Finding Your Way Through Therapy
Join Steve Bisson, LMHC as he unravels the complexities of therapy and counseling. Engage in straightforward dialogues, enriched with insights from special guests sharing a like-minded perspective. Each episode presents valuable, easy-to-digest information designed to help you perceive therapy, and those who partake in it, in a grounding, relatable manner.
Finding Your Way Through Therapy
E.184 A Year in Review and Future Mental Health Conversations
Ever wondered how therapy can truly change your life? This episode might offer the insights you've been looking for. We start with a heartfelt apology to Malka Shaw for a previous oversight regarding our important conversation on antisemitism and collective trauma. Following this, we reflect on pivotal contributions from Dennis Sweeney and Andy Kang, who have shared their powerful therapy experiences in past episodes. You'll also hear from Adrienne Tichy who brought unexpected yet invaluable perspectives on sobriety and addiction, and Ann Diment, who passionately discusses trauma, resilience, and adult ADHD while emphasizing the spiritual elements of healing.
As we wrap up 2024, we express deep gratitude to Chelsea, Courtney, and all our guests who've enriched our discussions, particularly around dialectical behavioral therapy. Looking ahead to 2025, we're excited to hint at upcoming content and a special episode .
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Hi and welcome to Finding your Way Through Therapy. A proud member of the PsychCraft Network, the goal of this podcast is to demystify therapy, what can happen in therapy and the wide array of conversations you can have in and about therapy Through personal experiences. Guests will talk about therapy, their experiences with it and how psychology and therapy are present in many places in their lives, with lots of authenticity and a touch of humor. Here is your host, steve Bisson.
Speaker 2:Alors, bonne année, or happy new year. Welcome to episode 184. My name is Steve Bisson. If you haven't listened to episode 183, it's a review of this year. Talked about a few guests, talked about what I enjoyed, talked about a lot of different things. Go listen to that if you get a chance. It was actually entertaining to me anyway, so I hope it's entertaining to you. But episode 184 is going to be actually some reviews from my guests. I'm going to start off with Mia Culpa actually reviews from my guests. I'm going to start off with a mea culpa, actually, and the mea culpa is this Malka Shah, who was on episode 135, we talked about antisemitism, we talked about Israel, the collective trauma.
Speaker 2:We talked about all that she still has. Kesher Shalom, if you want to go check out that website, left me a beautiful message and, in all my wisdom and all the stuff that I do, I lost. And, malka, when you listen to this, I sincerely apologize. This is not. I looked everywhere. I know you texted to me. I can't find it there. Looked if I sent it to my email. Can't find it there. Looked at all the places I usually save all these great messages Can't find it.
Speaker 2:So, malka, I just want to say thank you for your message. I know you said how great it was and that we got to keep on paying attention to what's going on and being a little more paying attention to anti-Semitism, among other things. So Malka, shout out, but sorry, I lost the video and the message and I do apologize for that and that's absolutely on me. But now let's go talk to two people who has been on episode 152, 165, and 172. And I guess for those of you who are regular listeners, you know those are the mental men. Not all the mental men left messages, but two important one. One of them I consider my mentor, dennis Sweeney. Dennis Sweeney, who has helped me throughout my career, left a great message and here it is.
Speaker 3:So I just wanted to take a minute to thank Steve for the opportunity, for being able to take the time to reflect and share some thoughts, and to be able to share some thoughts with people that I very much trust and respect and have a fondness for, and I hope that it helps people to take the time to be able to think through and take seriously what's happening in their lives, both good and bad. Thanks, Steve.
Speaker 2:In addition, another mental man, Andy Kang, left me a great message. Andy again, episode 152, 165, 172. If you ever really want to listen to five at times six men talk about very important stuff, go listen to that. I think that we talk about therapy, we talk about life, we talk about how therapy affects lives. So if you want to go listen to that, please do. Andy Kang is amazing and here's his message.
