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Apr 25, 2022

Reflections on Content Creation and the Therapy Profession

Curt and Katie chat about our principles and philosophies as they relate to the work we do, including podcast creation. We also reflect on the feedback we’ve received on episodes with large listenership as well as other typical responses we get to the work we do. Considering content creation as part of your business? This isn’t a how-to, but it certainly can give you things to consider before you dive in.

In this podcast episode we talk about how we put together the podcast

We’ve received a lot of feedback recently about our episodes and we wanted to talk about how we make decisions on what we talk about, who we interview, whether we call folks out on the podcast, and how we edit the episodes.

Our Philosophy and Principles for creating content for the Modern Therapist’s Survival Guide

“We can talk about how to navigate the career, but at some point, we become complicit in a broken system. And so, we've been talking about how to balance: how do we give the tools to navigate what is, and then also give the empowerment and/or the validation that advocacy needs to happen.” – Katie Vernoy

  • How to navigate the career as is (tools and strategies to survive in this field)
  • The importance of advocacy in moving forward with our field
  • How to strategically time advocacy for best effect
  • How we take in feedback and respond

Responding to Feedback from our Audience on our “What’s New in the DSM-5-TR?” Episode

  • The concern about the Autism diagnosis changes
  • Whether we should have called out Dr. Michael B. First and the impressions of what was said
  • Grappling with the tension between protecting our audience and getting our guests on record and/or advocating for change in the larger systems
  • How people can impact what becomes DSM 6 (and the efforts we are advocating for)
  • The feedback we received and how we sort through it and improve
  • The limits of our capacity
  • Our plans for additional interviews to address the changes

“It's been my experience in advocacy, that large systems end up ignoring those individual voices. Those individual voices are incredibly powerful when they're used in the right place at the right time.” – Curt Widhalm

A Broader View of the Feedback We Receive on the Modern Therapist’s Survival Guide Podcast

  • The depth of the conversation and our ability to deepen conversations with additional episodes
  • Audience members anchoring on the title or episode artwork and not looking at the whole episode when pieces of the content resonate in a different way

Our Plan Going Forward with the Podcast

  • Advocacy, information, and focus on the profession
  • Not as much of a focus on business building, money mindset, and side hustles
  • Real conversations about the realities of working in this profession
  • Working to leave the profession better than we find it

 

Our Generous Sponsors for this episode of the Modern Therapist’s Survival Guide:

Thrizer

Thrizer is a new modern billing platform for therapists that was built on the belief that therapy should be accessible AND clinicians should earn what they are worth. Their platform automatically gets clients reimbursed by their insurance after every session. Just by billing your clients through Thrizer, you can potentially save them hundreds every month, with no extra work on your end. Every time you bill a client through Thrizer, an insurance claim is automatically generated and sent directly to the client's insurance. From there, Thrizer provides concierge support to ensure clients get their reimbursement quickly, directly into their bank account. By eliminating reimbursement by check, confusion around benefits, and obscurity with reimbursement status, they allow your clients to focus on what actually matters rather than worrying about their money. It is very quick to get set up and it works great in completement with EHR systems. Their team is super helpful and responsive, and the founder is actually a long-time therapy client who grew frustrated with his reimbursement times The best part is you don't need to give up your rate. They charge a standard 3% payment processing fee!

Thrizer lets you become more accessible while remaining in complete control of your practice. A better experience for your clients during therapy means higher retention. Money won't be the reason they quit on therapy. Sign up using THIS LINK if you want to test Thrizer completely risk free! Sign up for Thrizer with code 'moderntherapists' for 1 month of no credit card fees or payment processing fees! That’s right - you will get one month of no payment processing fees, meaning you earn 100% of your cash rate during that time!

Melissa Forziat Events & Marketing

Today’s episode of The Therapy Reimagined podcast is brought to you by Melissa Forziat Events & Marketing. Melissa is a small business marketing expert who specializes in marketing advice for businesses that have limited resources. 

Are you looking to boost your reach and get more clients from social media?  Check out the “How to Win at Social Media (even with no budget!)” course from marketing expert, Melissa Forziat.

