Lynne Inabnitt, Global Teletherapy Managing Lead Therapist on SPEDtalk with Lindsey
Much has been written about the many and varied benefits awaiting therapists who transition to Teletherapy. But it’s quite a different matter to hear directly from a top-quality, seasoned therapist discuss her own experiences and insights. You may be in for some surprises.
Lindsey:
Good morning everybody. Welcome to our Facebook Live Show. I’m Lindsey Kucich, Ed.S School Psychology, your host of SPED Talk, so welcome. I’m so excited to see everybody. Janet, thanks so much for being here, Elana. I am working with technology and we’re definitely having issues with it. I’m trying to keep everything together but I’m excited. This is our very first episode and we have a great show for you so everybody, thank you so much for joining.
Lindsey:
Feel free to share. Share our posts, send them onto the other groups that you’re part of or you can even put it on your own Facebook page. Invite all your SLPs, OTs, all your mental health friends as well. I see everyone logging on, so I want to make sure I give a shout out to everybody. Hey Alex, thanks for joining us. We’ve got Jayla. Awesome, wonderful you guys. Christina, I’m loving all of you guys on here. Thanks so much for joining.
Lindsey:
So I’ve got a great show lined up for you today and I’ll introduce myself as well. I’m the lead mental health therapist at Global Teletherapy. I’m also a school psychologist out in California, so welcome to episode one where we’re going to be talking about speech and language in the virtual setting, so we’ve got a wonderful guest joining us today.
Lindsey:
Hi everybody. Thanks so much. Of course, I love hosting this. I’m so excited that we’re going to be able to do this. Feel free to even leave in the comments, any sort of topics or questions. I’ll be able to check those as well throughout the show. We’re going to have a great time today. I’d love to introduce you to our fabulous guest speaker today, Lynne Inabnitt, M.A. CCC-SLP. She is a speech and language pathologist. She’s been practicing for over a decade.
Lindsey:
She’s been with Global Teletherapy since 2015 and she started off as an independent contractor and then she moved into the lead therapist role in 2018. She has a specialty in language, literacy and autism disorders. Prior to starting with Global Teletherapy, Lynn served across a variety of pediatric settings. She’s worked in schools, clinics, and private practice. As a lead for Global Teletherapy, Lynne serves as a clinical resource for many SLPs and she enjoys the opportunity to collaborate and frequently meets with these therapists throughout the school year. Give me a big warm welcome to Lynn as she joins us.
Lindsey:
And then, yeah, if you have any questions, feel free to reach out. So hi Lynne, welcome.
Lynne:
Hello. Nice to see you, Lindsey and everybody who’s joining us today.
Lindsey:
Excellent. Oh, hey friends. I love seeing everybody out here messaging us. All right, give me a couple of seconds. I’m going to try to find my screen. It disappeared on me. Don’t we just love technology? All right, we’ve got lots of things going on today, so … Well, Lynn, I’m so excited that you’re here. You’re here to talk about Global Teletherapy and what it’s like being an SLP with us.
Lindsey:
I love my Christmas tree in the background. Isn’t that great? I have a secret but I won’t tell you guys what it is because you might laugh at me but I think it’s pretty and it helps with mental health.
Lindsey:
We’re going to have a mental health conversation next week, so you want to make sure you stay tuned for that. All right friends. We’re talking with Lynne today, if you’re just tuning in, she’s our speech and language lead pathologist over here at Global Teletherapy and so we’re going to talk about what it’s like being in teletherapy. It is a little different. So Lynne, tell me about this transition. How did you go from all of your clinical backgrounds to working in schools, in-person in a clinical setting to now doing it virtually?
Lynne:
Sure. So I think like many therapists, I was skeptical at first so I couldn’t quite wrap my head around it. What is that going to look like? How do I keep their attention? Is it going to be effective? All those questions. Personally speaking, I am not an advocate of screen time in general. And so I thought, Oh, what is this? How am I going to do this? And then I quickly realized, Oh no, this isn’t screen time. This is a personal connection. The primary piece in teletherapy is still this human connection and that remains the focus.
Lynne:
So I felt immediately relieved once I got some sessions under my belt seeing that wow, it’s still about me as a clinician. It’s not an app that they’re sitting in front of playing. So I was pleasantly surprised in that way. The other things that I was pleasantly surprised about were the materials. I was not breaking my back, carrying things around. I wasn’t using an old PDF file from 1970 any more that was in my filing cabinet. So I found how amazing it is that I can keep things both just fresh and new constantly. And the benefits of that for the students and for myself were huge right away.
