Good Neighbor Podcast: Cooper City
Bringing Together Local Businesses & Neighbors of Cooper City
Good Neighbor Podcast: Cooper City
EP #277: Sofia Robirosa with Infinite Therapeutic Services
How has the shift in perception of therapy during COVID-19 transformed our relationships and mental well-being? Join us on the Good Neighbor Podcast as we sit down with Sofia Robirosa from Infinite Therapeutic Services to uncover the profound impact of professional counseling on families and communities. Celebrating a decade of dedication, Sofia shares her personal journey into the field of marriage and family therapy, motivated by her own experiences with her parents' relationship challenges. She explains how a systemic approach can help us better understand individual experiences within their broader context and environment, paving the way for healthier relationships and improved mental health.
In this enlightening episode, we explore the significant changes in how therapy is perceived and the critical importance of seeking help, whether through professional services or meaningful conversations with friends. Sofia emphasizes the unique aspects of Infinite Therapeutic Services, focusing on evidence-based relationship counseling that drives meaningful change. We also delve into personal stories about raising children, maintaining strong relationships, and the necessity of regular date nights for couples. Discover why professional counseling offers a safe, confidential, and objective space for valuable feedback, setting it apart from simply venting to friends and family.
Call: (954) 903-1676
Visit: https://www.plantationcounseling.com/
Follow: https://www.instagram.com/transforming_relationships/
Like: https://www.facebook.com/infinitetherapeuticservices/
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Jeremy Wolf.
Speaker 2:Hello, hello friends, family, community, great universe. Welcome everyone to the Good Neighbor Podcast. I'm your host, Jeremy Wolf, and today I'd like to welcome to the show we have Sophia Robirosa Hope I got the pronunciation right and Sophia joins us with Infinite Therapeutic Services and I am excited, truly excited, to get into this to learn more about what you do, because, whether or not people think it or not, everybody can use a little therapy every once in a while. We're all human beings, we're all flawed and we're all on this journey together and we all have ups and downs. So anytime I could talk to somebody that is truly involved as a business to help other people at the fundamental level, it's always interesting to get into that. So, Sophia, thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much for having me, Jeremy.
Speaker 2:It's our pleasure, and thanks, as always, to our listeners for tuning in. So, with all that being said, tell us a little bit about your business Infinite Therapeutic Services. What do you guys do?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we are a team of licensed marriage and family therapists and also we have a school psychologist, so we provide mental health counseling, therapy and also testing for children and college students. That's what the school psychologist does. That's what she specializes in. So we started in March of 2014. So this year was our 10 year anniversary.
Speaker 2:Congratulations, it's awesome.
Speaker 3:Thank you, thank you, yeah, so the name of the business, infinite Therapeutic Services, came from the belief that when we do good, the impact is infinite, right? So we believe that by helping somebody in this community, by helping them feel in a better place, you know that has a rippling effect, right? Because then their relationships get better, then those people feel in a better place and that expands throughout the community, right? So that's where the name came from. So we're here, located in plantation. We also offer services virtually for all residents of florida. Plantation is very near to cooper city, uh, so just a few minutes away, um, and so all of us specialize in relationship counseling, um, and have secondary specialties of different nature, so we can provide the services to children through adulthood in individual couples of family formats.
Speaker 2:Something. What you said there just resonated with me on such a deep level about putting out that positivity and having a rippling effect. It really does.
Speaker 2:One thing I've noticed as I get older right, we're all like I mentioned at the top of the show. We're all human beings, we're all fundamentally flawed to some degree and we have all of our emotions, and things just seem to get better in every possible way when you start framing everything in a positive light and start putting out positive energy out into the universe and it just seems to, like you said, almost spiral out of control in a positive direction, when you treat everything with love and compassion and empathy and understanding and try to avoid as much as possible all those negative emotions that were also triggered by. So how did you let's go back how did you get into this? Is this career path? Is this something that you had a passion for when you were young? Did you have a childhood experience that maybe sparked an interest in this field? Talk a little bit about your journey that led you up to starting Infinite Therapeutic Services back in 2014.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so well. I always was very interested in how people connect. You know, we all have those experiences in school maybe our own personal family stories and that made me very curious about the idea of how we feel that we belong Right the idea of how we feel that we belong right. My parents when I was younger did not really support me in the idea of being a therapist. There were those people that believed that counseling was not for everybody but for those that maybe really were quote unquote crazy. You know those old beliefs around therapy. So it wasn't something that I jumped straight after high school, but I definitely made a career choice after believing in my own independence as a young adult and that I could do and pursue my own dreams. Now they are proud of me after seeing that, the effect that it can have in people and really changing their ideas around that. So I influenced them positively in that way.
