Loading summary
Transcript40 lines
- [00:00]
A
Foreign.
- [00:06]
B
Hi everyone. Welcome to another episode of the get to Know OCD podcast. But kind of to the side of it a little bit as we do some other things that, that are really fun to do. And in these where we get to be joined by one of our great therapists, one of our life changer therapists, those who have achieved some of the highest results with their members of anybody here at nocd. And today we have Alessandro Rosati. Hello. Hi.
- [00:33]
A
Nice to see you in the real world.
- [00:36]
B
Maybe sort of virtually real. Sort of, yeah. Virtually real. We're virtually real with each other. That's wonderful. Well, thanks for being here so much. It's really important topic today when we go over what it is that NOCD does for the therapists who work for nocd. And I think you're a great example of someone who joined here, didn't really have much OCD experience and was able to take the training and the case consultations and everything that we do and really build into a specialist. So I wonder first, just can you give everybody a little bit of background about you and all of the OCD training you did in graduate school that really prepared you, which was not likely. Yeah, but yeah, let's, let's hear a little bit about you first.
- [01:27]
A
My name is Alessandros Adi. I'm a licensed clinical social worker. I had a lot of experience with CBT and DBT in my grad school experience, but I never learned erp. I guess I sort of learned PE a little bit, but not, not in depth.
- [01:46]
B
So PE for those listening is Prolonged exposure, which is often used for trauma and deep cbt, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, often used for personality disorders and of course CBT or Cognitive Behavioral therapy, which is kind of the standard therapy that people use today.
- [02:01]
A
Yeah, yeah. But OCD wasn't really talked about other than like a paragraph in the dsm, I would say. And, and, and I had OCD as well as BFRBs, but didn't really know what they were. So until I came here. So very, very interesting to go from not knowing anything to becoming a specialist and feeling really confident in that because of all the training that I would get here, as well as constant consultation, which is very rare. That is not something that you would get often after graduating. So the fact that I had access to that almost every day was perfect for my brain that likes learning and I was constantly going to consults and that's how I felt competent doing ERP as well as becoming an expert with OCD and BFRBs and then learning how to help Myself, which was really interesting going through that whole roundabout way of treating myself as well as others.
- [03:14]
B
We run at least 20 hours of case consultation a week currently. So no therapist here is alone ever. Or we have slack. And you have access to me and Tracy, Our Chief Compliance Officer, 24 7. So how does it feel knowing that you have that in your pocket, available to you as a specialist?
- [03:36]
A
I just feel so supported and held by you all. And you definitely make me feel like I'm not alone, especially if there's a crisis or if there's anything that I don't understand very well, because OCD sometimes takes shape in very strange ways that sometimes don't make sense to the diagnostics. And so it's really nice to be able to brainstorm and work with a lot of folks that understand it very well.
- [04:10]
B
Obviously, coming in, it feels almost like graduate school coming to nocd, where you're going to be trained in ocd. What surprised you about what you didn't know about ocd and how did it change the way you do therapy?
- [04:30]
A
I think, like, at first I didn't realize that OCD could morph into other themes like harm, OCD and taboo themes, even though I myself had had those thoughts.
- [04:43]
B
You're not the first therapist who joined us who, after joining us, realized, well, shit, I have this too, you know, so, yeah, that has happened before. Yeah.
- [04:53]
A
And so I, I think the, the treatment, although it seems quite shocking at first, ends up becoming quite creative as, as a modality. And so I think I was most mostly interested in what are the ways to. To play with these thoughts that were quite out there and definitely distressing for a lot of people. And so using strategies like cognitive diffusion and learning how to use ACT principles really helped me learn how to relate differently to these, these thoughts and, and not take them as seriously with. With members as much as they were taking them.
- [05:44]
B
Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, we even see sometimes, you know, therapists will even kind of look back on caseloads and think, oh, I had OCD cases and didn't even know it too. And, and so that's just something that I warn anybody coming here to be wary of, that you have a gratitude for learning the proper treatment and the proper way to diagnose ocd. But sometimes there's a little bit of guilt too, over, huh, I wish I had known this years ago or that they had taught this in graduate school, because they don't teach these things in graduation graduate school. Most people describe to us maybe 15 to 20 minutes about OCD and it's probably a hand washing case at. And, and that's it, right? There's, there's no other description of ocd. So then people, you've probably seen this too, leave school or just have this notion from TV and movies that OCD is just about washing your hands or straightening things. And maybe that affected you in your own life too. And as you learned about OCD and learned the subtypes that, oh wait, you never even knew that was ocd, right?
