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Our episode today is all about a holistic approach to psychology!
To help us broach this extensive subject, we got together with Dr. Lori Baudino to unpack the intricacies of the mind-body connection.
Dr. Baudino is a licensed clinical psychologist, a board-certified dance movement therapist, and a mother of two.
Our guest shares what she has learned from her work as a psychologist from working with children in private practice, as well as in a hospital setting for over a decade.
Lori expands on her integrative approach to psychology and how movement and dance have informed her studies and work throughout her entire life. She reflects on how she adapted her practice to be entirely virtual in response to the COVID pandemic and why she advocates for working collaboratively with the entire family.
Later Lori talks about her experience with motherhood and how her work has positively informed her relationship with her children and how they understand one another. As if all this weren’t enough, she is also the author of Super Flyers: A Parent Guidebook for Airplane Travel with Childrenand has a second book coming out soon!
We learned so much from our conversation with Lori and are huge fans of her work, we hope that you enjoy this conversation as much as we did!
“I use this mind-body approach in everything I do. This really integrative approach to psychology, really understanding emotions and psychological, mental, physical experiences.” — Dr. Lori Baudino[06:01]
“It makes me learn a lot, every day. I'm constantly looking to my children for information. I am constantly learning and I'm always striving to be my best self. It helps me understand why I do what I do. It helps me understand why my child does what they do.” — Dr. Lori Baudino[13:36]
“Oftentimes when you have a child on the spectrum, or you mentioned ADHD, ADD, there's a lot of misunderstandings that can come with it. There are mood instabilities that can happen and the child often gets misunderstood.” — Dr. Lori Baudino[20:26]
“Throughout this time of COVID, I have been only providing services virtually. I think it's been going really well. I say that because I was always an advocate for working for good parents, working collaboratively with the family.” —Dr. Lori Baudino[25:49]
“I would love to see it as critical as seeing your pediatrician, just as critical as getting your teeth checked, as critical as getting your coffee at Starbucks, just really thinking about how important it is that our children and our families understand each other.” — Dr. Lori Baudino[36:08]
Super Flyers: A Parent Guidebook for Airplane Travel with Children
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[00:00:01] RH: Hey, there. I’m Rachel.
[00:00:02] JH: I’m Jessica. This is All Things Sensory by Harkla. Together, we’re on a mission to help children, families, therapists, and educators live happy, healthy lives.
[00:00:11] RH: We dive into All Things Sensory special needs, occupational therapy, parenting, self-care much more. In each episode, we share raw, honest, fun ideas and strategies for everyone to implement into daily life.
[00:00:25] JH: Thank you so much for joining us.
[INTERVIEW]
[00:00:59] RH: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to All Things Sensory by Harkla, you’re listening to Rachel and Jessica. Today we are sharing Episode 158 with you.
[00:00:39] JH: We are chatting with Dr. Lori Baudino, and we got done with this conversation and we’re just both, Rachel and I looked at each other we love her. You're going to love her too. This is a great conversation.
[00:00:54] RH: All right, without spoiling too much, we will let Lori explain everything she does. Let's go ahead and meet her. Hello, Dr. Lori Baudino. Welcome.
[00:01:07] LB: Hi, thanks for having me.
[00:01:10] RH: Yeah, we’re super excited to chat about all the amazing things you do. First, we are going to ask you some secret questions that you don't know about.
[00:01:23] LB: Okay.
[00:01:24] RH: Okay, so the first one.
[00:01:26] LB: My style.
[00:01:26] RH: Yep. The first one is what song is currently stuck in your
Head?
[00:01:31] LB: Oh, my. Well, my daughter who is nine is in a musical. She is Cogsworth in Beauty and the Beast, which is the cutest thing ever. I have Be our guests in my head all night, all day, every moment.
[00:01:48] RH: It was a perfect question for you.
[00:01:49] LB: I’m a real Mom. Yeah, I'm a mom. I’m fully at it. Yeah.
[00:01:53] RH: Could be worst songs, right?
[00:01:55] LB: I wanted to go away but, yeah. I wanted to go away but I’m trying to, just loved it, we’re singing in the song. Yeah.
[00:02:02] JH: That’s so cute.
[00:02:02] RH: It will be over soon.
[00:02:03] JH: All right, next question. Would you rather hold your arms above your head or stand on your tiptoes for eight hours strict?
[00:02:15] RH: That’s a terrible question?
[00:02:17] LB: Well, they’re both actually - I instantly thought of being a ballerina dancing. I was Oh, I the both. I guess my arms over my head. I feel I yeah, I feel I could reach the clouds and pull those muscles.
[00:02:32] RH: Beautiful. I like it.
[00:02:34] LB: What does that mean? Can you analyze me?
[00:02:37] JH: Oh, nothing.
[00:02:40] RH: What's the word I'm thinking of? Either or.
[00:02:42] JH: It’s only entertainment question. There's no purpose. The last question we're going to analyze you though, so just hold tight on that.
[00:02:51] LB: I'm ready. I'm ready.
[00:02:52] RH: Okay, the next one. What is your favorite breakfast?
