The Modern Therapist's Survival Guide with Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy

Curt and Katie talk about therapists who become impaired – by substance abuse, cognitive decline, their own mental health concerns, burnout, etc. The challenges of addressing impaired therapists given the ethics codes, the lack of effective means to make complaints, and the difficulty in finding effective solutions.        It’s time to reimagine therapy and what it means to be a therapist. To support you as a whole person and a therapist, your hosts, Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy talk about how to approach the role of therapist in the modern age.In this episode we talk about: The definition of Impaired Therapist The lack of recent research on the topic The types of impairment: substance abuse, cognitive decline, mental health concerns, burnout Why and how therapists can become impaired Looking at how therapists are more likely to have these impairments The responsibilities and challenges of observing impairment of others (especially depending on the role, supervisor, supervisee, colleague) The ethical responsibility to pay attention to your own potential impairment The challenge of making a complaint related to an impaired therapist Looking at the ethics code, with the responsibility to approach impaired colleague first How the interaction in the Facebook groups is not necessarily taking care of this responsibility well. The harm of shaming therapists – and the importance of supporting each other The impact of the power differential on having these difficult conversations The negative impacts on clients and treatment team members from impaired therapists What is the difference between impaired therapists and bad therapy? The importance of the response and introspection related to impairment What we’re supposed to do when we identify an impaired colleague, supervisor, or supervisee Who are the gatekeepers? Why is it important? A strange foray into the thoughts on vigilante therapists and the #cardigancartel

Curt and Katie talk about how politics have started coming into the therapy room. We look at how the election of Donald Trump seemed to increase clients (and therapists) actively bringing world events into the therapeutic work.       It’s time to reimagine therapy and what it means to be a therapist. To support you as a whole person and a therapist, your hosts, Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy talk about how to approach the role of therapist in the modern age.In this episode we talk about: The shift from avoiding politics, religion, etc. in therapy to having it be central in therapy conversations How Donald Trump’s presidency (and the impacts of his administration) show up in the room What can happen when therapists share their political views with their clients The fear, trauma, and grief that has become more present in the conversations about the world at large How an informed client population means that therapists need to be aware of both the events and the potential impacts on individuals (and groups). The importance clients have started placing on political similarity or safety to express their viewpoints, even in the intake phone call Research on political disclosure in therapy, perceived similarity of political views, and the impact on therapeutic alliance The risk of falsely assuming alignment or over-disclosing political views with clients Looking at when political/philosophical conversations are just fun and not helpful The different impacts of the events of the day based on demographics and identity Opening space, using caution, observing to continue to have these conversations be therapeutic How burnout can impact these conversations Counter Transference and whether your own reactions should come into the treatment room with your clients Looking at how true reactions can be used in treatment, the bias of remaining neutral The potential for complex conversations that can heal with our clients The instinct to try to “correct” clients with opposing viewpoints (and the damage that can do) How therapists should prepare for being in the room for these conversations, and take care of themselves in the process.

An interview with Eliza Boquin, LMFT on what therapists miss when they don’t talk about sex with their clients. Curt and Katie talk with Eliza about how judgment, shame, and discomfort can come into the therapy room and create barriers for patients talking about their sexual health.It’s time to reimagine therapy and what it means to be a therapist. We are human beings who can now present ourselves as whole people, with authenticity, purpose, and connection. Especially now, when therapists must develop a personal brand to market their practices.To support you as a whole person and a therapist, your hosts, Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy talk about how to approach the role of therapist in the modern age.Interview with Eliza Boquin, LMFTAs a Licensed Psychotherapist, Relationship & Sexuality Expert, Eliza Boquin works with couples & individuals to overcome past traumas, emotional pain, and destructive relationship patterns so they can begin to enjoy more healthy, satisfying, and pleasure-filled lives. You can find her working with clients at her private practice in Houston, TX, hosting workshops, and at public speaking events helping people gain the skills to reach their life & relationship goals.She is also an active mental health advocate & co-founder of Melanin & Mental Health, LLC which promotes mental health awareness in the Black & Latinx communities. She & her business partner, Eboni Harris, are changing the face of therapy with their website, national therapist directory, Between Sessions podcast and "Therapy is Dope" merchandise.She has also been featured in Cosmopolitan, Men's Health, Therapy for Black Girls Podcast, Fatherly, Bustle, ThriveWorks, Good Therapy, Stylecaster, Business Insider, Houstonia Magazine, and on Houston's Amazing 102.5 FM, and KBXX 97.9 FM - The Box.EIn this episode we talk about: Eliza’s story and how she got into sex therapy How trauma, shame, misinformation can impact sexual health The importance of removing shame and judgment from conversations about sex How to address the absence of sex in relationship therapy Opening conversations that are safe and non-shaming about sex, in the assessment What therapists miss when they don’t bring sex up with their clients The problem with pathologizing sexual concerns Typical therapist training around sex The importance of education and normalization The types of life events that can impact sex life Additional training for therapists to understand all kinds of sex The types of phone calls a sex therapist might get The amount of misinformation, sexpectations The faulty expectation that partners should know what to do The challenge of not knowing what turns you on, being disconnected from one’s body Societal expectations that impact the sexual experience The shame about bodies entering the sexual relationship Exploring sexual education stories, cultural impacts, messages about sex How people respond to sex therapists What therapists get wrong about sex The impact of bias and the medical model Sex positivity, inclusion