It can be so hard to get engagement on social media or to know what to post to tell the story of your brand.  It can be even harder to get those conversations to turn into new clients. Social media marketing isn’t just for businesses that have a ton of money to spend on advertising.  Melissa will work you step-by-step through creating a smart plan that fits within your budget. 

How to Win at Social Media is packed full of information. Usually a course as detailed as this would be priced in the thousands, but to make it accessible to small businesses, it is available for only $247.  PLUS, as a listener of the Modern Therapist’s Survival Guide, you can use promo code THERAPY to get 10% off.  So, if you are ready to go to the next level in your business, click THIS LINK and sign up for the How to Win at Social Media course today!

Please note that Therapy Reimagined/The Modern Therapist’s Survival Guide Podcast is a paid affiliate for Melissa Forziat Events & Marketing, so we will get a little bit of money in our pockets if you sign up using our link. Thank you in advance! 

 

Resources for Modern Therapists mentioned in this Podcast Episode:

We’ve pulled together resources mentioned in this episode and put together some handy-dandy links. Please note that some of the links below may be affiliate links, so if you purchase after clicking below, we may get a little bit of cash in our pockets. We thank you in advance!

The Therapy Reimagined Mission

Our Patreon

Buy Me A Coffee

Relevant Episodes of MTSG Podcast:

What’s New in the DSM-5-TR?

A Living Wage for Prelicensees

Mission Driven Work

Therapists are Not Robots

Why You Shouldn’t Sell Out to Better Help

Advocacy in the Wake of Looming Healthcare Shortages

 

Who we are:

Curt Widhalm, LMFT

Curt Widhalm is in private practice in the Los Angeles area. He is the cofounder of the Therapy Reimagined conference, an Adjunct Professor at Pepperdine University and CSUN, a former Subject Matter Expert for the California Board of Behavioral Sciences, former CFO of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, and a loving husband and father. He is 1/2 great person, 1/2 provocateur, and 1/2 geek, in that order. He dabbles in the dark art of making "dad jokes" and usually has a half-empty cup of coffee somewhere nearby. Learn more at: www.curtwidhalm.com

Katie Vernoy, LMFT

Katie Vernoy is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, coach, and consultant supporting leaders, visionaries, executives, and helping professionals to create sustainable careers. Katie, with Curt, has developed workshops and a conference, Therapy Reimagined, to support therapists navigating through the modern challenges of this profession. Katie is also a former President of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists. In her spare time, Katie is secretly siphoning off Curt's youthful energy, so that she can take over the world. Learn more at: www.katievernoy.com

A Quick Note:

Our opinions are our own. We are only speaking for ourselves – except when we speak for each other, or over each other. We’re working on it.

Our guests are also only speaking for themselves and have their own opinions. We aren’t trying to take their voice, and no one speaks for us either. Mostly because they don’t want to, but hey.

Stay in Touch with Curt, Katie, and the whole Therapy Reimagined #TherapyMovement:


Patreon

Buy Me A Coffee

Podcast Homepage

Therapy Reimagined Homepage

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

YouTube

 

Consultation services with Curt Widhalm or Katie Vernoy:

The Fifty-Minute Hour

Connect with the Modern Therapist Community:

Our Facebook Group – The Modern Therapists Group

 

Modern Therapist’s Survival Guide Creative Credits:

Voice Over by DW McCann https://www.facebook.com/McCannDW/

Music by Crystal Grooms Mangano https://groomsymusic.com/

 

Transcript for this episode of the Modern Therapist’s Survival Guide podcast (Autogenerated):

 

Curt Widhalm  00:00

This episode of The Modern Therapist Survival Guide is brought to you by Thrizer.

 

Katie Vernoy  00:03

 Thrizer is a modern billing platform for private pay therapists. Their platform automatically gets clients reimbursed by their insurance after every session. Just by billing your clients through Thrizer you can potentially save them hundreds every month with no extra work on your end. The best part is you don't need to give up your rate they charge a standard 3% payment processing fee. By using the link in the show notes you can get a month of billing without processing fees just to test them out for your clients.

