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

Finding Possibility Within Harmful Systems: Hope, Solidarity, and Systemic Thinking in Therapy - An Interview with Travis Heath, PhD Most of us were trained to look for the problem inside the client. Curt and Katie welcome Travis Heath, PhD, back for a long-awaited second conversation about widening that lens: seeing clients in the systems they inhabit, recognizing that therapists live inside those same systems, and continuing to show up for clients anyway. Drawing on narrative therapy and Black abolitionist thought, Travis explores how to name harm you can't fix in a single session without leaving clients hopeless. Few of us can opt out of late capitalism, so he looks for the in-between space: small, particular ways clients (and therapists) can relate differently to harmful systems and find possibility where it looked like there was none. He also makes the case for solidarity alongside empathy, uncertainty as a gateway to hope, and slowing down in a profession that keeps asking us to be more productive. This conversation is for therapists thinking about DEI, social justice, and stewardship of the profession, and for anyone trying to practice with integrity inside systems they didn't design. In this episode, we discuss: - Why many presenting problems are shaped by the systems clients live in, not only by what's inside them - How asking where a client's values came from helps clarify what they actually want - Finding micro-alternatives within late capitalism instead of all-or-nothing thinking - Why certainty, whether optimistic or catastrophic, gets in the way of hope - How Black abolitionist thought reframes change as presencing and small experiments - Why solidarity asks for collective action in a way empathy alone does not - Rethinking productive therapy and choosing which battles to fight Timestamps: - 02:05 - Who Travis is and what he's putting into the world - 04:23 - Seeing problems in context, not only inside the client - 09:54 - Questioning inherited stories and values - 14:48 - Living in the in-between within late capitalism - 19:53 - Uncertainty, hope, and Rebecca Solnit - 25:20 - How Travis sustains himself in this work - 30:01 - Black abolitionist thought and solidarity - 38:32 - Individual and collective responsibility for therapists - 46:36 - Productivity, diagnosis, and choosing your battles - 51:32 - Questioning with purpose, not nihilism Guest Bio: Travis Heath, PhD, is a licensed psychologist and Associate Professor at San Diego State University, where he chairs the Department of Counseling & School Psychology. His work explores how culture, power, and dominant stories shape people's lives, including cultural democracy, Black abolitionist scholarship, and the use of rap music in narrative therapy. He is co-author, with David Epston and Tom Carlson, of Reimagining Narrative Therapy Through Practice Stories and Autoethnography (Routledge, 2022), creator of the Psychotherapy.net video series Reimagining Multiculturalism: A Contemporary Narrative Approach, and host of the Therapist Confidential podcast. Full show notes and transcript: mtsgpodcast.com Join the Modern Therapist Community Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/mtsgpodcast Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/therapyreimagined 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/

Advocate From Where You Are: How Therapists Can Support Inclusion as DEI Gets Rolled Back Therapist advocacy as DEI gets rolled back: Curt and Katie on supporting inclusion from where you are. Federal mental health funding is being cut, and universities and agencies are pulling DEI language off their websites. If you have been waiting for your licensing board, your agency, or the government to protect representation and access in this profession, Curt Widhalm, LMFT, and Katie Vernoy, LMFT, think you could be waiting a very long time. Curt and Katie open a new sprint built around two principles that have guided the podcast for nine years: representation and inclusion strengthen the field, and therapists are stewards of the profession. They skip the case for why representation matters and take on the harder questions. When does expanding access prop up a broken system? Why do call-outs of other therapists so often come from privilege? How do cultural modes of healing fit alongside evidence-based requirements? And what kind of advocacy actually changes anything? They realize that everyone has their own particular situations, and they're honest that there is no single right answer. Your context, your capacity, and the way your practice is built all shape what's possible, and doing something small still counts. In this episode, we discuss: - Why waiting for institutions to protect inclusion leaves therapists stuck - How access can reach beyond insurance through sliding scale, pro bono spots, and support for local agencies - Why the same decision looks completely different depending on where and how you practice - How privilege shapes both call-out culture and who has time for advocacy - What separates advocacy that reaches policy makers from posting for likes - How cultural context can be weighed alongside consumer protection in ethics work - Why disability, neurodivergence, consumers of services, and prelicensed therapists get left out of DEI conversations - Small, accessible ways to support inclusion in your own practice Timestamps: - 00:16 - Why institutions won't fix the profession for us - 02:21 - The representation and inclusion principle - 03:10 - Therapists as stewards of the profession - 05:25 - Access versus propping up a broken system - 07:57 - Liability, civil disobedience, and protecting yourself - 09:53 - Why there is no one-size-fits-all choice - 13:07 - Privilege, call-outs, and cultural modes of healing - 16:08 - Advocacy that actually moves the needle - 21:16 - Consumer protection versus gatekeeping - 25:26 - Who gets left out of DEI conversations - 28:50 - Small steps any therapist can take Full show notes and transcript: mtsgpodcast.com Join the Modern Therapist Community Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/mtsgpodcast Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/therapyreimagined 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/

