Episode 29: Middle School Gym Class, Selective Mutism and Guest Stephen Quinlan

Licensed professional counselors Johanna Dwinells and Sarah Bryski-Hamrick are slowly demystifying and destigmatizing therapy, one episode at a time. Recording and living in the Philadelphia area, Johanna and Sarah work to make therapy feel more accessible, with quirky, sometimes intrusive questions that reveal the human side of healthcare professionals, all while they overcome their own anxieties and internalized stigmas. 

TW: None

Episode summary: Johanna watches wizards. Sarah no longer uses paper towels. They both discuss the history and diagnosis of selective mutism. Guest, Stephen Quinlan, talks about his journey as a therapist, building his practice and so much more!

Guest Bio: Stephen has spent more than 20 years as a therapist. He started out his career in New York City where he worked in the East Harlem housing projects for 5 years. It was an extremely difficult environment.  There were shootings, poverty, drugs, and unimaginable suffering all around.  But he learned a lot about himself as a therapist there. He learned that he was good at connecting with children and teenagers. He learned that he was good at thinking outside of the box on how to help people. Perhaps most importantly though, he learned that there was only so much trauma he could expose himself to and not be profoundly affected by it.  As he and his new wife moved to greener pastures in New Hampshire in 2005, he found himself hoping that a change in scenery and the kind of clients that he would be working with would help him to avoid some of those nagging feelings that he had been having around his career choice. How would this be sustainable? Could he really continue to do this kind of intense work for the rest of his life? What if he made some kind of a mistake getting into this field? He knew he had to turn things around. 

Today he works with clients that he loves, his job as a therapist takes about 15 hours a week, and his income is six figures every year. He gets to spend his free time taking care of himself and working on side projects such as coaching other therapists, his podcast, and writing books.

Sources for today’s History Lesson: Selective Mutism: A Review of Etiology, Comorbidities, and Treatment by Priscilla Wong, MD; wikipedia.org;

Resources: “Self care doesn’t have to cost money.”

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