Kids BRAIN Academy Up and Running!

https://kids-brain-academy.teachable.com/

I am a proud small-business owner. This is the 13th year since I started Kids BRAIN and I could not be more satisfied with my office, providers, patients, and the ability to maintain a central goal that drives my practice. I had a parent call it a “boutique practice.” She was smiling at the time, so I assume this is a good thing, even if I am not certain what she meant. Small and cozy? Welcoming and warm? That’s what I was going for, so I hope this was the intention. Those of us who provide services to children and families at my practice have worked in either large children’s hospital systems, public school districts, or both. I picked these areas of work specifically to discuss because they encompass everything that I want Kids BRAIN to NOT be. Sometimes we learn the strongest lessons from those we observe and shake our heads at. I personally left both of these systems far behind because I didn’t want the children and parents that I worked with to feel like they were just a number. I had a colleague who provided adult services one time tell me that he completed 3-4 evaluations per day. PER DAY! When allowed to actually see my patients in the same room (jab at COVID-19), I usually only complete two per week. Testing is time intensive, so the 5 to 8 hours of in-person testing time needed to complete a thorough assessment is something that cannot be repeated too often. Well, not without sacrificing quality anyway. My favorite part of my job is when I get to sit down with parents and share with them what I have learned about what their child’s brain can do. I love to give insights on a child’s strengths and advise how to use those assets to leverage success. I also speak with parents about gaps, weaknesses, and deficits. However, the loudest part of this conversation is how to implement the intervention plan that I tailored for their particular child to allow them to thrive. I can’t see patients in my office today because of a shelter-in-place order in my county. I am happy to follow this order because I know it is in the best interest of my family, patients, community, and world. I sure miss the in-person part of my job though.

In the meantime, I have had to flexibly determine what services I CAN provide without undue risk to myself and others. This means that we have gone 100% telehealth for the time being. We can still meet for parent interview, consultation, stress debriefing, counseling, parent training, and executive function training. We are doing all of these things. But it doesn’t feel like enough in these chaotic, crazy, unpredictable, and stressful times. I have decided that Kids BRAIN will make some lateral moves that allow us to reach out and assist families beyond our office. I have been meaning to create a series of parent training and self-care webinars to support my patients for years. LIKE YEARS. I have not done so to date because of my focus on the patients in front of me and the demands of clinical work. Well, maybe the silver lining to this COVID-19 mess is that it has freed me up to do something I have needed to do for years. Such a long story to say that I have started an online school that I am calling Kids BRAIN Academy. It will offer courses and training materials to cover what we talk with parents, children, and teens all day, every day. This will allow me to keep doing the part of the job I love (the helping part), even if I can’t sit in the same space as my patients. Check out Kids BRAIN Academy if you are interested. I am working like crazy to build as much content as possible, but a lot of this is from scratch and will take a time commitment. Mild cautionary note, I observed that I tend to push my long hair out of my way when talking, which is slightly reminiscent of Cher (if you are old enough to know who that is). Sorry about that! Although I have been speaking publicly for years, I have never actually watched a video of myself lecturing. It’s a work in process!

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