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Episode 357: How to Create a Neurodivergent Affirming Private Practice - Private Practice Startup Podcast | Wave AI Podcast Notes

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Episode 357: How to Create a Neurodivergent Affirming Private Practice

Private Practice Startup Podcast

Sat Jul 27 2024

Patrick Casale & Maureen Werrbach

Summary

Private Practice Startup Podcast - Episode 357 Summary

Title: How to Create a Neurodivergent Affirming Private Practice
Host: Dr. Kate Campbell & Katie Lemieux
Guests: Patrick Sal, Founder of All Things Private Practice & Host of All Things Private Practice Podcast; Maureen Warbach, Visionary Entrepreneur in the Mental Health Field
Release Date: July 27, 2024

Introduction to the Episode

In Episode 357 of the Private Practice Startup Podcast, hosts Dr. Kate Campbell and Katie Lemieux delve into the essential strategies for creating a neurodivergent-affirming private practice. The episode features returning guests Patrick Sal and Maureen Warbach, both esteemed entrepreneurs in the mental health sector, who share their expertise and personal experiences in fostering inclusive and supportive environments for neurodivergent individuals.

Understanding Neurodivergence in Private Practice

[05:00] Maureen Warbach emphasizes the significance of the episode's timing, noting, “Today is April 10th. We are firmly in the month of autism acceptance month,” highlighting the increasing recognition of neurodiversity in mental health practices.

The Power of Language

One of the foundational elements discussed is the importance of language in affirming neurodivergent identities.

Maureen Warbach: “Language matters. We need to use identity-first language, such as 'I am an autistic therapist,' rather than 'a therapist with autism.' This shift honors neurodiversity and validates the lived experiences of neurodivergent individuals.”
[10:00]
Laura: “Autistic clients want to feel understood without having to explain their challenges in detail. Proper language fosters this immediate sense of understanding and acceptance.”
[27:50]

Developing Affirming Policies and Procedures

Creating policies that support neurodivergent clients and staff is crucial. The guests discuss practical steps to ensure these policies are both inclusive and effective.

Flexible Scheduling and Accommodations

Patrick Sal: “During onboarding, we highlight identities and accommodations right away. For example, if a staff member needs to start their day at 2 PM instead of 9 AM, we accommodate that.”
[08:15]
Maureen Warbach: “We eliminate rigid schedules, allowing staff to work during their most productive hours. This flexibility reduces stress and enhances job performance.”
[12:00]

Communication Preferences

Patrick Sal: “We use communication preference surveys to understand how each team member likes to receive feedback—be it via text, email, or in-person. This ensures everyone feels comfortable and heard.”
[09:45]
Maureen Warbach: “Allowing clients to choose how they communicate—whether through video calls with the camera off, texting, or traditional phone calls—can significantly improve their therapy experience.”
[29:30]

Environment and Sensory Considerations

Maureen Warbach: “Setting up a sensory-friendly office—like using low lighting and providing fidget tools—helps clients feel more comfortable and present during sessions.”
[16:50]

Internal Practices for Staff Support

The conversation shifts to internal practices that support neurodivergent staff members, ensuring they thrive within the organization.

Modeling and Advocacy

Patrick Sal: “Modeling self-advocacy as leaders encourages staff to feel safe in disclosing their neurodivergent identities and requesting necessary accommodations.”
[34:30]
Maureen Warbach: “By openly discussing my own needs and preferences, I create a safe space for others to do the same, fostering a supportive and understanding workplace culture.”
[35:00]

Continuous Improvement and Evolution

Maintaining a neurodivergent-affirming practice is an ongoing process that requires regular reflection and adaptation.

Patrick Sal: “There’s never an endpoint. Every six months, we review our policies and practices to incorporate new insights and improvements, ensuring we remain inclusive and supportive.”
[33:55]
Maureen Warbach: “Constantly evolving our approach helps us stay aligned with the needs of our neurodivergent clients and staff, allowing us to provide the best possible care and support.”
[33:52]

Personal Stories and Impact

Both guests share personal anecdotes that highlight the transformative impact of adopting neurodivergent-affirming practices.