 

Curt Widhalm  00:30

Listen at the end of the episode for more information.

 

Katie Vernoy  00:34

This episode is also brought to you by Melissa Forziat Events and Marketing

 

Curt Widhalm  00:39

Melissa Forziat is a small business marketing expert who specializes in marketing advice for businesses that have limited resources, including the very special course How to Win at Social Media, Even with No Budget. Stay tuned to the end of the episode to learn how you can get the most from social media marketing, even with little to no budget.

 

Announcer  00:59

You're listening to The Modern Therapist Survival Guide where therapists live, breathe and practice as human beings. To support you as a whole person and a therapist, here are your hosts, Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy.

 

Curt Widhalm  01:12

Welcome back modern therapists. This is The Modern Therapist Survival Guide. I'm Curt Widhalm with Katie Vernoy. And this is the podcast for therapists and things that we do the things that we have come up in our field, the ways that we want to spread our messages. And if you're not a therapist, welcome and listen to it from the angle of our intended audience being therapists. Katie is laughing at me because she said that this is an episode where we're not supposed to sound defensive.

 

Katie Vernoy  01:53

Oh, dear, we're already off track. Thanks, Curt. No, I think this is an episode where you have to be completely transparent like this is this is an episode that we need to do. And I think that there's positive and wonderful things that we need to talk about. And there's some stuff that we might have some feels about to use the language of the young folks today.

 

Curt Widhalm  02:15

I don't know who you think is the young folks today?

 

Katie Vernoy  02:19

Fine, fine. Let's move forward.

 

Curt Widhalm  02:22

All right. We have a lot of new listeners here over the last few months. And we want to thank you for joining us each week. And it's been a while since Katie and I have clarified a lot of things about our podcast, this is maybe an opportunity for some of our new listeners to get to know us in a little bit different way and for our longtime listeners to maybe be able to have a little bit better understanding of what Katie and my process is. And the working title of this episode is. So you want to be a content creator. This is really less of a how to episode and more of a here's the things that have come up in our process that helps us to define how we largely go about things. Now a lot of our listeners who have joined us recently found us through our DSM five episodes, some of our continuing education content. And what we want to do in this episode is kind of talk about what some of the things are that have come up for us as content creators here over the last few months, and how we made some of the decisions that we've made and kind of some of the principles that we do in making our product, something that hopefully all of you enjoy.

 

Katie Vernoy  03:49

Starting with the principles. I think when we first started and this was way back in 2017, I think the idea was, let's put together a podcast that has conversations that don't typically happen, at least not in public spaces. A lot of therapists, I think, have some of these conversations in the background. But it's not something that is happening in grad school. It's not something that's happening in supervision frequently, and it's kind of the realities, the survival guide tactics of how do we actually navigate this career. And what we've found over the years is that the additional piece is like yeah, we can talk about how to navigate the career but at some point, we become complicit in a broken system. And so we we've been talking about how to balance how do we give the tools to navigate what is and then also give the empowerment and or the validation that advocacy needs to happen. And then each of us can step up in our own ways, whether it's in how we practice individually in our offices, or what we say to our legislators or those kinds of things like how can we advocate true change for our profession, you know, whether it's equity, whether it's pay, whether it's decolonizing, our practices, all of the things that we've wanted to make sure that stay in the forefront, we recognize that it's a hard way to balance because if we completely destroy mental health right now, because it's not working then, there's no mental health. But if we complicitly and complacently stand by and continue to reinforce how it's being done, then we're not making any progress. And so we're trying to walk that line to be able to say, Hey, this is what the profession is, this is how you can navigate it. And this is what we see as a potential future. And let's give you the tools to be able to help us all come together as modern therapists to push towards that new future.

