What happens when a childhood dream of becoming a doctor takes an unexpected turn? Join us as we uncover the fascinating story of Michaela Elrod, a dedicated speech-language pathologist whose life was forever changed by a pivotal shadowing experience. This episode explores Michaela's journey from aspiring physician to discovering a more personal calling in the world of speech therapy, where she finds joy in transforming the lives of children and their families. Together, we delve into the profound impact of early intervention on child development and explore the unique challenges and rewards of fostering communication skills in children under three years old.
Michaela brings valuable insights into the practice of speech therapy, emphasizing the power of parent coaching and everyday interactions to build essential communication skills in young children. By moving away from traditional, authoritative models and embracing humility and vulnerability, Michaela shows us how speech therapists can effectively partner with parents during this transformative period. We also address the hurdles faced by these professionals, like maintaining energy and tackling complex client behaviors, all while savoring the rewarding nature of this work.
Our conversation takes a personal turn as Michaela opens up about her life outside of work, sharing her experiences as a medical spouse. We explore the sacrifices and joys of supporting a partner in the demanding world of medicine, and the importance of maintaining balance through self-care and quality time together. This episode serves as an inspiring resource for anyone interested in the medical and therapy fields, offering a rare glimpse into the joys and challenges faced by those dedicated to making a difference in the lives of others.
Virtual shadowing is an important tool to use when planning your medical career. At Shadow Me Next! we want to provide you with the resources you need to find your role in healthcare and secure your place in medicine.
Check out our pre-health resources. Great for pre-med, pre-PA, pre-nursing, pre-therapy students or anyone else with an upcoming interview!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and welcome to Shadow Me Next, a podcast where
I take you into and behind thescenes of the medical world to
provide you with a deeperunderstanding of the human side
of medicine.
I'm Ashley, a physicianassistant, medical editor,
clinical preceptor and thecreator of Shadow Me Next.
It is my pleasure to introduceyou to incredible members of the
(00:22):
healthcare field and uncovertheir unique stories, the joys
and challenges they face andwhat drives them in their
careers.
It's access you want andstories you need, whether you're
a pre-health student or simplycurious about the healthcare
field.
I invite you to join me as wetake a conversational and
personal look into the lives andminds of leaders in medicine.
(00:43):
I don't want you to miss asingle one of these
conversations, so make sure thatyou subscribe to this podcast,
which will automatically notifyyou when new episodes are
dropped, and follow us onInstagram and Facebook at Shadow
Me Next, where we will reviewhighlights from this
conversation and where I'll giveyou sneak previews of our
upcoming guests.
And where I'll give you sneakpreviews of our upcoming guests.
(01:10):
Today on Shadow Me Next, I amjoined by the amazing Michaela
Elrod, a dedicated speechlanguage pathologist whose
passion for early interventionis literally changing lives, one
child at a time.
Michaela shares her journeyfrom dreaming of becoming a
doctor to finding her truecalling in speech therapy
through a single life-changingshadowing experience.
In this episode, we'll explorethe vital role of speech therapy
(01:32):
in child development, theunique challenges and rewards of
working with families, and theprofound impact of early
intervention on a child's future.
Stay until the end to hearMichaela's amazing perspective
on how partnering with parentsand embracing vulnerability can
create lifelong change, not justfor children but for entire
(01:54):
families.
Please keep in mind that thecontent of this podcast is
intended for informational andentertainment purposes only and
should not be considered asprofessional medical advice.
The views and opinionsexpressed in this podcast are
those of the host and guests anddo not necessarily reflect the
official policy or position ofany other agency, organization,
(02:17):
employer or company.
Hi, michaela, thank you so muchfor joining us on Shadow Me
Next.
I'm so glad you're here.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Yes, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
I cannot wait to talk to you about what you do.
This is such an interestingpart of medicine and something
that I think a lot of us havehad experience with either
directly or peripherally.
I know a lot of friends whosechildren have benefited from
working with a speech languagepathologist, which is what you
do.
