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therapy beyond the diagnosis · Pete Vs Anxiety!!!!!

• Pete: Ever wish you had someone to talk to anytime, anywhere, matter what you're going through? Meet PsychPAL, your 24-7 AI companion, designed to help you process your thoughts, calm your mind, and keep you moving forward. Chat anytime during a panic attack on a restless night or just when you need to vent. Prefer talking instead of typing? Try voice journaling. PsychPAL listens, transcribes, and truly understands. You can even upload screenshots of tough conversations, and it'll help you unpack how they made you feel. PsychPAL keeps life organized, too. It can add appointments to your calendar, track your mood, and even summarize your sessions for your therapist so you'll never lose progress. Plus, built-in crisis resources are always just one click away. It's a privacy-first, constantly evolving, made to complement your professional care, not replace it. Ready to try it out? Head over to the link in this episode and use my code, Pete, at checkout to get 20 % off your first month subscription to PsychPAL. PsychPAL, because your mind deserves a companion too. There we go. I think that's the one I like. We got it. We got it. Boom. peter: but Pete: went to doing like pre-recordings. Well, Keith, we're at the part of the interview where I'm gonna ask you those two questions. All right, Amanda Landes: that I had been kind of like since head for a while about about writing the story because Mia Mason: you are not the only one that experiences thoughts, Pete "mental Health Champ": Well, Dr. Erica, before we start wrapping up, I'm going to ask you Pete "mental health champ": Welcome into another exciting episode of Pete for Excited. Guys, for always, before we get started, let's give a shout out to my partners over at PsychPel. Link will be in the description for you guys if you want to try it out. seven-day free trial. Then, after that, if you want to sign up, I I did a thing for you, I got you 20% off. Use my code PEED at checkout. With that being said, my guest today is a licensed clinical social worker and a psychotherapist with more than 25 years' experience helping individuals and families navigate life's most difficult transition. She's based in South Jersey. She's the founder of the Speakeasy Counseling and Psychotherapy. Please welcome in the one, the only Katie. Katie, how you doing? Katie: Great, great. Thanks for having me. Pete "mental health champ": So Katie, why don't you tell everybody a little more about yourself? I mean, obviously we gave you grand interest, but what are some things they may not know about you? Katie: Well, probably a lot. Hopefully, hopefully a lot. I am I am the owner of Speakeasy. It's a counsel we offer counseling, psychotherapy, and also other services as well. As we're trying to see what needs people have, it's not always just for the like in session 50 minutes. That's not always just what somebody needs. So we're trying to develop more. programs and groups and retreats and and really meet people where they are. so I I do I do own the practice. We have ten therapists. we do take insurance. But the other thing is that I'm a former college professor. I taught social work for ten years. I probably lots of other stuff too I can't think of right now. Pete "mental health champ": So take us back twenty five years ago. What got you into this area? Because not only do you do social work, you're also doing psychotherapy. So was social work the first thing you got into or was it was it therapy that you got into first? Katie: So it was always social work, but with the idea that eventually I would be a therapist. people Pete "mental health champ": Mm-hmm. Katie: don't know that the majority of people that are providing outpatient mental health services, so like psychotherapy, so most people's therapists have a background in social work statistically. Pete "mental health champ": Mm-hmm. Katie: So mental health counseling, these are there's other ways that you can become a licensed therapist. But one of them is by having a degree, a master's degree in social work and then a clinical license, which takes another two to three years after your master's degree. and so that is what many, many, many therapists have. So I would check because most of the time your therapist is is probably a social worker. Not all. Pete "mental health champ": Yeah. Yeah, very true, very true. So what what made you want to get into this area though? I mean, twenty five years ago it looked way different though than what it looks like now, obviously. Katie: yes, yeah. So graduated with my bachelor's in social work in nineteen ninety-eight. That was Pete "mental health champ": Mm-hmm. Katie: very different. So I started, you know, my degree in the in the early nineties, mid nineties. And yes, it was very different. The the landscape was different, but we still had a lot of social problems. I think they're very they're different now. they're very different now. I saw something not too Pete "mental health champ": Yeah. Katie: long ago. It said that social workers are capitalism's janitors, and I I kind of think that that is a hundred percent true because we help people get the resources and things that they don't, you know, have access to because of kind of, you know, if they had the I don't know how we get into all that. But anyway. Pete "mental health champ": Yeah. Katie: So the the point is that yes, so I graduated a long time ago and I just was interested in I knew I wanted to help people. I told when I told my dad I was gonna get a degree in social work, he said, if you wanna help people be a doorman, if you're gonna go to college, do something where you can make some money. And you know, I didn't listen, but it there were there have been opportunities over over the years, but I did find myself for them before I got into private practice. therapy, I did work in medical social work and in oncology social work and I really, Pete "mental health champ": Yeah. Katie: really loved that. So now that I just transfer trans transferred into this. Pete "mental health champ": Yeah. Yeah. So was so psychotherapy when when do I mean twenty five years ago, did was it really a requirement back then? Because I know now it is, for a lot of people that do you like you said, a lot of them get into it. So was that something you were shocked that you had to get into as well? Or do did you already know? Because a lot of people that get into