How I Do Therapy
(And You Can Too!)
It seems strange for me to want to teach others how to do what I do - after all, shouldn't I be pushing you to become my client or buy some product from me? While I would love if you did become a client and I might come out with materials you can purchase later, what I want most of all is a world where everyone can get the care they need. I can't directly help everyone, but I want to indirectly help give you some ideas and a foundation you can build on.
I plan to keep adding to this section over time - there's just so much I want to share! (Helping kids with cerebral visual impairment is a page I'll be adding soon for sure!)
Don't want to become a client, but still want to discuss these ideas more? I do paid training and coaching sessions for caregivers and therapists. (See rates.) I'm happy to help answer any questions you might have and give you ideas to help with your specific needs!
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I don't know if I have ever found someone that teaches social communication the way I do, and I would love to change that! I approach it from a cultural paradigm. If you were in a class about different cultures at school, you would be taught that no culture is better or worse, simply different. The goal of the class would be to to help you to understand and communicate with people from the other culture, rather than to force you to assimilate into it. This section will be me explaining how you can teach from this same paradigm, as well as focus on skills meaningful to the learner's life, such as safety and understanding neurotypical communication. Here's the key: the list of topics that compose the backbone of my curriculum. (There are even some executive function and emotional regulation lessons thrown in to the mix!)
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Activity Ideas
In graduate school, a professor once told me that "You should be able to do therapy sessions with just a pencil, paper, and the lint in your pocket". As a teletherapist, I need a bit more than that - but not much! Give me something to draw/write on, something (preferably a graphic novel) to read, and YouTube and I can address almost any goal! In this section, I'll put examples of lessons I've given in the past and resources I use. "Art as a Teaching Tool" and "Using Books and Videos in Therapy" are pages I have for this so far.
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Skill and Goal Ideas
Good therapy starts with a good idea of skills to work on. Most people use goal banks to find skills to work on, but I think it's important to start with identifying the skill you want to work on before you make the goal. Developing the goal is actually pretty easy from there - just add in information about context, measurement, accuracy and cue/prompt level you're shooting for! I've made pages explaining ideas for two areas where I've noticed people having difficulty with identifying appropriate skills to work on - social communication and in working with complex communicators (those with combinations of physical, intellectual, or sensory disabilities).
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My Teletherapy Approach
I use a unique hybrid approach that I've adapted to fit my specific client populations. With kids who aren't able to do a direct teletherapy session, I demonstrate techniques and then coach the caregivers through using those techniques with their children as I watch. With clients who can do direct, I use a combination of digital and physical materials that I show under the camera or sometimes the client and I both have the same physical materials on each of our ends and we work together. I see digital materials as only one tool in my toolbox, rather than the only way to do teletherapy, and this lets me better tailor my sessions to fit my clients' needs. Read more about my approach!