Curt and Katie talk about money. We look at the financial needs of therapists, the perspective of clients and the public that we charge too much OR that we should not want money; the common martyrdom expectation that can negatively impact therapists and the profession.       It’s time to reimagine therapy and what it means to be a therapist. To support you as a whole person and a therapist, your hosts, Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy talk about how to approach the role of therapist in the modern age.In this episode we talk about: Controversy about therapists wanting money What is expected of therapists - martyrdom and a vow of poverty? Financial stability and needs of therapists The consumer perspective – am I just a paycheck? Or do you really want to help me? The importance of your WHY The perspective of the profession based on how much money is charged by most professionals Providing a social/relational service for money - Are we “emotional prostitutes?” The difficulty in assigning monetary value on what we do The goodness of our hearts and the sympathetic plea of our clients The difficulty in demonstrating and describing the value of therapy The challenge of fee setting in private practice The dynamics of insurance or social service programs impacting the clinical relationship The common questions – Am I just a paycheck? Am I important enough to help? The danger of therapy becoming transactional, especially when you’re burned out and under compensated Therapist perspective on making money, especially given the lower paid and unpaid work at the beginning of the career How the profession’s current set up impacts therapists’ ability to make money Comparison to other similar professions (like doctors) – both in their training and career trajectory, looking at why they end up making more The sliding scale problem - Are we rescuing our clients? The shame of having financial needs Self-worth being conflated with fee-setting Exercise of thinking/feeling into your fee vs practical fee setting based on financial needs The need for therapists to figure this out, so they can become more comfortable with making sufficient money to sustain their careers!

An interview with Debi Frankle, LMFT on how therapists can navigate when clients die. We look at what to do when clients die by suicide, die based on high risk lifestyles, or long-term illnesses. We also talk about the complicated emotions that therapists face in this isolated grief.It’s time to reimagine therapy and what it means to be a therapist. We are human beings who can now present ourselves as whole people, with authenticity, purpose, and connection. Especially now, when therapists must develop a personal brand to market their practices.To support you as a whole person and a therapist, your hosts, Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy talk about how to approach the role of therapist in the modern age.Interview with Debi Frankle, LMFTDebi Jenkins Frankle is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Grief Specialist and Trainer. Debi has been working with grievers for over 25 years. She and husband, Mark Frankle LMFT, are the co-founders of the Calabasas Counseling and Grief Recovery Center. Debi is the founder of Private Practice Grief Workshops and Trainings for Mental Health Professionals as well as the FB group for therapists: Private Practice Grief.Debi’s areas of expertise are grief and trauma. Debi has led trainings for grief counseling professionals throughout the United States and Canada. Debi is a past president of San Fernando Valley chapter of CAMFT, past committee co-chair of the Crisis Response Network for SFV CAMFT and a member of the Association for Death Education (ADEC).In her spare time, she plays in dirt and hangs out with dogs (and her husband too!).In this episode we talk about: How therapists can handle when a client dies by suicide Legal and logistical considerations The importance of grounding yourself and seeking out consultation with a trusted colleague The stigma leading to therapists avoiding disclosing when clients die by suicide Considerations in contacting the family of the client and how to handle the conversation The complicated emotions that therapists can face as professionals and as grievers Deciding to go to the funeral The isolated grief that therapists face How grief can be different when a client dies by something preventable, or something they caused - disenfranchised grief or discounted grief The uniqueness of the therapist’s response The different types of losses and the reactions we have to them The emotional reactions that therapists should allow in treatment (and should not allow) The importance of doing your own work regarding your own losses How therapists can defer the conversations in treatment away from the necessary grief work How to manage the rest of the caseload when you’ve experienced a personal loss or a client has died The modeling we can do for our clients What happens when your therapy dog dies and how to manage that with your clients The work we need to do to be better at working with grief overall