 

Curt Widhalm  05:45

A lot of what our conversations on the back end have been here over the last month or so has been about a lot of the response that we've had, hearing from some of our audience members directly, following some of the online interpretations and reactions to our DSM-5 update episode where we had Dr. Michael be first as the APA, co author of the DSM-5-TR. And our background conversations between Katie and I have been why did we make the decisions that we made with this particular episode? And how does this fit within a lot of what Katie was just describing as our principals here. And Katie and I have been long involved in a lot of advocacy work, and know that some of the reactions that we've seen the immediate petitions to change the autism diagnostic criteria, based on the information that was presented in that episode, to prevent the DSM-5-TR from having those very changes made. And Katie and my work in advocacy, we knew that that kind of an effort is mis timed, because those books were already published in sitting in warehouses all around the world at that point that understanding some of the advocacy process is very much an important piece of this, that you hear us in a number of our episodes across time talking about advocacy. I don't know that the emphasis on how freaking long things take...

 

Katie Vernoy  07:33

So long, so long

 

Curt Widhalm  07:35

...is something that people tend to forget. And there's oftentimes this very reactionary in the moment sort of thing that happens that people lose their enthusiasm, because then there's a next in the moment sort of thing happens. And this is why our principals are so important to us is because it helps us in deciding not only what we address, but how and importantly, when we address them. And if you want to hear in depth kind of discussion about it. We'll link in our show notes over at MTSG podcast about our efforts several years ago to get a mental health professionals organization to make a statement on paying pre licensed therapists a living wage. This is a long term process sort of thing. And I think that this starts to speak into some of the criticisms that we've been hearing about the DSM-5 episode from some of our audience here.

 

Katie Vernoy  08:37

The other element that I think is important is being able to go into conversations with reasonable expectations of what's going to happen in the conversation. And so there's the timing of the advocacy, but there's also getting a full picture of what the actual situation is. And I know for me, in interviewing Dr. First, I was expecting a lot more pushback on the questions we actually asked around inclusion around the discussions with folks with lived experience, around the limitations of the diagnoses. And the fact that he was willing to engage in those made me very excited. Now, as we had the conversation. There were a few different things that I was trying to pay attention to. And this is I guess, this goes into kind of editing choices as well as kind of the advocacy element of it. I wanted him on record about kind of what his perspective was, what his process was those kinds of things and I know that there was some language that he used, it was pretty cringy, there was a lot of outdated language, there was a little bit of editing to try to soften that for our audience as kind of a protective measure for our audience. But we couldn't edit out the cringiness of this individual. My concern, and this is something I've grappled with. And I, maybe maybe we would do it differently if we interviewed him again tomorrow. But I wanted to hear all of the pieces. I wanted it all on record. And so there were things that he said that I might have called him out on in person. But recognize that was potentially risking getting the next question answered. And the next question answered. It potentially risked the interview not happening, him not being recorded and on record with the things that he ended up saying. And to me, I felt like there was this really push pull on how do we protect our audience? And how do we move forward with the advocacy that needs to happen around this outdated medical model book that we all have to use?

 

Curt Widhalm  10:51

I think to that point, this is our protection of our audience, is within the scope of Katie and my principles. And I hope that our principles aligned with a lot of yours. But, you know, being very clear to what Katie said earlier, we are about advancing our profession, we are about better pay, we're about better education. And we incorporate a lot of social justice work within that. And it's very informed by a lot of social justice work. To peel back the curtains a little bit on our process. We do edit our podcasts, we aren't as clear as what our finished product is. We've edited...

 

Katie Vernoy  11:09

Clearly not.

 

Curt Widhalm  11:12

...we edit out ums and coughs, and we allow our guests to be able to say, Hey, I didn't say that correctly, would you edit that back? Let me restate this in another way. And because we develop relationships with a lot of people who come on this podcast, we're very accommodating of that. And in this particular recording, part of what we consider is, is it important to advocate in this particular moment on something that's informative of our principles, and potentially lose the entire interview in the first place, then it becomes Katie and me pissing off one person and not having a podcast, whereas the 1000s of people who have downloaded, listened to, reacted to, made their own commentary, on what was said, is much more important within the advocacy process than us calling out one particular person at one time.

 

Katie Vernoy  12:44

Yeah.