Speaker 4:I've been on the podcast a few times now and have found it to be a joyous experience. Really being able to connect with colleagues and take advantage of Steve's powers of joining people together has just been a great experience, and I think anybody who watches the podcast or listens to it can always pull something useful out of every episode I've watched and listened to. So I've been privileged to be a part of it and want to thank you, steve, for letting me do it.
Speaker 2:Thank you, steve, for letting me do it. One of the common themes in all my shows is I talk about sobriety, because this is something that I've worked with for a long time, not only my work, but in my personal life and Adrienne Tickey, first of all, who was amazing because I had two guests canceling me at the last minute and she just stepped in and was an amazing guest. We talked about sobriety, we talked about treatment, we talked about overdoses and how we need to communicate these treatment options to people in a way that that's really helpful. She was on episode 168. So if you want to go back and listen about that, please go back, but it was very interesting conversation. So here is her message.
Speaker 5:I just had the best interview with Steve about mental health and addiction. He is so educated about his field and we have so many places where we crossed over. I think that the way that Steve just his presence, and the way that he asked questions I felt really comfortable. I felt really comfortable and I know that we covered a lot of ground. We gave a lot of educational points as well as talked about symptoms and signs and what you can do, taking next steps. So I really appreciate you having me on the podcast, Steve, and keep up the work you're doing. It's so necessary.
Speaker 2:Episode 169 was Anne Dimmitt, another one who jumped in because I had two guests cancel at the last minute. She jumped in no questions asked. It was really a very important conversation about trauma, resilience, adult ADHD and how we can get through these things by doing different things, including spirituality treatment. But she was episode 169. And, anne, thank you for stepping in and I really think that you'd enjoy that conversation, especially if you talk about trauma, adhd and resilience. So please go back and listen to that. But here's her message.
Speaker 6:Thank you very much, steve, for having me on the podcast. I've really enjoyed chatting to you and exploring all the aspects of my therapy experiences and the work that I do, and I look forward to hearing the episodes that you publish in future.
Speaker 2:And now just a word from our sponsors. It's not really a sponsor, it's an affiliated program. But here it is. Getfreeai. Yes, you've heard me talk about it previously in other episodes, but I'm going to talk about it again, because get freeai is just a great service. Imagine being able to pay attention to your clients all the time instead of writing notes and making sure that the note's going to sound good and how are you going to write that note, and things like that. Getfreeai liberates you from making sure that you're writing what the client is saying, because it is keeping track of what you're saying and will create, after the end of every session, a progress note. But it goes above and beyond that. Not only does it create a progress note, it also gives you suggestions for goals. Goals gives you even a mental status if you've asked questions around that, as well as being able to write a letter for your client to know what you talked about. So that's the great, great thing. It saves me time, it saves me a lot of aggravation and it just speeds up the progress note process so well, and for $99 a month. I know that that's nothing. That's worth my time, that's worth my money. You know the best part of it, too, is that if you want to go and put in the code Steve 50 when you get the service at the checkout code is Steve 50 you get $50 off your first month and if you get a whole year, you save a whole 10% for the whole year. So again, steve50 at checkout for getfreeai will give you $50 off for the first month and, like I said, get a full year, get 10% off, get free from writing notes, get free from always scribbling while you're talking to a client and just paying attention to your client. So they went out, you went out, everybody wins and I think that this is the greatest thing. And if you're up to a point where you got to change a treatment plan, well, the goals are generated for you. So, getfreeai code Steve50 to save $50 on your first month.
Speaker 2:Episode 170 was with sarah wait. Sarah wait talked about late adhd and working as a first responder. She had worked as a first responder for several years in jolly old great britain I believe she was in wales but decided that this wasn't for her and she recently moved to canada, really developed a a knack for creative flows and creative ideas. So she went back and did that. So, if you get a chance, go listen to episode 170. It was really good because it talks about a transition that's really hard from first responder to creative and therapy, which I'm seeing more and more, by the way, which is a very interesting thing. But here is her message.
Speaker 7:I want to say thank you, steve, because I really actually enjoyed my experience being on the podcast. It was like having a a little therapy session, a mini therapy session. He asked some really insightful questions, made me feel really comfortable and safe to be able to talk about the stuff that I was talking about and yeah, I just it's, it was a. It was a fantastic experience overall, thank you.