Patrick Sal: Reflecting on his own journey, Patrick shares, “Discovering my own neurodivergent identity allowed me to advocate for myself and, in turn, inspire my team to do the same. This has created a more authentic and productive work environment.”
[17:00]
Maureen Warbach: Maureen recounts her experience with public rollout of neurodivergent affirming practices, stating, “Modeling acceptance and flexibility in my practice has not only benefited my clients but has also empowered my staff to embrace their true selves, leading to better outcomes for everyone involved.”
[19:20]

Key Takeaways and Conclusion

The episode concludes with reflections on the importance of embracing neurodiversity within private practices. The guests reiterate that small, intentional changes can make a significant difference in creating an inclusive and supportive environment for both clients and staff.

Patrick Sal: “Feeling comfortable to self-advocate as a leader creates a ripple effect, fostering a positive and inclusive atmosphere for everyone in the practice.”
[34:40]
Maureen Warbach: “Listening to and incorporating feedback from neurodivergent voices is essential. It ensures that practices are truly accessible and affirming.”
[34:50]

Dr. Kate Campbell and Katie Lemieux thank Patrick and Maureen for their invaluable insights, encouraging listeners to implement these strategies to build neurodivergent-affirming private practices that not only support clients but also empower mental health professionals.

For More Information:
Visit www.PrivatePracticeStartup.com for additional resources, webinars, online courses, and attorney-approved private practice paperwork.

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Transcript

Katie (0:02)

Welcome to the Private Practice Startup Podcast where we help mental health professionals grow their dream practices and live a life they love. We chat with successful private practitioners, business coaches and marketing experts, bringing you tons of practice building tips. We invite you to take advantage of our private practice paperwork and our signature marketing E course. And we have a gift for you. This is the exact methodology we use to create our six figure private pay practices have helped many other therapists do the same. Go to private practicestartup.com and on the homepage click the button to download a free copy of your dream private practice playbook. Now, on to today's episode.

Laura (0:39)

Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Private Practice Startup Podcast. As always, we are delighted you're here. If you're a brand new listener, welcome. If you're a loyal listener, welcome back. We hope that you guys enjoy our podcast as it helps you build your practice and stay connected to the things that matter to you most. So today on our podcast we have some very special guests who've been with us. 1, 2, 3. Maybe this is both their fourth time at this point together.

Maureen Warbach (1:06)

Frequent flyers.

Laura (1:09)

Swipe your card for the rewards. Not sure what the program is yet, but we'll figure that out. Anyways, yes, they actually I think this is their fourth time, but they're here together for the first time today. But before I introduce them and introduce our topic today, we hope you joined us last week as we spoke with Iris Torres, talking about building trust in therapy strategies for working with the Hispanic community. If you work with the Hispanic community or you want to, this is a really great, important podcast to listen to. So check that out. So who are our guests today? Our very special guest. Well, maybe I'll introduce the topic and then I'll introduce them. So we're talking about how to build a neurodivergent affirming private practice. So if you guessed, one of our guests is Patrick Sal, you are correct. So Patrick is the founder of All Things Private Practice and host of All Things Private Practice podcast as well as co host of Divergent Conversations podcast, which I definitely recommend you listen to. I not only laughed, but gained a lot of clarity and kept saying, yes, yes, I get that. Oh my God, that's so relatable. As well as he is a retreat host, group practice owner, neurodivergent entrepreneur, coach, keynote speaker. And Patrick lives in Asheville, North Carolina with his wife Arielle and their two dogs, Hudson, Hudson and Hazel. And our other guest today is none other than Maureen Warbach, who was just visiting in Miami and we missed her again. She was down here before and we missed her. And I was in Tampa, so I missed her. We were trying to play pickleball together. That did not happen. It will happen next time. So Maureen is a visionary entrepreneur in the mental health field. As the owner of a multi location group practice and a business consultant, her goal is to help group practice owners build a practice they're proud of. And I'm excited because we had Maureen on the podcast before talking about her book, which it's almost getting to be released. So I'm excited about that. So we'll connect all of their podcasts into this podcast, but let's focus on today's topic. But before we do that, let's just take a quick moment for our sponsor. Trying to navigate all the things as a therapist is hard, especially when you're trying to stay focused on the most important thing. Your clients. Of course. That's why Therapy Notes makes billing, scheduling, note taking and telehealth incredibly easy. Also, for all you prescribers out there, TherapyNotes is proudly offering e prescribed services. One of the things that I love about Therapy Notes is that they really have the clinician in mind. Working with A company like TherapyNotes helps streamline the back end of your business. If you're a busy therapist, good quality support is essential. That's why TherapyNotes has telephone support seven days a week. No wonder why they're the number one top rated EHR and why more than a hundred thousand therapists trust them. Therapy Notes is offering two months of their EHR absolutely free, no strings attached. So go to therapynotes.com and enter the code PPS. That's therapynotes.com and enter the Code PPS.

