SWAG Awards Series | Ta’lor L. Pinkston: The Heart Advocate & the Medicine of Self-Love

SWAG Awards Series | Ta’lor L. Pinkston: The Heart Advocate & the Medicine of Self-Love

From Goddesses of Social Work Podcast by Renita Ray Davis, LICSW-S, PIP

November 27, 2025 · 1h 14m · Season 5 · Episode 100

About this episode

In this milestone 100th episode, Ta’lor L. Pinkston discusses the importance of self-love as a practice and its impact on mental health.

In this milestone 100th episode of the Goddesses of Social Work Podcast, I am honored to welcome Ta’lor L. Pinkston, LSW — widely known as The Heart Advocate . A licensed self-love social worker, creator of Self-Care Matters and Healing Over Everything, and Clinical Practice Program Manager at Healthy Start, Inc. in Pittsburgh, Ta’lor is devoted to helping people choose self-love as a coping skill for mental health and healing. In this deeply moving and liberatory conversation, Ta’lor reminds us that self-love is a practice, not a feeling , and that perfectionism is a learned survival strategy rooted in systems that teach us we are never enough. Together, we talk about: 💗 Why self-love is an action — a verb — not a feeling 💗 How perfectionism, internalized judgment, and “staying small” shape our relationships 💗 Seeing diagnoses through a strengths-based and compassionate lens 💗 Ta’lor’s journey from creative writer to social worker to self-love practitioner 💗 How becoming a mother transformed her relationship with herself 💗 The origins of The Heart Advocate and what it means to practice self-love as community care Ta’lor’s honesty about shrinking, choosing the wrong…

People in this episode

Host: Renita Ray Davis

Guest: Ta’lor L. Pinkston

Topics covered

  • self-love
  • mental health
  • perfectionism
  • community care
  • social work
  • personal transformation

Keywords

  • self-love
  • mental health
  • perfectionism
  • social work
  • community care
  • anxiety
  • prenatal depression
  • transformation

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Healthy Start, Inc., Self-Care Matters, Healing Over Everything

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