I can't wait to dive into thatwith you.
We'll start at the beginning.
What drew you to medicineinitially?
Speaker 2 (02:49):
So when I was a little girl I would line up all
of my baby dolls and I wouldpretend that I was their doctor.
From a young age I've alwaysknown I wanted to go into
medicine.
My senior year of high school Ireally thought that I wanted to
be an OBGYN.
I love the thought of helpingmamas and babies and working
(03:11):
with babies all day.
My cousin is an occupationaltherapist and her husband is a
doctor.
We got to talking about thework-life balance, of what it's
like to be a woman in themedical field, and she's like I
really think that you would bean excellent speech pathologist.
I work with them every day.
Because I was having doubtsabout going into the med school
(03:35):
route, I decided to shadow aspeech pathologist and from the
first client I saw I was likethis is exactly what I want.
I'm still working heavily withparents and little babies, which
is what I was drawn to.
It took one time for me toshadow a speech therapist and I
declared that as my major myfreshman year of college and
never changed.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
That's fantastic.
I'm so glad that you determinedwhat you wanted to do and you
made that pivot based on talkingto somebody else, because I
think so often that's how wemake that realization.
Shadowing is fantasticin-person shadowing, but really
just sitting down and having aconversation, sometimes with a
friend or someone that you trusttheir opinion on, somebody that
(04:17):
you know is going to be honestwith you with what they do.
So glad you said that.
That's one of the big reasonswhy I wanted to start this
podcast is, you know, it doesn'treplace in-person shadowing
You're not going to see theminteracting with patients but it
is going to give you thattrusted experience, that
conversation that you might nothave otherwise.
I'm really glad that you hadthat experience.
(04:38):
It sounds like her story isvery similar to yours.
I know your husband is also inmedicine.
We're going to talk about thata little bit later.
I am also really excited todive into that because I do
think a lot of times similarpeople attract each other, and
in medicine you can see a lot ofcouples who are both in
medicine, and it presents itsown fair share of challenges.
So, when it comes to speechlanguage pathology, what does
(04:59):
the schooling look like for that?
Is that something after collegeor instead of college?
What does that look like?
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Yes, so you will go to college and complete a
four-year degree, typically inspeech pathology my major was
speech pathology and audiologyand I had a minor in psychology,
which I found very helpful.
Then, after that, you will takeyour GRE and then you will
apply to many grad schools.
Then, after you get into gradschool, that is two years of
(05:25):
schooling and then you willapply to many grad schools.
Then, after you get into gradschool, that is two years of
schooling and then you willcomplete a clinical fellowship
in which you're working but alsobeing supervised.
They might not be at your site,but you have to get certain
supervision hours.
After that you will apply foryour license and you are done.
So it sounds very easy, and soit's definitely easier said than
(05:46):
done, but yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Is it a master's program?
Do you get a title?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yes, it is.
It's a master's.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Yes, speech language pathology was not your
undergraduate major.
Could you go to graduate schoolfor that, or do you have to
kind of retool?
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Yes, so you will have to take leveling classes.
Different grad schools willcall them different things, but
there are some classes that youwill have to take for classes
that are necessary and you musthave in order to go into grad
school.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Yeah, so interesting.
So it's a little bit differentfrom from being a PA, for
example, right?
Speaker 2 (06:19):
So as a.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
PA, you can.
You can major in anything andundergrad totally, and you could
be an art history major.
You can major in.
You can.
You can major in anything andunder that it totally.
And it could be an art historymajor.
You can major in.
You know pottery, it doesn'tmatter, you can major in
anything.
As long as you took the likethe prerequisite classes biology
, chemistry.
It differs for differentschools.
If you took those, you canstill apply to PA school after
(06:40):
you take the GRE, things likethat.
So it sounds like in order todo speech-language pathology,
you really have to have a keenidea early or retool and take
those classes.
Tell me about the schoolinggenerally speaking.
Was it incredibly hard comparedto what you studied in high
school?
