who support others need support themselves.
The podcast speaks to healers, creatives, survivors, and seekers, including therapists navigating their own struggles, writers finding meaning through their work, and anyone carrying more than others can see. Its central message is that people can remain rooted in something real while continuing to rise, even when life gets messy.
Maxell holds PsyD, MA, and MBA degrees and is a licensed mental health counselor. A Black and Filipina woman, mother of three, and longtime behavioral health leader, she brings both professional expertise and lived experience to her work.
Beyond podcasting, Maxell is the author of the dystopian novel Bereavement, creator of the Letters Never Sent app, and an adjunct professor teaching psychology. Across her writing, teaching, podcasting, and clinical leadership, she seeks to create spaces where people can speak honestly, feel less alone, and find room to keep growing.
Rooted & Rising’s addition supports the NBG Podcast Network’s mission to amplify voices and connect audiences with meaningful conversations. The show brings a perspective grounded in mental health expertise, cultural identity, creativity, and the beautifully complicated experience of being human.
To learn more about Rooted & Rising and explore the network’s podcasts, visit NBGPodcastNetwork.com.
About Rooted & Rising
Rooted & Rising is a mental health and personal growth podcast hosted by Dr. Carmela Maxell. Through clinical insight, candid storytelling, and compassionate conversation, the show explores what it means to navigate life’s challenges while staying grounded and continuing to grow.
About the NBG Podcast Network
The NBG Podcast Network brings together podcast voices to amplify stories, perspectives, and conversations that inform, inspire, and connect communities.
Rooted and Rising
R&R is where mental health, storytelling, and real life collide. Hosted by Dr. Carmela Maxell—author, licensed clinician, professor, and mental health advocate—each episode is an honest, unfiltered conversation with yourself and the world. Expect clinical insight delivered without jargon, personal stories that don't ask permission, and the kind of truth that healers, creatives, survivors, and seekers have been waiting to hear out loud. For those carrying too much. For the therapists who need therapy. For the writers who bleed on the page. For anyone rooted in something real and still rising.
Reviews:
Your Trigger is NOT a Fortune Teller
Sometimes your nervous system notices that something has changed—and it’s absolutely right. But does that mean the story your brain immediately creates about why it changed is right, too? In this episode of Rooted & Rising , Dr. Carmela Maxell explores what happens when old wounds, past relations...
SUNDAY SEEDS OF THOUGHTS: Being Needed Is Not the Same as Being Valued
What happens when being the reliable one becomes part of your identity? You’re the fixer. The problem-solver. The one everyone calls. The person who anticipates what needs to be done and says, “I got it,” before anyone else has a chance. But being needed isn’t always the same as being valued. In thi...
“I Don’t Need Another Life Lesson”: When Life Be Lifein’ and Throws Curveballs
Have you ever had one of those weeks where life seems to look at everything already on your plate and say, “You know what? She has room for more.” The meetings multiply. The emails won’t stop. The kids suddenly remember something they needed yesterday. The Keurig betrays you. Your calendar looks li...
SUNDAY SEEDS OF THOUGHT: Solving For X When You Don't Know WHY
It’s Sunday. The week hasn’t even started yet. So why have you already rehearsed Monday’s conversation, worried about Tuesday’s meeting, predicted Wednesday’s disappointment, and somehow arrived at Friday emotionally exhausted? In this Sunday Seeds of Thought, Dr. Carmela Maxell explores the differe...
Nobody Knows What They’re Doing: The Myth of the Fully Functioning Adult
At some point, you look around for the responsible adult in the room and realize— Oh shit. It’s you. In this episode of Rooted & Rising , Dr. Carmela Maxell takes on one of adulthood’s biggest scams: the idea that everyone else somehow has life figured out. From careers, parenting, relationships, b...
SUNDAY SEEDS OF THOUGHT: You Don’t Have to Earn Your Bed
You Don’t Have to Earn Your Bed. What if rest wasn’t something you had to earn? We tell ourselves we’ll slow down after the work is finished, the emails are answered, the house is clean, everyone else is taken care of, and the never-ending list is finally complete. But what happens when “everything”...
What Love Never Looks Like: Domestic Violence, Interpersonal Violence, and the Courage to Heal
What happens when something that looks like love slowly becomes control, fear, isolation, or harm? In this deeply personal episode of Rooted & Rising with Dr. Carmela Maxell , Dr. Carmela Maxell sits down with author, entrepreneur, advocate, and domestic violence survivor Rita J. Cartwright for an ...
SUNDAY SEEDS OF THOUGHT: Don’t Forget Your Lunch… or Your Limits
Sunday night has a way of turning into a full mental rehearsal for the week ahead. The calendar. The meetings. The school drop-offs. The appointments. The errands. The lunches. The things you promised you would remember. The things you already know you are probably going to forget. And somewhere in ...
MIDNIGHT REFLECTION: I Miss When the Future Felt Far Away
There was a time when tomorrow felt distant. Like there would always be enough time to figure things out later. Lately, though, the future can feel uncomfortably close. In this Midnight Reflection of Rooted & Rising , Dr. Carmela Maxell explores the quiet fear that comes from living with constant u...
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