[00:02:56] LB: My favorite breakfast would be a version of either a smoothie of delicious smoothie, dates, berries, almond milk. Then I love a little cooked salad, cabbage with the smoked salmon, maybe a little eggs. You guys are making me so high [Inaudible 00:03:21]. That would be it, that realm of the smoothie girl, yummy breakfast. I love breakfast.
[00:03:30] JH: Yeah. Me too. All right. Next question. Who is someone that you look up to?
[00:03:37] LB: I think about other psychologists, other providers in my work. When you asked me that question, my first answer is my mom. I have to say my mom. Because every moment I create works spontaneous. I think about she just did that, she made it fun. She was someone that always said yep, we can do it. What we have to do, let's just get it done. We're on the east coast. It was anything's possible. We can get it done. She always I know, it’s was just Mother's Day. She always comes up in my mind. I've just. we got this.
[00:03:37] JH: I love it.
[00:04:12] RH: You're not to make sure she listens to this. Okay, this is our last question. This is the important one. What is your sensory quirk?
[00:04:21] LB: My sensory quirk. Meaning my pet peeve or my super [Inaudible 00:04:29]
[00:04:29] RH: What's the first thing that comes to mind? When we asked that question?
[00:04:29] LB: Well, I get, really chills on my body when someone scratches on a clay of pot. Yeah, it just I can't I just my body hurts. My parents had these lovely bowls and dishes from their wedding. I would just I can't I couldn't handle it and to this day, it comes up I get that feeling and I feel an experience with my kiddos that I work with experience much. My superpower I feel the sensory piece of that I can feel mood and energy in the room. I could feel really heavy when I'm sensing something's heavy going on, or I feel really uplifted if I feel there's this ease in a relationship between myself and another person or the environment. I definitely get affected by moods and weather, textures.
[00:05:28] RH: Yup, other sensory quirks for sure.
[00:05:29] JH: Super powers to. Yeah. [Inaudible 00:05:32]
[00:05:33] LB: Cool. I try to use that for good. I try to use them and they say help me with the information.
[00:05:34] JH: Okay, let's jump into the dirty details. Tell us who you are, what you do, why are you doing all the things?
[00:05:47] LB: Yes, [Inaudible 00:05:47] and I'm analyzing clinical psychologist. I also have a Board Certified dance movement therapist and as you've heard, I'm a mom of two. I use this mind body approach in everything I do. This really integrative approach to psychology, really understanding that emotions and psychological mental physical experiences, we have our experience in the body and expressed through movement. What better way than to look at this bottom up approach of. How do we move to work our emotional organization and our relationships?
[00:06:23] RH: I like it. How did you get started on that journey and decide that that's your, I to call it your calling?
[00:06:29] LB: Yes, yeah, for sure. It's my calling. I tend to say that I was the kid that tap danced to book reports, I played basketball to learn math. I was always using my body in a creative ways. It's just how I learned. I used to draw to learn and do art, history you name it. It’s was just always using these arts. I was fortunate enough that during my early years of schooling, I was always working with kids, some with special needs, I went to a really progressive school where we have a really creative way of learning. Then I was fortunate enough to pick up on this field really early. When I was in high school, I went to New York for the summer, and did a course by Diane Depken, which was dance for the special need, dance movement therapy for the special needs child. I learned about this field about how movement and psychology could be all in one and I fell in love.
I just sorted from there, I flew through high school, through college, through grad school. Doctorate just always pursuing this mind body approach this idea of I really want to undergrad I mastered in dance as a performance dancer. Then I switched into more Kinesiology and Anatomy, has been always doing psychology. I was always marrying the two. To me, they're one of the same. You can't have psychology and emotions without the body. Kept on working and learning about these two fields.
[00:07:55] RH: I love it. When you say that I immediately think about how our emotions affect our body. When you get, I get angry. I start to get sweaty and my face feels really hot. Exactly just that mind body connection.
[00:07:55] LB: Absolutely. Yeah, when we were in grad school, everyone is say you don't want to, come across me at the bar. They'd be are you reading my body language? Are you thinking about what I’m doing? The great thing about it is we all have patterns. It's not necessarily a science that says, hey, every time this person moves their hand this way, it always means that for everybody, but it does have these patterns that are specific to each person. It's really wonderful that when we can understand our own body and our emotions, we have more adaptable, flexible ways of - it always made sense to me.
[00:08:46] JH: I just want to circle around back to movement and dance. As occupational therapy assistants, that's what we strive to incorporate is, if a kiddo was struggling to learn a skill, we build it into movement, and we build it into activities that are meaningful to them. Do you work with kiddos? Can you explain how you work with kiddos incorporating your background of dance and movement therapy?
[00:09:14] LB: Yeah, definitely. As simple as my observation skills are my first and foremost. The second I meet an individual, whether it's virtual, with COVID, and everything, everything's online, but virtual or in person. I'm looking at the body and looking at how does this individual communicate and experience their world? I can't look at polarities in terms of is there this chaotic, asynchronist movement? Is there rigidity in their movement? Or is it is this even flow? What's the relationship between parent and child? Are they watching each other? Are they really fight different? Because it’s a stereotype of an East Coast, or it’s a West Coaster and probably might have some difference of the East Coaster might be cutting across the table reaching for things, talking with their hands and the West Coaster is like, chilling out, right? Stereotype.