Unknown (11:48)

We talk about from the interview process on with our staff as well. So like we talk about schedules, right? Like how often do we work at a job where it's like, well, your set schedule is 9 to 5 or you have to work these hours in order to be in compliance. We throw all that out the window because like for different neurotypes, we're going to have different ideal times that we're working. And for our ADHD staff, they don't want to take breaks throughout the day. They want to just go from task to task to task because the interruption in that task is going to throw them into a major loop to the point where it might be really challenging to get back on track. We don't have set hours. So if someone says, I don't sleep well, I want to start my day at 2pm and I want to work till 9pm, great. I don't care. Like, I have zero preference in that. In terms of what our staff want to do, in terms of what works best for their system, I don't start my own day before 11am feels hypocritical for me to say, I need you to be here at 9am Same thing with giving the preference of like, do you want to be a telehealth provider? Do you want to be a hybrid provider? Would you prefer an office space? Things like that when we do one on one feedback check ins. When I check in with each of my staff, I give them the option of do you want to meet, phone call, video call, with the video on or off, do you want to text? And when I tell people that people are like, what do you mean you give your clinicians feedback via text. So many of our clinicians get to this state, especially our autistic clinicians, where after seeing four or five clients a day, the ability to be verbal and communicative is not there. So if they're going to absorb information, they would much prefer that to be via text message. So we do that all the time. It even means that during interviews I'm telling my clinicians, like, as an autistic ADHD therapist, I'm very direct, I'm very blunt. I can come across a certain way. I want to be really transparent about communication. So we have a communication preferences survey that we send out to all of our staff. It's anonymous. They get to submit whatever they prefer. We try really hard to adhere to that. I think this stuff is super important because the less we can find ourselves into these boxes of like, this is how a organization needs to run, the more likely it is that we are going to support our clinician systems and our client systems too.

Unknown (23:50)