Lindsey:
And isn’t it nice not to carry stuff from the trunk of your car? Do you know? Remember those days when you’ve got your little trolley and you’d have to like.
Lynne:
Or you go make a photocopy of this, my last copy of that, I can’t do it. I can’t …
Lindsey:
The benefits of having it in the virtual setting. Okay. We’re saving trees. We love that. Also, I know you’re out on the East coast where your weather can be snow or rain and you could drop your books in a puddle of mud or something like that and then you’re like, “Oh my resources.” You’re not in California where it’s sunny all the time. Yeah, there’s definitely a lot of benefits with that in the clinical sense and personally. Tell me about the personal benefits. What did you find as a clinician that how it helped you as a person being teletherapy versus being in a traditional setting?
Lynne:
Sure. And I will say first of all to, I don’t want to say that everything about that transition is easy. There is, just like any new job too, a learning curve upfront and with teletherapy, I tell clinicians it is going to be a bigger learning curve upfront. But you put in a little of that extra time up front and then you find, over time, that things just become so streamlined and much less time consuming than in a traditional model. So knowing that upfront I think it is important for clinicians to know that you’re going to have to spend some time upfront transitioning materials into this format and things like that. Quickly in, when you’re comfortable with that, it’s just amazing how much easier it is and less time-consuming.
Lynne:
So I just want to speak on that. And then personally, well, yes, I always say that you cannot beat the work commute of course, especially for us Midwest people who have to deal with weather and all of that. So you know, personally speaking, why I got into it and when I got into it. I had two little ones at home and the thought of leaving them at that time to go back to work was just super hard for me. I wasn’t ready to leave them. I also wasn’t ready to put my career on hold. I wanted to continue my career and continue working with students, but I wasn’t ready to leave my kiddos. And so I was really lucky to find some in-home childcare. So childcare came to me and then I could have lunch with my kids. I could see them more in the mornings.
Lynne:
Just little things like that, that make such a big difference. Of course, traffic and cutting that commute out you, of course, you can’t beat that as well. But personally, it just allowed me to really achieve a better work-life balance because I felt I didn’t have to sacrifice either. I was able to prioritize my family and my career at the same time. So it was really nice in that way and I found it to be a huge stress reduction for those reasons. I think, personally speaking as well, I never really felt a huge strong support network in various settings. And here at Global Teletherapy, as you know, we have hundreds of therapists that we are connected to and I think the sense of community that allows is just fabulous. You just feel really supported and you can collaborate with people who are doing the exact same thing as you.
Lynne:
I think that’s a really rare support network that we offer and it’s one of our greatest resources here at Global Teletherapy.
Lindsey:
I love that. I love that we have this connection. Like we are all very trained clinicians, but we can always learn from each other. I love that we do have that support and I do think that what sets Global Teletherapy apart is that we do get to have that interaction with team members. That collaboration piece is important. Just because we’re not in the traditional setting, we still have that connection. I know sometimes we were like, “Oh but you work from home,” I’m like it’s wonderful. Right? There is no commute and I love that you get to have that time with your family. I think that’s a big appeal and a draw for a lot of people who really need … They don’t want to give up that career. They feel like they have to choose. But if you can find that balance, that’s definitely something people strive for. Right? I think that’s what we always trying to strive for is a balance amongst our personal and professional life.
Lindsey:
And I see a lot of people. Yeah, you guys are liking that as well. I know, Elana, you have dropped your stuff in the snow. Oh my gosh. I did one year in Michigan. So all the Midwest people, I do feel your pain, because I did my first year as a school psychologist out in Michigan and we had a … I think we had 13 snow days that … So that’s a great thing about teletherapy that we can still meet with students even in the bad weather.
Lindsey:
Okay, talk about clinical benefits here. Right? So when you’re on the East Coast and students have snow days, they’re missing out on services. So you have to find a way to make up all that time. Our timelines don’t stop. What do you do when you’re in the middle of the assessment? But I love that with the virtual setting, they don’t recognize the snow days most of the time. There are some schools that might, but you don’t have to worry about the weather impacting the service of the kids. So that clinical benefit of providing services for students, it really is there. What other clinical benefits might you think that you wouldn’t have with?