Speaker 2 (06:56):
So in high school I took all of the AP classes AP
biology, ap chemistry, biology,ap chemistry.
I love school.
I love to read.
I definitely had a bit of aculture shock going from
undergrad to grad school becausein undergrad a lot of the
topics came very easily to me.
In grad school you're in aclass or in a cohort of 40,
(07:20):
typically girls.
40 girls are just as smart, ifnot smarter than you are.
It's often very competitive.
But you have to change the wayyou study.
That's something I struggledwith, because learning a
complete new routine does atotally different look at
studying, because you just havemass and mass and mass amounts
of information that you have toknow.
(07:41):
We say speech pathology is aprofession that's womb to tomb,
so you really have to know thelifespan and it's a lot of
information.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
I've really had to change my thought processes
towards studying quite a bit ingrad school, and that's
interesting, especially comingfrom someone who loves school,
and I think that you have peoplewho go into master's level
positions who do love school.
You have think that you havepeople who go into a master's
level positions who do loveschool.
You have people, of course, whoare just innately intelligent,
(08:11):
but you also have people thatreally, really love school.
And when you get there and yourealize that the learning is
very, very different, the waythat they teach is very, very
different.
Sometimes it's a culture shocka little bit, and you know the
fact that your class wascompetitive.
I'm so glad for that because Ido think that it sharpens us and
it pushes us, but at the sametime we're all learning how to
learn a little bit differently.
(08:31):
So I think, overwhelming atfirst, and then you find your
groove, right I mean by the endof schooling you find your
groove and then all of a suddenyou're actually working and
seeing patients and that sort ofthing.
So it all pans out, in the end,good.
So tell me, I want to knowabout a day in your life.
I'm so excited to hear aboutwhat you do on the regular.
I think it sounds like you workso hands-on with your patients
(08:53):
and their families.
Walk us through what your dayusually looks like.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
So I tell everyone I'm the type of person I would
rather work out at 5 am than 5pm.
Typically my day starts at 3 or45 am.
I get up, go to the gym, comehome.
I like to have a little bit ofa slower morning so I give
myself time to do my devotionalread and get ready for the day
and not be so insanely rushed.
(09:18):
Then I'll eat breakfast, driveto work and typically work from
9 to 5.
I work in a private practice.
Some days might be from one tofour, some days might be eight
to six, but typically it's nineto five.
Then after that I will comehome.
My husband and I love to go ona walk every night, so we'll
typically walk, make dinner, Iwill read or do something to
(09:41):
kind of decompress at night andthen we started all over again
the next day.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
I love the rhythm of that.
That's really nice.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
I'm a creature of habit.
I love the routine.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
I have created.
I do too, and I think thatthere's some people out there
that are looking at us thinkinghow boring is their life.
But that steadiness is whatkeeps me grounded, and there's
enough chaos surrounding me andI think if I can kind of control
my daily rhythms, that bringsme joy.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
During my workday I sometimes have clients back to
back and then sometimes I willhave a little bit of breaks in
there and I'll lesson plan orsession plan, write notes, do my
charting things, I will betalking to parents, so there's
lots of little things like thatthat might go on during my day
too.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
That's so fun.
So, when you're working withpatients, what are some of the
conditions that you usually see?
What are some of the thingsthat you're treating?
Speaker 2 (10:33):
So one of my favorite areas or kind of areas of
expertise, I love the earlierintervention and preschool age.
Preschool and toddlers are myabsolute favorite age.
I just think it's so special towork with those ages because
they are at a critical time ofdevelopment.
If you get in there early andget them the therapy they need
(10:57):
and start strong from the start,get that parent education, you
can make amazing strides ofgrowth.
Especially early intervention,getting in there as soon as you
possibly can and getting yourtherapies can make a lifelong
impact on a child.
I love the early preschool ages.
I work with children withdevelopmental disabilities,
(11:18):
autism, down syndrome, prettymuch any type of disorder.
I work with a lot of veryinteresting clients that might
not have a disorder.