some of these areas, you see they start in therapy and then they expand to something else, you know, but you're with social work, then you did that, you have the psychotherapy element in there as well, and you've been doing it for twenty five years. Katie: Yep. Yes, there's lots of you'll see a lot of people w especially when I was teaching, there were a lot of older students in the classes, you know, people that just went back to school or changed careers. So you will see a lot of therapists like my age, you know, or older that this is their either second career or they went back later. it is there are people that have been in the field as well, you know, for straight the you know, all that time, but we do see a lot of people that come back and decide to do it. I just knew that I liked working with people and I did really want to help Pete "mental health champ": Mm-hmm. Katie: people. And it just evolved in the way that I did that. I think if you s you see a lot of people now that are in that are therapists, that the landscape has changed even in private practice or in therapy very quickly over the last few years. Very quickly. And so you see a lot of people all you know, offering different services or trying to, you know, do things other than maybe one-on-one therapy. And that's not because we all have this burning desire to do that. It's because the the the landscape isn't isn't there for just Pete "mental health champ": Yeah, exactly. Katie: individual therapy anymore. It's not the same. So Pete "mental health champ": Yeah. Katie: we're not doing it because we don't want to be therapists. We want to be therapists, but it's just not possible really to to do that full time for everyone. Pete "mental health champ": But I think you made a great point there though. You said that everybody's getting to other things, but it makes sense because the way things are changing now, there's so many different things, you know. Why not get into some of these other areas to expand what you can do? I mean, if anybody judges anybody for changing something, what does it matter? They're expanding their repertoire to help you. Like they're expanding to help other Katie: Yep. Yes. Pete "mental health champ": people. That's the idea. They're not just leaving because they don't want to do it anymore. Like, okay, well, this seems like a little better area to go into for me, or you know, hypnotherapies where I want to you know, because these new things are popping up and new and new every day. And you know, mental health has changed a lot. Like you, you and I both know that like if you look at it, it was it was horrible, but they didn't know anything in the beginning, you know, like so you know, but now they have so many advancements and so many different practices. Hell, I didn't even they had even had a thing where you can float. One of one of my co hosts on another show I do is she's Yeah, I did this thing where I floated in a tank for an hour. It's like, what? You know, but there's so many cool things. Katie: I do that. Pete "mental health champ": You know s so you know what I'm talking about then, yeah. Katie: I do I've done that. Yeah, yeah. I do think it's very helpful. And that's I think the point is that there's lots of ways to Pete "mental health champ": Mm-hmm. Katie: help your mental health other than just therapy. Now I'm not trying to get people to not come to therapy, of course, because I'm a therapist and I Pete "mental health champ": Yeah, no. Katie: want people to do that. But not everybody needs long term Term therapy. That's why we're actually even starting. We have just started a program, not a program. We've started offering one-time therapy. It's single session therapy. Now, sometimes therapists will comment and be like, that's not ethical, or that's not right, or that's not therapy. No, it is. It's evidence-based. It's called single session therapy, and we use problem-solving models, we use person-centered models, like we use it, it's just the entire relationship. You still are Caring about the relationship between the client and the therapist, but it's it's all meant for just one session. And I think that is a little bit more accessible to people. And also not everybody Pete "mental health champ": Yeah. Katie: needs a diagonal, a clinical diagnosis. Because what I think people don't understand is that when you use your insurance to go to therapy, you're getting a mental health diagnosis. You because otherwise insurance isn't paying for it, because it has Pete "mental health champ": Yeah. Katie: to be a medical diagnosis. you know, issue. And so I think that's where a lot of people are, you know, they don't want to go to therapy be and not everybody needs has a mental health diagnosis, but everybody can use help with their mental health. They can use help with their relationships or their self-esteem or, you know, you can have low self-esteem. That doesn't mean you have a mental health disorder. But Pete "mental health champ": Yeah. Katie: can certainly talk about your low self esteem in therapy and maybe it will you know, it you can get somewhere with it. And so it's really kind of that's where I was thinking if we can offer things that are just more, you know, matching what people need as opposed to this is the way it's offered and that's what you have to do. so yes. Pete "mental health champ": Yeah, so so essentially you're breaking the stigma of what people think about my about therapy, which is great because talk therapy may not be for everybody, like you said, you know, do the one session, you know. Now my question with that one session though is is that do you do you think that I'm like okay, let me rephrase this now. I'm thinking about this. Okay, so when they go to these one single sessions, if they need more, is it are they able to get more than theirs? Like see some people may go into these things not realizing some deep seated issues they may have that a therapist may notice when talking to them. Is that an option too for them to have like continue like, listen, hey, I know you came for the one, can can we we may need to talk about going a little more 'cause, you know, whatever they seem to or something they start touching on, you know what I'm saying? Katie: Certainly, certainly. So we will first of all, we pre-screen for these very carefully because Pete "mental health champ": okay. Katie: we also don't bring people into the system the same way for this service. We basically Pete "mental health