Trigger Warning: Extensive discussion of suicide

Today we talk with one of the most knowledgeable, compassionate psychology doctoral candidates (and professional writers) we’ve had the pleasure of meeting. Andrew schools us on what “stigma” actually means, helpful stats on depression and mental health, mental health literacy, and (warning) suicide. We’re all mental health professionals here, but this episode will show you just how hard it (still) is to talk about these tough topics.

Andrew Devendorf, M.A., is a PhD candidate in clinical psychology at the University of South Florida. He is also about to embark on his one-year clinical psychology internship/residency at the Seattle, Puget Sound Veteran's Affairs Healthcare System. Andrew studies depression, suicide, and mental health stigma toward these experiences. He is passionate about communicating science to increase mental health awareness and reduce stigma. His freelance work has appeared in outlet like the HuffPost, the Conversation, Psyche Magazine, and the APS Observer. You can follow him on Twitter at @AndrewDevendorf.

Links from Andrew:

Here's a link to my brother's Tumblr page with some of his comics:

https://mathew-comics.tumblr.com/page/5 

Here's a link to a water carafe he designed for CB2 during his Master's Program at SAIC, which is still being sold:

https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/shop/product/saic-watering-carafe-154108

Here's a video in memory of him: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dZR04W41SU&ab_channel=AndrewDevendorf

My personal website: 

https://sites.google.com/view/andrewdevendorf

Welcome to The Psychologists Podcast, where we talk about all things psychology through a very personal lens.

Gill Strait PhD and Julia Strait PhD are both Licensed Psychologists (TX) and Licensed Specialists in School Psychology (LSSPs, TX). They are alumni of The University of South Carolina School Psychology Doctoral Program (Go Gamecocks).

Gill is a teacher, researcher, and supervisor at a university graduate psychology training program.

Julia is owner and therapist at Ocean Therapy in Houston, TX, offering telehealth therapy to young adults in their 20s and 30s who are struggling with anxiety. Check it out here: https://www.oceantherapy.net/

Here’s your rare chance to peek behind the scenes at how an experienced psychological researcher develops a new theoretical model. Its Vygotsky meets Paul Meehl meets John Muir in this episode of TPP, as we explore a new theory focused on the 4 types of fun. Let’s get serious, but not solemn, in the scientific discussion of one of the most commonly overlooked and understudied elements of human experience: having fun.

PS: Dr Smith has been Gill’s research mentor since undergrad, and he taught Julia graduate research methods. We are honored to host him today!

Honorable Mentions:

Mindfuluh.org

bsmith5@uh.edu (Email Dr. Smith at UH)

Welcome to The Psychologists Podcast, where we talk about all things psychology through a very personal lens.

Gill Strait PhD and Julia Strait PhD are both Licensed Psychologists (TX) and Licensed Specialists in School Psychology (LSSPs, TX). They are alumni of The University of South Carolina School Psychology Doctoral Program (Go Gamecocks).

Gill is a teacher, researcher, and supervisor at a university graduate psychology training program.

Julia is owner and therapist at Ocean Therapy in Houston, TX, offering telehealth therapy to young adults in their 20s and 30s who are struggling with anxiety. Check it out here: https://www.oceantherapy.net/

Dr. Raja David spent his infancy in a residential treatment center--seriously! Today we learn from Dr. David about Therapeutic Assessment or TA, which is totally different from the usual psychological testing and diagnosis methods you learn in graduate school (AKA Your IQ is X, your diagnosis is Y, and we recommend CBT; mk, thanks, bye.)

TA offers a much appreciated humanistic, experiential perspective. It's a process for helping people figure out what's going on in their lives, and "hand[ing[ that info back to them in a digestible way", so that "insight is LIVED, not just cognitively grasped".

It just so happens that this approach to evaluating humans is evidence-based, too. It's a win-win for everyone, really, and we hope you'll appreciate the shift in perspective, even if you're in a setting where committing to a full TA model is hard.