Curt and Katie talk about therapists’ responsibility for mental health access and the (sometimes moral) decision about whether one focuses on income or providing treatment to all. We look at a living wage, the mental health system, entrepreneurship, and capitalism.     It’s time to reimagine therapy and what it means to be a therapist. To support you as a whole person and a therapist, your hosts, Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy talk about how to approach the role of therapist in the modern age.In this episode we talk about: Is mental health access a universal right? Group Practice Owner’s Summit 2019 where Katie got some wild ideas, especially during the talk by Maureen Werrbach and Michael Blumberg: Mental Health Access as a Human Right The moral dilemma regarding raising your fees to the point that you are only working with people who can afford it The extremes of martyrdom and pure entrepreneurship/capitalism Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as a place to assess where we identify human rights The distinction of the system providing mental health access and individuals providing this access Homelessness, mental illness, and addiction Where systems and social services are best able to take care of mental health and other concerns Larger mission and vision of how to impact the world Taking care of your needs as a therapist/person first before society The systemic issue of not providing all therapists a living wage and therapists needing to go into entrepreneurship to survive The potential impact of universal mental healthcare on entrepreneurship and the field The concern about stagnation and stifled innovation The power of passion and motivation in the work Finding creative ways to increase access, while not negatively impacting your bottom line How to make individual decisions about mental health access versus the therapist’s individual income Self-actualization - #topofthepyramid How the system impacts which therapists are able to continue practicing Draw bridge effect of later career therapists not treating newer therapists how they wished they were treated Locus of Control impacting decision-making The poor treatment of employees, low wages as contributing factors The system impacts on people at all levels Basic Needs - #bottomofthepyramid Profit First versus clients who do not bring revenue in Beyond Basic Needs - #middleofthepyramid The salary needs that connects to optimal happiness Questions about how to address these concerns and which to address first

An interview with Kristin Martinez, LMFT, about how trauma informed practices apply to the workplace. Curt and Katie talk with Kristin about her person-centered management, the benefits of treating employees well, and the risks of managing individuals as though they were cogs in a machine.It’s time to reimagine therapy and what it means to be a therapist. We are human beings who can now present ourselves as whole people, with authenticity, purpose, and connection. Especially now, when therapists must develop a personal brand to market their practices.To support you as a whole person and a therapist, your hosts, Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy talk about how to approach the role of therapist in the modern age.Interview with Kristin Martinez, LMFT Kristin Martinez is a licensed therapist who developed a process of management coined: Person Centered Management. She developed Person Centered Management through her own experience and expertise in trauma informed psychotherapy and being a leader in several organizations. Kristin owns a consulting firm and a group therapy practice. Prior to being a business owner, Kristin spent over 10 years in the mental health field as case worker, therapist, and administrator in private, contracted, and government entities. She has experience as a Director in Logistics prior to entering the field of mental health and knows the power of good teaming. In this episode we talk about: The idea of best practices for workplaces – Trauma Informed Workplaces, Person-centered management How Kristin came to identify the need for trauma informed practices not just with clients, but with the therapists and workforce as well Looking at the community mental health perspective How current practices lead to burnout at all levels How to introduce best practices into public mental health The importance of treating employees as people and developing real relationships with employees A primer on trauma informed perspective Look at context of behavior in order to address things like timeliness The idea of “therapy for the work place” Best practices for supervising and managing The myth that this type of work that focuses on the individual takes more time The risk of burnout and turnover for workplaces that don’t take care of their people How to introduce these concepts into the classroom How to infuse hope into the option of working in community mental health The importance of boundaries, asking for help, understanding expectations The attempts of these agencies to improve employee engagement and supporting the staff to stay longer The danger of the silos that different clinicians can be in (i.e., community mental health, private practice, other types of treatment centers) The benefit of connection with other therapists How processing your own stuff, making sure to consult, and taking time for self-care needs to be incorporated into a trauma-informed workplace Suggestions for group or solo practice owners to incorporate these best practices How Kristin puts her money where her mouth is, in her group practice Looking at how the workplace can impact each individual, looking at trauma responses for everyone involved (every client, every employee, everyone) Kristin believes that therapists are too focused on behavior and symptom reduction The importance of training all staff within interdisciplinary teams, taking care of all staff at levels The hope of transforming workplaces to make our career more sustainable