champ": Mm. Katie: have it like you're booking a massage, right? You go to an app, you say, I want to make a therapy appointment. you know, you find a a therapy appointment within the next day or two as opposed to booking out for, you know, several weeks once we verify your insurance, all that. This is a this is we do not accept insurance, but we keep the price point very low. That way it's accessible to people. but Pete "mental health champ": I love it. Katie: they just go on and then they just pick your therapist, pick your time. And then during that and so they when they sign up, they have to say like they had can't be actively, you know, suicidal or homicidal, and like the Pete "mental health champ": Mm-hmm. Katie: people there's there's certain criteria because this isn't for it's not crisis. This is basically you just want to talk to somebody about something like I don't know what I should do. I'm trying to switch jobs, or I've just been really like mad and at this person, I don't know what to do, like that kind of thing. And then yes, we will, even though the session is is is meant to be like beginning, middle, and end in that session, we will be assessing for anything that we think might be a recommendation to yes. Maybe you should go to continued therapy, maybe it's with that therapist, maybe it's with someone else. you know, if they notice something that, you know, needs maybe substance use treatment or, you know, we will refer out to, you know, other resources and make recommendations. But so yes, that's definitely a possibility. And that would that wouldn't be good practice or ethical practice on our part just to pretend nothing else was existing that we heard in session. We would have to, you know, address that towards the end. Pete "mental health champ": No, I love that though. I love that though. So I am looking at the list of other things you do. You do grief, which I think is really great because that's always a tough topic to talk about. So Katie, in your own in your own, what would you say would be some advice for somebody that's grieving, you know, just because it's such a tough topic for people to deal with, you know? And and I know a lot of people don't seem to get that point. Is that it's just it's it's hard. Some people just can't handle that conversation, you know. And then, you know, other people get mad at people about that or they tell them, well, you know, grieving has a timeline when it doesn't. We know it doesn't. Katie: No, no, it doesn't. And I mean, I've been working with grief for a long time and I make sure actually that our therapists here who work with grief that they're trained because lots of people will say they will help, but we've heard people tell people things like, well, you know, at least you don't have cancer if you're grieving something, or at least this or you know, yes, maybe you should you get over that. Like people say crazy stuff when they when they aren't trained in it. And so even Pete "mental health champ": Mm-hmm. Katie: Older models of working with grief, you know, Elizabeth Kugler Ross with you know, with Sages of Grief, that's great. And it helped bring that stuff, it helped bring it into the conversation. But I've had people come in and say, okay, when am I gonna get through the stages? And when when am I on the next stage? And when am I gonna get to acceptance? And it just it doesn't work like that. It's really, you know, grief is a fluid. process and you we we look at it more in like terms of waves now. You know, the waves they come in, they sometimes they crash really hard, sometimes they're coming in and in and in, and sometimes they go out for a while. And you don't you know you don't experience that for a while, but it always comes back. And so it's basically reframing it to help people see that they're just trying to build a life with that grief and they build a life around that grief, but you're not trying to get over it. It's always gonna be there. It just changes in the way it affects you day to day. Pete "mental health champ": Yeah. Yeah, no, I agree. I also see you have anxiety list. Chronic illness is an interesting one to come up on the conversational list because I know when it comes to some of that stuff, it it's hard, man. Like, you know, depending on what it is that you've got for the chronic illness, you it it may be the end all be all for you though. And those conversations have to be tough. Am I not correct? Katie: Yes, yes. And from working in a cancer center for so long, that's one of the things we did. We helped people figure out like how do you live while having, you know, either a chronic illness or a terminal illness, even, you know, how do you live while you're still alive with all of these Pete "mental health champ": Yeah. Katie: things? we talk about quality of life, right? There's a lot of your quality of life with certain certain illnesses are you know, is affected like For instance, I used to work with head and neck cancer patients and you know quite quite often. And that while it wasn't always a it wasn't usually a terminal diagnosis, it was that diagnosis and treatment that really affected people's lives because you may not be able to eat, you may even have a feeding tube, you you know, it it really messes with like All the things people would want to do, like they can't go out to dinner, they can't socialize in the same way, they can't and it just it really kind of affects your quality of life pretty harshly for, you know, a matter of months or or a year. And so that one, that one is kind of teaching people what can you do? Let's figure out what we can do, stop looking at all the stuff we can't do, because it's the only way you're gonna get through this. Pete "mental health champ": Yeah, yeah, that makes sense though. And then I see you have listed ADHD of course, which that one's always great. And then other emotional challenges. What would fall under that category? Just for anybody at home might be wondering. Katie: Well, I mean, you figure the emotion I would call it emotional challenge like any type of anxiety or depression or sadness or, you know, feelings that come from anything, right? So like let's say, you know, we have a lot of people in family situations that are difficult. So sometimes people aren't close to their or maybe they're even estranged from family members. That causes that can cause a lot of pain, even if they know not being with that family member is better for them or for the family, it's it's still a