Speaker 3:So I can say that it definitely has been on my mind, I was fascinated about psychology classes and really interested in how people, you know, connect with others and how they feel good in their own skin, right. So when you asked me about an impact, well, so I did have that interest. But then my parents' relationship hit some hardships when I was a late teen and I really got into a place of feeling confused about that, because I felt that their relationship was good. You know, I did grow up with a lot of friends that their parents were divorced or, you know, multiple times married and things like that, and so I thought I was lucky, right, I thought I was lucky my parents were still together and overall, you know, it felt like a happy home, you know you don't know what you don't know.
Speaker 3:And then you know they started having some relationship issues that ended in a separation when I was 19. So that further encouraged my desire to learn how relationships work right, like how we really belong, how do we troubleshoot conflict or places of hardship in the relationship. So that propelled my desire to focus in psychology around marriage and family issues. So not everybody knows, but in psychology there's several different branches that you can specialize here in the United States, and one of them is marriage and family therapy. So it doesn't mean that we can't work with individuals too. It means that we work in a systemic way, right, like we see the overall picture. So, yes, it helps us work with couples and families.
Speaker 3:And then, if we work with individuals, or when we work with individuals, we look at the whole context, environment of the person to understand where maybe they are coming from, the history of that person, how their worldview was created throughout their life, right, so to help them pick up from there and start working on the changes that they want to see in their own life. So that's a little bit of the story as to how I got fascinated with this. So my career began in 2009. I worked, you know, as a dependent for about five years and then I jumped into my practice in 2014. And that was a goal always to open my own shop and little by little, we progressed into a group practice. For the first few years, I was a solo practitioner and then it made sense to start adding people and, like I said, we are a team now of six with a school psychologist, and all with a focus of helping people transform their lives and their relationships.
Speaker 2:Yeah, communication is so key in obviously, obviously in everything in relationships, and one of the things that I've come to learn in now being with my wife for gosh it's been 14 years, mary, well, getting old, but we used to there's certain things, certain topics, when you're with somebody all the time that just seem to trigger you sometimes and you put up these walls and you have your ego a pesky ego getting in the way.
Speaker 2:And one of the things that I've learned to do is, whenever I do get triggered by something, to take a step back and try to reset my thinking, because oftentimes what I find is that when I clear my head from all the negative thoughts and emotions, there's usually some deep insight that my partner, my wife, is providing to me about how I am as a person, that I have walls up around that and that's why I got triggered in the first place. It's something I don't like about myself and by really kind of focusing inward and thinking about that, I'm able to make forward progress in myself and my life, and that's something that I've just come into after. I always say, on the north side of 40, I'm 44 now, you know, going back five, 10 years, like I wouldn't be talking about any of this stuff. This is just something that you learn as you go through life.
Speaker 2:So really really fascinating the dynamic between couples and relationships. Really really fascinating the dynamic between couples and relationships. What are some of the most common myths or misconceptions that you typically hear from?
Speaker 3:your patients. Yeah Well, just like I was saying about my own parents, right, that they thought that psychology was about working with quote unquote the crazy which is interesting because I'm from Argentina originally and we are known for everybody has a therapist Therapy over there. Psychology is a huge field and there's a lot of psychologists, but, yeah, just like my parents, a lot of people still hold sometimes the idea that therapy is only for quote unquote the crazy, and I really dislike even saying that word. I cringe when I think about it. Right, because therapy is not necessarily just about a diagnosis, right, whether you have it or not, of course, it can be something that you need based on a diagnosis, but simply, it can be a place for you to feel safe, to talk with somebody about picking up some tools that help you with something in your life, to enhance your relationships, as you were saying, and just to change a behavior that you want to do differently. Right, you're talking about those walls, those barriers. Ultimately, we all want to feel safe and sometimes the walls come as a mechanism to feel safe, right to you know, that has, in a way, maybe worked to help you feel safe. Uh, and then maybe that wall doesn't feel that it's working as much anymore, and so therapy can be a place to break down the walls and to do something different with, to achieve that same result of feeling safe. Right To feel safe and safety means a lot of different things, right as feeling connected with others in relationships and simply just feeling like we belong and that we're feeling good in our skin right.
Speaker 3:So I would say that that is the biggest misconception of counseling. So I think it's definitely evolving and changing. Covid had a big flip around that. There were some big people that they you know talking about go to therapy, seek help through those times, because, you know, we were all going through a traumatic time through COVID, because everything was stripped away from us, with, you know, not being able to leave your house and and all that. Those were massive changes that we had to adapt to, um, and so I think that really really helped people to start seeing therapy in a different light and and seeking services as needed for light things or not so light things, whatever, it is right yeah, and I encourage anyone out there who has that worldview of, like you said, therapy being for crazy people, whatever that is right to kind of zone out and take a bird's eye.