You can imagine, you can see these things that are bought with the study. First and foremost, using observation. Then, it can be just talking about the body. It can be awareness of the individual's body, like mindfulness practices. I certainly can sit and have a child, or an adult talking with me about a traditional psychology field, a therapy session. I'm always looking at the body. Then I'm really spontaneous.
Each session, we're using play and play could look like a board game. It could look like toys, it could look like sports, but it also could just be getting up and moving our body. There's so many different techniques as a dance movement therapist. One of the common ones might be just having a parent and child follow each other. Have them like a follow the leader game, but in place, and seeing how that child takes charge, what their ideas are, what choice, what parts of their bodies that they use. Is it easy for the parent to follow? Is it challenging? Can the child pass the movement?
Again, you see this parallel to their relationship. You see a parallel to the challenges the child has. You see if there's anxiety. You see if there's fears. You see if there's an ease, that there's problem solving skills. That's just one example. Then, it will be also creating this idea of putting words into action. I say, that we can talk about a theory, about what's happening with emotions, or challenges going on. We can read about it. We can watch someone else doing it. Until you actually embody it and go out and practice it, we don't know what it's like, or we can't really access to make changes, or to say, getting it and keep it going.
This lens I have. To his movement piece doesn't mean we're necessarily dancing, I'm not teaching ballet, but it is about embodying the experience that we're having.
Then obviously, yes, the answer is amazing. I do have some kiddos where we put on music and we get our sympathetic nervous system raised up high and we get our heart beating fast. Then we support how do we regulate or how to create story. Sometimes we take an imaginary history of journey and our stories parallel our experiences as well. Obviously, you can tell I love this topic, right?
[00:12:13] JH: Yes. Exactly. No kidding. Well that's one of the hard things about a podcast. People can't see how you're just lighting up, talking about these sessions that you do with these kiddos. It's magical to see that passion.
[00:12:26] LB: Yeah, it's super, it's really fun. There's endless ideas of how to use the work.
[00:12:31] RH: I was just wondering, how this has affected you as a mother? How did maybe you say differently, but how you parent your child with the knowledge that you have?
[00:12:43] LB: Early on. In my early years of parenting, I would say that if I was being my therapist myself, I was doing really well. I knew what to do and you had to handle it. I was just had the strategies and techniques. Since that worked really well because I knew I was I was in the right profession. I was really great for my clients. Then the mommy though the Lori me makes mistakes all the time. I would say oh, the Lori me needs to check with the therapist, to get some information.
In the long run, I learned that the Lori me actually did a beautiful job because you have to give yourself permission to what we call mistakes, right? I got to learn from them. I got my children get to see me as a human and we get to share emotions. My daughter and I get through rage and yell and be all sorts of yucky together and we still love each other and it's really fun because she gets me and I get her. It makes me learn a lot, every day. I'm constantly looking to my children for information. I constantly learning and I'm always striving to be my best self. It helps me understand why I do what I do. It helps me understand why my child does what they do.
Sometimes again, I need to remind myself. What age are they? Why is this happening? What does that look like? I miss a lot too with them. I feel I spend so much time on other people's kids. I'm Oh yeah, I should probably tell the teacher about my son and whatever where [Inaudible 00:12:43] remind myself.
[00:14:11] RH: I relate to that so much. My son is seven and a half. We go through these moments of, I'll get frustrated with him. He gets frustrated and just learning that it's okay to show those emotions to your kid because then they're going to learn from you how to deal with those emotions.
[00:14:29] LB: Definitely. I'm super blessed. I am thankful every day for my kids just seeing how healthy they are. I’m actually teaching my husband, if he's feeling overwhelmed by something, I'm Oh, this is easy, there could be so much worse. Let me tell you about all the other scenarios that could happen. I worked with really medically fragile children in the hospitals over the years. Knowing that my children know that I worked and taught children that have not been able to go outside or have challenges and maybe they haven't access their ability to learn math. Then here are my children doing algebra or geometry. I'm thinking hey, this is a gift. This is something we need to celebrate though.
[00:15:10] JH: I think that’s a great way.
[00:15:12] LB: We celebrate a lot.
[00:15:13] JH: Yeah, that's a great way of phrasing it for your kids and even for parents listening when you're frustrated or when your kiddos are frustrating. When your kiddos are frustrated you can explain to them that perspective that it is a gift and there are all these other kiddos who maybe haven't had that opportunity to learn those skills yet or participate in that activity.
Even though it's hard even though the moment you're screaming and you want to get frustrated to just take that step back and have that different perspective?
[00:15:41] LB: Yeah, definitely. My kids, we love occupational therapy. We do techniques at home. We have our compression sheets. We have a [Inaudible 00:15:51] the wall for in which it's fun to apply them and see what feels good, what works, what doesn't work. They're my true testers because they're teaching me a lot. Then I also am Wow, it really works. I have really adaptable, easy going kiddos that just love life. It's really fun.
