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PODCAST

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

Curt Widhalm, LMFT and Katie Vernoy, LMFT

The Modern Therapist’s Survival Guide: Where Therapists Live, Breathe, and Practice as Human Beings 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 clinicians must develop a personal brand to market their private practices, and are connecting over social media, engaging in social activism, pushing back against mental health stigma, and facing a whole

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All Episodes

40:28

Skill Issue or Systemic Reality? Systems, Platforms,...

The Modern Therapist"s Survival Guide with Curt... ·

2026/10/05

Skill Issue or Systemic Reality? Systems, Platforms, and What Therapists Are Still Responsible ForCurt Widhalm, LMFT, and Katie Vernoy, LMFT on how systems shape private practice, therapy platforms, insurance reimbursement, burnout, and what therapists are still responsible for. A payer cuts reimbursement by 12 percent and adds a six page renewal form. A platform runs your credentialing, your marketing, and your client matching, and keeps the client relationship if you leave. Which parts of

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72:09

Knowing When They're Ready: Navigating the Shift from...

The Modern Therapist"s Survival Guide with Curt... ·

2026/09/28

Knowing When They're Ready: Navigating the Shift from Stabilization to Deeper Work in PsychotherapyTrauma readiness in DBT and EMDR: how to tell when a client is ready to move from stabilization into deeper work. Curt Widhalm, LMFT, and Katie Vernoy, LMFT walk through the judgment call at the center of trauma treatment, which is knowing when a client has the behavioral and autonomic stability to move past stabilization. Drawing on DBT stages of treatment, EMDR phase two and phase three, and

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49:21

Your Client Is Not a Category: Binary Thinking,...

The Modern Therapist"s Survival Guide with Curt... ·

2026/09/21

Your Client Is Not a Category: Binary Thinking, Gender Trauma, and Presence as a Clinical Skill - An Interview with Alex IantaffiAlex Iantaffi, Ph.D., LMFT, author of Gender Trauma, on binary thinking, gender trauma, and presence as a clinical skill. Curt and Katie talk with Alex Iantaffi about why binary thinking is a clinical problem before it is a political one. Therapists are trained to sort: into diagnoses, into special populations, into victim and perpetrator. Alex argues that the sorting

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44:14

Just a Hypothesis: Case Formulation and Treatment...

The Modern Therapist"s Survival Guide with Curt... ·

2026/09/17

Just a Hypothesis: Case Formulation and Treatment Planning for Real-World Therapy - An Interview with Nikki Rubin, PsyDNikki Rubin, PsyD on behavioral case formulation, treatment planning, and clinical decision-making for therapists. Curt and Katie talk with Nikki Rubin, PsyD, licensed clinical psychologist and co-founder and COO of MindScience Collective, about what case formulation looks like when it is built for real-world therapy instead of for a graduate school assignment. Most of us

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50:22

What This Work Asks of Therapists: Integration, Not...

The Modern Therapist"s Survival Guide with Curt... ·

2026/09/14

What This Work Asks of Therapists: Integration, Not Knowing, and the Capacity to Stay - An Interview with Juliane Taylor Shore, LMFT, LPC, SEPJuliane Taylor Shore, LMFT, LPC, SEP, on therapist integration, not knowing, and the capacity to stay in the room. Curt and Katie talk with Juliane Taylor Shore, LMFT, LPC, SEP, about what determines how much a therapist can do in session. Her answer is not which model you reach for, but how integrated you are while you reach for it. Jules wrote Setting

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39:08

The Clinical Depth Principle: Why Therapy Cannot Be...

The Modern Therapist"s Survival Guide with Curt... ·

2026/09/07

The Clinical Depth Principle: Why Therapy Cannot Be Reduced to Tools, Hacks, and Sound BitesCurt and Katie on the clinical depth principle: case conceptualization, pacing, and the limits of coping skills. Curt Widhalm, LMFT, and Katie Vernoy, LMFT take on this month's modern therapist principle, clinical depth over simplification, and the two extremes the profession keeps swinging between. On one side is a therapy culture shaped by medicalization, medical necessity documentation, productivity

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72:54

Burnout Before Licensure: Why Prelicensed Therapist...

