STP 33 | Scaling Your Therapy Practice with Writing a Book with Stefani Cohen
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James Marland: You like to get things done quicker, faster, and with less effort. So do I. So I created a Facebook group called Assistance Automation and AI for mental health providers. You can search it in the Facebook search panel, and I created this because I love to talk about this topic. I love talking about assistants and how to hire them and manage them.
James Marland: I love automations that do things for me quicker, faster, better. And then AI is just exploding on the scene. And I feel like I'm talking about all the, about it all the time, and my friends are talking about it. So why not create a community group where we can discuss these things together, share ideas.
James Marland: And get things done quicker. I'd be humbled if you joined the group and started contributing your favorite tips and tricks on assistance, automation, and AI for mental health providers. Go to the show notes, find the link for the group, or just search up assistance, automation and AI for mental health providers in the Facebook search bar.
James Marland: We'll see you there.
James Marland: Hello and welcome to the Scaling Therapy Practice. This is James Marlin. This week we have a special guest, Stephanie Cohen. It is Cohen, right?
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: It is. And it's Stephanie also. A lot of people stay Stefani, but it's
James Marland: Stephanie. Oh, Stephanie Cohen. Well, My history is if I can mess up a name, he's
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: gonna mess it up.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: Well, you didn't, so we're up to a good start, one for one.
James Marland: Alright. So, my special guest, Stephanie, has written a book on and also has a therapy practice on overcoming the fear of dogs. I came in contact with her after listening to her show from Lisa Mustard's Show. The therapy show and I'm just like, wow, she's got something interesting.
James Marland: And she also wrote a book about that. So since this show is all about scaling and like added, you know, growing, this is just another way to grow your practice and grow your expertise. So, thanks for coming on the show. Stephanie, can you tell us about yourself?
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: Sure. So I am a licensed clinical social worker and I'm also a dog lover.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: And a parent and a grandparent. And over the years I have kind of, seen that many more people than one would originally think are actually afraid of dogs. Mostly children, but also adults. Adults are tend to be better at hiding it than children. This all started when my daughter. Was five years old and out of the blue she announced that she was not going on any play dates and she wasn't going to visit her grandmother, who was my mother because there were dogs there.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: And I didn't know what to make of this. I never heard of this. We loved dogs. I was really surprised. So, I actually went to visit my sister in California who helped me write the book. And she had a wonderful dog and intuitively we kind of helped Becky overcome her fear exposure therapy and giving Becky control dog was well-trained.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: And we kind of saw that over the five days we were visiting her fear decreased and then she was able to be around well-behaved dogs after that. And then in very casually and informally, I had a, my own dog. We took the therapy dog training and I used him in my practice and people would say, oh, my child's afraid of dogs.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: And I said, well, let me try and help. And then we would, I would bring was Mugsy, I'm now on my third party Aw. Mugsy would come with me to a session and we would help and. It was very informal and over time I really said, you know what, I have something here. I think I know what I'm doing. And my practice grew and more people heard about me.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: And the thing about what I do is I can only help one person at a time. And I'm really very passionate about helping people who are afraid of dogs. I thought if I could just put it in a book, more people would learn about the fear of dogs, which is also called xenophobia and their own children. Or also, I wish I had, so for my regret, I wish I had used a different title because I think the book is also helpful for therapists and dog trainers.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: But. More people would have an idea how to help people who are afraid of dogs. So that's why I wrote it.
James Marland: That's awesome. Like, you, you found a need, like you personally had this need. Yes. Your family was going through this struggle, and then you, because you have the skills and you found a solution.
James Marland: Then it just kinda grew from there. Like, like it helped more and more people.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: Yeah, that's exactly what happened.
James Marland: So can I tell you can I talk about my dog stories? Of course. Is that okay? Okay. Yeah, course. Okay. I have two. One when I was a paper boy and another one that happened like five years ago.
