Interview With Dr. Stan Katz of Starting Overby LauraBelle
Recently I had the great experience to talk to Dr. Stan Katz on the phone about his career, being on Starting Over and the new internet program that the website is launching. What I found was the same warm, friendly Dr. Stan that we see on the show every day.
Before I even got a chance to get started, Dr. Stan asked where I was calling from. Learning I was located in the Chicago area, he asked if it was pretty cold here. I replied that it was and that we had about six inches of snow last night. He mentioned seeing on the news about the airplane skidding off the runway at the airport and finding itself in traffic. I'm pretty sure he was sensing my nervousness and trying to put me at ease.
I have always wondered since Dr. Stan was so established in his field, why it was that he chose to join Starting Over last year. He told me he always has been involved with the media and being a technical advisor in his field, and has also taught for a number of years as well. He has even testified before the International Congress about children in the media. Someone suggested to Dr. Stan that he should be on the show, and he had actually never heard of it. Once he looked into it, though, he saw that this show actually changed lives. He sees now how the show is such a lifeline.
As a psychologist, Dr. Stan normally only gets a chance to work with people one-on-one or two-on-one. He saw that the information gleamed in these consultations could become generalized to help even more people. This is one reason he feels the new Tell Your Friends You're Starting Over program will work so well. With this program, men and women will go to the Starting Over website, sign up to start over and set their goal. They will then have the opportunity to email friends and family to ask for support in reaching their goal.
The whole idea behind this is to help people develop their own support system. This is something Dr. Stan says they tell people when the show is "on the road." They want them to recognize the support system that is there waiting for them, that the woman sitting next to them could actually be offering them lots of support.
Personally I love it when Dr. Stan lets his emotions get the best of him. I rewound my tape of his goodbye to Josie several times. Asked if he feels closer to his Starting Over clients than his other clients, Dr. Stan says there is no question. With his other patients, he only gets a chance to see them once a week and never outside the office. With Starting Over they become special clients that he sees three or four times a week, or sometimes even three or four times a day. He gets to eat dinner or lunch with them sometimes and watch how they work through challenges.
Dr. Stan doesn't feel this equals normal psychology. It's like a hybrid of psychology, life coaching and consulting. He compares it to a residential treatment program. In a normal psychology environment, what people tell you in therapy is not always painting an accurate picture. Yet when he gets to do a Group session on Starting Over, he gets more of the whole picture of what is really going on.
A benefit to this type of therapy is that Dr. Stan develops a more closer relationship with these women than he normally would in a regular office type of environment. When these women graduate, such as with Josie, he is overcome with emotion and so proud of their achievements, almost like they are his children.
The stories that Starting Over showcases, Dr. Stan feels are intensely poignant. Often the women's goals change while they're in the house even. He garnered a big laugh from me when he said what you see on Starting Over is so much more real than what you see on Dr. Phil. I agreed with Dr. Stan, saying as viewers, it is all very real to us as well. Using Josie as an example once again, I pointed to her first season on the show when she left the show with the intention of moving back in with her boyfriend that had thrown her out. Watching this young woman throw not only her life, but her unborn child's life away as well, was gut-wrenching.
When I interview the graduates of Starting Over, I always ask what they feel they have learned from Dr. Stan, the life coaches and their housemates. I posed the same to Dr. Stan. What does he feel he has learned from Iyanla, Rhonda and the housemates? He says he has learned a great deal. He has learned of the power of life coaching. He believes Iyanla and Rhonda are amazing.
Psychologists don't normally think out of the box; they're too clinical. But through Iyanla and Rhonda, Dr. Stan has learned to think outside the box. He sees the power that hugging and touching can bring, and thinks nothing of doing it himself now. From the housemates he has learned how difficult it is to change and the cycles of change.
Dr. Stan mentions how much he enjoys helping people in this way. He believes it is the most satisfying work he has ever done. That statement alone is very powerful. Out of all this other work he has done, teaching in universities, speaking on news shows, testifying in court cases, being on Starting Over is the most satisfying work he has ever done. People on the street often tell him how he and the show have helped them, and Dr. Stan calls this very empowering and humbling.
I was hoping to be able to ask Dr. Stan some questions about the current cast, but he was called to the set. Not before getting in some teasers though, such as something happening this season that he has never seen in all his years of being a psychologist. I hope to be able to check back in with him soon to get that scoop. In the meantime, I'll keep watching Starting Over, knowing Dr. Stan is really the same warm, friendly man that we see on our televisions every day.
If you'd like to join the internet program mentioned above and get some help starting over, click here: Tell Your Friends You're Starting Over
Catch my current recaps of The Amazing Race and Starting Over here at realityshack.com. Email me at LauraBelle@realityshack.com
|
|