[00:16:11] RH: I feel that's the same for us. Our kids are definite tests of that’s, what we do.
[00:16:17] JH: It's really cool to see that the tools and the activities and the knowledge that we share and we use. It's beneficial for kiddos across the spectrum of typically developing to special needs and maybe really fragile kiddos as well. I mean, it applies to everyone. Everyone has a nervous system. Everyone can use these principles and these activities that we talked about.
[00:16:39] LB: Absolutely. I think it's important for children to even know that. I have this dream that even my children will be able to see the kids I work with or meet together. I used to say if a child who's having cancer in the hospital, it could be a child on the autism spectrum and they didn't have a session together. One has the rest of their life to live in as this internal experience of the world having being on the spectrum and one has a short time on this earth and yet has such a wide expansive resilience to them.
The ability to learn from each other and see that we all have sensory beings, we all have emotions, and we can help each other is such a gift for the children to learn and know about versus it being taboo or saying, I don't know about that diagnosis or I don't understand it or the times I'm working with parents and there is a resistance of, Should we tell the school? Should we tell other children? It's a beautiful thing to be able to advocate and say, yeah, this is my kid and this is their uniqueness and there's superpowers and we all love them.
[00:17:44] JH: Yes.
[MESSAGE]
[00:17:46] JH: We just want to take a minute and talk to you about our company, Harkla. Our mission at Harkla is to help those with special needs live happy, healthy lives. Not only do we accomplish this through the podcast, but we also have therapy products, easy-to-follow digital courses and the Harkla Sensory Club, to try to bring holistic care to you and your family.
[00:18:03] RH: Listeners of the All Things Sensory Podcast get 10% off their first purchase at Harkla, with the discount code Sensory. We'd recommend checking out some of our bestsellers, the compression sensory swing, weighted blankets or our course on sensory diets.
[00:18:18] JH: Here's the best part. 1% of each sale gets donated to the University of Washington Autism Center to support autism research and fund scholarships to families in need to receive in-clinic therapy for their child.
[00:18:30] RH: Learn more about Harkla, and all we have to offer at harkla.co. That's H-A-R-K-L-A.-C-O. Don't forget to use the discount code Sensory to get 10% off your first purchase. That's S-E-N-S-O-R-Y for 10% off.
[00:18:52] JH: The best part is all Harkla orders come with a lifetime guarantee and free shipping.
[00:18:59] RH: You really can't beat that.
[00:18:59] JH: No. You can’t.
[00:19:03] RH: Okay, let's get back to the show.
[INTERVIEW CONTINUED]
[00:19:04] JH: On that note. I’m curious if you’ve ever worked with the kiddo who maybe parents didn’t want to tell them that they had a diagnosis and how you navigate that because I worked with families who don't want to tell the child that they have a diagnosis of whatever it is maybe autism, maybe ADHD or whatever.
[00:19:25] RH: They don’t want their child to feel different.
[00:19:25] JH: Yeah. How do you navigate that?
[00:19:29]LB:I actually went into private practice over 15 years ago because I wanted to get away from a diagnosis of just let every child have the same diagnosis in order to get services, especially in California. I really advocate for saying, hey, let's look at the situation. Let's look at the child, what are they capable of? What are their strengths? It really looking at adaptive responses. They have this response to their environment and their interactions to protect themselves. We don't want to squash that. We want to say good for you, you found a resourceful way of communicating and surviving. We need to work on that parameter, do you need this skill anymore? Or can we get rid of it isn't helping you or is it not?
Really focusing on the individual child in their home environment, their school environment and stripping away labels. I still do that. I still want to strip away labels and say, let's not just say it's this, but let's look at what does it look like? What's the movement? Then how can we keep it or modify it, right? That being said, oftentimes when you have a child on the spectrum or you mentioned ADHD, ADD, there's a lot of misunderstandings that can come with it.
There are mood instabilities that can happen and the child often gets misunderstood. I also work with a lot of kids that are twice exceptional and on the gifted scale or asynchronistic. You've got this kid that can act like they're fifteen in one moment, but then have a full on meltdown like they're three and another. The teachers and other parents, other friends might be, what? Why are you acting that? That's terrible. The kid intellectually knows, because they're fifteen. They feel fifteen that they should never got that yet emotionally and physically they are, acting younger.
My objective is to support education to the parents and the providers for more information, the better. Knowing that there are many will be talking about a diagnosis. We don't talk about etiology. We don't talk about where it comes from. A child can present a certain way. We don't know is it because of toxicity? The whole toxicity? Is it because of an early trauma? Is it because of an environment? School fit for most severe to have more subtle. There's different reasons why the child's presenting that way.
Ultimately, we need to help the providers and people around that child know why they're acting that way so that etiology piece, where it came from? If we have that information. Then what can we do to respond to it? To me, I’ve had experiences where a parent has told a classroom about their child having a tic disorder, Tourette syndrome and how much that helped the other children advocate for that kid. They don’t laugh at that child, but actually, learn about it, and could bring speakers to learn that this is not just this child, this is many children.
