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December 11, 2024 14 mins

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Ever wondered how therapists juggle their professional responsibilities while maintaining their own mental health? Discover the answer with Jared Andes, a licensed clinical social worker and registered play therapist supervisor, as he dives into the world of caregiver burnout and compassion fatigue. In this special episode of the Heroes Welcome podcast, co-hosts Mariela Care Diego and her lively sidekick invite you to explore the critical role play therapy plays in building resilience for therapists who are also caregivers. Inspired by the intriguing TV show Severance, the conversation sheds light on the blurred lines between work and personal life and the necessity of recognizing warning signs before burnout takes hold.

Jared Andes brings a fresh perspective to the generational shift in therapy, as newer cohorts embrace their humanity alongside their professional roles. He challenges outdated notions of constant professionalism, advocating for authentic, human-centered approaches in therapy. Join us as we uncover the importance of self-care for therapists and discuss practical strategies to maintain mental health and thrive both personally and professionally. This episode promises valuable insights for anyone interested in understanding the balance of being a caregiver and a professional in today's world.

A Hero's Welcome Podcast © Maria Laquerre-Diego & Liliana Baylon

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome back listeners to an extra special
episode of a Heroes Welcomepodcast.
I am your co-host, mariela CareDiego, and I am joined by my
very playful co-host.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
I think that's me.
I was like, oh, I'm not goingto be playful this morning.
No, that's me Just kidding.
Thank you for joining us inthis special episode.
We're going to be talking aboutDisney and these amazing
conferences that is happening.
How many weeks, maria?
We have Not enough.
We're not doing math thismorning, but it's coming up

(00:34):
really fast and we have here oneof the presenters.
Presentors yes, did I just madeup a word?
No, it is Jared.
How do you want to presentyourself to our audience this
morning?

Speaker 3 (00:47):
I'm I don't know.
I'm Jared Andes.
I'm a licensed clinical socialworker and a registered plate
therapist supervisor.
I have been in practice forabout 12 years and I'm really
excited to join and present onmy topic, which we're going to
talk about in a second.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Got to tease it for just a second here, oh you want
to tease it Like, please tell uswhat is it you're going to be
presenting on?

Speaker 3 (01:10):
So we're going to be talking the title is Running on
Empty and we'll be talking aboutbuilding resilience in play
therapists.
Using play therapy Not just youknow the kind of general things
that we talk about, butspecifically using play to build
resilience and to cope withcaregiver burnout and compassion
fatigue.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
I love this because you're addressing some of the
elephants in the room right.
Like as therapists.
We show up and we give our all,but we are also humans who wear
other hats, and many of us arecaregivers in a variety of ways
outside of our job title.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
Absolutely.
I don't know if either of youhave seen the show Severance.
It's kind of a strange concept,so for your listeners who
haven't seen it in this TV show,it's like this sci-fi world
where people have their brainsseparated so that part of their
brain only knows what happens intheir work life and part of
their brain only knows whathappens in their personal life.
Yeah, that doesn't happen,thankfully, in real life, and so

(02:10):
everything that we experience,both as a therapist and then
outside of that, with whateverresponsibilities we have, all of
that leads to both our wellnessand to our detriment, and it's
important to honor both and tomake sure that we're paying
attention to what are thewarning signs?
When have we crossed past thewarning signs and we're into
more dangerous territory, andhow do we cope with it when we
get there?

Speaker 2 (02:29):
Oh, I love it.
Love it Right.
We come from older generations,or seasoned therapists as we
like to call it in our field,that they adopted all ideas,
which was you are professionalall the time, either when you're
working or not working.
And then we have this newcohort that will include us.

(02:51):
That we're saying that's notgoing to work, because I am
human and I get these roles ineverywhere I go.
I don't stop knowing what Iknow as a therapist, but also
I'm a human who does not stopbeing a caretaker.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
Right, a family member.
So I love that you're goinginto how do we take care of you,
especially in our field, thatthe word that came out is like
it's so fake.
Is that okay for me to say thatout loud?
It's so fake in regards to weadvise clients in regards to how
, and we're curious about howyou're taking care of yourself,

(03:27):
but we tend not to adapt, as youstated, jared, like how are we
paying attention to our wellnesswhile showing up?
What are the warning signs thatI tend to ignore, because I
cannot abandon a client and Ihave to show up, and then you go
home and if you have childrendamn children, they go into you,
go play all day.
How come you don't want to playwith us, right?

