Therapy Tea: Demystifying the Mental Health Profession

This week Karen talks about the frequent reality of crunching CE requirements immediately before a license renewal. It’s tough always having the best intentions to get ahead, but then still ending up putting most of it off until the last minute. Why is it so hard to change this pattern?! There’s a tension between wanting to learn and complete CEs and having to block off time to not see clients in...

This week Jazmin learned that she just needed to finally finish reading The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog in order to get out of her “do I even know what I’m doing?” rut. We also share our favorite books for an effectiveness refresh! This week we’re sharing our conversation with Kelly Martin! She’s a Licensed Professional Counselor Supervisor in Texas, a Board Certified Music Therapist, and Certifie...

Warning: this episode contains discussions of trauma, and descriptions of sexual abuse, sexual assault, medical abuse, and domestic violence. This week Karen learned how to navigate through the embarrassment and horrendousness of being a gross human in front of a client, specifically, nearly coughing to death. What is a counselor to do when confronted with the choice between one’s own oxygen intak...

This week Jazmin throws down on some of the scammy elements in our profession including all the re-up rules for various certifications and then the trainings that charge an arm and a leg for their CE credit (AKA PDF certificate) on top of the cost of the training content itself. It’s a rant that gets us both fired up because of all the rules that we have to follow that then cost us money to follow...

Today we're re-releasing our original first episode to kick off 2025! (Happy New Year!!) This is NOT because we ran out of interviews with interesting mental health professionals -- hardly!! In fact, we have so many great interviews lined up that we're damn near overwhelmed. Truly, the new year is what it is for our professional practices and then we also want to be sure to share the best possible...

This week we’re dropping a very special conversation between Jazmin and Karen all about the delights and dumpster fires of this holiday season! Join us, won’t you?! We define what we mean by “the holiday season” and share some of our personal feelings, childhood memories, and current traditions for holidays like Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. We talk about how our experience of...

This week Jazmin learned the importance of embracing flexibility herself and the way it actually works when a counselor wants to change their schedule to prioritize important life events. Then, we announce and tease our special holiday episode on Christmas Day! The real countdown to Christmas starts now! In our interview, we talked to Kim Frueh, who is currently retired from counseling work. She n...

This week Karen was reminded how meaningful it can be to witness genuine client success as a helping professional and what it feels like to have a client “graduate” from therapy. Karen shares how a particular success story with a client has felt extremely emotional for her and triggered not only a profound sense of gratitude, but also an existential experience of awe and connection with humanity. ...

Warning: This episode contains explicit discussions of child abuse and child sexual abuse. This week Jazmin learned she’s still really bad at talking about money and shares how challenging it is for her to talk not only with clients about session fees, but also with her bosses/HR Department about her own pay scale. Jazmin gets vulnerable about how it went for her when she went in to ask for a rais...

This week Karen learned how important it is to shut the dogs out of her office when she’s doing virtual sessions from home. It’s a cascade of challenges and unintentional self-disclosure when working from home as a counselor, so get ready for it! Today we’re sharing our conversation with Merrik Hetherington, a Licensed Professional Counselor in Texas who holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from...

This week Jazmin shares about a recent experience when trying to confer and refer, specifically how the attitudes of some counselors seem to be overly abrupt, curt and - dare we say - pretentious. In our discussion on this, we highlight our frustration with what seems to be a counterproductive counselor culture of mistrust, competitiveness, and dulled personality expression in conversations betwee...

This week Karen learned more about the challenges of trying to take vacation time when you’re a solo private practitioner. Punchline: it’s always a nightmare. And, while there are a few things you can do to make it less awful, it’s crucial to just anticipate that you won’t be able to just ‘pick up where you left off’ with your clients when you return.  After that bummer of an intro, we’re sharing...