To know that if your child is on the spectrum, that's a spectrum. Wow, yes. He might walk in circles when the class gets really loud during a transition. He's also an amazing researcher and he has all the information we can possibly ever learn about history. These are things that our children can hold on to and say, Okay, well, when he's walking around circles, I know I can do what I can get quieter. I could join and walk with him. What can we do? Long answer but just that I am focusing on advocating for your child's being misunderstood as being problematic. We really want to be a little bit more transparent and talk about what does this diagnosis mean? What are all parts of it? What are the child's strengths? What can we do?
[00:23:10] JH: Yeah, I just love that you brought up looking at the whole child from trauma to mold toxicity. Something that most practitioners probably aren't, that's not the first thing on their radar. It's here's the diagnosis. Here's a standardized test. This is what you have. This is what we're going to do. This is the treatment plan, whereas you're no, and it's similar to OT as well. This is the whole child. This is their environment. This is their history. This is their occupations. This is everything in this bag of this child and their being. We're just going to pull from it and see what we can figure out and address.
[00:23:45] LB: Absolutely. Also recognizing as a parent that it might feel bad to have a label. I used to think let's get away again, I was saying, let’s get away from labels. However, when it gives us information of being understood, meaning, hey, this is the symptoms we're seeing.
My child may present this way, if they feel threatened, they might talk back, they might throw things they might get oppositional. This is all part of who they are. I want to make sure that you the provider out there, the teacher, the other parent or the coach knows that when this happens, this is part of my child right now. This is how we can respond, we need to make sure he or she feels safe.
They're not being bad or not being malicious or not being all the labels we can possibly think of. Really thinking about how to make sure we understand why they're presenting a bit back.
[00:24:35] RH: I really that approach of, if a child is struggling in that moment. Being able to figure out why but also how to respond to help them not just saying, oh, you're being bad go sit in the corner. No, let’s actually figure out what can help this child to feel better so that they can continue to participate.
[00:24:58] LB: And it doesn't mean we're condoning, getting screaming, throwing all those things. In that moment, we have to be able to support that safety. Then we can do the teaching of okay, next time, we're not going to throw but you may decide to go over here or you can throw outside all those options that the child has. We contend as humans as adults, we get impatient. We want to solve it right there in that moment and to do this big teaching moment and it doesn't work in that moment. We got to wait [Inaudible 00:25:28].
[00:25:28] RH: Yeah. I love that.
[00:25:31] JH: Let's talk a little bit about all of the services that you do provide because I'm sure people listening are Oh, my goodness, Dr. Lori is fantastic. Let's learn a little bit more about what you do and how you support your clients.
[00:25:47] LB: Yes, at this moment, throughout this time of COVID, I have been only providing services virtually. I think it's been going really well. I say that because I was always an advocate for working for good parents, working collaboratively with the family. I want to give that relationship the most emphasis to that I don't disappear on anyone I say, but I do, hopefully fade out. I come in with needed but therapy is just this window into learning about each other.
Virtually unable to be in the home with a child and I used to go to homes. I also have an office, a private practice. I also go to schools as an advocate for supporting the school environment. I also work at hospital close bedside with children. There's all those areas but virtually I'm able to meet them in the home, I'm a fly on the wall on the screen. I get to more guide and coach in similar to what I was doing. Really supporting that relationship. I work one on one with children and also [Inaudible 00:26:54] parents.
I see children as little as newborns and moms or parents working on attachment relationships, all the way up to teenagers. My main age is those middle ages of the four to six and then the nine to eleven’s. Just because that's those are some big transition years. I also do seminars and support for providers, therapists, educators and I supervise master's level, graduate level students. Always advocating and supporting this mind body approach.
[00:27:31] RH: Doing some amazing.
[00:27:35] LB: I'm always writing. I'm always speaking. I love talking with podcasts and events and seminars. I love working with parents and doing parent groups.
[00:27:45] RH: Have you written a book? Are you writing a book?
[00:27:46] JH: That was my question.
[00:27:48] LB: Yeah, yes. I have written a book that was just a labor of love called Super Flyers, a parent guidebook to airplane travel with children. That's the whole title. I love traveling. My members love traveling. A few children, so I used to always say I want to be the psychologist on the plane that helps every child have the best time ever. I wrote a book and my children actually helped me write little, they write little notes in the book. The idea was that if you read it, you become a super flyer too.
It's all the sensory support for those airplanes and adjusting in the idea if we can adjust and accommodate in the air, you can do it to plane too vice versa. The life's a journey analogy, it's the same month in the air. I'm actually currently working on my second book, sending it out to publishers as we speak. It's actually called Moving Moments. It's an invitation to support children mind, body, and spirit. It talks through the gets of different clinical therapeutic sessions.
No identifying information, but they're a composite of all these different children over the years. The main areas that I address from anxiety to sibling rivalry to being on the spectrum to having chronic illness and cancers. Using this mind body approach, really understanding. What is a session look like? How to use the body and as a psychologist, as a therapist, as a parent, as an educator?