Curt and Katie talk about generational differences in therapists, looking at perceptions (and misperceptions) about Millennials We look at how these differences impact therapy workplaces, supervision, and the future of our field.   It’s time to reimagine therapy and what it means to be a therapist. To support you as a whole person and a therapist, your hosts, Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy talk about how to approach the role of therapist in the modern age.In this episode we talk about: Whether or not Curt is a Millennial Looking at how millennials show up as employees and entrepreneurs Generational differences in therapists Common complaint of millennials being entitled Living life now versus earning your stripes and waiting on retirement The Four-Hour Work Week Curt’s theory that Millennials have perfected the dream of the Gen X-ers The impact of technology on growing up in different generations Looking at the impact of the recession on the perspective on how to navigate work The “young upstart” mythology that gets under Boomers’ skin Gaining confidence earlier due to the access to immense amounts of data that wasn’t around when X-ers and Boomers were growing up Teaching as equals versus teaching as a superior, looking at collaborative learning The difference between therapy as work and other professions The further we remove the therapist from having creativity and ownership from the work, the less value they will get from the work. The importance of real application of concepts in our education The tension of enough structured guidance versus enough collaboration/empowerment Avoiding the helicoptering (supervision, management, etc.) How technology is impacting the work The importance of grounding innovation in laws, ethics, and clinical excellence How coaching might impact our profession, whether there is harm with people jumping to coaching without credentials or training Instagram Therapists Different goals for different generations, namely the scourge of selling out Whether or not Gen X-ers have actually sold old How things have changed in marketing and how that has impacted newer therapists When you can claim “expert” status How strong entrepreneurs can potentially harm the profession

An interview with Paul Puri, M.D., about how we can make therapy better. Curt and Katie interview Dr. Puri about how technology and better clinical training can improve therapy outcomes as well as the responsibility we have as experts to impact social change through education and art.It’s time to reimagine therapy and what it means to be a therapist. We are human beings who can now present ourselves as whole people, with authenticity, purpose, and connection. Especially now, when therapists must develop a personal brand to market their practices.To support you as a whole person and a therapist, your hosts, Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy talk about how to approach the role of therapist in the modern age.Interview with Paul R. Puri, M.D., Psychiatrist, TV Writer, CMO of OOTifyDr. Puri is a psychiatrist, TV writer, and an entrepreneur. In his private practice in Los Angeles, he practices multiple forms of psychotherapy, including hypnosis, in addition to managing medications. He attended medical school at University of Rochester, and specialty training in psychiatry at UC San Diego. He is currently a clinical Assistant Professor at UCLA, and the president-elect of the Psychiatric Clinical Faculty Association. In his non-clinical time, he consults and writes for TV, and is the Chief Medical Officer for an online mental health hub, OOTify -- OOTify.comIn this episode we talk about: How Paul has found the different ways that he is helping transform mental health The history of psychotherapy and psychiatry and how training changed to match the reimbursement model How psychiatry training is shifting to reflect the modern needs How therapy is changing, how technology is entering into the picture, and what is driving research and evidence-based treatments The importance of therapist matching in the success of treatment (and how machine learning can help this process) The internal work that therapists have to do to improve their clinical work The importance of getting different perspectives to become the therapist you are supposed to be rather than becoming a duplicate of your supervisor How Paul is trying to represent our field accurately and well in his writing on Chicago Med The impact of entertainment on mental health stigma The social responsibility of having a larger microphone or platform How much to push beyond the current reality to effect social change How we make therapy and therapists better The noise that has developed in the “personal branding” era of private practice The responsibility we have to help potential clients find the best fit – and how we are frequently failing at it The problem with only seeking out “evidence-based” treatment without considering what the evidence means How to move outside the office and add your voice to the social landscape The Public Health responsibility we have to educate with the expertise we have The balance of making sure you’re not weighing in unsolicited, but rather strategically The nuance of talking about your knowledge without over-disclosing, breaking ethical and legal guidelines, or speaking outside your scope  Music by Crystal Grooms Mangano http://www.crystalmangano.com/

Curt and Katie talk about why mass shootings happen. We look at the complexity of the research and how solely blaming mental illness, doesn’t reflect the research and is stigmatizing. We also talk about how to identify risks and what to do to try to prevent violence. It’s time to reimagine therapy and what it means to be a therapist. To support you as a whole person and a therapist, your hosts, Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy talk about how to approach the role of therapist in the modern age.In this episode we talk about: Looking at why Mass Shootings happen Defining Mass Shooting The harm that blaming mass shootings on mental illness can cause – stigma, lack of seeking mental health treatment The limitations and complexity of the research The dehumanization of others and the role that it can play in the violence Attribution Model, low self-esteem, moving out to fringe groups, radicalization Developmental factors including parenting, culture, gender, coercion, history of violence The difficulty with learning from sound bites The role of violent media, video games The importance of differentiating correlation from causation The most important factor: access to guns “Aggrieved Entitlement” leading to seeking revenge in a violent way for a perceived or actual victimization Multi-systemic solutions and what therapists can do to address the situation Compassion, listening, and connection as a way to intervene prior to radicalization Seeing from a different perspective than what is “acceptable” for you, to help to build alliance and open opportunities for challenging violent beliefs Clarifying therapy versus threat assessment Fighting Fascism in the world and in the therapy room