(03:49):
Thank you for not leaving mealone.
I was like I cannot be alone.
So you're going to be talkingabout this.
So tell us, besides talkingabout wellness, talking about
warning signs, talking aboutthings that they can do so they
don't have to go there, what is.
What is something that you wantto share with the audience so

(04:12):
that they can know what is?
What else are they going tolearn in your, in your training?

Speaker 3 (04:17):
So I don't give too much away.
We are going to get real forsure.
Like it's going to get real.
I don't want to like sugarcoatthat because it is going to be
real and we're also.
We're going to have fun, we'regoing to connect in really
playful and meaningful ways andwe're going to learn new ways of
supporting ourselves and eachother.
Really excited about all of it.
I know it's a little bitmysterious, but I don't want to
give too much away because Ireally am excited to experience

(04:40):
this with the participants and Idon't want them to come into it
knowing too much becausethat'll maybe lessen the effect.
But I want to say just a coupleof things that, without giving
specifics, a little bit ofexperience.
So when I was a pretty newtherapist, I was about six
months away from getting myindependent license, one of my
clients actually got arrestedright outside of my office and

(05:01):
it was a pretty traumaticexperience for both of us and I
mean I went out because he waslike he heard screaming and I
went out and he was there withthe police officer and the
police officer was, you know,standing his ground and the my
client was also standing hisground and it ended up being
just a really difficultsituation.
Afterwards.
What did I do?

(05:22):
Went into my office and I sawmy next client and the next one
all the way through the end ofthe day.
And then I get home and I'mlike I have two.
I had two young children atthat point and I was working
with them and playing with themand you know, doing all the
things that a parent does andthe end of the day comes and I
hadn't processed it one bit andfull force came hours later and,

(05:42):
of course, anytime you put offthe emotion, you get that
augmented reaction.
You have to pay it withinterest and it really hit.
And the next time he was in myoffice, we were talking and we
were kind of processing whathappened and I was shocked.
I was like, oh my gosh, I'm themost unprofessional therapist
because I started to cry.
The kids experience and myexperience, that shared
experience of his arrest was sopowerful.

(06:04):
I just it just startedhappening and I was like what in
the world?
And I realized that it had alot to do with the fact that I
let so much of it go unprocessed, unexamined.
Now, we don't always have thosekinds of experiences.
That was kind of a strange one.
In fact, no one's ever beenarrested in my office before or
after, but we do have reallydifficult and powerful

(06:27):
experiences in our officesregularly.
We witness a lot, we hold a lot.
That's our job right.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
We're containers, but we're human containers and we
have to be able to say hey, hey,this container also needs some
help and some support I lovethat and it's more and more
relevant right with the things,not just in our own therapy
practice, but what's happeningin our local communities, our
larger communities and ournationwide communities.

(06:55):
Right like I think it's, Ithink we're just being able to
talk about it more and more.
It wasn't like the world wasn'ta crazy place or that our
practice wasn't a crazy practicebefore now, but I think we're
starting to see the linesbetween outside life and therapy
life blur more, and this issuch an important topic because

(07:18):
we are human and we are notdoing ourselves or our clients
any good when we pretend thatwe're not us when we get used to

(07:44):
or program in our school or inour credentialing all the
associations that we belong to.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
In regards to repress , don't bring it in as if it
doesn't have a benefit, becausewhen you were sharing your
example, I was like I can seethe benefit for the client
because shame was already there.
Right, you got to witness me atthis point and when I see you
crying, I can see the empathy ofthat experience.

(08:07):
But what a beautiful andpowerful way of attuning to the
client's pain and shame.
Right, and how.
And I think that's exactly themovement of this new cohort
coming in and saying I do notwant to repress, I don't want to
go through the expectancy ofseven years in this field and
then having burnout or beingsick or retiring, daydreaming

(08:32):
about going to work at Starbucksor Target it sounds so fun
instead of being micromanaged.
So how do we help themrecognize all of this?
It's such a beautiful andpowerful way, jared, thank you.
Thank you for teaching this.

Speaker 1 (08:46):
And I'm excited because, I mean, it's my
conference.
So you know I am biased, showoff Biased.
But I think it's reallyimportant, Jared, that you said
like we're going to actually dowork because, yes, yes, it's a
conference being held atDisneyland, yes, we're going to
have a lot of play wrapped inand interweaved and all of it,

(09:09):
and we're doing real work whilewe're doing this, and I think
it's it's important for us tohave that balance between this
is hard and heavy work and thenlet's go and like, regulate and
play and integrate it that wayyeah, integration, what a great
word, um, I think you both know.