Lynne:
And like you’re saying though too, those kinds of benefits of snow days and things like that, not being as much of an issue, but there are other benefits such as not having all the extra responsibilities that go into a school-based position traditionally, whether that’s lunch duty or staff meetings or just all those schedule changes that occur constantly in a school. Just the time that it takes to get students to the therapy room, all those kinds of things. You know, I think that’s one of the things that I love about that teletherapy position is I get to spend more time with the students. I get to spend more time treating the students and not with all those extra responsibilities that can go into the other types of positions.
Lindsey:
Yeah, that’s fantastic. I didn’t even think about the amount of time we spend jumping from meeting to meeting and just getting set up. Like, okay, we’re back to back. We’re running across campus or we’re grabbing our stuff and then we are like, “We need a moment,” because that’s the transition into the student and they’re going to feel our energy. They’re going to feel that craziness. Or when you just got done in a really intense meeting and then you … And now you have to put on a happy face for a student and be like, “We’re ready for therapy.”
Lynne:
And trying to navigate with the teachers, respecting their schedules, but knowing you have to achieve your schedule too and, and all of that. You know, that’s a big piece. There were years with Global Teletherapy here where I saw with my students back-to-back-to-back. And I didn’t feel rushed because, I mean, the amount of time it takes me to pull things up with my fingertips is pretty quick. So, it’s pretty effective use of the time.
Lindsey:
Oh, for sure. So like having that materials. So we want to make sure we’re successful in our teletherapy. So what kind of things do you like to have? Tips and tricks in your back pocket to make sure you’re successful and you’re actually providing a quality service to these students.
Lynne:
Well clinically speaking, I want to talk more about some of those benefits that we kind of jumped over a bit. I wanted to talk more about, obviously, the things that we talked about time-wise. But clinically speaking, some of the things I was also immediately surprised about were how incredibly motivating it is for the students. So you know, Lindsey being a school psychologist, I’m sure you know about the attention issues that students are up against in our traditional schools and how it can be a really hard struggle for them in those environments.
Lynne:
Well, I was immediately blown away with, “Oh my goodness, this student’s looking at me for an entire 30 minutes like face to face, I can’t remember this ever happening,” and just the way that they attend to the screen as a builtin motivator like that is just a huge clinical benefit for the students, I think.
Lynne:
I don’t know if you’re familiar with Universal Design for Learning, Lindsey.
Lindsey:
Yeah, I am.
Lynne:
And how these facets for learning are totally emphasized in teletherapy. Things like giving the students multiple means of expressing what they’ve learned. Giving them multiple means of engaging in their own interest and their own motivators. It’s just such an easy thing to integrate in teletherapy. You can’t really get students to learn anything if they’re not motivated or if they’re not interested in what you’re talking about. And so teletherapy is just the perfect environment for that. I think that is one of the reasons that we see tremendous progress. I know the research says that it is equal to, and I can’t wait for the day when the research starts to show that it is also better than traditional therapy for many students and in many different ways. So I think it’s an exciting field as we start to delve into why it’s so effective, why students are making rapid progress. It’s just a great fit for so many students that I’ve worked with.
Lynne:
Another big piece of it is that many of our schools are Virtual Academy Schools. So you know that means the students are enrolled in online education, receiving eduction from their home environment as well. Well, to me, that’s like the best setting because it is their home and school in the same place. And so, in the home, you get that learning coach involvement, and if they’re in a brick-and-mortar school too, which we service as well, you’re going to have a facilitator involvement. So I think that’s also a big piece of its effectiveness and why the students tend to make such rapid progress in this setting. And just all those things that keep them motivated, keep them engaged. There’s just so many clinical benefits and I think we’re just on the cusp of the research to show all this.
Lynne:
So it’s a really exciting time to be in the field.
Lindsey:
And that’s nice that the research is supporting this. As you said, there are a lot of skeptics. Even a lot of therapists have questions like, “How does this even work?” “Are you sure?” “Is there a catch to this?” And no, it really is great and it is beneficial for those students in this setting and I love tying in the learning coach. As you said, a lot of these students are homeschooled but they still have the support of the teachers. There is some independent therapy but that learning coach is so important, which is a lot of times the parent, the parent involvement, we see a lot more with that. And so you’re able to tie in and collaborate, not just with the teachers and a school team but also with that parent, and the parent can be pretty involved in these lessons. Would you say you have sessions and the parent or learning coach helps and assists you?
Lynne:
Oh a hundred percent and I know it can be a little different in the mental health world, but for our OTs and our SLPs, the learning coach is a big piece of what we’re doing and collaboration with them is huge. I think, speaking to the virtual schools too you have to know what is their classroom setting. So it is difficult for clinicians sometimes to wrap their heads around understanding what is the academic setting.