Speaker 2:Abby Westgate on episode 173, another first responder from Jolly Old. I believe she was in England, but we'll say Jolly Old, great Britain. Again, she was very interesting. She worked as a first responder. Now she does a lot of breath work. If you follow her on Instagram, go ahead. She does a lot of that stuff. It's amazing.
Speaker 2:But Abby did not leave any video or voice message, which she did, write me a note and I want to share it with you. Thank you so much for a wonderful conversation. I love and value the work you do for first responders All around good guy. So that was her message. Wanted to shout that out and go to episode 173 to hear more from her, and it was a great interview. Truly enjoyed that interview. Also, the most popular episode this year was Stephanie Cohen on episode 174. It talked about fear of dogs, desensitization, systematic desensitization, how to work with kids, how not to work with kids, how not to get involved with the dog too much and knowing your dog. And she gives a lot of great guidelines and that's why she's the most popular episode of the year. She was the most downloaded. So here is her message.
Speaker 8:Thank you, Steve, for allowing me the opportunity to talk about my book and the fear of dogs and your interest, and also I think your questions really helped bring out what most people want to know about exposure therapy and the fear of dogs, and you did a little bit of some very good questions to learn a little bit more about me when we talked about was I in therapy before, which I don't think I've ever said on a podcast, so, but your style is very approachable and I really I feel honored to have been one of your guests.
Speaker 2:Episode 177 was with Meg Applegate. She talked about the troubled teen industry. I got to tell you one of my favorite interviews all year on episode 177. I know that it sounds strange because I didn't know nothing about this troubled teen industry and yet she gave a lot of information and also how to work on it, how it affects people, how it affects people long term and how they brainwash you. Just all-around great conversation with Meg and here is her note.
Speaker 9:Finding your way through therapy has been an incredible experience, in that it's amazing to find people who care so much about keeping youth safe that they create a platform for those to be able to use their voices to ensure we reach the decision makers in order to make that happen. Steve was awesome to work with and I look forward to being on the podcast again.
Speaker 2:Last but certainly not least, another interview that you know didn't have any expectations. I do like dialectical behavioral therapy, or DBT, and on episode 179, erica Curry we talked about it. We talked about how to work with D1 athletes, how do we work in a coaching system where we can use DBT. She even talked about a new type of DBT that I may or may I may really consider burning her in in 2025, because I wanted to hear more about it. Not familiar, but it's similar from what I understand. But Erica Curry is a great coach, a great conversationalist. Really enjoyed that conversation and here's her message.
Speaker 10:I had such a great time speaking with Steve. When two DBT nerds get together, it is a special connection. I especially had fun talking about nonjudgmentalness as well as emotion regulation and the ways that first responders and athletes can be similar as well as different. I highly recommend giving a listen to the podcast. I highly recommend giving a listen to the podcast. It is a breath of knowledge when it comes to dialectical behavioral therapy and I had such a great time, thank you well, that's it.
Speaker 2:It's the end of 2024, with all the content that I gave you. Thank you, thank you. Thank you not only for my guests, those who left messages, a little special shout out with that all my guests who showed up, who did everything that they could to be entertaining, and everything else on the podcast, again shout out chelsea, courtney, among others, who have been part of the show that I truly, truly enjoy, and thank you for that. And yeah, that's concludes 2024. Uh, 2020, 25. We're gonna say that again. So 2025, what's 2020, 25. We're going to say that again. So 2025, what's what's going to happen? Well, you'll have to listen to Nick's episode in order to know I'm.
Speaker 1:I got a couple of things working on there that, but, um, haven't quite figured them all out but again finishing off the new year uh, this year and I'm going to be starting a new year with that new episode. Thank you everyone and enjoy. Be safe and entertainment purposes only. If you're struggling with a mental health or substance abuse issue, please reach out to a professional counselor for consultation. If you are in a mental health crisis, call 988 for assistance. This number is available in the United States and Canada.