[00:29:23] JH: It’s amazing.
[00:29:23] LB: There will be some workbook tips do that do at home. I'm really excited about it.
[00:29:27] RH: I'm really excited too. You let us know when it's out and ready for us to buy it. I'm reading seven books at a time right now. I love books. I'm I have a whole shelf of books that I need to read. I'm going to add that one to my list.
[00:29:43] LB: Yes. Yes, I'll definitely be letting everyone know.
[00:29:47] JH: It’s so exciting. I'm just curious about how you do it all? You have a lot on your plate.
[00:29:55] LB: That’s an east coaster. I guess. My mom and me. I’m such a yes person. I say yes to everything. Because it's just always work opportunities that as you know. It’s just I love what I do so it’s easy. Go back on the other way of saying it, it’s my passion. It just flows out. I wake up early, I make sure that shut off when I'm done and just really press it when I'm in something and then switch over. Maybe that's another one of my superpowers.
[00:30:28] RH: For sure, not multitasking between three or four different things, but really focusing on what you're doing at the moment.
[00:30:35] LB: Definitely. It's so fun being in this field, because it promotes that spontaneity. I get the blessing, where if I walk into a session again, before COVID and during, I know the theory. I know I'm here to serve and support the child, the individual working with. Yet, I just get to be really present and the work unfolds in front of me. I don't have to have this big plan that I have to have this big expectation of then by that the 15 minutes they have to achieve five different goals and do all these things for me. I get to just be really present in the work, again, unfolds and the child gets to be seen and how we started is different from where we end. That's how I do all these different casts, too. It's like, I had to go in and say, “Okay, let's see what's going to happen.” Wonderful how it all goes?
[00:31:24] JH: It is.
[00:31:26] RH: We met you, because of your virtual health summit. Super thankful for that. Can you talk about that summit and why you did it?
[00:31:38] LB: Yes. It was the Collaborative Health Summit. It was the first one and we'll definitely do more to figure out, like we do – probably do another one in the fall. Over the years, and as a licensed psychologist, we have to get continuing education, we have to go to conferences and seminars. I always find that we tend to stick within our own field. We always learn. I go to their seminars, I learn more about psychology. I learn more about working with children with autism. I learn more about different psychology techniques.
I've always dreamt about learning and having the other practitioners feel that we're all connected. I've always been a crusader of wanting to infiltrate other fields and have other providers learn about dance therapy. I want them to know, “Hey, if you use this lens, if you use this tool, it's going to just support your work.” I have no ego about that. Here's some tools. Tell me yours. I’ll tell you mine.
Fortunately, over the past, gosh, maybe now it's been six years or something. I have just continued to collaborate with other providers and met this beautiful group of practitioners from nutritionists, to osteopathist, to cranial sacral specialists, to orthodontist to optometrist. I just constantly am thinking about when I'm meeting a child like, “Oh, this child is breathing so hard, just sitting still doing the puzzle. I think, they need to go see.” I'll refer them to Dr. Zambi, or Dr. Sandy, or these places where I'd say, “Hey, I think we can support this, or hey, there's something going on with toxicity. Let's go check you out. Let's go get the whole workout.”
The collaborative sum and it was a way to get everyone in one room, one place for parents to understand that when you're working with a child, we have to look at the whole system. I get most of my referrals from occupational therapists, from educators, other fields where we're saying, “Hey, we're both working with this channel, but we all can work with is child. They need all the support.”
This was a platform, and everyone either got 30 minutes to dive into their field of expertise, or we did some lightning, like a TED Talk rounds, where they have to showcase their experiences and their work. Then a Q&A at the end. Just again, this opportunity to raise awareness of doesn't have to be taboo. You have a little child, you should get their eyes checked, not only from your pediatrician, but really get – really looked up from a specialist just to know that sensory work can be done for any child. It was a great, great day, full of information, and then just resources for anyone to listen to. It's still available to access and receive and learn from and watch, which was fun, because it's virtual. You keep going.
[00:34:29] JH: Yeah. Where can our listeners find that?
[00:34:32] LB: Through my website, which is drloribaudino.com. You're able to click on and go to access this. It’s [inaudible 00:34:41]. If it's not down, it will be up running.
[00:34:46] RH: Well, and we'll put it in our show notes as well, so that everybody can just pause. If they're listening right now, just push pause and go check it out and save it, so you have it and you can go do it. Then you can continue listening to the episode.
[00:34:59] LB: Yes. Great.
[00:35:00] JH: I love that. Can you tell us what your biggest challenge is with what you do right now?
[00:35:07] LB: My biggest challenge, I guess, my personal professional challenge is that I want to freeze the moment and learn a lot more. I'm looking in taking a course right now at neuro and biofeedback, which I've been doing all this time. I don't use the actual devices, but we do it through our reading and learning. I'm so curious about that. I'm so curious about learning more about being in safer work.