We're trying to figure out whatmight be going on that we don't
really know yet because they'reso young, but we know something
is not right, you know, andthen also work with children
that are just typicallydeveloping and they're just late
(11:38):
talkers, you know.
So I have a few of those aswell.
So I have seen quite a bit ofdifferent cases and things, but
I would say I primarily workwith children with autism.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Amazing.
So how does that work?
Does the child's pediatricianif they have a pediatrician that
they trust does the child'spediatrician make a referral?
Or does the parent just findyou and seek you out and say I
think there's something going onwith my child that I'd like to
talk to you about?
Speaker 2 (12:04):
So I think by both ways.
You know, parents can reach outto us and we have people do
that daily, but also we get alot of referrals from
pediatricians and even referralsfrom preschools, referrals from
other schools, so it can comein a variety of different ways.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
That's neat and I'm so grateful that parents have
that outlet too, because I thinka lot of times in the
healthcare system we can feelvery trapped because we feel
like there's something wrong.
As parents I am a parent, Ihave two daughters, a
four-year-old and a two-year-oldyou can feel trapped because
you're waiting on a referral,you're trying to convince your
pediatrician, perhaps, that youfeel there's something wrong, so
(12:40):
I'm so glad that they have thatoutlet where they can reach out
to you and you guys can workthrough it.
Let's talk a little bit aboutearly intervention, because I
think that's a word that peoplemight not be familiar with and
it sounds like it is soimportant to your practice, so
that is the age of birth tothree, typically even birth to
two.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
But that is mainly focused on parent education and
a lot of our early interventionclients we see in the home my
approach, at least when I'mthinking about early
intervention.
I want to talk to the parentsand do parent coaching and give
them strategies they can usethroughout their day, whether
that's breakfast time, bath time, little things they can embed
(13:20):
in their day to make their livesnot only easier but also get
their child talking, their otherchild talking, and not only
that.
You know there's so many stepsthat go before talking.
You've got eye contact?
Okay, if we can't get eyecontact, a child is not going to
be talking in sentences at agetwo.
But really it's just gettingthat parent coaching.
(13:41):
If I see a child in the home,something I like to do is I do
not take any of my own materials.
I use everything in the homeBecause when I'm not there, I
come in with all these bells andwhistles and my bag of toys and
of course the child wants tointeract with me and they want
to see what I brought that day.
But when I'm not there theydon't have those toys.
I want to show the parents whatthey have in their house,
(14:04):
whether it is literally acardboard box, how they can make
that work for their child.
And this strategy through teensthey can do with the toys that
they already have and not makingthem feel like they have to go
buy the next hot item.
Giving them strategy they cando with what they already have.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
There's so much I want to say to that.
This is fantastic.
First and foremost, thank youfor doing that, because, as you
were talking about all the bellsand whistles, I was thinking
about all of the things as aparent that I would try to buy
to encourage my child tocommunicate with me, and that
gets so expensive.
All the Melissa and.
Doug toys, that I can think ofeverything that pops up on
(14:42):
Amazon.
I'll think, ooh, let me trythat.
Ooh, let me try that.
The fact that you come intotheir home and use what they
already have and you provide theparents with those tools of
just things that are that arejust laying around their house,
thank you for that.
That's huge and we all knowkids would much prefer a
cardboard box for the toilet.
Comes in it anyway.
As medical providers, I thinkand this is me speaking honestly
(15:02):
I think as medical providers,we're very used to the limelight
.
We're very used to thespotlight.
Right, we walk into the roomand we have.
We have our bright white coatson Sometimes they're like
bedazzled with sparkly pins wehave all the gadgets.
We run the appointment.
Obviously, we're communicatingand we're working with the
patient, but ultimately we walkin, we determine when we start
(15:23):
and we leave, we kind ofdetermine when it ends.
We kind of are on center stageand I think a lot of medical
providers like that youmentioned that you're trying to
just kind of assimilate intotheir daily life.
You walk in, you're notbringing a bag of fun stuff, you
don't want the kid to befocused on you, you're just
partnering with their parent,their caregiver, the person
(15:43):
helping this child.