 

Curt Widhalm  12:45

We feel that it's a lot more important to be able to hear, again, the very outdated and potentially harmful ideas of people who are in positions of power, much more so than being able to correct them in a moment by moment basis. And this is part of seeing advocacy as a much bigger unfolding process. And I think that a lot of the commentary that we've seen have separated, Katie and me from the comments by Dr. Michael First. But I see that people are also, you know, kind of holding us accountable on this too. And it's very much a stylistic decision. Just because we didn't push back on it doesn't mean that we agree with it. In fact, hopefully, this gives a lot more emphasis to our calls to action that will be coming over the next few months and several years as it leads up to whenever the DSM-6 comes out, of better being able to advocate for who's on these committees and how their processes are because this is information that had that episode just been. Here's the straightforward updates of what's happening. I don't think that would have ever shown up to the light of day.

 

Katie Vernoy  14:07

Sure. And I think the additional piece, I guess there's more than one piece, but that additional piece to that is I wanted to get to how do people impact this process, and we have him on record talking about that process and how people can take stances and give feedback and all those things. And I also was able to say to him like, hey, yeah, reach out to these lived experience and diagnostic communities to get feedback, like proactively seek it out. And he said, Oh, well, we kind of do that. Actually. That's a good idea. So it's, maybe it's small, but it's still there's things on record that can be used by folks who are advocating with the APA, that who are advocating around some of these changes where it's like, hey, the guy who is running this Committee, said it was a good idea or said this was their process. Here's why this process isn't happening. We need to address it, I mean, I think it's just it's creating a body of evidence. But I do want to go back to kind of our audience and the, and the harmful language. And I want to take that in. I really want to think about that because to me, I, I recognize that there are spots bias, different things that frame what I think is going to be harmful and not harmful. And I and I know we talked about this, Curt, that like the two of us had a larger goal with that that interview. And so I don't want us to lose sight that there were folks who are were harmed by some of the language that Dr. First used. And I'm not sure how to specifically address that. I mean, maybe we put content warnings on on things, you know, I'm not sure. I'm not sure how to do that. I mean, I don't know what what additional thoughts you've had around it, Curt. But I just for me, I feel like there are two things that are happening. And I think we may lean more towards like the let's get stuff done. Let's not worry about the small things in the moment with the larger picture. But for some of the folks that are responding, it didn't feel small, and it wasn't small to them, and it was harmful to them. And I don't know how to I'm gonna be honest, I don't know how to resolve that, given our advocacy efforts and the desire to get someone with that level of power over the next iteration of both the ICD and the DSM on record. And so I'm not sure where to go with that.

 

Curt Widhalm  16:27

It's been my experience in advocacy, that large systems end up ignoring those individual voices. Those individual voices are incredibly powerful when they're used in the right place at the right time. And it's kind of looking at where our experience is where our tools really are effective in being able to affect these larger systems that when Katie and I have been in congressional offices, when we've been talking to legislators, when we've been talking to professional organizations, those voices, when they're expressed at the right time, are incredibly impactful for humanizing what is happening, working in the macro systems doesn't negate that the micro systems are happening. But for systemic change to happen, we have to address the macro systems in the ways that the macro systems have shown that they can be changed.

 

Katie Vernoy  17:30

Sure, yeah. And I think that's it goes back to our principles around recognizing that we have to work within if we want to be therapists, right now, we, we must work at least, you know, sufficiently within the system that's created while also trying to disrupt it. And so it's, it's a hard line to walk I know, we're never, we're never going to say we can always do it, right. You know, like we're gonna have times when we we miss judge or miss title. And I think that, that we, you know, when folks have called us out, when we've missed us in the past, we oftentimes do come back and have deeper conversations. And so please keep holding us to account for the things that are happening in the micro system, so to speak. But recognize that you know, that there are times when we may disagree based on the goals we have in the macro system. Does that make sense?

 

Curt Widhalm  18:20

Yeah.

 

Katie Vernoy  18:21

Okay.