Is Your Client Data Safe with AI? What Therapists Need to Know About HIPAA, BAAs, and Session Transcripts - An Interview with Ali Hartley, JD Ali Hartley, JD, SimplePractice's Chief Legal Officer, on HIPAA, AI scribes, BAAs, and data privacy for therapists. Most therapists are feeling uneasy about data privacy in the age of AI, and some are terrified that their session transcripts are being used to build their replacements. In this continuing education podcourse, Curt and Katie take both concerns to Ali Hartley, JD, Chief Legal Officer at SimplePractice. Ali explains how the HIPAA Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rules apply to AI scribes and other AI tools, why a business associate agreement (BAA) is necessary but never sufficient, and how HIPAA's Safe Harbor and Expert Determination methods of de-identification work. She also clears up the difference between training an AI model and refining the prompts that guide a product, including what SimplePractice does with de-identified session transcripts. This episode is part of our partnership with SimplePractice. Whether you use an AI note taker built into your EHR, a browser extension, or a separate tool you copy and paste into, this conversation will help you protect client data and ask better questions about the software in your practice. In this episode, we discuss: - Why HIPAA applies to AI tools the same way it applies to every other technology - What a BAA covers, and what stays your responsibility as the covered entity - The four points where client data is most vulnerable in an AI scribe workflow - How Safe Harbor, Expert Determination, and data decoupling protect session transcripts - Why refining prompts with de-identified data is different from training an AI model - The data privacy risks of browser extensions and copy-and-paste workflows - What to ask before adopting any AI tool that handles client data Timestamps: - 07:08 - HIPAA basics for therapists - 10:34 - How HIPAA applies to AI and where client data is vulnerable - 15:38 - What a BAA does and doesn't guarantee - 24:16 - De-identification: Safe Harbor vs. Expert Determination - 29:43 - Training an AI model vs. refining prompts - 36:55 - How SimplePractice handles session transcripts - 42:38 - Native EHR tools, browser extensions, and copy and paste - 51:41 - A checklist for vetting AI tools - 56:09 - Emerging risks and liability for AI-generated notes Guest Bio: Ali Hartley, JD, is Chief Legal Officer at SimplePractice and a general counsel and healthcare attorney with nearly two decades of experience in corporate law, regulatory compliance, and people leadership. She helps SimplePractice remove administrative burdens for clinicians while enabling responsible innovation and protecting sensitive healthcare data. Earn 1 CE credit for this podcourse at the Modern Therapist Learning Community: https://learn.moderntherapistcommunity.com/ Full show notes and transcript: https://mtsgpodcast.com Join the Modern Therapist Community Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/mtsgpodcast Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/therapyreimagined 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/