It sounds like a reallybeautifully humble aspect of
medicine that I think wouldresonate with a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Is that true?
Yeah, I would definitely say so, and I think one thing about
speech is we work so much withparents Parents.
I don't want to say thatthey're desperate for
information, but they are sohungry for information.
They want anything they can getto help their child and I think
it's you know.
They are showing you one of themost vulnerable parts of their
(16:12):
life.
They're not going to tell theirbest friend that their child is
not talking and reallystruggling with that, but
they're going to be reallyhonest with you and really
vulnerable and being able tojust be a source to them and let
them know that you are therefor them, I think is something
that's really special.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
I love that and it's probably great that you minored
in psychology specifically forthat reason.
I'm sitting here thinking aboutmy pediatrics rotation in school
and how much I loved workingwith children and how difficult
I found it was working withtheir parents, only because I
had 20 minutes and half of thattime I was trying to evaluate
their child quickly, head to toe, all the things.
(16:50):
And then you're right, theparents are hungry for
information and they'redesperate to know and this can
be a perfectly healthy child andthey're still desperate for
information.
They don't have any concernsabout their kid, but they want
to know X, y and Z.
I find that very taxingsometimes, but in your position
you're equipped to answer all oftheir questions and to partner
(17:11):
with them and walk alongsidethem through some really scary,
complicated things, and you know, I'm sure, that they're
frustrated that they're in thatposition, but they're so
grateful to have your care.
Tell us, if you can, about aparticularly difficult situation
, if you've ever been in one,and how it kind of changed the
way that you view things orperhaps even changed the way
(17:32):
that you practice.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
I think there's difficult situations every day.
You're going to have a clientthat you just cannot figure out
their behavior, or you mighthave a difficult parent that is
questioning everything you do.
For me, personally, it'ssomething that I struggle with
and I think is hard is keepingyour energy levels up throughout
the day.
You know, I sometimes get downon myself because the speech
(17:55):
therapist I am at 8am might looka little different than the
speech therapist I am at 4pm,and I get down on myself because
I want to provide that samequality of care at 4pm that I
did at 8am, because that childis so deserving of that.
So you know, I think learninghow if you're a specialist,
learning how to fuel your bodycorrectly, you know figure out
(18:16):
your, what you need to do in themornings to get prepared for
the day.
But yeah, there's learning howto keep your energy levels up,
because two-year-olds are veryexhausting and I will say I do
work with elementary school, Iwork with middle school.
I've even had clients that arein their 20s, but typically I do
work with the younger ones andeven the kids in third and
(18:37):
fourth grade.
They want to do all the thingstoo and I want you to be super
high energy and they want toplay pretend they want to do all
the things.
That is a difficult thing tobalance.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
It goes back to what you were saying about your
routine too.
You know work is exhausting andwork with a two-year-old and
their concerned caregiver parent, and at the same time you're
not just playing with the child,you are also evaluating the
child, looking around trying tofind the tools that you're going
to use to teach the parents too.
(19:11):
I think where burnout comes inthis is a huge topic and you
feel it towards the end of theday.
It's this cycle and it justtakes a little bit more of you
every single day, but that's whyit is so important to have that
lifestyle that you have outsideof the office.
I think people poo, poo,hobbies and exercise and diet
and say, well, yes, of course wewant to be this perfect person
because that's going to make usfeel good, but that's also going
(19:33):
to make us work better andserve our patients better and be
able to get down on the floorwith that two-year-old at four
o'clock in the afternoon withouthaving all of your coffee, and
really perform and do your joband what you need to do.
It's motivating.
Thank you, it's very motivating.
So when you have let's talkabout autism a little bit,
(19:54):
because it's something that canfeel very mysterious If you
don't have a child who hasautism.
It is a spectrum disorder,which means there are children
who have a more obvious effecton their life from autism and
then there are children who havea less obvious effect.
Do you work with children onthe whole spectrum?