James Marland: So, I've must gotten over the one when I was a paperboy because there was a house where a actually multiple paperboy stories that you probably find that common, but,
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: I know there aren't too many paper boys anymore. Oh, that's
James Marland: too. Okay. So, so my first one, I had two when I was a paper boy that I remember distinctly one, a dog. Bit me on the leg when I was riding by on a bike, like, and that, that scared me and I avoided that house for a while. And then the other one was, it was Sunday morning and I was delivering the newspapers and I went up to the door and it was at a corner of the house and the dog came around the corner and like tackled me.
James Marland: Oh no. Like, it's like, you know, 5:00 AM or something. Yeah. Barely awake. I'm not a morning person. And like I got super scared of particularly those houses, but not necessarily dogs and animals. I think we had a lot of, that's interesting. A lot of animals at our house. Although I avoided those houses for a while now.
James Marland: I guess one though that I was in. More. More recently though, is I went to help somebody at their house. Drywalling. I'm not a great drywall expert, but it takes me a long time. But I was helping and I played with their dog the whole time. Like I like threw the ball with them and petted them. And you know, I knew they were a slightly aggressive dog.
James Marland: 'cause when new people came to the house, they were like rah. And as we were going to say goodbye, I leaned down to like pat it on the head and it bit me in the face. I was scared of that dog, but and I still get, like, when I lean down, like I'm still animal lover and still to this day when I lean down, I still feel like.
James Marland: Maybe I shouldn't do this, even though the dog's like nice as pie. So Uhhuh, I don't want, I don't want you to diagnose me or anything, but what could I do in that situation? I know we're gonna talk about the book, but No,
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: No. It's fine. It's all related. Okay. You know, we don't teach kids how to be safe around.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: If I had a kid who was a paper boy at this point, probably one of the things I would try to remember to tell them is, or teach them about dogs. When you look at a dog, you can tell if they're happy to see you, if they're feeling scared or overexcited and. Dogs chase things that move. So if you're on a bicycle and it's moving it might chase after you. So actually what the experts tell you to do, if it looks like that's gonna happen, is you get off the bike, you put the bike between you and the dog. And you actually it's very scary, but you actually stand still because when you're still, you are less interesting to the.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: That's number one. The other one is, quite honestly, you should never put your head or face near a dog's face.
James Marland: Okay. I mean, it
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: makes sense unless it's your own dog and you absolutely know that it's gonna be okay.
James Marland: Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. So that was a big mistake there, but I still, but nobody told you.
James Marland: Yeah, right. I still, well, I just. We grew up with pets and that's what you did. You know, you kissed them goodbye or you're like,
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: right, right. And those pets were probably fine. The other thing is a lot of people don't take responsibility for their dog. So if you have to know your dog, and so for example, my dog gets very excited when someone comes to the house.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: Yeah, I don't want her jumping on people. She should have manners the same way. I want my kids to have manners, so I leash her and we go outside and we meet the people outside where I have more control and she's less excited. So you have to know your dog. You have to manage your dog's behavior. But quite honestly, a lot of people do not.
James Marland: So you take control of the environment and make it into a better experience for everybody involved. Bingo. Yes.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: Yes. Especially the dog. Yeah. 'cause then the dog will behave better
James Marland: because if you know they're gonna do that, you can, you the human can take preventative measures. Yes. And do
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: it. Yeah. Yeah. Cool.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: Proactive, right? Yeah. Also, with that other dog, I might have said to you, don't put your face near his.
James Marland: Yeah. Right. Yeah. You would've told, you would've told me. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Great stuff. Alright. I've already learned a lot. Good. So we're gonna, we're gonna move into our segment on tools, tech or Tip of the week.
James Marland: Okay. Stephanie, do you wanna go first?
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: Sure. I honestly don't know how I got this book out of me. I am not an organized person. I. Have even have trouble writing an outline. So my tip, what worked for me was I found someone, she wasn't an official editor type person, but she had studied journalism. She was looking for some extra money and she helped me.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: I kind of just wrote whatever I was thinking. She took it and she organized it into chapters and paragraphs, and best thing for me was I was accountable. I knew Andrea was coming Wednesday at nine in the morning, and I damped, am I allowed to say that? And I better, okay.