Speaker 2:Look at your own situation and everybody is in need of therapy therapy to some degree, whether you go and seek outside help for it or you're calling a good friend of yours to vent about a difficult day you had. I mean, that is what it is, and sometimes it pays dividends to have another perspective, an outside perspective, somebody that maybe doesn't know you so well, that could take a look at it from another position and really give you some valuable feedback on things that you could do better in your life.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's the difference for therapy is it's a safe place. It's confidential. Valuable feedback on things that you could do better in your life. Yeah, that's the difference for therapy is it's a safe place. It's confidential. You don't know that person in your day to day life, so it's very objective and there's no emotional ties there to that person. Right, so it can. It can really feel different and even people at times they feel like you know, we've talked about this a thousand times outside of therapy, right, but just having that conversation with a third party person that is not related to you, and all of that can bring a different perspective to a topic that you have talked about maybe a thousand times with other people.
Speaker 2:Yeah for sure. So shifting for a second from work to family. Family is often a driving factor for many, many people. I myself, I have a 10-year-old son, 12-year-old daughter. At that stage where everything is starting to become a blur, I'm getting close to them, actually eventually leaving the house. I mean, it's a, it's a crazy experience having kids, what? What about you, sophia? Do you have? You have children of your own?
Speaker 3:yes, yes, I have a 10 year old daughter and a five-year-old son yeah, so you're right behind me yeah, right behind you.
Speaker 3:I've been with my husband for 15 years, 11 married and yeah, so a lot of it for me. You know, since I focused in this passion as a career, but also, of course, personally, a lot of my focus in my personal life is my relationships. Both you know, of course, my family, but we foster a lot of relationships with other family friends, you know like get together, go to fun places together. I also really enjoy date nights with my husband. That's definitely something that I think everybody should invest in when you're in a long-term relationship, right? So that's a little bit about me outside of work.
Speaker 2:You mentioned you're from Argentina. When did you come to the US, like when you were a child or how long ago?
Speaker 3:I was nearly 16, a month away from being 16.
Speaker 2:So my wife is from Peru and she moved over here when she was, I think, around 18. So similar trajectories there. What would be, I guess, one thing that you'd like for our listeners to know about your business?
Speaker 3:Yeah, as a practice, what makes us stand out is that we focus a lot on relationships. Like I mentioned, we're our marriage and family therapists, which is something special to connect to when you are in need of that. Those services, as a professional that specializes in that exact need, and all of the training, even in the primary and secondary specialties that we have, is focused on evidence and research-based approaches. Right, because we are highly committed to the idea of seeking change. Right.
Speaker 3:At times, people think of counseling as venting sessions, just getting it out. While getting it out is, of course, part of it and important, it's not the only focus. It's how do we get to being from here to where you wanna be? Right, like, what's the picture that you wanna have? So, as such, we focus on providing evidence and research-based approaches so that those that can be achieved. Right, we are very passionate and committed in the in the mission of helping people transform their lives and relationships, you know. So the care is there to provide that. Um, we have people that speak Spanish, so, for those that feel more comfortable in their native language and, like I said before, also in person and virtually, to make it easy for everybody and also to provide access to those that don't live nearby as much.
Speaker 2:Yeah, venting and getting it all out is very important, but one of the things that I've come to realize is I have to be very careful about how often I do that, because it could be a slippery slope between venting and getting it out and then allowing yourself to ruminate and consume yourself by all the problems, and then you start telling yourself the wrong stories.
Speaker 2:So there's a time and a place for everything, and I think that's why it's important to work with a professional when it comes to counseling and not just constantly call your friends and family and vomit on them about your day and all the problems that you have. Again, there's some utility in doing that, but it can be, it can happen too frequently. I've experienced that when I'm in a bad place, I find myself calling everybody and complaining and then, all of a sudden, the people that were picking up the phone before they stopped picking up the phone and you wonder why. It's because all you do is call and complain. So, yeah, very, very important to just to speak with people. Uh, that can offer objective spins on what's going on in your, in your world, I guess yeah, absolutely, absolutely what would be the best way to reach you guys?
Speaker 2:how can our listeners learn more? For anyone out there that that would like to help that is having some issues, what's the best way to connect with you guys?
Speaker 3:Well, the first place, I would say, is our website. It's wwwinfinitetherapeuticservicescom, which is the name of our business. We also have a pretty active Instagram account. The handle of our Instagram account is at transforming underscore relationships. And then, of course, you can always give us a call at 954-903-1676, where we are happy to answer any questions that anybody may have.
Speaker 2:Excellent. We will, of course, drop a link down in the description below to all of your contact information, so for anyone out there that is interested in reaching you, they will know how to do so. Sophia, thanks so much for joining us today. It was a pleasure. Thank you so much, jeremy, I really appreciate it Happy to have you and thanks, as always, to our listeners for tuning in to learn more about our great community and the businesses that serve us. Everyone take care and have a wonderful day. See you next time.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Cooper City. To nominate your favorite local business to be featured on the show, go to gnpcoopercitycom. That's gnpcoopercitycom, or call 954-231-3170.