 

Curt Widhalm  18:22

And I think that this also speaks to what we noticed as content creators, is some of the accountability that people feel like they're holding us to, are things that we actually already do. It's just that...

 

Katie Vernoy  18:38

Exactly.

 

Curt Widhalm  18:39

Now, in the aftermath of the DSM-5 episode, one of the comments that I keep coming back to is a one from a deleted now deleted user on Reddit. The comment says, the interview starts talking about autism around minute 13. It's not an in accessible interview, and that it has no transcript or subtitles, so fuck them for that, too. And then, in this post, several people posted links to the episode where the transcripts already existed in the first place. And one of the things that if you're considering going into content creation, helping you potentially avoid some obstacles and these kinds of things, and being clear about your principles, really does help in that. We've been making things accessible for quite a while.

 

Katie Vernoy  19:30

And we haven't always but it does, there's a cost involved. And we're doing this for free for the most part, you know, we've we've been able to start getting sponsors at different points. But we're not making a whole bunch of money where we can have fancy solutions. And so we've, we took this feedback that people couldn't find the transcripts. And so we've we've added a little solution, so they're easier to find now, but we are both two therapists, we both have our own practices. We do some consulting but like this is not our full time job. And so we're trying, I guess maybe this is where I'm sounding defensive, I'm not trying to, but like, we're doing the best that we can. But I think, to me, when I hear this, I see something where we're trying to make a difference. You know, we're trying to do some stuff to bring some things to light to move things forward. And we're not going to always get it right. But we are a way easier target to get mad at than the large system. So don't wait like don't waste your your energy on calling us out for stuff like not having transcript because we actually do, like use that energy towards the actual change you want and not on two random podcasters.

 

Curt Widhalm  20:40

And we got several comments in the first week, after directing, you know, emphasis towards are we going to have follow up episodes about the changes in the DSM, we will, it takes some turnaround time for us, especially on something that that book wasn't even available for three weeks after the podcast aired, which was nearly a month after we made the interview, to Katie's point of we're two podcasters. If you want us to be able to do more, here's our pitch to join our Patreon and make it to where we can have a full time job doing this kind of stuff. But in the meantime, our turnaround and response times is sometimes very much around what we're capable of doing around our regular day to day practices and families and all of that kind of stuff. In the past, we've been sometimes able to turn things around literally overnight. That's not something that can necessarily be relied upon, in this particular space for us and until you join our Patreon and wonderful things. It's something we're we absolutely do do our best. It's that we're in a slow moving profession too. Nothing about you know, really anything is going to be best addressed by a podcast on something that needs to happen in an extremely timely manner.

 

Katie Vernoy  22:13

Sure, and I think to expand out kind of what we're doing as our follow on to the DSM-5 updates is that we've been reaching out to folks in the Autistic community in the grief community in the trans and gender nonconforming community. And as well as people in the trauma community to be able to have in depth conversations with folks with lived experience around, for example, with the Autistic community, we want someone that can talk with us about the diagnosis stuff that's going on to DSM-5-TR but also self diagnosis and, and those types of things. So we can really have a conversation with someone that's living it versus us saying like, yeah, we disagree, you know, or, or we agree with this part, but not that part. I mean, like, we have our own opinions, and we'll share them. But we don't want to be the only voices speaking to this. And it takes time to be able to identify the people or persons, the person or persons that people are people. Yeah, I don't know, to find the right, the right folks to be able to have the real conversation that we need to have, as we've continued forward and our audiences grow we've found it even more important not to just say, like, hey, our friends, so and so is in this community, let's reach out to them, but actually saying like, Who is the person that is making the most noise that has the biggest audience who can actually make a difference in this space, let's amplify that voice on the podcast and whatever way that we can. And so we're still learning, we're still growing. And we don't, we can't... People are not popping on the podcast immediately. Like, everybody's got schedule issues. And and we're we're wanting to have a great conversation versus a fast conversation.