Bio:
Dr. Raja David is the founder and owner of the Minnesota Center for Collaborative/Therapeutic Assessment, where he conducts Therapeutic Assessments with adolescents and adults. He is a former assistant professor and has taught doctoral level courses and professional workshops, and co-wrote what is essentially the adult TA manual. He consults with others about TA and conducting psychological assessments, and is a member of the Therapeutic Assessment Institute board of directors.

Honorable Mentions:
Dr. David's private practice web site: https://www.mnccta.com/
What is TA? (from Dr. David's site): https://www.mnccta.com/therapeutic-assessment
Therapeutic Assessment Institute (TAI; includes trainings for professionals): https://therapeuticassessment.com/
Society for Personality Assessment (SPA): https://www.personality.org/

Welcome to The Psychologists Podcast, where we talk about all things psychology through a very personal lens.

Gill Strait PhD and Julia Strait PhD are both Licensed Psychologists (TX) and Licensed Specialists in School Psychology (LSSPs, TX). They are alumni of The University of South Carolina School Psychology Doctoral Program (Go Gamecocks).

Gill is a teacher, researcher, and supervisor at a university graduate psychology training program.

Julia is owner and therapist at Ocean Therapy in Houston, TX, offering telehealth therapy to young adults in their 20s and 30s who are struggling with anxiety. Check it out here: https://www.oceantherapy.net/

Do your kids melt down, throw tantrums, engage in attention-seeking behaviors, or (gasp!) spit?! Then you'll probably want to learn about BCBAs, FBAs, BIPs, FCT, EATS, RBTs, functions of behavior, head-banging, elopement, and extinction bursts, oh my!

Today we host power education couple Chris and Ashley Ponce to discuss how school psychs and behavior analysts can best work together (and separately!) in school settings to help kids with behavior issues...and how each of these pros' professional inclinations impact parenting their two young children. (Sound familiar? :))

First, an ego-feeding story from Chris to Gill about a Texas Tech professor admiring his MI work. Then, the episode. (Scroll to 3:00 to skip the narcissism feed, or just stay for the feels)



--
Ashley, THE BCBA, Chris, THE LSSP, Two Individuals, Two Minds, One Goal - helping children and students in the education and clinic environment to be successful and functioning members of society! Also we have two kids.

Ashley Ponce is a former special education teacher turned BCBA. She has worked in multiple different settings working with a variety of students who exhibit multiple different dysregulation concerns. On top of all of that, she is a badass mother to two children (three if you count Chris). What can't she do!?!

--

Honorable Mentions:
-Chris's first appearance on The Psychologists Podcast (Season 1, Episode 18, 9/26/2021)
-Gill and Julia's episodes are #s 38 (Gill and Julia together), 39 (Gill on MI), and 46 (Julia's personal therapy session ;))
-TASP Talks Podcast (Chris is a host!) - on Apple Podcasts and Spotify
- What is a BCBA and what can they do in schools?

Welcome to The Psychologists Podcast, where we talk about all things psychology through a very personal lens.

Gill Strait PhD and Julia Strait PhD are both Licensed Psychologists (TX) and Licensed Specialists in School Psychology (LSSPs, TX). They are alumni of The University of South Carolina School Psychology Doctoral Program (Go Gamecocks).

Gill is a teacher, researcher, and supervisor at a university graduate psychology training program.

Julia is owner and therapist at Ocean Therapy in Houston, TX, offering telehealth therapy to young adults in their 20s and 30s who are struggling with anxiety. Check it out here: https://www.oceantherapy.net/

For Dr. Tony Roberson, understanding data is NOT about being a math whiz; it’s about developing intuition, and turning your curiosity about the real world into answerable questions and systematic answers.

Join us for a very grassy episode from the man who’s “in everyone’s backyard,” as we get “into the weeds” about every psych major’s (initially) least-favorite “weed-out class”: Statistics. 