The Modern Therapist"s Survival Guide with Curt... ·

2026/08/31

Burnout Before Licensure: Why Prelicensed Therapist Exhaustion Is a Supervision Problem, Not a Time Management ProblemA continuing education episode on prelicensed therapist burnout, clinical supervision, and why early career exhaustion is a systemic problem rather than a time management one. Curt Widhalm, LMFT, and Katie Vernoy, LMFT examine why prelicensed clinicians are entering the mental health workforce already depleted. Client acuity climbed during the pandemic and has not come back

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43:18

You Can't Pizza Party Your Way Out of Burnout: Moral...

The Modern Therapist"s Survival Guide with Curt... ·

2026/08/27

You Can't Pizza Party Your Way Out of Burnout: Moral Injury, Compassion Fatigue, and Treating Healthcare Workers - An Interview with Kimberly Johnson, PhD, LMHCD, and Lucy Li, MDKimberly Johnson, PhD, and Lucy Li, MD, of the Emotional PPE Project on healthcare worker mental health and moral injury. Curt and Katie talk with Kimberly Johnson, PhD, LMHCD, a counselor educator at Touro University with more than thirty years of clinical experience in trauma, crisis, and disaster mental health, and

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41:56

Rest By Force or By Choice: Burnout, Self-Care, and...

The Modern Therapist"s Survival Guide with Curt... ·

2026/08/24

Rest, By Force or By Choice: Burnout, Self-Care, and Sustainable Practice for Therapists - An Interview with Cecily Moore, PhD Dr. Cecily Moore on burnout, rest as a clinical intervention, and unlearning the Strong Black Woman Narrative. Curt and Katie talk with Dr. Cecily Moore, a licensed therapist, counselor educator, and clinical supervisor, about why the expectation of endless strength and infinite patience is an unsustainable ask for therapists and other helping professionals. As

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40:27

Suffering Is Collective, and So Is Healing:...

The Modern Therapist"s Survival Guide with Curt... ·

2026/08/17

Suffering Is Collective, and So Is Healing: Belonging, Ritual, and Meaning in Uncertain Times - An Interview with Suzan Song, MDSuzan Song, MD, psychiatrist and medical anthropologist, on why suffering is collective and healing comes through belonging, ritual, and meaning. Curt and Katie talk with Suzan Song, MD about why the exhaustion so many therapists and clients are carrying right now is not only personal. Drawing on more than two decades of global mental health work with survivors of war,

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39:18

Sustainability Is a Fundamental Responsibility:...

The Modern Therapist"s Survival Guide with Curt... ·

2026/08/10

Sustainability Is a Fundamental Responsibility: Therapist Burnout, Moral Injury, and the Systems We Practice WithinTherapist burnout, sustainability, and moral injury, and why fixing burnout can't land on individual clinicians alone. Curt Widhalm, LMFT, and Katie Vernoy, LMFT kick off a series of discussions on modern therapist principles with the one that shapes almost everything they cover: sustainability is a fundamental responsibility, paired with the reminder that therapists are human

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32:32

What It Means to Be a Modern Therapist: The...

The Modern Therapist"s Survival Guide with Curt... ·

2026/08/03

What It Means to Be a Modern Therapist: The Principles That Guide Our WorkCurt Widhalm, LMFT, and Katie Vernoy, LMFT, on the principles that define a sustainable, ethical, modern therapy practice. After nearly nine years and almost 500 episodes, Curt and Katie step back to name what the Modern Therapist's Survival Guide actually stands for. This episode lays out the guiding principles behind the show, the standards they hold and the practices they refuse, and reintroduces the hosts and the

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49:16

Are We Really Better at Empathy Than the Bots? What...

The Modern Therapist"s Survival Guide with Curt... ·

2026/07/27

Are We Really Better at Empathy Than the Bots? What the Research Says About AI in TherapyAI in therapy, therapy chatbots, and AI empathy: what the latest research actually says, and what it means for your clinical work. Curt Widhalm, LMFT, and Katie Vernoy, LMFT close out AI month by setting the hot takes aside and looking at what the research actually says about AI in mental health. They walk through the Dartmouth Therabot randomized controlled trial, where an expert-built, safety-monitored

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41:00

How AI Tools for Therapists Are Built: Trust, Data...