source of pain and there's still a Pete "mental health champ": Yeah. Katie: loss there, right? And that's all actually bringing back to grief, what what I try to teach people is anytime you have a loss, you have grief. It doesn't matter what the loss is. You can have a loss of your job. You can have a loss of your identity in that like if you retire now you you're not that thing anymore that you were, you know, Pete "mental health champ": Yeah. Katie: I wasn't not that accountant or something. And now You have like a loss of identity, loss, grief. You know, in cancer, if you lose your hair, that's a loss. You have grief, right? So anytime you have loss, you have grief. Now leak grief looks, you know, can look very different from person to person. But yes, so I I would say that just kind of looking at things, how they affect you, like so the loss of having a close relationship with a family member can be very hard, especially if they are still alive, they're there, but they you know, that. that can just feel really awful. So it's kind of how to process that and support people in those things. Pete "mental health champ": Yeah. So let's talk about the clinic now. Okay. So what was that defining moment where you decided you want to start speak easy counseling and psychotherapy? I mean, what was that moment where you're just tired of working for somebody else? And you're like, you know what? I got so much more I want to offer. There's a whole direction I want to go. You know, take us to what what got to that moment? What was that one defining moment where you're like, you know what? I want to break be my own boss. Katie: Well, I will tell you. So I started the I actually started the private practice in twenty twelve. and I was solo until twenty twenty-two. And so I was seeing about twenty, twenty-five clients a week on my own. I would just rent space from other therapists and then that way I would go to their office and rent that so I didn't have my own building or anything. And I did that in while I also taught full time at you know, university. I did that for 10 years. And by the time we get to 2022, a bunch of things kind of happened at one time that that made me do this. And that way that made me expand to a group and then create speakeasy and then start hiring people and then get really like now it's a full on business. I'm like a big giant business. I have HR Pete "mental health champ": Right. Katie: marketing and I have all these things that I had not, you know, planned on doing. And so the and it's actually a more of a management and business role. I still see about 20 clients a week, but it's still, you know, now it's like I'm doing a different job, kind of. But to Pete "mental health champ": Yeah. Katie: answer question, the in 2022, I was trying to get tenure at a university, and it just started getting the students, everything just kind of start stopped making me happy. It started being really stressful. And we we did not have the ability to gatekeep, we did not have the ability to hold students accountable, and it just got really stressful. and so I just decided that and and then at the same time my my father who was young, like at the time he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's at like 70 and he was living with us and I was just like watching him at 70, you know, be well you know, watching that Pete "mental health champ": Yeah. Katie: and I just started thinking, so I could very possibly have 20 years left. If I have 20 years left, then Do I really wanna be working at this university? Do I really wanna be, you know, dealing with this kind of stuff, or do I want to do something that might make me feel like more fulfilled? Pete "mental health champ": Yeah. Katie: And then I thought, nope, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna expand to a group and I'm going to make it a different group than the other ones that I see. I'm gonna take as much care of my clinicians as I can. I'm gonna provide salary because that know most people in in therapy don't do that. You get paid for your session and that's it. I'm gonna provide full benefits. I'm going to give them other opportunities so that they can make their own lives and careers. And I'm gonna just try to provide the best services to the community possible. That's what we try Pete "mental health champ": Yeah. Yeah. And a very expansive one too, because you're like, you know, I'm gonna offer all these new things, you know, with everything changing too, you know. But let's backtrack just a second. So the Alzheimer's thing is funny you say that though. I was actually on a show recently because both my grandmothers, one had Alzheimer's, one had dementia. you know what the scary thing is that that a lot of people don't know anything about those. As much as it comes up in a conversation, no, a lot of people don't know anything about it, which is the craziest part though. It's like How is this one thing that is that's affecting so many people, but we don't know enough about it? You know what I'm saying? It's it's wild though, because me and Lisa Skinner were talking about this. We actually did a brain awareness, brain illness awareness episode in June in between this this season and last season. And we were talking about that. And she was mentioning that a lot of people don't know anything about them. And that's her area where she works. And she's like, You'd be amazed how many people come to me and say, Well, we don't know anything about this. And it it it's crazy. So Did did you know a lot about it? Did you do a lot of research into that kind of stuff? Katie: I mean I only knew about it because Alzheimer's has really always been a part of my life with my grandfather having Alzheimer's and my grandmother Pete "mental health champ": Yeah. Katie: and then my father. So it was kind of always I always kind of knew what it was. But then yes, and working in the hospital and working in social work, we worked with lots of people with with dementia. And I worked actually in a nursing like a long-term care facility, a nursing home, what you would call it. I I w did work as a social services director in a nursing home before. So I did get to work a lot with with people with Alzheimer's or dementia. And and and right now I actually work with older adults, but but people that are in their 70s and 80s, but not with any cognitive impairment. So that's I that is a very cool thing because I think a lot of people in their 70s are very, you know, get