Dr. Tony Roberson is an assistant professor in the school psychology specialist program and the combined clinical and school psychology doctoral program at the University of Houston-Clear Lake. He obtained his doctoral degree from Louisiana State University’s school psychology program and currently holds credentials as a licensed psychologist (LP) and licensed specialist in school psychology (LSSP) in the state of Texas and as a nationally certified school psychologist (NCSP).

Dr. Roberson has worked as a school psychologist full-time in Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, where he was involved in assessment, intervention, and consultation work with early childhood, elementary, and secondary students and staff. Beyond schools, he also has experience delivering a variety of services in clinic and residential treatment settings.

His research interests and expertise broadly concern applied research methodology, data analysis, and improving school-based psychological and behavioral measurement practices to make data more useful for efficiently monitoring risk and wellbeing at both the student and systems levels (e.g., whole classroom, whole school). His current work focuses on refining positively-oriented behavior rating scales for universal screening to help reduce systemic barriers to accessing quality care and promote student behavioral and mental health more equitably across diverse and resource-limited school systems.

When Dr. Roberson is not professing, he can likely be found watching an old movie or playing music. He never learned how to ride a bike but has grown to accept that with self-compassion and kindness.

Honorable Mentions:

-Quantitude podcast https://quantitudepod.org/ or on Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/quantitude/id1484406501 

-Dr. Andy Field’s books on Discovering Statistics https://www.discoveringstatistics.com/books/discovering-statistics-using-r/

-Discovr educational package for R (teach yourself to program!) https://www.discovr.rocks/discovr/ 

-Dr. James Guffey (Dr. Roberson’s stats professor): https://jguffey.sites.truman.edu/ 

Welcome to The Psychologists Podcast, where we talk about all things psychology through a very personal lens.

Gill Strait PhD and Julia Strait PhD are both Licensed Psychologists (TX) and Licensed Specialists in School Psychology (LSSPs, TX). They are alumni of The University of South Carolina School Psychology Doctoral Program (Go Gamecocks).

Gill is a teacher, researcher, and supervisor at a university graduate psychology training program.

Julia is owner and therapist at Ocean Therapy in Houston, TX, offering telehealth therapy to young adults in their 20s and 30s who are struggling with anxiety. Check it out here: https://www.oceantherapy.net/

If you don’t know who Peg Dawson is, you will in 58 minutes…And if you or your child struggle with procrastination, organization, planning, time management, attention, or any other “executive skill,” you’ll definitely want to. Come along for this (I must say, very organized—for us) ride through Dr. Dawson’s origin story, how she and her colleague Dr. Richard Guare came up with “ESs” and the idea for their book series Smart But Scattered, her Perfect Intervention for everyone, and most tantalizingly (cheap plug!) her thoughts on Chat GPT and how technology can both help and harm executive skill development.

Dr. Dawson’s web site, Smart But Scattered Kids (one-stop shop for all things executive skills!)

https://www.smartbutscatteredkids.com

Peg Dawson, Ed.D., NCSP, received her doctorate in school/child clinical psychology from the University of Virginia. She worked as a school psychologist for 16 years in Maine and New Hampshire, and since 1992 has worked at the Center for Learning and Attention Disorders in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where she specializes in the assessment of children and adults with learning and attention disorders. She has many years of organizational experience at the state, national, and international level, and served in many capacities, including president, of the New Hampshire Association of School Psychologists, the National Association of School Psychologists, and the International School Psychology Association. She is the author of numerous articles and book chapters on a variety of topics, including retention, ability grouping, reading disorders, attention disorders, the sleep problems of adolescents, the use of interviews in the assessment process, and homework. Along with her colleague, Dr. Richard Guare, she has written several books for parents and professionals on the topic of executive skills, including Smart but Scattered and Smart but Scattered Teens. Peg is the 2006 recipient of the National Association of School Psychologists’ Lifetime Achievement Award.