(20:14):
Do you get to pick and choosethe severity of your cases?
What does that look like?
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Yeah, so I have worked with children on the
whole spectrum.
I've never seen two childrenwith autism look the same.
Before I moved to Miami, Iworked in a school with very low
functioning children.
Every child on my caseload wasin a wheelchair or had some type
of physical disability.
Now I'd work with the wholespectrum.
(20:41):
It keeps things interesting.
They're the same.
I work with low functioning allthe way to high functioning.
So much so you might not.
If you met them, you might notknow they have autism.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Wow, that's really interesting.
It is.
I think it's a very difficultcondition because of that.
You mentioned that you'veworked in schools too, michaela,
so you've worked in a varietyof different settings schools,
private practice, home therapy.
How do those environmentsdiffer, in terms of patient care
, for example?
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Yes, so I also did a rotation in a hospital and I was
on the acute setting.
I've done that as well.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Everywhere.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Yeah, so I've had a taste of everything.
But this school is going to befocused more on group therapy.
You might have 70, 80 kids onyour caseload and you are doing
groups of therapy in five,setting your five kids in your
group, typically 30 minutesessions.
They're kids in your group,typically 30 minute sessions.
They're quick.
In your private practice that isgoing to be your individualized
care.
You know I see some kids 30minutes, I see some kids for an
(21:40):
hour, I see some kids for twohours.
They're typically individualsessions.
So I do a lot of you knowdifferent things with that.
And then the home therapy, theprivate practice I work out.
Now we do home therapy but wealso have contracts with school.
So I've also had experience ofbeing a contract worker in a
school and not necessarilyworking actually for the school.
(22:02):
And now I can say home therapytypically is your early
intervention and then schoolcontracts.
It's almost like privatepractice but you're just going
into the school and pulling thechild out for the session.
And then the hospital.
Obviously I did acute care andthen I did inpatient and
outpatient rehab during thatrotation.
So, and obviously your hospitalsetting, which I had the three
(22:25):
different kind of sectors inyour hospital setting for your
adults, but those are a lot morefast paced and I do think the
school setting is lot more fastpaced and I do think the school
setting is definitely more fastpaced than private practice
because you have faster sessions.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
No, that makes sense.
So when you're in the hospitaldoing acute care, you're
obviously you're not bringingtoys in trying to teach them how
to speak.
Is this after?
Is this after like an injury?
Speaker 2 (22:49):
and they're relearning how to do things yeah
, so well, that is more so withyour adults.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
So I worked with adults that had strokes or
traumatic brain injuries, thingslike that as a speech language
pathologist, you can specializein either age or disorders,
which sounds like they probablygo a little hand in hand.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Yes, I tell everyone there's not much of a difference
between a child and an adult.
They both get excited by a lotof the things that we get
excited by.
So there's a lot ofsimilarities I've found over the
years between the two settings,even though they seem polar
opposites it sounds like such afun job.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
After every single episode I go and I talk to my
husband I'm like, listen to thisspeech, language pathologist.
And he goes Ash, you're notchanging careers.
I said I know I don't want to.
I love being a PA, but justgetting to speak with you about
what you do and seeing howpassionate you are about it, it
gives me so much hope formedicine and for those
interested in medicine.
I think, like you said, onceupon a time, we were all playing
(23:53):
with our Dr Barbies or our DrGI Joes if that was your thing
and we didn't, really nobodyever said oh, you should be a PA
or oh, you should be a speechlanguage pathologist, you know
something we had to discoverlater, more as an adult.
So thank you again for sheddingall the light on all of this.
I am so excited about it.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Let's talk about quality questions.
This is a segment in the showwhere we talk about something
that you've been asked, orsomething that you have asked
that's been just reallymemorable.
Do you have a quality questionBefore we hear what Michaela's
quality question is?
Keep in mind that there's moreinterview prep, such as mock
interviews and personalstatement review, over on
shadowmenextcom.
(24:30):
There you'll find amazingresources to help you as you
prepare to answer your ownquality questions.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Whenever I was applying to grad schools.