James Marland: This isn't made for kids, so we're okay.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: And I better have my material ready. And she would give me assignments. She would say, okay, for next week, do this. And honestly I think that's how the book
James Marland: got out of me. Great. I love it. It's like two tips, like accountability and also like delegate your weaknesses. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
James Marland: 'cause oh man, I am I could do everything, but I am not great at everything. Just the other day, somebody, I sent something to a con, a piece of content to somebody who's like a professional editor and she found all these little things that aren't little, but you know, she was just like, Great at it.
James Marland: So, yeah, delegate your weaknesses. Great. So my tip my tip is I'm experimenting with a tech program called notion co. And it is basically a content manner. It's like create your own wiki type of program. It's free, you can upgrade to the Pro $10 a month, which gives you. Unlimited access to its ai.
James Marland: So I can type in for the ai, give me an outline, or give me even like right simple blog posts. And it will do that for me. Just like other ais it's cheaper than chat G P T, which is $20 a month. This one is $10 a month. I haven't looked all the features, but it has checklists and templates for project management.
James Marland: Like, to-do lists and all sorts of things, and I can organize it, sort of like a Wiki page where there's links that take me to place. What I'm experimenting with now is I'm rewriting or writing my SOPs for all the projects that I'm doing, my standard operating procedures. Thank you. Hey, mental health people have their acronyms, right?
James Marland: I mean, yes, you could probably bury me in a list of acronyms. So, s o p, standard Operating Procedures. And so I'm writing those out. So when I as I'm doing them, I don't have to recreate the wheel until I get them embedded into my mind. And then eventually the idea is with all these pieces of content, I'd be able to delegate portions of them.
James Marland: To virtual assistant or somebody now that I have it all in one place. So I'm doing some of that hard work ahead of time. So when I am, you know, More successful. But actually I'm gonna cut that out. I'm, I am gonna hire a virtual assistant before I'm super successful because I know it's gonna help me in the future, even though it's gonna else you get super successful.
James Marland: Yeah, it's gonna help me. It's gonna take off those, it's your tip, Stephanie. Hey, it's your tip. It's like there, you delegating things, delegating your weaknesses. But notion.co I'll put it in the show notes, but it's a, I wrote down pretty cool program. And I see a lot of other creative people use it, and I, it's one of those things, like I saw it enough times that I'm like, okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna try it out.
James Marland: So that is my tip. Okay. So let's get into the main segment, which is the, your, you wrote a book and I just wanted to ask you questions about like, why did you write a book and. How, 'cause there's other people who are trying to scale and not everybody wants to scale their practice with like adding group members or adding a building or adding all these other things.
James Marland: But they wanna grow and become known for something and help more people. I think you're, when you said in the beginning you wanted to help more people and you only, you know, you are only one person and the need is so great. So this is another way for people to scale. Yes. Your brain a little bit about your process of scaling by writing a book.
James Marland: My first question to get us started though is like why did you write this book? So go ahead. Why did you write the book? Okay,
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: so I wrote the book because I was pretty confident that I had something useful and I really, I had seen my methods. Work. And I really wanted to share it also, when I would start talking with prospective clients or people about their kids lots of times I was just sort of volunteering my information.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: It wasn't done like in a social work session or anything, and I heard myself saying the same things over and over again, which I actually did with you in the beginning. And it's, I guess if you repeat it enough it, I don't know if I don't know the the analogy for that, but it just made me, it just made me realize that this is something, it works and it's consistent.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: Maybe that was it. That it's consistent enough to be in a book.
James Marland: Yeah. So you, you heard yourself. Saying the same thing over and over again. Can you remember the point when you were like, maybe I should write a book, or did somebody tell you, Hey, this would make a good book. Can you go back to that?