marginalized, like they don't have anything to offer. Pete "mental health champ": Mm-hmm. Katie: you're just old, you're this. No, they have like n whole normal lives just like everybody else. So Pete "mental health champ": Right. Katie: yeah, so but but the but as far as Alzheimer's is concerned, I do think that it's interesting that people don't always know the stuff that I think everybody knows because I've been doing this for so long. So I think it's normal to know things like, you know, I worked in in healthcare before the Affordable Care Act and then during the Affordable Care Act. And then now with the changes, you know, and and I've seen it it's it's just I've seen how these things are so, you know, impact things. And then it's so interesting for people not to, you know, just not to know these things. And it's not their fault. I don't know things about other industries, but it's also just yeah. Pete "mental health champ": Yeah, you know, and it was it was a crazy fact and it came up and I was just like, Really? And like she's Yeah, a lot of people don't know anything about this. And I'm like, but it's it's like what did she say? The number two or number two, number three cause of death for an adults that age range. And I'm just like, So why aren't we talking about this more? I don't understand. This is really strange. You know, and she was like, Well, you know, a lot of people don't know anything. Like, they don't know the things to look out for, what things not to do, you know, and stuff like that too. And it was very fascinating because I was just like Okay. And then when you mentioned Alzheimer's, I was like, man, all right, this will be an interesting question because a lot of times, you know, it it's to me, it's just like it's to me it's it's really strange. Like, you kinda says kinda weird, like, you the same thing with mental health in the same categories, because it's like people say we're talking about a lot of things, but where are we really? To me, I feel like we're not enough. I feel like, you know, with the internet when it got introduced, it was a great idea and at the same time it was a bad idea because if you think about it statistically, when it Suicide rates going up in little kid, a young gentleman, for a fact. And I know because me and a friend of mine, we were looking at some statistics, said when the internet was introduced, suicide rates in young boys went up dramatically. now, we all know that the internet's not a great place, you know, and things for that for these younger kids. me and another fellow podcaster were looking up some more statistics and we were looking at it and said that forty-five percent of parents reported that the internet was negatively affecting children's mental health, but might now at the same time as then why would you allow them to be on there? Katie: Well, I think it's but it's Pete "mental health champ": See what I'm saying? Like it's great. It's wild. Katie: so integrated into our lives now that it's more it's Pete "mental health champ": Mm-hmm. Katie: like, Okay, yes, now we have it and we just have to figure out I guess how to how to how to use it better. But I think one of the one of the things that I always say is that there's like such a difference. So like in the nineties, right? And I had my first child in nineteen ninety six. So in Pete "mental health champ": Yeah. Katie: nineteen ninety six, you have to think like I there was the internet And there was like AOL was just Pete "mental health champ": Yeah, we had AOL. Yeah, yeah. Katie: yeah, just starting. It was but but people weren't using like I didn't even have an email address. Like it it just wasn't it wasn't there there was no phones, like I there was a cell phone, but it was you couldn't get your internet on your phone or anything like that. So the only way I knew what to do with my child, right? How to raise her or what to do or how to throw a birthday party or anything was whether it was either I a family member or a friend told me. This is what I do, this is what you should do, whatever. That's one way. television, right? Maybe there was a show, maybe it was, you know, maybe you'd catch a documentary. Mostly it's like a TV show, right? And they're parenting, however they're parenting. Or maybe you get a magazine. You know, you get parenting magazine or parents magazine, which I used to get because that's the way you'd found out. giving your kid a bath, do it this way. You won't hurt him as much, right? But that's otherwise you don't, we didn't know. I ate lunch meat. I did all those things. We ate sushi. We I mean, I probably didn't eat sushi at that time, but I mean, it was like there was nobody telling us what to do or how to do it. And what's what I think with the internet, the good thing is that there's so much more information out there so we can make better decisions, but there's also bad things, and that's that there's so much information out there. Not everybody who who gets the platform deserves that platform because they could be providing misinformation. They could be, you know, telling you things that maybe, maybe don't work for you. But now, like, it's so, you know, every baby has like a on social media and they have like a sticker on their stomach when they turn like one month, two months, three month, four months. Like if I had to deal with that, I think that would have just I would have been so stressed. Having to buy the stickers or find the stickers and take a picture every month. I probably would take four months at a time and just pop them up there. Because it was just it's it's so much pressure. I feel so bad for parents now because they get information from everywhere and everything is like, you know, you can't just have a birthday party. Now it's gotta be a birthday party with these things and this thing. You have to have this and you have to gender reveal. I don't know. It seems like a lot, which I think Pete "mental health champ": Yeah. Katie: impacts people's mental health a lot. Pete "mental health champ": Yeah. Yeah. The fact that what they're seeing, you know, think about the young kids, the things that the young kids are seeing too, that are like, well, you know, this is what I have to look like, you know, and now you have to combat against that. Well that you know, they keep seeing all these people and then they think that that's the way they need to act. Well, these people acting like this, or they're doing this, or you know, take a male side of it. You know, you see