What is Play Therapy?: An Interview with Ofra Obejas, LCSW

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

Release Date: 10/31/2022

Private Practice Planning for the Future of Mental Healthcare: An Interview with Maureen Werrbach

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

Private Practice Planning for the Future of Mental Healthcare: An Interview with Maureen Werrbach Curt and Katie interview Maureen Werrbach of the Group Practice Exchange on upcoming trends for mental healthcare. We talk about what is predicted, how to prepare your private practice for success in 2023, and how to plan for unexpected changes to our profession. Transcripts for this episode will be available at ! An Interview with Maureen Werrbach, LCPC, The Group Practice Exchange Maureen Werrbach established The Group Practice Exchange after starting her private practice, Urban Wellness, and...

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

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

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

Smarter than SMART: How therapists can improve goal-setting with clients Curt and Katie chat about setting goals. We look at why goals are important to therapists, SMART goals (what they are, what works and what doesn’t), and how to move beyond SMART goals to more robust goal setting and behavior design. This is a continuing education podcourse. Transcripts for this episode will be available at ! In this podcast episode we talk about how to strengthen your goal-setting skills Many therapists learn SMART Goals and objectives as the primary tools for creating treatment plans. Oftentimes, goal...

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

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

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

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How Can Therapists Help Couples Recover from Infidelity?: An Interview with Dr. Talal H. Alsaleem

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

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

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

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More Episodes

What is Play Therapy?: An Interview with Ofra Obejas, LCSW

Curt and Katie interview Ofra Obejas, LCSW, RPT-S, about working with children in therapy. We look at what therapists often get wrong, important factors to understand, specialized training required (including play therapy), and what you actually do in therapy session with children.

Transcripts for this episode will be available at mtsgpodcast.com!

An Interview with Ofra Obejas, LCSW, Registered Play Therapist - Supervisor

Ofra Obejas, Registered Play Therapist - Supervisor level, is a professional player. She works with elementary- to middle-school aged children. She’s been called by some of her clients a “kid grownup.” (That’s her rapper name.) She’s taught at the University of San Diego Play Therapy program and presents webinars and courses on clinical topics related to children’s issues.

In this podcast episode, we talk about Play Therapy

We reached out to our friend, Ofra Obejas to talk with us about how to work with kiddos and what additional training is needed to work effectively with children.

What do therapists get wrong when working with children?

Treating children like mini-adults
Not understanding the skill involved in play therapy

What are important factors for therapists to understand when working with children?

“It’s more scary to the children when the adult is incongruent and not showing their true feelings. It's less scary to see somebody angry than it is to see somebody pretending that they're not angry, but they are.” – Ofra Obejas, LCSW

Children have a different culture (i.e., the tooth fairy is real)
The therapist’s role as translator for what children are saying
Children will make you feel what they feel (e.g., powerlessness, never getting anything right)
The importance of showing feelings to children as a therapist (versus remaining a blank slate)

What do you do with children in therapy sessions?

Psychodrama and re-enacting situations
Therapists can use any theoretical orientation
Ways to interact with the child
Paying attention to transference and countertransference
Case conceptualization, including family therapy and work with parents

What specialized training is most effective for working with children?

“So, what is the therapy on a bumper sticker? If you had to put it in three words, it's notice it, sit with it, and make meaning of it. Or in an experiential [play therapy] model, it's: you observe it, you name it, and then you model how to cope with it.” – Ofra Obejas, LCSW

There are specialized protocols for working with children with many different orientations
Identifying which orientation suits you
How to understand what is being reenacted and how to respond: Notice it, sit with it, make meaning of it; Observe it, name it, model how to cope with it

What boundaries should therapists set when working with children and families?

Unit of treatment (family, individual, who was showing up to the session?)
Treatment goals (what are we working on?)
What children are allowed to do in the session
Interactions with caregivers and the responsibilities caregivers have during sessions

What does online therapy look like with children?

The challenges with working with children online
Online sand tray, online dollhouse, online puppet theater
Creating a virtual play room
New trainings for VR therapy for children
Watching children play video games online

How has the pandemic impacted children?

This was dependent on how well parents were able to self-regulate and stay within the window of tolerance (was there someone who could help the child to regulate)
Lack of socialization and difficulty in having conversations

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 bit.ly/moderntherapists 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.

Simplified SEO Consulting

Have you spent countless hours trying to get your website just right and yet, it's not showing up on Google and it doesn't seem like anyone's able to find it? Simplified SEO Consulting has a unique solution. They've been training therapists to optimize their websites, so they show up better on Google for the past 4 years. But let's face it, with the busy schedules we all keep it can be hard to find the time to optimize your website even when you learn how. So, they are hosting a 16-day cruise in July 2023 going from LA to Hawaii and back. When you join them, you'll get intensive SEO education and coaching during the 10 days at sea. Most importantly, you'll have plenty of time to sit next to the pool and implement everything you've learned and then ask their team for feedback. Yes, it's the perfect excuse for a Hawaii vacation. But it's also a time to both learn about SEO and actually implement what you learn.

The upcoming cruise is a unique opportunity to learn to optimize your own website, have time to practice what you learn and the ability to get feedback from leading SEO professionals in our field.

To reserve your spot before it fills up, go to https://simplifiedseoconsulting.com/training-cruise-for-better-seo/

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!
Ofra Obejas’ website: redondovillagecounseling.com

Ofra on YouTube

UCSD - Play Therapy Program

Relevant Episodes of MTSG Podcast:

How Therapists Can Really Help Kids Who Are Being Bullied

Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health: An interview with Dr. Barbara Stroud

What is Parental Alienation and How Can Therapists Successfully Treat it?

Rage and Client Self-Harm: An interview with Angela Caldwell, LMFT

Let’s Talk About Race: An interview with Stevon Lewis, LMFT

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.