James Marland: I
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: can. I, my sister who's been a fantastic cheerleader for me, and she actually, she she contributed to two chapters in the book. She's like you, she's always looking to do more. She's actually, she's an animal communicator and she does animal reiki, so she also has a book in her, but she hasn't written it yet.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: So, but she made me write one. So, she just, she gave me the confidence to just try and I it by some people and they said, why not? And I really thought, I have nothing to lose. And what I found as I started to get the information out is that the actual work that I do in the session with the dog and the client is, It's a part of the book, but there was actually much more information that people need.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: Which I really wasn't even doing in my sessions.
James Marland: Who were the people that connected with it? Like did you get feedback along the way?
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: I did get feedback. I got feedback from social work colleagues. I got feedback from people who. So one of the things I do is I visit preschools with with my dog and I teach kindness to animals and bite prevention.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: And I got a lot of feedback from the teachers or the directors there that it was a wonderful program. And and I said, well, you know, I'm thinking of doing a book. And they said, do it. Okay. Easy for you to say.
James Marland: No. Oh, it'll just like appear in a week or two. Right? Yeah. And
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: this was before artificial intelligence.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: Yeah. I wrote every word in there, just so you know.
James Marland: Oh, you know what? That that's gonna be become less and less. I know as we go along I know, but that the real, the realness, the human humanity and the stories you bring, that actually sets you apart from all this AI stuff. Well,
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: that's true, and I do have little vignettes in the book illustrating some of my points.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: Like, for example, there's four different ways fear of dogs develop, and I give examples for each one of those. I also do, and mental health people relate to this. I also do like a a case study blown by blow, how it went, sort of process notes. Now I forgot the question.
James Marland: Well, it was why and who. Okay. So, and what need, so, is there a deeper why to this?
James Marland: Like what was your, because writing a book is hard and you probably get discouraged along the way and the work is hard. What kept you going? Like, what was your internal motivation?
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: I wanted to complete it once I started it. It wasn't a baby or anything, but I'll tell you a little secret, I kind of live by good enough is good enough. But in this case, good enough isn't real, wasn't good enough. I really had to put my best into it. And it was hard.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: It actually got published right as the pandemic started, so, which I think was interesting. But I had worked on it for I guess, two years before that.
James Marland: Did the pandemic help or hurt the
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: release? I'm not sure. Okay. I'm not sure.
James Marland: I know a lot of people bought pets during that time.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: Yes. So I don't know if it helped the release, but it did get out there and a lot of people did contact me.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: Not in the midst of the pandemic, but as it was kind of starting to wind down and people were out and about again. They realized their children had not seen dogs for a year and a half or two years. So they hadn't had any positive exposures and were now afraid. Okay.
James Marland: That's great. So you had this experience. You wrote it into a book, people gave you some feedback, but as we kind of alluded to, it didn't just pop up on your shelf, you had to do some work. So yeah just give us the highlights of how you did it. Like did you have a process? Were you like Stephen Tinging who sat down and row for an hour every day?
James Marland: Like, what did you do?
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: My process was if Andrea is coming Wednesday morning at nine aware around Monday or Tuesday, I sat down and regurgitated everything on my mind. So I would give her something. That was my process. I am, I don't know if I'm a procrastinator or if it's more like I work well under.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: Like if I know I have a deadline, I'll wait. I. Up until, I guess that is procrastination. I'll wait until I have to do it, and then I really
James Marland: do it. Okay. So that accountability kept you going. Did you have a deadline, like where you're like, I'm gonna work on this for six months, or what? What was your
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: No, I had no idea.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: It kind, I had no idea. So you
James Marland: just did it like I just did it. You're just like, I'm gonna work on this till it's done.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we had the outline. I. So the book talks about what the fear of dogs is, how it develops, it gives vignettes, it describes exposure therapy. And then there are two chapters, which my sister kind of did about the importance of teaching people how to read dog.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: Like what is a dog saying when it's. Got its tail between its legs or that kind of a thing. So kids learn to feel safe around dogs because when, so we're afraid of things we don't understand. So we have to teach kids about dogs so they understand them. And then the last chapter, which like maybe you've experienced yourself is the human animal bond and the benefits of all the things you get.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: Facing your fears and number two, interacting with Adam.
