Francesco Onorati: What Makes Him Tick?

Speaker 1 Okay, and how long have you been actually seeing clients here at Child and Teen Catsline? Speaker 2 It has been just over two months at this point that I have been seeing clients, and it's been a really awesome two months. Speaker 1 Okay, so now that the rubber has hit the road, so to speak, is there anything that has happened that you didn't expect or anything that you are particularly enjoying about it? Speaker 2 Yeah, for sure. I will say one of the things that I definitely was not prepared for at all was the idea of working with kids. Your professors, they teach you all the techniques, all the strategies, and all the stuff that you can do in the room, but it's so geared towards adults who are coming in and actually want to talk about their problems or talk about whatever they're going through. And I think with kids, it's a lot more of working with them to make them feel comfortable, and that's a part that I was not prepared for at all coming into this. And I think over the last two months, I've really started to grow in my ability to engage kids in a way that doesn't immediately get them into talking about what their parents want them to talk about, quote unquote, and rather just get them comfortable so that they're able to come to that themselves. Yeah. And that's been actually one of the funnest parts of therapy for me. Speaker 1 Okay. And then I know you guys do play a lot of games and stuff with the kids. Is there any particular favorite activity that has emerged for you? Any particular good tricks you have up your sleeve that you want to share with us? Speaker 2 I mean, I love playing some of the board games we have here, for sure. For some of my teenagers, I think board games, if they're not a big part of their family, then it's kind of a stretch for them sometimes. So one of the things that I've actually come to love with my teenagers is to just play, like, horse with the basketball hoops that we have in the rooms and stuff like that, because you can always just kind of play that. Everyone's played horse once before in their lives, and I'm terrible at it, so my kids get to win, and they. Speaker 1 Love that so that ceiling tile I had to fix a couple of weeks ago. Was that you who knocked it out, or was that one of your clients? Speaker 2 Confidentiality, I cannot speak to that. Speaker 1 All right, so thank you very much for joining me. Any last words for potential clients who might be watching this video and being like, I don't know if I want to go with this guy or not? I think you've already sold yourself pretty well. Speaker 2 Yeah, I think for anyone who's looking to bring their kid in, one of the things that I like to emphasize in the room with parents when they first come in is that this is a space where I like to sort of walk alongside the child, and I'm not there to pull them along. I'm not a coach. I'm not a teacher. I'm not going to tell them what to do. I really want to help them grow and learn to sort of make decisions themselves, and it's my job to sort of facilitate those good decisions. So any parents who want to work with someone who's really collaborative in that sense, look me up. Speaker 1 Okay, well, there you have it. From the brilliant Francesco Onarati at Child and Teen Counseling in Woodland Hills. I'm Brian Frith Smith, office manager and marketing coordinator. And to find out more about our services, go check out Childteancounseling.org. Thanks for joining me, sir. Speaker 2 Thanks for having me. Speaker 1 All right, cheers.