Lynne:
Yes, it is both understanding the online learning classroom, and also their home environment because that’s where they’re doing their schoolwork. So really understanding how to communicate with all the team members and what’s the best way to approach them is really important to that transition. The learning coaches, you really have to read them. Same with the case managers. Same with the teachers. You really need to take time to understand their communication styles and what’s the best way to collaborate with them. So that’s a big piece of it for sure. I just think that when you see students in their home environment though, as a speech pathologist, you get to know their communication environment in a much better way than maybe just pulling them into a therapy room in the school. So it’s a really fun environment to work in.
Lindsey:
Yeah. And that makes sense, especially from an SLP standpoint where you get to see that communication piece and you see them generalizing the skills across the settings because it’s one study now. It’s beneficial for them. So when you talk about the classroom being different because it is home, is the curriculum also very different? Are you still able to integrate the curriculum within your sessions and collaborate with the teachers and the learning coach?
Lynne:
Yeah, definitely. So I think that going back to what I said. You need to take time to understand what that classroom setting is and that can really help to guide how you’re going to integrate curriculum. Over the years, I’ve approached it differently for different schools or different students. My older students love the opportunity to share their screen and show me some of their actual schoolwork, show me their assignments and work on some of them together at times. So, that’s a great way to integrate the curriculum. They’re managing their assignments on their own so it’s really great to kind of be involved in that. And then, you get different levels of how to integrate curriculum based on the gen ed teachers and the case managers and, kind of, knowing what’s happening in their classrooms.
Lynne:
Again, reading their communication styles, reading their needs is important. So is it a teacher that I can maybe reach out to, to ask about curriculum? Would it be preferable to do it at the beginning of the year and then maybe mid-year, to keep it infrequent? But some teachers are more willing to speak more often.”Oh, I had an assignment this student did not so well with. Do you mind reviewing it in your session?” Things like that. So you kind of have to read their style, read their willingness to collaborate and go from there. But I’ve never run into a teacher or a student where I couldn’t integrate curriculum.
Lynne:
And then on the same note, there are just so many websites out there that are now linking their material to academic standards for each grade. So that’s another way, even if you don’t have access to the exact curriculum material that that student is doing, you know the academic standards and you know how to link those to your goals. There are so many great websites that are available that we can integrate into our sessions to do that.
Lindsey:
And that’s great that we can. Everything is in the digital age and so we’re able to cross these worlds and merge them together easier.
Lindsey:
Lynne, I want you to talk about Global Teletherapy as the company itself. Like why Global? There are other agencies out there and we do have a different model and we are targeting maybe a different population, but what other benefits do you see that maybe sets Global Teletherapy apart and really a leader? We are definitely a leader in this environment and working in the teletherapy space. So what can you speak to about that?
Lynne:
Sure. Well, first and foremost, I think of our amazing customer service. Over the years, I have felt nothing but supported by our staff. And I think that the company assigns a team member to each school, and schools vary. There are going to be changes between each of the schools and there are going to be differences. So somebody who gets it, somebody who’s on top of managing all that side of it, it’s really nice. You can go to them. You don’t have to know every aspect of the school. They’re there for that. And so I think that makes a big difference in the services that we can provide. It allows us to focus more on the clinical stuff, knowing that we have somebody who’s going to stay on top of that side of things for us and then we can go to them when we have questions.
Lynne:
So that’s been really nice. I think, not knowing if I could always reach someone was a concern going in. Am I going to be alone? And I’ve never felt alone. I’ve always felt like if I need to reach someone I can do that. They’re quick to respond. It’s been great in that way. I think one of the other things that really sets Global Teletherapy apart is the fact that our company was founded by an SLP herself. Rina Goode, being our clinical director and an SLP, I truly think that that has permeated the entire business. She gets it and she knows what it’s like as a therapist. And so that’s reflected in what she does for our independent contractors and our therapists. Everything she does has permeated the entire structure of the business. So I think just being founded by an SLP herself is huge and it definitely sets us apart.
Lindsey:
Yeah, it’s great having somebody in our world, not just another teacher. I love our teachers, I do, but how many times are we working at school settings and our principals, they were a general education teacher and then they forget about us and our special education world and how a lot of times supervisors, maybe they were now a special education teacher, but they still don’t understand what we do as service providers. Our role is just so different and people don’t understand disabilities either. Like that’s something that we have special training in to understand how to work with people who have these skill deficits and how to overcome the challenges that they face because it is not something that typically is seen.
