Flip The Script: Interview with Stefan Dabkowski, LPCC

M: Hello, my name is Megan, and I’m here with Stefan, a therapist at the Cleveland Health and Wellness Center (CHAWC), for our “Flip the Script: Ask a Therapist” series, where you can get to know our CHAWC therapists a bit better. Stefan Dabkowski is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor at the Cleveland Health and Wellness Center in Rocky River, Ohio. He attended the University of Albany where he obtained a Master’s degree in Mental Health Counseling. He has worked in outpatient and managed care settings addressing mental health and substance use disorders through a wide range of evidence-based approaches such as DBT, CBT, and REBT. He is trained in Motivational Interviewing to further assist clients with the process of change, and he also employs philosophy and existential theory to his practice. With couples, Stefan utilizes Emotion-Focused Therapy to strengthen emotional bonds and improve communication and understanding. He is interested in working with all different presenting problems relating to mood disorders, PTSD, and recovery from substance use. He strives to create a warm and welcoming environment in his practice in order to assist in the process of self-change and personal growth. 

Hi Stefan, how are you doing today? 

S: I’m doing great.

M: Let’s get into a few questions about your work. When did you realize that you wanted to become a therapist?

S: Sure, that’s a great question. I would say I became interested in the field of counseling after taking some general classes on psychology, like most people, and just learning more about the process of therapy, the art of therapy, if you will. I’ve always had this innate drive to be a helper in some way, to strive to help other people, and overcome mental health concerns and things like that was always an area of interest of mine. Being able to get some more experience with that through my education really was something that opened the door. And I said, this feels like the right fit, this is something I want to do.

M: Great—and what populations do you enjoy working with? 

S: I would say I enjoy working with the late adolescent adult population. I think I connect best with them, it’s what I’ve had the most experience working with, and I feel like I’m able to do my best work and really help these clients out the best. 

M: And what treatment modalities do you draw from in your work? 

S: I would say that my approach is very cognitive in nature, I truly believe that, as humans, we’re not really that complex. Actions and behaviors stem from thoughts, so if we change our thoughts, we change our irrational thinking patterns, and change our faulty, self-defeating beliefs, we can start to change our actions and behaviors as a result. I work from a lot of those cognitive, CBT/REBT perspectives, but I also bring in the flair of existential perspectives, existential grief, which really looks at some of the deeper questions of our existence. With regards to exploring our confrontation with death anxiety, associated with the finality of our life, and also exploring a little bit more about the importance of finding a sense of purpose and meaning in life. I think without having a sense of purpose and meaning, it can lead to a lot of presenting concerns for individuals. So these are some general themes that I’ll explore with the clients that I work with. 

M: What are your unique strengths as a therapist?

S: So this is a great question and, I can always give a cliché answer and just be very generic, but I thought it would be helpful for me to get some insight and get some perspective from people that I work with currently. So I asked my clients to answer this question for me. What I found out was some of the themes of my unique strengths and the things that have led to success with people I’ve worked with is, they feel I have a sense of openness, honesty, a sense of genuineness. I’m very reflective, very insightful, encouraging for a sense of self-discovery, self-disclosure. I feel individuals have said that I create a very nonjudgmental setting which helps people to be more open, which helps to elicit the process of change, and I’m very relatable and easy to speak with.

M: That’s great that you asked your current clients to answer that for you. How do you manage stress in your own life?

S: Sure, so I used to play a lot of sports when I was in school, but as I’ve gotten older, my interests have waned a little bit with that. But I still find a means for competition, so I play a lot of golf. That is my main passion. I think it’s a really big stress reliever and a great tool to practice a sense of mindfulness. Mindfulness is something that I think everybody encourages, all clinicians encourage in some way with the clients they work with. I think it’s a good application for me, to remind myself to be mindful of those things. So that’s how I decompress. 

M: And my last question for you is, what makes therapy effective, and who can benefit from therapy?

S: I believe that everybody in some way can benefit from therapy. They talk about therapy as being the “talking cure,” and I believe that is so true. I think being able to talk to somebody, being able to express what you’re feeling openly, and being able to do that in a place where you can feel as though you can be genuine, you can be honest, you feel like you’re not being judged in any way, I think that is what leads to real significant change. I think this idea of being able to come to your own conclusions, being able to come to your own answers to problems, answers to questions, really leads to effective therapy, effective treatment, and I think anybody can benefit from that. 

M: Great! Well thank you for being here with me today, virtually, and letting us get to know a little bit more about your practice.

S: My pleasure, thank you very much.