Suzette Bray is a seasoned LMFT and founder of Village Counseling and Wellness and we are honored to have her on for today’s episode. It’s her years of experience, extensive training in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and open mind that guide our conversation in hopes to destigmatize borderline personality disorder. If you are new to the field, studying to become a clinician, or are just wanting to learn more about mental health and private practice, this is an episode you won’t want to miss.
What better way to talk about toxic work environments than to analyze Netflix’s reality show, Selling Sunset? With a plethora of episodes focused on the dynamics among a gorgeous group of LA realtors, the drama never seems to end. We understand that as viewers, we are only privy to a small fraction of the reality stars lives. Therefore, here on Couch Time, we dissect the information given and use realistic inferences so we can learn and share key takeaways that relate to our field of expertise.
A hot topic in today’s celebrity media is Kourtney Kardashian’s engagement to Travis Barker. This relationship provides us with some interesting topics that fans have probably noticed during her life in the spotlight. Today we will discuss starting over in your 40’s, how to come out of codependency, cycles of life, and the impact that living your life as a reality TV star can have on your mental health.
Suzette Bray is a seasoned LMFT and founder of Village Counseling and Wellness and we are honored to have her on for today’s episode. It’s her years of experience, extensive training in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and open mind that guide our conversation in hopes to destigmatize borderline personality disorder. If you are new to the field, studying to become a clinician, or are just wanting to learn more about mental health and private practice, this is an episode you won’t want to miss.
Arguably one of the most iconic popstars of the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, Britney Spears has been in the media since the beginning. Lately, there has been so much buzz regarding the many documentaries circling her conservatorship and we thought it was a perfect topic to discuss. Fans around the world have joined together to create a ‘Free Britney’ movement due to observed odd behaviors and her potential cry for freedom.
If anyone embodies our slogan “Keeping it Real” more than us, it’s Lauren Martin, LPC-MHSP. We had the pleasure of having her on our show and she served up some great advice along with a few belly laughs on the side! So, be sure to listen in for information on niching down your specialty and how it’s more important than ever to show up for your clients as an authentic human FIRST, and then as a clinician.
Today we cover the first of many discussions related to our recommended PRIVATE PRACTICE MUST-HAVES. There is so much we wish we would have known before taking the journey on the road to licensure and then to start our very own private practices. We want to open up our experiences for other clinicians to learn from in hopes to provide better guidance for those wanting to take a similar path. Although we are still trying to navigate obstacles of owning a business, there is much to be shared so far!
We are in great company with Andrew Susskind, LCSW during this exclusive interview. Every clinician has their own story and today Andrew shares his background, experiences, and how he keeps a growing edge to fulfill his lifelong commitment to providing therapy all while the clinical field continues to evolve.
4 Tips to keep a growing edge:
Constantly learn by attending post graduate trainings and find the trainings that are fun for you and speak to you.
Your own therapy is primary and pay top dollar for that experience even if that means stretching to make that experience happen.
Continue the best consultation and supervision out there because we learn from one another.
Give back to the clinical community and share your learnings and extending your knowledge to help other therapists grow.
Andrew has found a calling as an author to share his personal and professional experiences to help others end compulsive sexual behavior and addition recovery. In both publications, he coaches with strategy to help find clear direction to healing and recovery. Andrew’s books can be found on Amazon with the links below.
Publications:
It's Not About the Sex: Moving from Isolation to Intimacy after Sexual Addiction
From Now On: Seven Keys to Purposeful Recovery
Connect with Andrew Susskind, LCSW:
- https://westsidetherapist.com
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Join us today for a very special guest, Aileen Uy, LCSW who is also a certified life coach specializing in women’s coaching and mentorship. She is going to unwrap the stigma around coaching and the common misconceptions with therapy as well as the practice of being a coach.
Aileen gives a lot of insight into the guidelines, frameworks, and their perspective expectations and ethics that coaches are expected to adhere to. Although coaching is very unregulated with no formal process, training, or licensing, there are some accreditations for different kinds of coaching beyond the basics that can be found on the International Coaching Federations website referenced below. Both coaching and therapy promote wellness on a spectrum, but Aileen highlights that therapy and coaching do have some differences.