Lindsey:
And so as much as I love teachers and gen ed teachers, it’s a different perspective when you actually have someone with our background being the clinical director and seeing that our world through our lens really is that benefit. So yes, a big shout out to Rina. Thank you for being awesome and really putting our special ed lens on and understanding how it does trickle down and affect our students and really backing us in that world because we do have that support and when we are able to speak the same language across … When we’re trying to problem solve, it’s a different field. So definitely that does set Global apart just by having that different knowledge and that lens.
Lynne:
I always say the clinicians are one of Global Teletherapy’s greatest resources because they’re such a warm, supportive group. They are collaborating with our forums and huddles and just a really warm group of clinicians who serve as our greatest resource. They are doing the exact same thing. So they’re sharing materials, they’re sharing ideas, they’re supporting each other. And I think that’s huge in this world especially. And then lastly too, another thing that I do think sets us apart is the way our system is designed.
Lynne:
So you’re not locked into one specific platform. We give you lots to use, but you also have room for creativity, which means to me, less burnout. When I can keep things fresh and new and changing every day. I can use my own creative approaches. I think that’s huge. I think it keeps things fun, which is ultimately the goal for both the student and ourselves too.
Lindsey:
Right. Let’s talk about the burnout rate. Okay. Keeping it fun. This is one of our questions that came in from Jenna … “A lot of the times we get that (feeling of) burnout or you’re ready to retire, but you’re ready to retire from the school, not from the job. So can you talk about what that might look like for someone in a transitional phase of their life when they’re not ready to give it up yet, but they can retire from this school and this (teletherapy) being an option for them?”
Lynne:
Yeah, I think it’s such an exciting time for them (those therapists) because there are so many people that are just … They’re like, “I’m not ready to retire. I don’t want to go sit in my recliner and watch Oprah all day.” You know, they want to continue to serve their community and their students and they want to maybe be somewhere fun while they do that. They might want to work part-time. And so that’s another thing that sets Global Teletherapy apart that we allow for that part-time work. We’re not asking you for a 40-hour commitment a week if you don’t want that.
Lynne:
So for people who are wanting to retire, they get the right state license and there they are on the beach of Florida in the morning, drinking their coffee, servicing a couple of students later in the day and able to continue with their career as much as they want. So I think it’s a really exciting time for those people especially. And I love when they come to us because they bring so many years of experience, but also they’re meeting their own needs and caring for themselves at a new level and continuing their career and their personal needs as well. It’s exciting for them.
Lindsey:
That is exciting and it’s nice that they can pack up and they can travel. You don’t have to be locked in and you have that flexibility of adjusting your schedule when you’re part-time. And you don’t have to feel like all of this knowledge that you’ve accumulated over the years (is going to waste)… It’s not ending.
Lynne:
Like I’m ready to phase out. I’m not ready to completely retire though.
Lindsey:
I think it’s fantastic. Well, Lynne, I appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedule. I know you see clients. I know that you’re still working and you’re helping support all of the SLPs that we have working for us, so I really do appreciate you taking the time to chat with us a little bit more about speech and language pathology and the teletherapy world.
Lindsey:
Next week’s episode. So it will be Tuesday, every Tuesday, 8:15 Pacific Standard Time, 11:15 Eastern Standard Time. We’re going to be talking about the holidays and that momentum that you start losing.
Lindsey:
So that really does challenge the students’ abilities to just stop and start and really get back in the swing of things. So join us next week so we can talk about how to overcome those challenges and then, how to handle mental health situations as well. This is a joyful time, but it also can be a stressful time. And so when that happens, we want to make sure you guys are equipped with the tools and the tricks that you need.
Lindsey:
Lynne, do you have any final comments for our viewers or any last tips and tricks that you want to share?
Lynne:
No, no, just thanks for joining us. It was great to chat with you, Lindsey, too and I look forward to tuning in next week as well.
Lindsey:
All right. Thanks so much Lynne. I appreciate you and taking the time and to my viewers, thank you so much for joining us. This very first episode of SPED Talk with Lindsey. I look forward to working with you all next week and we’ve got a great show lined up with Dr. Erica Soto coming to talk about mental health tricks and tips and helping students adjust to these long breaks and what we can do to keep them engaged and not regrets over this timeframe that we take off for the holiday.
Lindsey:
So I enjoyed all my time with you this morning, and I look forward to seeing you guys next week. Bye.
We want to thank Lindsey and Lynne for providing such an informative and thought-provoking discussion about the many benefits awaiting those considering transitioning to teletherapy.