James Marland: Yeah, they do give us a big benefit. I remember for. Maybe 15 years. I kept trying to get my wife to get us a cat. She didn't want one because of the fur. Fur. Sorry. I know we're talking about dogs, but we No, that's okay. Animals are animals.
James Marland: Animals are animals. And and she wanted a declawed. She was worried about the furniture, but eventually she she, you know, gave in. I think she loves the cat more than we do, and my son and I do.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: I believe it. I,
James Marland: yeah. The cat follows her around and like sits on her lap. The cat will like walk past my leg and be like, pet me.
James Marland: But when I try to like, have it sit on my lap, like, no, not interested. Yeah. But it loves, it, loves my wife. She yeah. That's great. Anyways, they bring a lot they definitely bring a lot to the, they do to the house. So that's why this is important because if people want that and they're afraid and they don't know how to like read the dog and develop the relationship with the dog or the animal, then that's something that they're definitely missing out on,
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: right?
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: And it, it causes a lot of stress, can cause family stress. You know, when my daughter said, no, I'm not going to grandma's, that was a problem. In some families I'm contacted that one sibling loves dogs and is dying to have a dog, and the other one is petrified, so. It news, there's a lot of stuff that goes on around it as well.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: So,
James Marland: while you were writing the book where there's some challenges that you face that you had to overcome
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: I had to, I didn't even know what, I didn't know quite honestly. I, you know, there was a lot of, you know, are you gonna self-publish? Are you gonna try to get an agent? Are you this, are you that? I'm the kind of, I'm doing it now with the marketing. I throw spaghetti at the wall and sometimes it sticks and sometimes it doesn't.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: So, I, I really didn't, I didn't know, should I try to get an agent? Should I defend you know, now I forgot what they're even called because I didn't send that many to like a publishing panel published.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: Yeah. Are you interested? As whatever. Anyway, so I ended up, I believe it's called Hybrid Publishing.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: You can also publish directly up to like Amazon, right? But James, I like, people said, oh, you just format it this way and that way. And I said, are you kidding me? I have no idea what that means. So anyway, I did hybrid publishing. The company I worked with was fantastic. And do you wanna give him a shout out?
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: Sure. It it gatekeeper press.
James Marland: Okay. Put the, put their link in the show notes. Okay.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: Actually, I'm working on a new cover, so I'm back in touch with them and they're helping me with that.
James Marland: Awesome. So the, those challenges, like, did you, do you feel like you, did you stay with an idea for a long time?
James Marland: Like it sounds like you threw things at and you wanted to see if it stuck or work. How do you, how would, how did you evaluate? Was it working or not? Like, and did you change quickly because. I know one of the, one of the failures or the struggles of trying new things is we like invest a lot of time and energy into it.
James Marland: And then when it doesn't work, we like double down our efforts, right? Like, oh, if I just add one more follower, one more post, or one more viral this, or one more podcast interview, you know, everything will be great. But we're not like reading the data and changing. So how did you make those adjustments and what's your, what are you doing now?
James Marland: Well,
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: I kind of tried to have a mindset that if the book could help one person, it would be enough. Like if there's one person who's less afraid of dogs, or now the family can go to the park together, I. I was good enough. So I had very low expectations quite honestly, I mean, this is only part book is only part of what I do, so I wasn't like highly dependent on it.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: I try not to take anything personal about it. I rather than like doubling down, I probably lean more towards, okay I'm gonna not gonna do it then.
James Marland: Okay. You read the data quickly and if it's not, if it's not producing, you're not gonna
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: Yeah. Throw brand things. So I sent out a couple of query letters and whatever and got nothing.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: So that's when I said, okay, I'll just do it this other way.
James Marland: Okay. That's that takes some courage. I think. I think that's just a, a. Perspective, I think you detached a little bit of your, who you are from what you do
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: type of thing. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't like rejection, you know, I was really putting myself out there.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: Sure. Yeah. So in this way, plus I, this way I had more control. I guess. Okay.
James Marland: Did anything surprise you about the book writing process?
