Episode #95: Stephanie Omens
Stephanie Omens is a Licensed Creative Arts Therapist (LCAT) and Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC). Stephanie worked with medically compromised children in the hospital setting since 2002 and is an adjunct instructor at New York University Tisch School of the Arts, Department of Drama. Stephanie's specialty is supporting children and families whose lives are affected by medical and hospital circumstances. She expertly explores the narratives during untenable situations. She has presented and published her work and is writing a book about the use of drama therapy and bereaved children. Stephanie is now full time in private practice in NYC.
For Stephanie Omens, it’s all about storytelling--even in the most challenging of circumstances. She works with children who have illnesses, or alternatively, who have parents or siblings who have illnesses--and it’s her job to help them understand what they’re experiencing. As a creative arts therapist, Stephanie utilizes story and play to support these children as they face difficult events. On today’s episode, Stephanie and I talk about why well-intentioned parents can be tempted to tell white lies, but why they don’t serve children and instead create distrust. We discuss how she uses storytelling as a therapeutic tool, and she gives an example of how she might have talked to me when I was younger and navigating my own invisible illness. We also talk about how she supports not only children, but their parents, and how parents can carry out concepts that begin in therapy at home. Finally, we talk about Stephanie’s work in the time of COVID-19, and how she’s helping both kids and parents understand life during the pandemic.
“Parents often say, ‘I don’t want them to be affected.’ And my response is, ‘They are affected. They’re part of your family, and your whole family is affected by this condition.’”
Here are some of the things Stephanie and I chatted about:
How her love of acting and digging into stories drew her to drama as a therapeutic tool
Her role in helping children understand the story of what they’ve experienced in hospitals
Discovering the common themes of lying to children, and the impact that can have on kids
The importance of understanding the repercussions of telling “little white lies” to children
How parents can struggle to accept chronic illness and end of life and project denial onto kids
Why it’s important for her to work with simple language that kids can understand and digest
How telling the truth to children about medical realities is not about destroying hope and faith
The language she uses to kids about mask wearing and the COVID-19 pandemic in general
Talking to children about having a chronic illness during the process of looking for a diagnosis
Underscoring the idea that an illness isn’t anyone’s fault, so shame and blame can’t fix it
The process of explaining everything--from the tests a child will go through to what an illness is
How drama therapy brings in play, and why that’s so useful, especially if kids don’t want to talk
Her work with parents, and why it’s empowering for them to participate in the therapy process
The usefulness of stories in book form, so they can be read over and over and shared with others
How she knows when her work has been successful, and the kind of feedback she’s received
“Every family is different, every child’s story is different, and really what I like to do is tell that specific child’s story. So it’s not one story for every child, it’s one story for your child.”
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