 

Curt Widhalm  23:51

And, you know, this is hopefully where some of the people that we are reaching out to at this point, we'll be able to build and combine our efforts of this community. And their's to elevate some of this stuff. And hopefully, as we get those things organized and recorded in the upcoming months that you'll be able to see that. So here's also your reminder to subscribe and not miss any of our content. One of the other things within this process, though, is also the way that people have anchored on to very slight aspects of the content that we put out whether it's a specific comment within a larger, longer format, whether it's wanting deeper, more informative things out of what is relatively a smaller format, and what I mean by that is, we also try to make our episodes 30 ish minutes. We sometimes wax poetic most of our episodes, I think ended up around 40 minutes or so but it's an incredibly weird balance. Of people on one hand can take one very, very small piece of what is happening in an episode and make assumptions about the rest of the content or ignore the rest of the content based on that, or on the other hand, we've also had some criticisms of, we don't go deep enough and 30 minutes when it's two or three or four voices, depending on how many people that we have on a particular episode. That goes by very, very fast.

 

Katie Vernoy  25:30

What and when especially the one that said we didn't go deep enough, I mean, we did respond with like two or three more episodes to discuss the nuance of what was was being asked for. I think, to me, the thing that makes sense, and I want to take full ownership of this, because oftentimes, I'm the one that's titling the episode. And sometimes we're, we're framing the episode in a particular way, because we think that's what's most compelling. And that seems to be another thing that folks will anchor on. And if I've titled without thought, you know, to a specific element, or it's been framed in a certain way, I think folks have difficulty looking at the whole piece. And so I wanted to, I want to say, I have very much been trying to be thoughtful about titles so that people will get a sense of what's actually on the episode. But there's definitely times when people have have responded to the title only, and either decided they would not listen to the episode because the title was not one that they liked. Or they framed the whole episode based on that title and their interpretation of the title. And so I'm working on it, folks, I'm trying to get better Curt usually helps. But like sometimes we're you know, we divide and conquer, so to speak, he does more editing, I do more of the show notes and episode artwork. And so this is a two to four person, maybe five person, little enterprise here. And none of us do this only, like we all have other stuff going on. And so and even life stuff, like we talked about a couple weeks ago, can get in the way of us being able to do stuff, but like, we recognize that sometimes something resonates, and it's hard to look at the whole piece. But before, before taking too drastic an action like giving us a really bad review. Or blasting us on social like try to listen it to it as a holistic piece if you can.

 

Curt Widhalm  27:28

And it does help and we do respond. She can email Maggie over at podcast@therapyreimagined.com with feedback about stuff and she's not Katie or myself. She's a very wonderful part of our team that, be nice to Maggie. But...

 

Katie Vernoy  27:43

Yes, please be nice to Maggie.

 

Curt Widhalm  27:45

But I think it helps to, once again, just kind of clarify the things that we do. It's The Modern Therapist Survival Guide, we want to encourage and help each of you along your journey, and be able to provide some guidance or put some things within perspective or advocate for some things. It's why we've really started moving away from some of the more coachy aspects of our content. We've done some in the past and part of keeping conversations going is not having the same conversations over and over again. And while we're hesitant to say we're never going to have a coach on here, again, or something like that, we do have a back catalogue with plenty of people to talk to you about how to set up a practice. There are plenty of other podcasts who can have that same conversation over and over again. And that's a great space for them to be in. It's not where our space is. Our space is about advocacy, it's talking about the things that are affecting our practices, it's being able to provide timely, hey, here's your surprise, here's the no surprises act, it's it's being able to help channel some of the energy and emphasis of the conversations that we're having to make change, it's being able to take the action steps. If you want cheerleaders of here's how you go and set up your office. Great, not us.

 

Katie Vernoy  29:30

I think there's like you said there's a lot of back catalogue stuff that has business building and practice building and I am also hesitant to say we won't have a coach on I think the the difference that we want to bring to it is that we want to get into the stuff that's not polished. We want the real conversations, we want this stuff that goes into what it's really like to be a therapist now what it really is to be able to do work and have a private practice and...

 

Curt Widhalm  30:04

Or work in community mental health. And...