So yes, there are things that we can do pretty immediately. And like I mentioned, language is important, right? So if you are out there and you're like, I really want to work with autistic or ADHD people or neurodivergent people, because the neurodivergent virgin umbrella is larger than autism. Adhd, I want to name that too, because a lot of conditions get overlooked. But I think language matters. And to Maureen's point, like when we're talking about comfortably and safely identifying a certain way, I am a firm believer that relatability equates to accessibility. And I think that starts with just reading about me or a bio or a webpage. And I encourage all of my clinicians to, if they feel safe enough to do so, to do the same thing. Like because clients want to know that you get it, right? Especially clients that are members of marginalized communities. They don't want to come in and have to like hold back a part of themselves. They want to just safely say, I can explain the situation and maybe you get it and maybe the situation isn't identical. But you're going to understand it without having to like, go into detail about abc. I think that is so validating. And so language, for example, the autism movement especially is really moving into this identity first movement with the usage of language. So that would be like, when I introduce myself, I'll say, I'm an autistic entrepreneur, I'm an autistic therapist. I'm an autistic human being. Not, I am a human with autism. Not, I am an adult who is autistic. And definitely not using asd, autism spectrum disorder, stuff like that. High versus low functioning autism. Those are the things we're trying to get away from. And the reason for that is because autism is an identity, it impacts holistically the entirety of my being. I don't get to pick and choose when I am autistic. Like, I don't get to just take it off and put it out the door for a work meeting or a social gathering or an interpersonal or a relationship. Like, and it impacts your sensory system, your nervous system, your neurodevelopment. Like, it impacts everything. And it's a lifelong condition and neurotype, which is why it's so important to move into this place where we are using this affirming perspective. So language first and foremost, again, important, then tiered off of that, I would say, like, similarly to what we do with our clinicians is what we should be doing with our clients. That means, do you want to meet virtually? Would you prefer to fill out your intake paperwork with me on the screen? Like, in a body doubling sense? Because it might just be really challenging to your executive functioning to like, figure out the steps without some guidance. Would you prefer to meet via text message or phone call? A lot of clinicians are going to cringe at that statement of like, how can we do that? Setting up your office appropriately so that it's really low lighting so you're not using like scented candles and smells. And you might ask yourself why. But so many of us have heightened sensory systems that the littlest smell can really create this environment that is unpleasant to be in both emotionally and physically comfortable seating. I always ask my clients, like, do you want to sit on the floor? Do you want to sit on the couch? Where would you like to be? How would you like to position yourself? Do you want to move during session? So many autistic people need to move. They need to stem, they need to rock. That's important for them to actually be present. The permission to not make eye contact is something we talk about constantly. I don't make a lot of eye contact. If I am, I'm feeling like it's forced, it's uncomfortable. It's kind of hell, honestly. So giving your clients permission to look around the room or the zoom screen or turn the camera off. There are so many little ways to make sure that we set ourselves up and our practices up for success. And I think when we struggle with these concepts, it's because it's like, well, this is how it's supposed to be done. And that doesn't work for the neurodivergent person.

Unknown (29:33)

Constant communication, I think is crucial, like to kind of do check ins both with your client or clinician or staff member, whoever, and to also be really honest about your own preferences and needs too. I think that there has to be a balance and a lot of clinicians will struggle with like the whole like, well, I wouldn't mail my clients their intake forms because they would prefer to write it out instead of type it, or I wouldn't body double with them on a video screen. I think about how often clients fall through the cracks because they don't fill out their intake paperwork. And if I, if jumping on a zoom call for 10 to 15 minutes allows them to complete it right, that's an accommodation I'm willing to make. Similarly with texting, similarly with meeting with the video screen off, et cetera, et cetera. And I think that stuff is important. And if we're looking at autism, adhd, especially as disabling conditions, which they are, then if we're holding people to these unrealistic neurotypical standards of like how they have to show up in society, we're going to let them down every single time. And that goes into cancellation policies, late cancel policies, et cetera. And I'm not saying not to enforce them. You should get paid for your time. But there are little things you can do to make your policies more neurodivergent affirming, like agreeing to attend a 15 minute check in text with someone who's ADHD who might have just lost track of time because they are so consumed in whatever they're doing that all of a sudden that appointment has overlapped with something else for an autistic client who might have a significant special interest and they're super hyper focused on something, it's really easy for that to happen. So going over these policies with your clients and saying like, how can we create little accommodations, tweaks and edits to ensure that we are providing the most affirming care imaginable. And I think it doesn't take that much effort to do this stuff. It's just again, like to Maureen's point, thinking about it from a completely different perspective and I was going to diverge into high versus low functioning labels, but I don't think, I don't know. That doesn't really necessarily matter. But I think again, just coming back to the point of like, I think there are lots of little tweaks that you can make to your practice to really ensure that you're supporting clients to the best of their, their.