3 key points to help distinguish coaching from therapy:
There is a lot of coaching that goes on in therapy but no therapy that goes on in coaching.
Coaching often focuses on solutions through encouragement where therapy has a focus on recovery with more severe distress and requires intense healing through treatment.
Clinical psychotherapy can be related to physical therapy where distress and discomfort or limited awareness with a heavy focus on treatment for that disorder. A personal trainer who focuses on physical upkeep, a coach would similarly help with maintaining optimal mental wellness.
Want to learn more about today’s topic? Here are the references from today’s episode:
- https://coachingfederation.org
Connect with Aileen Uy, LCSW:
Let’s Connect! We want to hear from you!
Visit us at our websites:
Connect with us on Instagram:
Welcome back to Couch Time and thank you for joining us today for a special interview session with fellow clinician, Andrew Katsinas, LMFT. With a background in film and media, Andrew has come to appreciate the creative processes in healing and has brought that along with his spunky sense of humor to create a modern-day spin on telehealth therapy.
Not only does Andrew own his own private practice, but he also has training in AASECT Sex Therapy with a goal of breaking down the barriers and taboo behind the “forbidden” topic. His calling has led him to work with those who seek help with relationships, intimacy, and sex while specializing in issues involving sexual dysfunction, the LGBTQIA+ community, and sexual trauma.
Join us in an interview session with fellow clinician, Genesis Games, LMHC as we get personal with her journey from the time she spent in grad school to becoming a business owner.
Healing Connections Academy Genesis’ very own directory of free to low-cost resources to help YOU improve your mental wellness and relationships.
Want to learn more about owning your own private practice?
Genesis offers a Private Practice 101 workshop that will teach you how to go from employee to the CEO of your very own practice. Here she shares the basics that helped her grow her own business and brand and answers any questions you may have about the process.
Hindsight is always much clearer and it’s challenging not to look through that lens when reflecting on our individual roads to licensure and wish things had been done differently. We may not be able to change our past education decisions, but we can certainly assist YOU as you work along your own path to becoming licensed. Episode 05 is hopefully one of many educational tools that we hope to provide future and perspective therapists while making decisions that will greatly impact their careers.
In this episode, we interview Lindsay Reiten, LCSW, and discuss owning your journey to becoming a licensed therapist along with the struggles we face to becoming licensed professionals. Just because your experiences are different from others, it doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t have an appropriate reason to become a therapist. If you are passionate about helping people, be proud and own your story!
We are excited to be sharing our journey towards licensure so, this podcast will cover our experiences and hopefully will serve as a helpful tool for anyone who is on their road to getting licensed! From the nostalgia to the most horrifying moments along our journey, we are going to dive deep into the details that NOBODY tells you while on your venture.
Contrary to what you may believe, therapists do have their own worries. Along with our day-to-day concerns we also worry about our clients after tough sessions. These worrisome thoughts are especially difficult when dealing with high-risk clients with safety issues or self-injurious behaviors and couples because our concerns linger outside of therapy; wondering how their relationship is doing or if they ended in a breakup or divorce. We want you to recognize that it’s normal to think about former clients and how they are doing now because we can’t backtrack with them. It’s simply the nature of the industry. Listen now to learn the best ways to go about fixing our own worries.
We want to create a space to provide guidance to individuals on the road to licensure or therapists who are starting their own private practice. From business language to filling out proper documentation, we have experienced a lot of trial and error on the back end with establishing our own businesses. In future episodes we hope to help navigate you through using social media to help you build your practice, how to remove the taboo behind certain mental health subjects, and how to build a modern outlook on therapy all together.
In our podcast, we dive deep into topics like mental health, relationship wellness, private practice, and so much more! We also invite innovative guests in the mental health field to collaborate and share the best content out there.
If you are a mental health professional, someone who likes to talk about mental wellness, or a listener who would like to request a topic, we want to hear from you! Fill the form below, and we will be in touch.
