While some mentors and mentees meet at networking events or professional summits, Denise Egan Stack, LMHC, and Jessie Birnbaum’s story begins with a true mentor-mentee meet-cute. “It's kind of a funny story,” Birnbaum recalls, describing how at the Online OCD Conference a few years ago, she came across the IOCDF’s Living Room Brigade.
“It said if you want to talk to a highly seasoned therapist, click here and sign up. And I said, I want to do that! So I clicked and looked at all the different options and was kind of amazed to see you could have a Zoom with any of these people,” Birnbaum described. “And I'd seen Denise's work from Anxiety in the Classroom, and as I said, ‘I'm a social work student, I want to go into treating OCD and ideally with kids. So I thought, who better to talk to than Denise?’”
Designed to help conference attendees who might be having difficulty engaging, The Living Room Brigade is intended to provide assistance. “I later learned that The Living Room Brigade is not for networking purposes,” Birnbaum admitted, but still, her misunderstanding led her to Egan Stack’s Zoom room.
There, the two met and Egan Stack offered to mentor Birnbaum, urging her to choose Boston for her graduate studies. “And I said, there's no way I'm moving to Boston, it’s freezing there… I’m from California!” Birnbaum laughed. But within months, Birnbaum was selecting Boston University for her master's program and relocating to the Northeast. Once Birnbaum moved, the two began meeting regularly on Zoom, and built their mentor and mentee relationship from there.
For Birnbaum, Egan Stack’s support has been monumental as she pursues a career as an OCD Clinician. “It’s helped immensely,” Birnbaum said, noting that Egan Stack helps her sort through ideas for handling clients and find approaches that will work. Egan Stack is quick to point out that it is Birnbaum who makes the most of their time together. “She comes to our appointments well prepared and with a good idea of what to do, and then we hash out the rest together. But for someone so young, she's doing very meaningful, very competent and very good work. So it's a pleasure,” Egan Stack said.
For Egan Stack, mentoring Birnbaum is a valuable opportunity to give back. “I know for a fact that I wouldn't be where I am today if people didn't take an interest in me and mentor me. So it's really, really important to me as an individual clinician to pay that forward,” Egan Stack said. “It’s part of my mission for helping. It isn't just about being a very good clinician, it's also about bringing very good clinicians into the field..”
Egan Stack reflected on the dire need for more trained OCD clinicians, noting that mentoring is another valuable opportunity to correct this issue. “One way to address the issue is to bring up a young clinician. Jesse is very special. She is very dedicated and competent; she is a doer,” Egan Stack said. “And to be able to help get her to where she wants to go, if I can be a small part of that…” Egan Stack said, to which Birnbaum adds, “she’s been a very big part.”
“Well, it's an honor to do that. But I think we all really need to mentor because it's not only about helping people figure out where they want to go to grad school or what they want to specialize in or helping them develop good clinical skills, it's also about giving people confidence to navigate the ups and downs and the ins and outs of clinical practice so they stay in the field,” Egan Stack said.
Offering advice for young women interested in pursuing a mentor/mentee relationship, both Egan Stack and Birnbaum stressed the importance of preparedness, and taking the leap of faith to ask.
“One thing that impressed me about Jessie was that she knew what she was looking for and she was very specific about what she wanted help with,” Egan Stack said. “ So understanding what it is you want, who to help you with that, and then actually reaching out.”
Birnbaum recommended “going for it and making the jump,” even if it is intimidating. “I was definitely scared to reach out to someone like Denise…But I think that's what's so special about this community is that you can go to a conference and chat with someone like Denise.”
Both women emphasized that the OCD Community is a special place, ripe with opportunities for connection. The two are heavily involved, with Egan Stack serving on the IOCDF Board of Directors and Scientific and Clinical Advisory Board and Birnbaum leading both the Young Adult and Chronic Disability Special Interest Groups.
“This community is so supportive,” Birnbaum described. “That's actually a really good point,” Egan Stack added. “It's not only mentorship for budding clinicians, it's mentorship for people who want to advocate, who want to get involved, who want to give back. The IOCDF has a place for everybody. There's mentorship built into the entire organization, and we're really proud of that.”
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