The Therapist as Expert Witness: Standard of Care, Objectivity, and Staying in Your Role - An Interview with Nicol Stolar-Peterson, PsyD, LCSW, BCD Nicol Stolar-Peterson, PsyD, LCSW, BCD on expert witness work for therapists, standard of care, and court roles. Curt and Katie talk with Nicol, a national expert witness in child abuse, child protective services, and clinical social work, about what it takes for therapists to do this kind of work. The conversation grew out of Curt's first experience as a defense expert in a licensing board complaint, when he turned to Nicol to help him prepare. Nicol explains how fact witness and expert roles differ, why treating therapists should be cautious when invited to testify as experts, and why standard of care means what a reasonable therapist would do rather than best practice. She also describes staying objective with attorneys trained to persuade, and what records review, reports, and depositions look like in real cases. A useful listen for therapists curious about expert witness work, clinicians who may be called to testify, and anyone who wants to understand how standard of care gets evaluated in licensing board and civil cases. In this episode, we discuss: - What makes a therapist a strong expert witness, including the ability to explain expertise in plain language - Where therapists find expert work, from child custody evaluations to records review - How fact witness and expert roles differ, and why treating therapists should stay in their lane - Why standard of care means reasonable, basic practice rather than best practice - How experts stay objective when attorneys push for a particular opinion - What records review, reports, and depositions look like in a typical case Timestamps: 05:30 - What makes a good expert witness 09:11 - Where therapists find expert work 13:49 - Fact witness, expert witness, and testifying expert roles 22:06 - Standard of care: bronze versus gold 24:30 - Staying objective with attorneys 33:39 - Scheduling and what a typical case involves 37:23 - Depositions, settlements, and trials Guest Bio: Nicol Stolar-Peterson, PsyD, LCSW, BCD is a national expert witness in child abuse, child protective services, and clinical social work. She co-founded and runs Kids Court & Counseling Center, a nonprofit that helps children who are victims of crimes and abuse prepare for court testimony. She also provides therapy, trains new social workers, and offers mandated reporting trainings. Learn more at www.nicolstolar.com. Full show notes and transcript: https://mtsgpodcast.com Join the Modern Therapist Community Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/mtsgpodcast Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/therapyreimagined 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/

Why Is It So Hard for Therapists to Delegate? Letting Go of Control Over Scheduling, Billing, and Bookkeeping - An Interview with Bibi Goldstein Bibi Goldstein of Buying Time on why therapists struggle to delegate, and how automation and online scheduling help. Curt and Katie talk with Bibi Goldstein, founder of Buying Time, LLC, about why so many therapists keep doing their own scheduling, billing, bookkeeping, and social media long after it stops making sense. Bibi has spent nearly 20 years helping business owners delegate and automate, and in her experience, the resistance usually comes down to control. Bibi shares how to choose practice systems and software you can grow into, why delegating to software counts as delegating, and how online scheduling and automation can bring in new and returning clients while still protecting your calendar. She also walks through her simple happy face/sad face exercise for deciding what to delegate first. This is a useful conversation for private practice therapists, group practice owners, and anyone who knows they should hand off admin work but hasn't yet. In this episode, we discuss: - Why therapists get emotionally attached to scheduling, billing, bookkeeping, and social media - How to choose practice systems your private practice can grow into - Why automation and software count as delegation, even if you can't hire staff - How the happy face/sad face exercise shows you what to delegate first - How online scheduling brings in new and returning therapy clients - How booking limits and buffers keep automation within your boundaries - How delegating frees up time for income like paid speaking Timestamps: - 02:57 - What therapists get wrong when setting up practice systems - 06:20 - Decision paralysis and getting guidance before you choose software - 09:48 - How AI and automation have changed delegation - 13:47 - Technology-shy therapists and the superbill story - 18:27 - The admin tasks therapists are most emotionally attached to - 22:24 - The happy face/sad face exercise: what to delegate first - 25:33 - Delegation that helps therapists make more money - 28:00 - How online scheduling brings in clients - 30:55 - Keeping control of your calendar with limits and buffers Guest Bio: Bibi Goldstein is the founder of Buying Time, LLC, a virtual support company that helps therapists, entrepreneurs, and small businesses streamline operations through systems, automation, and time management strategies. A systems expert and productivity consultant with multiple software certifications, she is co-author of Get Organized Today, Navigating Entrepreneurship, and Business Success with Ease, and serves as Chair of the Board of the Redondo Beach Chamber of Commerce. Learn more at buyingtimellc.com. Full show notes and transcript: https://mtsgpodcast.com Join the Modern Therapist Community Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/mtsgpodcast Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/therapyreimagined 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/