You know, not every issue can you get over.

Sometimes you have to find a way around it, under it, over it, some way to deal with it.

My name is Robert Bogdan.

I'm a licensed clinical social worker.

I practice in Kingston, Pennsylvania, and I'm a child and adolescent therapist.

Can't think of anything else to say.

Hey, Jack, I'm ready for you.

Come on in.

What inspired me to work with kids and teens?

It would probably go way back to my father.

He was a pediatrician, and he really went out of his way to help families.

He would take on people who didn't have a lot of money, and he was just such a giving person.

And my mother was in education, so that was probably the beginning, and it probably all started with my own learning issues and the struggles that I had as a kid.

At school, I'd begun to be a little helper to other kids, so early on, I don't remember exactly when I was diagnosed with dyslexia.

I remember seeing a lot of different psychologists and doctors as I was growing up.

My mother, I think, was the one that kind of teased it out.

I can use my phone and dictate directly into the program that I use for my notes.

The client did not report any changes in their medication, period.

You have 15 minutes to make me a bridge that goes from here to there with Legos, and it has to hold 5 books.

The idea is, really, I don't care if they make the bridge, I want them to work on the frustration they feel from it.

Bubbles is a common thing that I use, as weird as it sounds.

The way to blow a giant bubble is to take a big deep breath in, let it out nice and slow.

That's also the way we're supposed to breathe when we're angry.

I'll draw it out, I'll do the little blocks.

You add in what the person was feeling.

Okay, so here is where we blew up.

How do we change that story?

What could we do different?

How you doing?

I'm good.

How are you?

I'm good.

To build trust and that connection with a family, it starts from that very first phone call.

I let them know how long I've been doing this for, which is about 27 years, and I let them know I joke around a lot.

Let's put that into our puppet show.

In a breakthrough moment with a client, a young man had come back to see me.

He had a lot of social struggles, and the day came where he followed through on some steps, and he says, I had a date, and he went out with someone, and that was huge.

I went in and got my Master's in Social Work, then I became a licensed clinical social worker.

After I did some supervision and took some testing, then I could do more direct practice with people.

What a job as a private practice clinician working with families has allowed me to do in my life, one, I mean, of course, I own my own home, I have two wonderful kids.

It's allowed me to have a little more flexible schedule.

I definitely am able to give my family what they need, and it's allowed me to have a little more flexibility when I get to give them a good amount of time.

Really?

That's fun.

So some of the aspects of traits that would lead to you being a successful therapist, number one is being empathetic.

Because I work with children, it's about creativity.

Take a psychology class in high school just to see what it's like.

Be your counselor.

I think those are great early steps to do that will make you feel like, yeah, this is what's right for me, or not.

So I think what motivates me to want to do this work each day, sometimes it's just the smiles on the face of the kids.

It's the engagement, it's the connection with people, it's the socializing.

That drives you a lot to keep doing it.

And I'll catch you when you come back from school.

Thank you.