- [06:58]
A
Yeah, I think like a lot of the times the obsessions around relationships were, I thought just like, oh, it's me being a teenager or that person just being like having relationship attachment issues. Sure, there's like elements of that, but when it becomes so destructive to relationships or it starts to impact how the relationships are functioning, then, then you know, you have to look at it from another angle, which I, I hadn't considered a lot of the time. So there were a lot of cases that, yeah, for sure I've had guilt around not treating certain things that I know now can look back and say, oh, that was definitely that. And maybe we could have even gotten them like the proper medication because they were taking anti and only antipsychotics or you know, certain things where you're just like, hmm, we could have maybe approached that differently.
- [07:59]
B
And that's really the reason for no cd. I mean, Stephen Smith's experience of going to numerous therapists who treated him with a general talk therapy or, or told him to do compulsions. Right. Told him to avoid and to seek reassurance and to snap a rubber band on his wrist and replace thoughts he didn't like with ones he did. And all of those became just safety behav behaviors that worsened OCD instead of increased it. So that is what I like about nocd. And I wonder if you could speak about that as a mission for NOCD to make sure that people get the life changing care that they need.
- [08:36]
A
Yeah, I think like the work that we're doing is helping people build distress tolerance so that they can handle really hard situations. It's not about learning how to soothe through those situations. It's about building the strength and resilience to get through hard things. And I think oftentimes therapy or talk therapy or other modalities can be more about like, let's regulate constantly and get, you know, get you to a place where you're constantly mindful but breathing through everything. And maybe, maybe we need to learn that it's actually quite okay to have stress and anxiety and, and stress and those are normal things. To have OCD isn't normal, but being able to maybe approach it as though, okay, these are, these are things I can handle or I can tolerate that, that sort of shifts the mindset and helps people get through their, their thoughts.
- [09:41]
B
All of us have cases that are difficult we may feel a little stuck on. How do you feel supported to get through those experiences here at nocd?
- [09:50]
A
Absolutely supported because there's different consults for different situations. So we have a consult for eating disorders, we have a consult for hoarding, we have a consult for BFRBs and ticks. And so all those specialties can really help us kind of navigate when the comorbidities are crossing in different ways. And it makes it challenging to maybe tackle both at the same time or one when it springs up. And I definitely feel quite supported in figuring out interventions.
- [10:29]
B
Alessandra, I'm glad you said everything you did about the training and the cams, because there's one reason to do all of that and that is to make sure that our members get the life changing care that they want and that they would expect. Coming, coming to nocd. We want to be an evidence based care provider for them. We want to give them exposure and response prevention therapy and we want to be sure that they don't repeat failed attempts at therapy that they've had in the past. So thank you for pointing that out. When you have ideas here, do you get to express them and what happens with them?
- [11:06]
A
Yeah, I, there's a Slack channel where we get to not only support other therapists and give, you know, feedback, we also get to give feedback in the consults. Now I get to run a consult, so I feel like I get to build that skill in, you know, that I've been wanting to build. It's making me feel a little more empowered to offer support to therapists so that maybe I can get to a place where I can also, you know, be in a leadership role at some point. My, my goal also is to, to continue developing as a supervisor. And I've gotten that opportunity. So I think NOCD really cares about helping people feel like they're, you know, growing and changing with the company because the company's constantly changing. And so I, and I even really love that we get to give feedback on the tech. That's a really cool part of the job too, is just working different various teams that have different skill sets.
- [12:15]
B
So you do get a chance to move up here at NOCD then, if you join us?
- [12:19]
A
Yeah, absolutely. And, and I mean, obviously you got to Work hard. But, you know, like, I think. I think there are definitely opportunities to. To grow and change.
- [12:31]
B
Sure. And I think getting into NOCD is. Is a pretty rigorous process. I mean, you don't just apply and get in. There's some pretty good interviewing that goes through. And then there's the training experience. Then there's our cams experience where you have to pass doing mock sessions with us before you are set, live to see people, to make sure that you can apply not only our technology, but you can apply our training and do therapy sessions in a way that fits our protocol and set up members to be successful with our treatment protocols and things of that nature. How do you take the research that we've done and the reasons why we have treatment protocols and really bring that into your ability to work with members? And does it feel, like, overwhelming to have to follow that, or does it fit into the model, do you think, in such a way that it is beneficial to you and your members?
- [13:29]
A
I think it's incredibly beneficial. I don't think there's a lot of companies that actually offer that level of rigor, and I think it prepares you for being able to handle different types of cases. I. I'm grateful for it. I wish that more companies did that level of training. In fact, that is what I sought when I was in grad school is like, I need a good training program. Because oftentimes, even in grad school school, you're not getting necessarily a good training program on modalities. There's even a training page.