 

Katie Vernoy  30:07

...well, let me finish my my thought here just really quickly, but like to be able to compete when there's disruptors in the space like BetterHelp, and all of the tech companies that are coming in and dominating the space, to work in community mental health and identify a pathway forward, to have a sustainable career, if that's where you decide to be. I mean, like, there's, there's a lot that is in there, that's not, here are the five steps on how you market your practice. Now, we certainly have episodes like that. But I think, to me, it's more about the reality of the therapist, as a person and a professional. Not, this is how you build your practice. So I don't think we're going to avoid those topics. It's more that we're not going to have the same conversation over and over again, about money mindset, and how you avoid burnout. And how you start a side hustle like, we have those episodes, you can go back and look at them. But we're not going to keep having that conversation over and over again.

 

Curt Widhalm  31:06

And what we are going to have is, here's the updates as they're coming along in the field. Here's amplifying voices from marginalized communities, whether it's therapists, whether it's the systemic barriers that continue to cause mental health problems, whether it's the systemic barriers to having an appropriate mental health workforce on both an individual and a national and universal level, that at its core, this is a podcast about being able to leave our field in a better place than where it was when we started. And that is going to be an ever evolving conversation. And we're thankful that you're holding us accountable in this process, we just really want to make sure that we're all on the same page so we can actually take these things and make them into change.

 

Katie Vernoy  32:06

I think that's where we finished. That's a good place to stop. Thanks, Curt.

 

Curt Widhalm  32:11

We talked about a number of our episodes in the show notes, you can find those at MTSGpodcast.com, as well as all of our back catalogue and we did make some references to Patreon and you can also support us on Buy me a Coffee and very awesome thank you to those people who are patrons and coffee buyers. And until next time, I'm Curt Widhalm with Katie Vernoy.

 

Katie Vernoy  32:39

Thanks again to our sponsor, Thrizer.

 

Curt Widhalm  32:42

Thrizer is a new billing platform for therapists that was built on the belief that therapy should be accessible and clinicians should earn what they're worth. Every time you bill a client through Thrizer an insurance claim is automatically generated and sent directly to the client's insurance. From their Thrizer provides concierge support to ensure clients get their reimbursements quickly, directly into their bank account. By eliminating reimbursement by cheque, confusion around benefits and obscurity with reimbursement status they allow your clients to focus on what actually matters rather than worrying about their money. It's very quick to get set up and it works great in complement with EHR systems.

 

Katie Vernoy  33:21

Their team is super helpful and responsive and the founder is actually a long term therapy client who grew frustrated with his reimbursement times. Thrizer lets you become more accessible while remaining in complete control of your practice. A better experience for your clients during therapy means higher retention. Money won't be the reason they quit therapy. If you want to test Thrizer completely risk free our very special link is bit.ly/moderntherapists, you sign up for thrice or with the code 'moderntherapists' you will get one month of no payment processing fees meaning you earn 100% of your cash rate during that time.

 

Curt Widhalm  33:56

This episode is also brought to you by Melissa Forziat Events and Marketing.

 

Katie Vernoy  34:01

Are you looking to boost your reach and get more clients from social media? Check out the How to Win at Social Media, Even with No Budget course from marketing expert Melissa Forziat. It can be so hard to get engagement on social media or to know what to post to tell the story of your brand. It can be even harder to get those conversations to turn into new clients. Social media marketing isn't just for businesses that have a ton of money to spend on advertising. Melissa will work you step by step through creating a smart plan that fits within your budget.

 

Curt Widhalm  34:30

How to Win at Social Media is packed full of information. Usually a course as detailed as this would be priced in the 1000s. But to make it accessible to small businesses, it is available for only $247. Plus as a listener of The Modern Therapist Survival Guide. You can use the promo code 'therapy' to get 10% off. If you are ready to go to the next level in your business. Click the link in our show notes over at MTSGpodcast.com. And sign that for the How to Win at Social Media course today.

 

Announcer  35:04

Thank you for listening to The Modern Therapist Survival Guide. Learn more about who we are and what we do at MTSGpodcast.com. You can also join us on Facebook and Twitter. And please don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss any of our episodes.