This week we're sharing a preview of our Patreon content with Everyone!  In this preview of the bonus episodes we are creating for our Patreon subscribers, we’re reading, reviewing, and reacting this week to an excellent article posted on Psychology Today, written by Jennifer Gerlach, LCSW: “10 Things Your Therapist Might Not Tell You.”  In this episode, we talk about the fact that Psychology Toda...

This week Jazmin learned that there are so many factors constantly impacting her ideal work schedule. Karen and Jazmin go into some detail about their experiences trying - and failing! - to find that one sweet spot for client session caseload and schedule that can just be settled on and stuck with. They talk about different factors that have impacted both of their journeys in grappling with the my...

Warning: this episode contain discussions of death, dying, and grief.  This week Karen and Jazmin go on a little bit of a rant about the lack of straightforward licensing reciprocity between states and the challenges that imposes on the work of counseling with clients who are completely oblivious to state licensing laws and regulations.  This week we’re talking to the lovely Summer Sahd! She’s a L...

This week Jazmin was reminded that she needs to update her end-of-counseling-workday-ritual now that she’s shifted to working fully virtually from home. Sharing is caring except when it comes to counseling work stuff! Today we’re talking with Jordan Robertson. She is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Supervisor in Texas and a Certified Gottman Therapist. She holds a Bachelor of Science in P...

This week Karen learned a couple things about scheduling and time-keeping in sessions and taking responsibility when you, the therapist, royally mess up. Jazmin and Karen discuss a recent incident when Karen ran way, way over time in one session to the point where her subsequently scheduled clients just headed home with no idea what might have happened. Stopped clock? Serious accident? Alien abduc...

This week Jazmin learned how to let go of a little bit of her imposter syndrome and have confidence in claiming her own skills and expertise. Jazmin and Karen discuss navigating the common belief/myth that more time or longer experience always equals better counseling performance or outcomes.  Today we’re talking with Bobbie Melton. She’s a Licensed Professional Counselor who specializes in treati...

This week we're sharing a preview of our Patreon content with Everyone! In this preview of the bonus episodes we are creating for our Patreon subscribers, we are watching and talking about the adorable Pixar movie from 2015, Inside Out. SPOILER ALERT for this episode: If you haven’t watched Inside Out yet, please do so before listening to us talk all about it. In this episode, we talk about our in...

This week Karen learned that being a private practice counselor means doing all her own math and accounting work - which sucks. Karen shares how much she ends up procrastinating on the important financial tracking tasks inherent in running one’s own business and how many little things require basic math skills, which she hated having to learn in grade school.  Today we talked to Kelsea Puckett. Sh...

This week Jazmin learned what it’s like to experience a huge caseload jump - like from 5 to 30 clients in less than two weeks! Jazmin shares how the initial rapport building phase of therapy work can be the most emotionally draining, especially when that’s 100% of what you’re doing because all of your clients are new, and how her self-care routine has had to undergo a complete and total overhaul a...

This week we're sharing a preview of our Patreon content with Everyone! In this preview of the bonus episodes we are creating for our Patreon subscribers, we are including Part One of a two part series on Ethics (AKA the funnest!). In this series we are talking through the ethical considerations of our decision to start this podcast and lay bare the real process of using an ethical decision making...

Warning: this episode contains discussions of trauma and mentions suicide. This week Karen learned more about the importance of personally screening potential clients ahead of scheduling. While screening is a time-consuming, thankless, and unpaid administrative task, it is also a crucial tool in managing one’s schedule and in actually providing the best information and care to clients. Today we’re...

Today we’re talking with Alason Polanco. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Texas and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas and a Master of Arts in Professional Counseling from Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas. She is currently working for a company that specializes in the treatment of eating disorders and mood disorders as a...

Why, oh why, did I become a therapist?  What was I thinking?!? Am I losing it? Or was I just misinformed?....    Today Jazmin and Karen, two licensed professional counselors from Texas, introduce the Therapy Tea podcast and discuss why they are even doing this to themselves and you. They talk about what you can expect to get out of listening to this podcast (they hope) and why they...