I guess, I want to freeze time and just pick up more information. I think, I will always be advocating for mental health. I think, the biggest challenge is to really support all families, all providers to see that children should be – let’s not say should, but we just really benefit from learning about their emotional system and their relationships with family members and with their teachers and how they learn. I would love to see it as critical as seeing your pediatrician, just as critical as getting your teeth checked. As critical as getting your coffee at Starbucks, just really thinking about how important it is that our children and our families understand each other. As I said, mind, body and spirit.
[00:36:28] RH: It's so funny when you're talking about being able to freeze time, just in my head. This isn't me sound so clunky. I watched The Matrix last week, because it was on HBO. I was like, “Oh, I love the movie. I haven’t seen in so long.” The part where they're downloading all the different things into his brain to learn the kung fu and all that stuff. I was like, “Why can't they do that for us yet? Why can't we just sit down, attach something to our brain and they just download all this information in 20 seconds, and we just know it and we're ready and we can apply it.” Why can't they do – somebody needs to do that.
[00:37:02] LB: Amazing. I know. I would absolutely insert every language, so I can speak every language. Yes, yes.
[00:37:10] JH: I just [inaudible 00:37:10]. I think that'd be cool.
[00:37:12] RH: Amazing.
[00:37:13] LB: I think it'd be so cool. I’d also freeze time and travel everywhere. Have lots of experiences with that.
[00:37:20] RH: Right. To be able to go to Japan, instead of a – I don’t know what is it. Like a 13, 14-hour flight or something. Be able to just get there in an hour. Just transport real quick.
[00:37:30] JH: So fun.
[00:37:33] RH: Okay. We know that you are about to publish another book. You're going to do the health summit again in the fall, hopefully. Besides those, what else is next for you?
[00:37:47] LB: What I am always thinking about is ways to integrate the therapeutic approach. Whether it's TV opportunity, or an opportunity, or collaborating with other providers, I feel I'm constantly in discussions with other practitioners and just finding opportunities to keep this work going, to keep focusing on how the body and movement and appropriate psychology. Every day, there's a new call, new connection to be made.
[00:38:25] RH: Do you feel it's hard to turn your therapists brain off when you're not at work?
[00:38:30] LB: I've gotten better at it. Meaning that it's interesting talking to sensory world. I can easily to the environment. Nature really, it’s like out of my mind, out of the to-do list and just loving nature. I look at a mountain or a tree and I get really excited. That's easy for me. I don't have to turn it on or off. The psychologist me, the parenting information. It is me. If you know me, if you're my friend, if you're my child, if you’re my husband, I don't turn it on and off. I'm not trying to be a therapist, or trying to not be one. I just am. This is just part of who I am. I’m always feeling and moving and thinking about Anna Lena and just have that [inaudible 00:39:20] wanting to turn on.
[00:39:23] RH: That's a good answer. Yeah.
[00:39:25] JH: I can definitely relate to that.
[00:39:28] LB: I remember, a family member asking me like, “Oh, you just seem you're like always on.” It's interesting. I'm not trying to be on. Just, that's how my brain works. We're not big at eating sugar, but my child wants to eat something and everyone else is having it. I'm thinking, “Oh, it's the middle of the day, and we're going to have a healthy dinner.” I could just adjust and say, “Okay. That's okay. We can rough that.” That’s going to work, thinking when they were a little younger. I didn't have to turn it on and think like, what would the therapist do?
[00:40:01] RH: Just look at nature. Okay, so how can parents reach out to you, find you, work with you and soak up all of the knowledge you have to share?
[00:40:11] LB: My website is drloribaudino.com. On there, you can absolutely access for a consultation, we can talk Zoom or phone and just check in and answering your questions. Then from there, I actually use a client portal, so they can look at a calendar and find a time and date that works for them and set up their sessions. I typically do that 90-minute take, which is direct with parents, so I can learn everything and anything about the child and their birth history and who they are, create those strategies. Then typically, it is those 15-minute sessions.
On the website, you'll see my email is the wordtherapy@drloribaudino.com. I also have, I guess, all the social media platforms. I try my best. You can find my name, Dr. Lori Baudino, and I do have Twitter and Instagram and LinkedIn and Facebook, like this one. I think those are all of them.
[00:41:10] JH: You’re doing great.
[00:41:11] RH: We just do Instagram.
[00:41:13] LB: YouTube. Yeah, I tried to put a lot of clips. This month, I’ve been putting out a new acronym each week, talking about parenting and child support. I've done an acronym of POLAWARE. That’s the first one. This week's acronym was PASS. It was taken a pass up parenting and it was talking about the movement planes, that A, for activating our responses, like how to respond to our child, and are the subtitles, the words, the meaning underneath what our child's saying, and then the self-care and how to care for ourselves. Each week, this month you will learn a new acronym.
[00:41:50] RH: That's so cool. Oh, I love it. It’s so fun.
[00:41:53] JH: I know. Very creative and different.
[00:41:57] LB: Oh, I'm so cheesy. Anything with a theme or an acronym. I’m all over it.
[00:42:02] RH: It's so catchy and easy to remember. Definitely makes it easy for parents in the moment when maybe their kiddo is struggling to remember, “Oh, the acronym. Oh, yes. Okay, I can remember that and I can apply these principles and make a difference.”