the male guys are degrading women on talking to them in a certain way, and it's like that's not how things work, you know. Let's let's and then you know. Let's add another layer to the aspect. The people that you see that always have these so perfect and happy lives. And we all know that that that's a lie, usually, because we don't know what's going on in their back scene. We don't know what's going on. We just see what they're putting out in the world like that, you know, and a lot of people don't know that, you know. And if so. And Katie: yes. Pete "mental health champ": then and then we'll go another layer, okay? So I I I interview a lot of people in the show. I had a girl that I do a co-show with. she came on and was telling me she was telling people about her schizoaffective disorder. Now we know what that is. For people that don't know, it's a very complex thing. Like she's explaining what she's going through, the stuff she would do, and all and and the way the internet is reacting was just going nuts. They're yelling, they're na saying nasty things to her and things like that too, you know. So, like, it's a wild west out there now because you have all this misinformation. You have people trying to just be genuine and sharing stories about these kind of things and raising awareness for these issues. You know, even men's men's mental health month was another one. We had yet another person come into the ring that wanted to go ahead and insult it and say, well, dah du. And then didn't, you know, doesn't doesn't think of what's gonna happen in the backlash because we all know what happened to the girl last year. She literally got doxxed and everything, and she she literally disappeared on the internet. Her own family members were like we're sorry for her actions. We want nothing to do. And it's like it's crazy that people just want the attention and then they get the attention and then it's like, never mind. Don't want to do this anymore. Katie: Yes, it's a it's just I mean, there are definitely Pete "mental health champ": Katie's like Katie's like that's a lot. Katie: it but it is it's true and it is a lot and it's a lot for everyone because even you know, even therapists having to not that I don't want to be on this podcast, of course I do, but I didn't think that I was going to have to go on podcast so that I that so that we could keep spreading our message because I just thought I would, you know, when I was Back before when I went to school, I thought, I'll just open an office, you know, just hang a shingle, and then people will come. And, you know, y yeah. But now it's not that. You have to be an expert. You have to show which I think many of us are experts in certain areas, but it's also like this is just it's creating new responsibilities for everyone. And then from us worried about everybody's mental health, seeing all the different ways that people's mental health is really impacted. And again, not maybe in a sense that they are. clinically depressed or that they have Pete "mental health champ": Yeah, exactly. Katie: a DSM, you know, diagnosis. Maybe not. But they are s they can certainly be extremely overwhelmed or extremely stressed or compare themselves to others all the time and overthink everything, you know, that that that can then maybe paralyze them, maybe make them not take that job or apply for that job or start that, you know, food truck or whatever. So I mean I'm I I guess you just the other thing is you really want to look at people in terms of so social work, people will will ask me, why do you choose social work? Why didn't you just do psychology? And there is a reason for that. And that's that I like the lens of social work, which is person in environment. So when when you're just thinking about what's wrong with you, okay, so you're telling me you're anxious. Okay, what is wrong with you in your brain that's making you anxious? Well, if someone if you're looking at a person in environment lens, well, okay, so if you're living with a, you know, in a chaotic environment or financially you can't even afford to make ends meet. Maybe you will be catastrophizing a lot and be super anxious that you're not gonna be able to pay your bills and then you just feel like everything's crumbling and then, you know, that makes sense, but you you have to think about the person and environment because maybe Pete "mental health champ": Mm-hmm. Katie: if they had some more money, they wouldn't be as anxious. Right. And it's it doesn't all go back to that, but a lot of it just goes back to, you know, Everything. Maybe the people living in their house are stressing them out, or they're upsetting, or maybe their job, or maybe they have an illness. You have to look at the entire thing. Pete "mental health champ": Yeah. Yeah. You know, and I want to backtrack to your comment on podcasts. I think they're great though. Think about it though this way, Kate. We get a more in-depth feel for who you are as a person. Like, you know, people most people will never even know anything about you. You know what I mean? Like you only tell them what you want. But this way people get to know you a lot better. You know, a lot of people Katie: It's so t Pete "mental health champ": like to know who they're talking to these days, you know. And then when we get you guys to come on, you guys have a whole different side. Like you don't have to be the professional side, you can just be yourself. And a lot of people, that's what attracts a lot of people. Like, damn, I really like her. I want to go talk to You know what I mean? It's it's a great thing Katie: It's Pete "mental health champ": about it 'cause we get your insight though into things. Katie: It's so true. And that was no shade to podcast. I actually have a podcast. thank God. I do have a podcast. Pete "mental health champ": no, I didn't think it was. Yeah, I thought it was awesome. y you got a podcast. Okay. All right, you go ahead and finish your statement real quick, then we're gonna get into this one. All right, Katie. All right, okay. Katie: so yes, we I actually have a podcast called Long Story Longer and we've been doing it for about a year and a half. I do it with a a psychiatric nurse practitioner, his name is Dominic Morano, and we Pete "mental health champ": okay. Katie: we try to tackle issues from both perspectives, like a prescriber's perspective and then a therapist perspective. So if we talk about anxiety, he'll talk about medications and why you know, they might