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: I was surprised by all the moving pieces that goes into it. Can you tell me more about that? So, you know, the chapters, the footnotes the quotes. Like, I had to make sure I wasn't plagiarizing.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: Hear that a I
James Marland: Oh, they do. Oh they hear this.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: No, I know. And then I was, when I sent the manuscript to the publisher, I was surprised by honestly how, I don't know if cute is the right word, but they did a they put a lot of nice touches on it, like even the No. If you can see, yeah, I
James Marland: should.
James Marland: I'll send, this is a video. This is a video podcast, so, well, they can't, oh,
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: they can't anyway. No, they, well, that's all right. I don't think you'll be able to see it. I'll describe it, but go ahead. I was gonna say, I'll send you a book anyway, but even just the page numbers they have in Paul
James Marland: what, which is, show me on the video.
James Marland: I saw it show me on the video. I was seeing it. So this makes great audio. Oh yeah. The
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: page numbers are in blueprints, which is adorable. I never would've thought of that. So that is cute illustrations and yeah. So just a lot of moving pieces. Even just like I'm now redoing like the back cover of the book.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: There's a lot of stuff that goes into this.
James Marland: Did you have to make a lot of decisions or did they say, Hey, here's an option? What, they
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: asked me to make a lot of decisions and I would say, Six out of 10 times I say I, I would say I defer to you. Okay. I would put in what I thought, and then I would say, but I defer to you,
James Marland: so, oh, yeah.
James Marland: I bet there was all sorts of like lot of little nitty gritty details. Yes.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: Yeah. And that is one thing about me. I am not a perfectionist. I am, I can go with the flow for the most part. So I didn't get hung up on that. Okay.
James Marland: So as we start wrapping up our discussion on the book writing, what if somebody has a, so, you know, they're like you, where they had something that's working for them or the therapy practice.
James Marland: A lot of people are getting them great feedback. It's very niche down. You know, this is a pretty niche topic. Yeah. But it's also like, it solves a big problem for people. Somebody has that and they're thinking, oh, I should do more with it, or I should write a book with it. What advice would you give them as they start their adventure?
James Marland: So
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: I'll quite quote Nike. Just do it. Okay. Every reason that you have for not doing it, just do it. My regret, which I shared with Lisa, is that I did not do this sooner. I'm really sorry. So, I think if people are even thinking about it, they really should try.
James Marland: Perfect great advice. So let's talk about where people can find you like online and what you offer.
James Marland: Let yeah, just tell us about your offerings. Sure.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: So I'm in the New York City area. I'm in the suburbs of New York. If people live Around there, I can work with you individually and in person. I do offer a 15 minute complimentary phone call to try to get a little information and kind of help people find the right setting, the right therapy dog, et cetera, so that they can get the process that's outlined in the book.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: I do Zoom consults. I almost always will do a session with kids mostly, although their parents often are learn a lot. We, I show them pictures of dogs in different positions and we, and I help them see which dogs are friendly, when should you stay away from a dog? And that, that gives kids confidence and it You need to be cautious around dog.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: We really do. It's like crossing the street or cooking. It can be dangerous. It doesn't have to be, but it can be. You have to know what you're doing.
James Marland: Yeah. Like, if it's your dog, it's different than somebody else's dog. Yeah. A
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: thousand percent.
James Marland: If it's your just like crossing your own street, you know, the dangers and what to look out for.
James Marland: That's a good point. Yes. But if I went to New York City, I'd be a little more fearful than my little old town here in Pennsylvania, because I just don't know the dangers, the pe, like I don't know the signs that you probably know without knowing.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: Right. But yeah, if you were there for a few days, you would probably learn them if
James Marland: you showed me pictures of the street.
James Marland: Right. Here's the signs, here's the people, here's the noises you need to look out for. Yeah. And then I could cross the street with a lot more confidence. I bet you could. All right. What's your web, do you have webpages or social
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: media? I do. So overcome fear of dogs.com is, it's the landing page for the book, but it also has some helpful information, and again, with extra nudging.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: I signed up for Constant Contact, so now there's a way to, you know, and get the email funnel, the whole thing. Then you have to write the email. So,
James Marland: I know that's one of my, I know. You know, I know. You know, it's, see, it's on my to-do list to do every week, the write the email, and I write it like every other week.