[00:42:17] LB: Yeah, yeah. You can imagine birthday parties. I'm all about the theme. I'm like, “Okay, everything has to be like this.” I love creating them. Yes, it's so fun to take these concepts and make them accessible. That's the hope and always embodied. It's not just something we're thinking about like, “Okay, now what do I do?” I'm not just going to tell myself to calm down, but how do I calm down? How do I engage with my child?
[00:42:41] RH: Yeah, I like it.
[00:42:43] JH: Well, before we let you go, can you give our listeners one piece of advice?
[00:42:49] LB: There’s so many. Yeah. I guess, I'm going to make myself optimistic. With so much stress and challenges out in the world and all the changes, I just want everyone to also celebrate the gifts that this time has given us, in this experience to sit in, to see that we can get through all the challenges that are going on. When in doubt, just start to observe your child. Just see where they are, see what it's like to make your posture the same as theirs, make your timing the same as them and you might have a lot more time during your day, being an observer and explorer than you would in this adult [inaudible 00:43:31]. That’s my thing.
[00:43:35] JH: That's great advice.
[00:43:36] RH: Well, Lori. Thank you so much for spending this time with us. We appreciate it so much.
[00:43:43] JH: We do. Thank you.
[00:43:44] LB: My pleasure. Anytime. So fun to talk to you.
[00:43:48] RH: Yes.
[00:43:48] LB: I've been sending people to Harkla every day.
[00:43:51] JH: Yay.
[00:43:51] LB: I'm just like, “Oh, if you have that compression sheet, you got to get –” “Oh, did you go to All Things Sensory? You want to learn about that, go to –”
[00:43:58] RH: Yay.
[00:43:59] JH: Thank you. Well, we will make sure that everyone listening to this episode checks out everything you have to share as well. It’s so good.
[00:44:07] LB: Thank you so much.
[00:44:07] JH: Thank you, Lori. We'll see you later.
[00:44:09] LB: Okay, bye.
[00:44:11] RH: Bye. Oh, wow. We're just a little obsessed with her, if you can't tell.
[00:44:15] JH: I know. I love her. I want to meet her in real life and I want her to do a session with me and Logan, just to see things that I'm missing. I have to do that.
[00:44:25] RH: I just feel it's so easily accessible. She makes it so easy to get in touch with her and to work with her. I feel there's always just a barrier of entry with therapy. To work with a psychologist at least here in Idaho, it seems to be.
[00:44:41] JH: Right. Yeah. I mean, just the fact that she can do it virtually now, with today's world, it does make it more accessible. Make sure you go to her website, go follow her on Instagram. Leave us a review on iTunes, if you have a minute, because we like seeing what you have to say. The more reviews we get, the more people can find us.
[00:45:03] RH: Yeah. We definitely need to spread this information far and wide. We appreciate your help getting this information out there. Tag us, tag Dr. Lori while you are listening on Instagram and share, share it with the world and let us know your thoughts.
[00:45:20] JH: All right, guys. Thanks for being here.
[00:45:21] RH: Okay, bye.
[END OF EPISODE]
[00:45:22] JH: Thank you so much for listening to All Things Sensory by Harkla. If you want more information on anything we mentioned in the show, head over to harkla.co/podcast to get all of the show notes.
[00:45:34] RH: We always have the show notes and links, plus full transcripts to make following along as easy as possible for everyone.
If you have follow-up questions, the best place to ask those is in the comments on the show notes, or message us on our Instagram account, which is @harkla_family. If you just search Harkla, you'll find us.
[00:45:54] JH: Like we mentioned before, our podcast listeners get 10% off their first order at Harkla. Whether it's for one of our digital courses, one of our sensory swings, the discount code Sensory, will save you 10%. That code is S-E-N-S-O-R-Y. Head over to harkla.co/sensory to use that code right now, so you don't forget.
[00:46:17] RH: We're so excited to work together to help create confident kids all over the world and work towards a happier, healthier life.
[00:46:23] JH: All right. We'll talk to you guys next week.
[00:46:27] RH: Just a friendly reminder, this is general information related to occupational therapy, pediatrics and sensory integration. We do not know you, or your child. Therefore, we do not know any specific needs. Therefore, you should always refer back to your pediatrician and occupational therapist for more information.
BORING, BUT NECESSARY LEGAL DISCLAIMERS
While we make every effort to share correct information, we are still learning. We will double check all of our facts but realize that medicine is a constantly changing science and art. One doctor / therapist may have a different way of doing things from another. We are simply presenting our views and opinions on how to address common sensory challenges, health related difficulties and what we have found to be beneficial that will be as evidenced based as possible. By listening to this podcast, you agree not to use this podcast as medical advice to treat any medical condition in either yourself or your children. Consult your child’s pediatrician/ therapist for any medical issues that he or she may be having. This entire disclaimer also applies to any guests or contributors to the podcast. Under no circumstances shall Rachel Harrington, Harkla, Jessica Hill, or any guests or contributors to the podcast, as well as any employees, associates, or affiliates of Harkla, be responsible for damages arising from use of the podcast.
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