Self-Care, Self-Compassion, and Self-Awareness for Therapists

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 Jamie Stacks, LPC!

We had a blast talking with Jamie Stacks, LPC. After healing her own burnout, Jamie was begun a crusade to help other clinicians with their self-care. Jamie is a Licensed Professional Counselor and has been practicing since 1998. She is also a Licensed Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselor and a Registered Yoga Teacher with specialized training in yoga for addictions and for trauma. She has been trained in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and completed a course in mindful curriculums from Mindful Schools. She sees self-care as an ethical imperative and gives back to our community with her on-line Facebook Group: Real Self-Care for Therapists as well as self-care consultations and trainings.

In this episode we talk about all things self-care:

We address the following:

Why self-care is an ethical imperative
A wholistic approach to self-care, using Jamie’s 5 pillars (physical, mental, emotional, mental, spiritual, and energetic)
Jamie’s 30-day Self-Awareness challenge for November 2017
The importance of community (especially other therapists who get it)
Why balance is B.S. and how to integrate your life so it makes sense for you
Self-compassion and shutting off the inner bully
Blocks to self-care including time and guilt

We also talked with Jamie about her burnout story and what her day looks like now. We may have called her out on her coffee habit as well…

Connecting with Jamie:

Jamie’s website: https://jamiestacks.com/ (no longer active)

Free Law and Ethics CE from Jamie: http://bit.ly/JamieStacksFreeCE – This offer has been discontinued.

Real Self-Care for Therapists Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/realselfcare/

Who we are:

Curt Widhalm is a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist in private practice in the Los Angeles area. He is a Board Member at Large for the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, a Subject Matter Expert for the California Board of Behavioral Sciences, Adjunct Faculty at Pepperdine University, 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.

Katie Vernoy is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, coach, and consultant. As a helping professional for two decades, she’s navigated the ups and downs of our unique line of work. She’s run her own solo therapy practice, designed innovative clinical programs, built and managed large, thriving teams of service providers, and consulted hundreds of helping professionals on how to build meaningful AND sustainable practices. In her spare time, Katie is secretly siphoning off Curt’s youthful energy, so that she can take over the world.