- [14:09]
B
Yeah.
- [14:10]
A
Where you can go and take classes. Outside of the. The cams that we do and the trainings and that we get mentorship, I mean, it's. This is. It's a very special company that I don't think. I don't think a lot of people realize that that level of rigor is actually very beneficial for growth as a therapist.
- [14:33]
B
There are rewards for people doing excellent work. Here you had a chance to go to Cabo, I believe it was. Right. I think I was there with you. I think we should.
- [14:43]
A
Yes, I think so.
- [14:45]
B
What was that like to be somewhere where you're recognized for excellence?
- [14:54]
A
I was so shocked that that could even be a thing that a company would do for its therapists. In fact, I felt so special and so honored, and it was really cool to meet people in person because we are a telehealth company. So oftentimes people will say, oh, you're telehealth, so you don't get to know your coworkers. Actually, I feel Like, I know my coworkers way better than I did when I worked in a facility because we are constantly in communication on slack. We go to consults and we go to conferences together like iocdf. But then this trip was even more special because we got to really get to know the founders and other folks on different teams and that just felt like such a wonderful way to give input and feel respected for the input.
- [15:51]
B
Great. Well, I'm glad that you got that out of it because I felt that too. It was an amazing experience and you know, all we want to do is grow that to more and more people having an opportunity to do that. And then we also just recently we're all in New Orleans together as a just a company trip. We set goals and when we achieve goals, we reward those goals. What was that experience like for you?
- [16:13]
A
Oh my God. That was even more amazing than cafo. I was like so astounded. It was, we had, we had these amazing little get togethers that we would get, get to go to. Like I got to go on a jazz walk tour with some co workers, other folks did a little bayou exposition. We got to, we were welcomed by a parade. I mean, I don't know any company that would do something like that. It just felt so special and so into like thematic and integral to what we do at nocd because it was almost like we were having days of exposures like every single day and we got to do them together and we got to meet each other from all across the United States. I think there were other people from other parts of the world too. And I don't know, I think that that was just the most, the most wonderful way to celebrate all the hard work that we all do together.
- [17:21]
B
Yeah, it was an amazing time. So I am always thrilled to be able to chat with our therapist to find out, you know, what's working, but also to learn what we could do to improve. And like we said, we have even an innovation Slack channel. If you have an idea, throw it in that channel and our engineers take a look at those things and if they can, they can build it and it makes things better and easier, we're going to do it right. And no idea is too small in something like that to be able to help out everybody do well. So as you've integrated from therapy that we learn in graduate school, which is generally that one on one in an office experience, to now all the technology that you have available. What's it like to do therapy through technology and with technology, the fact that
- [18:18]
A
we can communicate with our members and inspire them to do homework in between session. It's, it's not so closed off and sterile the way you would experience in like a non tech company. Because I don't know, in my experience it's like, oh, you're only talking to your therapist to schedule a call, but here we're like, oh, let's, you know, let's inspire you to, to do ERP throughout your life so that you can become an, an ERP therapist for yourself eventually. And I think it, it also helps build and strengthen the relationship and the rapport between the therapist and, and the members. So, yeah, I just feel like tech has been the best way to go for, for me as a therapist, that's not for everyone, but for me, I have really enjoyed the way it has transformed my ability to be a therapist in a way that's more helpful to members sometimes.
- [19:19]
B
Any final words for people who are watching this, who might be considering joining NOCD and you know, getting our training and becoming one of our therapists, what would you say that would inspire them to make that choice?
- [19:31]
A
Oh, yeah, it was, it's kind of funny because when I first got here I was skeptical and I was like, oh, but it's a tech company and you. And I don't know, I was, I was hesitant. I will be honest. However, once I got involved in the level of training and felt really supported by the staff members, I, I was all in. And then now with all these little perks and benefits, um, I just feel really supported and taken care of. And so that's another added benefit. So I think just open your mind to the idea. If you're scared about the training process and how rigorous it is, I encourage you to stick with it because it will help you grow as a therapist. It will push you and make you uncomfortable and honestly, that's, that's a good thing.
- [20:28]
B
Awesome. Alessandra, thank you for being here today. I really appreciate it and I hope that you help to inspire more people to consider NOCD as a career option for them.
- [20:38]
A
Yeah, of course. I'm always like, people could come to my consult and I will always support you and talk to you and you can always talk to me on Slack.
- [20:48]
B
Awesome. For those of you interested in NOCD, you can go to our website, nocd.com. that's nocd.com. we have a careers area there. Click on that. There's ways to apply. We would love to be able to chat with you and see if no CD might be right for you at this point in your career. Until then, be well. Thanks, everybody.