Speaker 3 (09:32):
Um, my first play therapy supervisor was JP Lilly,
and he would always talk abouteverything that you experience
as a, as a person, can lead toyour integration and that, you
know, it was a very importantaspect, and I think that it's
the same concept here.
We want to integrate ourexperience, we want to integrate
ourselves as therapists.
Um, so we're really able toattune to our clients, and I'm
really excited to do that atDisneyland for a couple of

(09:54):
reasons.
One and one other thing that JPsaid was we would talk about
something that happened insession, right, and he'd say,
okay, it's like here's thetechnique and then like here's
the result, but somewhere in themiddle is where the magic
happens, and I love that playtherapy can bring that magic and
it obviously shares that incommon with Disneyland, right,
what place where magic happenson a daily basis.
And then the other thing is thatWalt Disney once said it's kind

(10:17):
of fun to do the impossible,and I think that with everything
we're going to be talking aboutat that conference, we're
really working on doing theimpossible.
We do live in a reallychallenging time.
Yeah, our clients know it, weknow it and they feel it.
We are talking about taking abreak from all of that
difficulty.
Not ignoring it, but taking abreak and saying, hey, I'm going
to get really centered withmyself, I'm going to connect

(10:38):
with other people and I'm goingto come back to my clients in a
really centered and healthy way.

Speaker 1 (10:42):
Yeah, I love that.
I love that and I know I knowit was a hard ask, Jared, but
why did you say yes to comingand being a part of Play Therapy
Disney bound this year?

Speaker 3 (10:54):
to coming and being a part of play therapy Disney
bound this year.
So I'm coming back to thatmagic thing.
I love the like.
The magic of play therapy canhappen in a place as magical as
Disneyland.
And so I didn't grow up withDisneyland.
I went twice, I think in my, youknow, before I was 18, but my
wife taught me the magic ofDisneyland because she
absolutely loves it.
I did not realize how much sheloved it I'm going to say this

(11:16):
on a podcast and she's going tokill me.
But we went to Disney World andwe were riding on the Magic
Express bus and this littlevideo starts playing and I look
over and she's got tears comingfrom her eyes and she was just
so happy and I was like, oh, youreally love Disneyland, or
Disney World in this case andshe's like, yeah, it's so
magical.
And when we got there, we hadour first son right, he was
about a year old at that pointand I was like, oh, it is so

(11:39):
magical.
It was not what I experiencedas a kid Not that I didn't love
it as a kid, it was just anotherlevel of magic and I think when
you bring play therapiststogether, it's always magical,
but when you bring them into aplace, place as special as
Disneyland, talking about whatwe're going to be talking about
and doing what we're going to bedoing, the magic is in
abundance.

Speaker 1 (11:56):
Yeah, I'm so excited, I'm so thrilled that you said
yes, that you're going to be apart of it.
I mean, if you've, if you'vetouched base with anything that
I do or anything that Jared does, I mean it's magical.
Anyway, jared, you're such agift to our community and such a
voice that needs to beamplified.

(12:16):
I mean, it was a no brainer toask you.
I'm very excited to have youand again having you on the
podcast, because we've had you,we've had you and we'll probably
have you back, because you havesuch good information that
needs to be not just, you know,gatekeeped in Utah.
We want to share that.

Speaker 3 (12:35):
That's why I said yes .

Speaker 1 (12:36):
I wanted the hype, I just wanted to listen to you
talk about me Now, if you knowJared, you know that that's
absolutely not true.

Speaker 2 (12:48):
So again, please, anyone who's listening.
We have limited space, so belowJared's podcast episode is
going to be information abouthim and about the training.
Hurry up, it's not that long.
Go have a blast at Disney andlearn.

(13:09):
At the same time, it's taxdeductible because you're going
to go and learn and everythingthat you're going to do as you
hear uh, hear from um jared isgoing to be very experiential,
which is that's how we all learn, how to practice having that
felt sense.
So do not miss this opportunity.
Go see jared um and have funwith maria at disney ah, yeah,

(13:32):
we'd love to have you.

Speaker 1 (13:32):
So, jared, I hope you've packed your mickey ears
and are ready to come.
We're under 100 days now, soyeah, I'm sticking awesome.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
Thank you for listening to us.
We'll see you next time.
Well then, bye.
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