James Marland: So, yeah. Yeah.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: And then there's a part of me that feels like, you know what? People don't have to hear from me every week, every couple weeks is fine. But anyway. Yeah. So there's that. I can give you my direct email if you
James Marland: want. If you want me to put it in the show notes. Yeah, that's fine. I can definitely do that.
James Marland: Okay. So, so why'd you do that? Okay, so
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: it's, my name's Stephanie, s t e f a n i, Cohen, c o h e n l cs [email protected]. Yeah, that okay. And then on Instagram it's overcome fear of dogs.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: That I'm, you know, again, I'm throwing spaghetti at the wall. Try the stories. I try the reels. I'm having some success, some mixed success, I would say. And then if people still do Facebook, it's overcome fear of dogs. I have a theme. Over cohere dogs. That's pretty
James Marland: great. Well, I'll put all those in the show notes and I think thank you.
James Marland: And then of
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: course, the
James Marland: book, please. The book. And where can you get the book?
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: The book is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble. A couple of other places there, links on the website.
James Marland: And I like to ask, where do you get paid the most when people buy the book? Do you get paid the most on your webpage or does
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: it matter?
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: Oh mine will sell it from the webpage. Okay. And I'm not getting rich from this book.
James Marland: Okay. Well, some people, you know, everybody takes a cut and so sometimes when you buy it on the webpage
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: yeah, no, I appreciate that. It doesn't, I get the same royalty from wherever it's bought. Okay.
James Marland: Let's.
James Marland: You If people could only remember one thing, either about writing the books or about whatever, if they could only remember one thing from this episode Stephanie, what would you tell them to remember?
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: I would say, again, don't wait. You don't know what's around the corner. Just do it. There's people that you can get help with it, but if you have something to share, we really encourage you to do it.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: I'm so glad I did this. I just wish I'd done it
James Marland: sooner. Awesome. And my one thing I guess would be the don't as we're talking about it, like your attitude of not taking it personally. Like it's important to you, you wanna help people, but it's not your whole, like, it's not all you are all you do.
James Marland: Right. So, that kind of takes the sting out of some of these. Trying things. Oh, it doesn't work well, it's okay, I'm gonna try something else. Type of attitude. Right, right. I think that's a big part of being an entrepreneur yet, and growing. Not everything's gonna work, right. Not everything's gonna take off.
James Marland: So you gotta keep trying and adjusting and I really like that
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: perspective. Right. And I guess the therapist in me would say that it's sort of that growth mindset and you can reframe stuff and learn from it. As opposed to being upset.
James Marland: Perfect. I'm gonna save that clip. Okay. You said a lot of cool things.
James Marland: Alright. Right. Well thanks for being on the
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: show, Stephanie. Well, thanks for having me, James.
James Marland: This is James Marlin with a scaling therapy practice, encouraging you to keep taking the small steps that lead to big growth. We'll see you next time.
David Hall: Psych Maven is proud to support the Scaling Therapy Practice podcast, and if you are someone looking for ideas that are tailored to your own personal style on how to scale and grow your own impact and income as a mental health provider, we hope you might check out our free online assessment.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: If you go to stp dot psych maven.com, you can take our free personal inventory and find out what your builder type is as a helping professional. This assessment is quick and fun, and it comes with tons of customized resources with your results. So you can discover the best ways to scale that match your own personality.
Stefani M Cohen, LCSW: Find the [email protected]. That is stp dot p ss y c h m a v e n.com. Have fun with it.
James Marland: Thank you for listening to the Scaling Therapy Practice. I hope you enjoyed the show. I wanna remind you that the content shared today is for general information and entertainment purposes only. It should be considered as legal or tax advice.
James Marland: If you need a professional advice in those areas, please consult with a licensed attorney or accountant. But thank you so much for listening. The Scaling therapy practice is part of the Cy Craft network.