be useful or what ones might be useful and how. Pete "mental health champ": Mm-hmm. Katie: And then I'll talk about how therapy might be useful. And then so we we our next one coming out I think is on grief. so we we talk about why medication would be helpful or when and then what therapy would be helpful. And so we've done we even did one on political anxiety last year and how that affects a lot of people. And so yeah, so we do have a podcast. I don't do a great job of publicizing it. So we don't have a you know I publicize it to my clients, but Pete "mental health champ": I didn't know anything about it till now, guys. I was shocked or Katie: I know. Pete "mental health champ": else we would have been talking about this too. But no, this is cool though. It's cool. Katie: I know. Pete "mental health champ": It's cool to see though. So how has it been going for you? What like when did you guys start the podcast and how long has it been going? Katie: it's only been about a ye almost a year and a half. Like we started Pete "mental health champ": Okay. Katie: it in like February or March of 2025. And I think we have twelve episodes out. And, you know, him and I we both have ADHD. Right now it's on I have some editing to do, which I've been procrastinating. And for no reason, I mean Pete "mental health champ": No, I do all the time, trust me. Katie: I know I have to do it, and then every day it gets worse, and I'm like, I just have to do it. I just have to do it. And then I feel Pete "mental health champ": Yeah. Katie: bad, he's gonna be mad at me. But we both do this. We both just like procr and there's no reason to procrastinate it because it's a fun thing to do. It's just I don't know, it just adds on my list like one more thing and Pete "mental health champ": Yeah. Katie: then it gets bigger than it is. But it is fun. I love it. Pete "mental health champ": No, I'm the same way though. I'm the same way. I'm like I'm I'm about a year and a half and now September will be officially two years. So I'm more than a year and a half. I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna put your your episode count to shame. I'm like 250 plus episodes. I was an overachiever. Katie: wow. Pete "mental health champ": I was an overachiever in the beginning. I really pushed hard in the beginning. I was doing weekly shows, actually doing two weekly live episodes when they first started the show because I I got offered to join a podcasting network, so I was there. So was like, all right, we'll forget it. Then I I knew they were new, so they didn't have as many shows. So I was like, can I do two episodes? And they're yeah. So I invited these people to come on hour-long episodes for each one every week, Monday at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. was the time slots I had. So I was just kept going. And I did a hundred in the first season. Okay. And I I did a lot. Yeah. I recorded a lot of episodes, you know. And it's been great though. Don't get me wrong. I love it. I love doing it. I love meeting new podcasters. This is great to see what everybody else is going through and how it is, but I'm the same way. Like I've got so much recorded for this season that I just pre-record a lot of it ahead of time. So I bulk record mine and then I'll s I I already have mine coming out now. But you know, like I always sit. I'm like, yeah, I gotta do this, I gotta do this, I gotta and then eventually I'll do it. I'll sit down and just knock out a whole month's worth. And I'm like, all right, I'm done for now. I'll be good to go. I'll I'll come back to it later. And I just keep waiting to the last minute, like, shit, I gotta go home and do this. And my girlfriend's constantly giving me hell about it. She's like, Why don't you just do it as much as you can every s where once a week? I'm like, Yeah, I could do that, but that's too much. I don't feel like doing that right now. I'll get around to it eventually, you know. Cause I'm a one man show. So I do that. I put all the stuff out for all the the things that spit on the inner social media. I've got a program for that. And then I just like when I edit, I don't really edit too much. I keep it very raw unless there's something in the conversation I have to pull out, which when we did a series on suicide awareness, we had a woman come on and we were talking to her and her husband had killed himself. And she had told the kids about it and something got said in there. And you know, that I think that's the only time I really had to edit anything out was because it was just like she's like, Well, you know, I didn't like how something got said, you know. And that was the great thing about pre-recording, because I'm like, okay, I could take all this stuff out. So I get it, trust me. I'm I'm the I procrastinate all the time. I'm like, Yeah, eventually I'll get around it. It only takes me a few minutes because all I'm doing is editing it up, cleaning the audio up really quick, and then I'm spitting it out and I'm setting it up to go and and I'm, you know, all I have to make is the card and then get the clips and post them. It's really not that hard. Everything else, it sounds like a lot of work to me. It's it's it's fun. I enjoy doing it. Like I said, I love doing this show. I've been I've been doing this for like almost two years now. I'm hurting God, I don't know how many countries I'm in now. I'm I'm all over the place and it's great. I mean, I've been in Canada a few times on their television show. I just did the one Katie: it's awesome. Pete "mental health champ": Truth Lies and Alzheimer's TV show. I do national media panels. Like had I looked at where this would have taken me a year from now, for a year before I started doing this thing, I would have never even thought I've had this much. This much fun doing it because I've had so much fun. I've been on so many different shows. I go do other podcasts. And and and it's hard though. Like at first I didn't really talk about my podcast much with people. And then after that, I just said, fuck it, I'm gonna talk to everybody. And I Katie: Yeah. Pete "mental health champ": every conversation I got into, yeah, I do podcasting in my free time. yeah, what do you podcast about? And then I tell them, and then the response you get is fifty-fifty, because mental health is a very touchy subject for some people. Some people are about it, some people aren't about it. So, you know, things like Katie: Mm-hmm. Pete "mental health champ": that, which is