Welcome to The Psychologists Podcast, where we talk about all things psychology through a very personal lens.

Gill Strait PhD and Julia Strait PhD are both Licensed Psychologists (TX) and Licensed Specialists in School Psychology (LSSPs, TX). They are alumni of The University of South Carolina School Psychology Doctoral Program (Go Gamecocks).

Gill is a teacher, researcher, and supervisor at a university graduate psychology training program.

Julia is owner and therapist at Ocean Therapy in Houston, TX, offering telehealth therapy to young adults in their 20s and 30s who are struggling with anxiety. Check it out here: https://www.oceantherapy.net/

For our kickoff episode of our 3rd season, we’re honored to present this touching, illuminating, and entertaining dialogue with 40-year veteran therapist Bob Edelstein, LMFT, in which he guides us through life’s big questions (AKA existential themes) through an Existential-Humanistic lens. 

Bob shares his amazing story of coming of age as a human and therapist in the 1960s during the modern-to-postmodern shift. Highlights include his life-changing reading of Carl Rogers’ Freedom to Learn as a teacher-in-training, being ripped apart by primal therapy, becoming a therapist through “the paraprofessional route”, working in the Haight, making space around the need to achieve, training with Jim Bugental and LSD researcher Stan Grof, and being ok with the idea of dying. 

Bob is such an authentic human being in every interaction, and you’ll feel that come through as he teaches us about E-H through his own transforming views. If you’re a fan of Carl Rogers, Maslow, Jim Bugental, Viktor Frankl, Kirk Schneider, Rollo May, and/or Irvin Yalom, this is the episode for you.

Bob Edelstein, LMFT has been a therapist and consultant since 1973, practicing in Oregon since 1984. He is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the states of Oregon and California, a certified Clinical Supervisor through Lutheran Family Services, a clinical member of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy, a professional member and former Board member of The Association for Humanistic Psychology, and a founding member of both the Association for Humanistic Psychology – Oregon Community and the Existential-Humanistic Northwest professional organization.

Resources:

-Bob’s web site: www.BobEdelstein.com

-Bob is also the executive director for the Association for Humanistic Psychology. Their website is ahpweb.org

-The website for EHI (existential humanistic institute) is ehinstitute.org

-The website for EHNW (existential humanistic northwest professional organization) is ehnwpdx.org

-Books mentioned include Carl Rogers’ Freedom to Learn, Jim Bugental’s The Search for Existential Identity and The Art of the Psychotherapist, and more

Welcome to The Psychologists Podcast, where we talk about all things psychology through a very personal lens.

Gill Strait PhD and Julia Strait PhD are both Licensed Psychologists (TX) and Licensed Specialists in School Psychology (LSSPs, TX). They are alumni of The University of South Carolina School Psychology Doctoral Program (Go Gamecocks).

Gill is a teacher, researcher, and supervisor at a university graduate psychology training program.

Julia is owner and therapist at Ocean Therapy in Houston, TX, offering telehealth therapy to young adults in their 20s and 30s who are struggling with anxiety. Check it out here: https://www.oceantherapy.net/

Ohhhhh yes, we’ve invited some heavy hitters this season. Listen to this quick update to find out who’s getting the Psychologists Podcast treatment this spring and summer! :)

Welcome to The Psychologists Podcast, where we talk about all things psychology through a very personal lens.

Gill Strait PhD and Julia Strait PhD are both Licensed Psychologists (TX) and Licensed Specialists in School Psychology (LSSPs, TX). They are alumni of The University of South Carolina School Psychology Doctoral Program (Go Gamecocks).

Gill is a teacher, researcher, and supervisor at a university graduate psychology training program.

Julia is owner and therapist at Ocean Therapy in Houston, TX, offering telehealth therapy to young adults in their 20s and 30s who are struggling with anxiety. Check it out here: https://www.oceantherapy.net/