The Modern Therapist"s Survival Guide with Curt... ·

2026/07/23

How AI Tools for Therapists Are Built: Trust, Data Privacy, and Choosing What to Adopt - An Interview with Ian Knox and Megan ToomeyIan Knox and Megan Toomey of SimplePractice take therapists behind the scenes of how AI tools for mental health are actually built, trained, and kept secure. We're in the middle of AI month, and Curt and Katie wanted to move past the buzzwords and talk with the people who actually engineer this technology. As part of the show's partnership with SimplePractice, they

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40:03

When Clients Bring AI to Therapy: Working with...

The Modern Therapist"s Survival Guide with Curt... ·

2026/07/20

When Clients Bring AI to Therapy: Working with ChatGPT, Sycophancy, and the New Third Wheel in the Room Clients are bringing AI into therapy, from ChatGPT chat logs handed over as homework to AI companions that never disagree, and therapists need a clinical response. Curt Widhalm, LMFT, and Katie Vernoy, LMFT dig into what happens when clients bring their own AI into the therapy room. The profession built ethics guidance for when therapists send clients toward AI, but it largely sidestepped the

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47:13

Why AI Mental Health Chatbots Fail When It Matters...

The Modern Therapist"s Survival Guide with Curt... ·

2026/07/13

Why AI Mental Health Chatbots Fail When It Matters Most: The Hidden Vulnerabilities Stress-Testing Reveals - An Interview with Shirali and Arul Nigam of Circuit Breaker Labs Shirali and Arul Nigam of Circuit Breaker Labs on why AI mental health chatbots fail, how stress-testing exposes their hidden vulnerabilities, and what therapists need to know. Curt and Katie talk with Shirali and Arul Nigam, the sibling co-founders of Circuit Breaker Labs, about what therapists tend to get wrong about AI, why

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70:23

AI Ethics Codes for Therapists: What CAMFT, APA,...

The Modern Therapist"s Survival Guide with Curt... ·

2026/07/06

AI Ethics Codes for Therapists: What CAMFT, APA, NASW, and AAMFT Now Require How the CAMFT, APA, NASW, and AAMFT ethics codes now regulate AI in therapy: a CE podcourse on competence, informed consent, data privacy, bias, and human accountability. Curt Widhalm, LMFT, and Katie Vernoy, LMFT, walk through the recent artificial intelligence updates to the major mental health ethics codes. Centering on the new CAMFT updates and cross-referencing the APA, NASW, ACA, and AAMFT codes, they turn the new

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47:00

Supporting Conversion Therapy Survivors After Chiles...

The Modern Therapist"s Survival Guide with Curt... ·

2026/06/29

Supporting Conversion Therapy Survivors After Chiles v. Salazar: SOGIECE, Clinical Care, and Community Response - An Interview with Samuel Nieves Samuel Nieves of the Conversion Therapy Survivor Network on supporting conversion therapy survivors, recognizing SOGIECE, and clinical care after Chiles v. Salazar. Curt and Katie welcome back Samuel Nieves, a conversion therapy survivor and board member of the Conversion Therapy Survivor Network, for a follow-up to their earlier conversation and to the

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41:42

Should Conversion Therapy Be Protected Speech? What...

The Modern Therapist"s Survival Guide with Curt... ·

2026/06/22

Should Conversion Therapy Be Protected Speech? What Chiles v. Salazar Means for Conversion Therapy Bans and the Future of the ProfessionIn Chiles v. Salazar, the Supreme Court ruled 8 to 1 that a therapist's talk therapy is protected speech, putting state conversion therapy bans at risk. Curt Widhalm, LMFT, and Katie Vernoy, LMFT break down what the March 31, 2026 decision actually says, what it does not say, and what it means for therapists who work with LGBTQ+ clients. The Court did not call

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40:04

Good Enough, Safe Enough: Affirming LGBTQ+ Clients...

The Modern Therapist"s Survival Guide with Curt... ·

2026/06/15

Good Enough, Safe Enough: Affirming LGBTQ+ Clients When You're Not a Specialist Affirming LGBTQ+ clients when you are not a specialist: Curt Widhalm, LMFT, and Katie Vernoy, LMFT on being a good enough, safe enough therapist when you cannot refer out. Curt and Katie take on a question therapists often avoid: what do you do when an LGBTQ+ client needs care, you are not a specialist, and referring out is not possible, not safe, or not honest? In this Pride Month episode, they make the case that

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