leading me into What are the two final questions I have for you? Okay. Normally I ask this one last, but I'm kind of curious what your answer to this one is. So my question to you and the reason I started this whole podcast, Katie, is if you could break the stigma about mental health, what would you say that one thing would be? You could have many things if you like as well. There's no wrong answer to this question. Katie: I mean, it would be that everyone has ever everyone has, I guess if you want to say mental health, right? Everyone has the ability to have either be healthy or unhealthy or somewhere in between, right? Pete "mental health champ": Mm-hmm. Katie: Everybody who has a brain, which is everyone, right, they have their own mental world. And that world might have, you know, anxiety in it, may have had some really difficult experiences. It may have had traumatic experiences. It may have had, you know, experiences that led them to doubt themselves, to not doubt themselves. It doesn't matter. It's not like mental like you know, mental illness and mental health are two different things, right? You Pete "mental health champ": Mm-hmm. Katie: have you you can have mental illnesses and there's nothing wrong with that. I think we should break the stigma for that, because as you can get treatment and help with them, then it's you function just like any anything else. If you if you're a diabetic, you wouldn't like, no, I'll just worry about I'll fix this on my own. I don't need medication, I don't need treatment. I just fix it on my own. No, you know you need medicine and there's no shame in that. or you know you need treatment. There's no shame in that. So I feel like that's people I think thinking of mental illness and mental health as one thing. Like, well I'm not mentally ill. I don't need that. Like, no, yes, you still you might not, but you may have some personality, you know Issues. You might have personality disorder, or you might not even have a full disorder, but you may have traits. You know, you may be very narcissistic or self-centered. You're not to say you're a narcissist, but you could be narcissistic. You know, you could Pete "mental health champ": Mm-hmm. Katie: be overly emotional, and that comes from maybe the way you were raised or the way that you know people responded to you. And maybe that helped in the past, but being you know, really emotional or really defensive or whatever. Maybe that doesn't help now in your regular relationships. So like there's all kinds of ways people could get help or just work through those things or acknowledge those things or be aware of those things. Like there's I think that's important for everyone. So it's not like only Pete "mental health champ": Mm-hmm. Katie: some people need help with their mental health or acknowledgement of their mental health or and then other people don't. No, everybody does. We're all living in here in this place together, you know? Pete "mental health champ": Yep. So Katie, here we go. Here's the question I normally start with when I start getting wrap up. Okay. So you're gonna love this one. If your mental health had a song, what would you say that song would be? And I laugh because I think when I asked this question, the the funniest response to date was grandma got ran over by a reindeer. It's literally what this person Katie: Right. Pete "mental health champ": answered. I died laughing. Katie: my gosh. that's that's pretty funny. okay. So I don't know if this gonna be helpful because I it's not well known by everyone, but I would say, so there's a song by my one of my favorite, my favorite artists, her name's Dara Williams, she's a singer-songwriter, and in 1998 she put out this song called or 1977, sorry, 97, yes, I think it was 97. So, and it was called What Do I Hear in These Sounds? And it is What Do You Hear in These Sounds? And It's basically the entire song is about therapy. And she says so many cool lines in there that I would s I mean, there's she she has this one line about that she felt like she was like East Berlin, right? She said that she could like see other people's like she could see the fireworks, she could hear the radio, but she thought that if we met, she said that they would know that I was scared, they would know that I was guessing. And then she said, and the wall came down and the others stood before me and they're stumbling and they're mumbling and they're calling out just like me. And so that that line to me, just like that idea that, there's them, and then I'm over here and I'm not like them. And then that wall coming down and seeing, no, we're all struggling. We're all struggling here. And so we are trying to do our the best we can. And so I think to me, that would be that would be the song. Cause I feel like that personally, but then I also feel like I Think about that in my practice. Pete "mental health champ": I love it. I it. Well, Katie, thank you so much for coming to hang out with me today. It was a pleasure having you. before we wrap up, why don't you let me know where they can find you and let know where they can find the podcast, especially, because I think it's a great idea. I really think I like what you got how you guys are presenting it for both sides of it though. Katie: Okay, great. and this is the part I'm always bad at is telling people any information about where to find us. so thank you for telling me specifically to do it, which I will. So long story longer is the podcast. It's on Spotify, YouTube, anywhere you get your podcasts. and it's if you see the little green microphone as the icon or whatever, that's us. And then my pract our practice is it's just speakeasytoday.com and You shouldn't go on there and find information about all of our services or, you know, give us a call and yeah. Pete "mental health champ": Alrighty. Thank you so much, Katie. Guys, I will have all that in the description of the show for you. And with that being said, guys, we're going to wrap up this episode of Pete First Anxiety. I'm Pete First Anxiety. You can find me on X all the way down to TikTok. I'm on Spotify all the way down to Pandora Areno. And if you're in the Pittsburgh area, guys, we are on the Pep Radio Network. And with that being said, we always say it costs nothing, absolutely nothing to be kind to somebody. One kind act you could do can save some life, or hell, can you make their day? I'm Pete First Anxiety sign off saying, Don't ask how your day is today. Say, hey, how's your mental health?