I applied to LSU and one of theinterview questions they asked
me was what was the most recentbook I had read that was not
related to speech pathology Forthe GRE.
I was trying to get into gradschool.
I'm trying to read all of mytextbooks, do all the things.
I had not touched an actualbook for fun in so long.
(25:02):
I was so thrown off by thatquestion and I was at this time
this was in 2020.
So I was looking around my roomlike what is the most book?
You know finding a book aroundmy room.
But it made me realize you needto have hobbies and something
outside of your profession.
Obviously, you will go throughseasons where you are busier
than others, but I try to readbefore bed every single night.
(25:25):
Just carving out even fiveminutes of your day to do
something for you can make ahuge difference.
I thought that was such a goodquestion because it threw me off
, because I was so prepared toanswer why I wanted to go to
that school and why I want to bea speech therapist.
I was not prepared for aquestion about myself related to
(25:46):
my hobbies, so I thought thatwas a really good one that is a
great one.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Thank you for sharing that, and I think in the same
seat I probably would havepanicked as well.
I probably would have saidHarry Potter or the Bible or
something like that If I wereasked that question now.
And I'm not a really avidreader now.
I love listening to audio books.
It's one of my favorite thingsand I like reading books that
will give me information.
(26:11):
I've listened to a couple offantastic finance books recently
my husband's in finance, sopart of the reason is so I can
speak intelligently with him,and part of the reason is
everybody needs to know aboutfinance.
If you're making money, thenyou should probably know how to
manage it.
But a lot of those questionsabout hobbies that are specific
tell me about a book you've reador a trip you've taken.
(26:32):
If that is not your thing.
And the interviewer is askingyou that people pivot Say I
understand that people reallylove reading and they're
passionate about reading.
That does not bring me joy,especially at the end of the day
when I've had my nose buried ina textbook for 12 hours.
What brings me joy isexercising or sitting down with
(26:53):
my friends and watching trash TV, and let me tell you why that
actually is important to me andI think, you can spin it really
well, but in the moment it doesfeel very well.
It kind of makes you feel badabout yourself, like oh.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
I haven't read a book Right and, like I said, LSU was
one of my top grad schools.
I was really prepared for thisinterview.
I was so nervous, but it wasjust not on my radar at all.
But I ended up getting into LSU, so my Bible response did work.
I guess, but I was notexpecting it for sure.
Definitely expect a few off thewall questions in your
(27:27):
interviews.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
That's a really good point and I think that's why I
love this quality questionsegment so much is because you
do get to hear some of thethings that threw us for loops
when we were doing interviews.
Michaela, when you were lookingat LSU as a school, if you can
remember what were some of thethings that you researched or
some of the things you looked atwhen you were trying to prepare
for that interview, so therewere a lot of different things I
(27:49):
looked at.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
I applied to eight different grad schools.
A lot of people don't know this, but it is very competitive to
get into grad school for speechpathology because so many people
are applying.
I looked at grad schools I knewpeople at so I could ask about
their experience.
I knew a few people that hadgone to LSU so I'd ask them
about their experience.
They had amazing experience.
(28:11):
So I was like, okay, done.
But I also looked at theirfacilities and not necessarily
like, do they have places that Ican internship at?
Because you have to do acertain amount of internships,
externships.
Some grad schools will make youfind your own and then some
schools will place you withpeople.
They were one of the ones thatplaced you where you needed to
(28:33):
be, so I didn't have to worryabout that.
So that was a huge pull for me.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Absolutely the same for PA school and in many other
schools I think it is to go andtry to find these rotations and
I'm not sure about for you, butfor PAs are supervising
physicians on.
Our rotations are notcompensated financially most of
the time, so it's voluntary forthem and having a student for
however long and training thatperson for free or, as I like to
(29:00):
say, for pride of profession,it's a big undertaking for them.
So it can be quite difficult tofind that.
So thank you.
I know we didn't discuss it,we're going to talk about that,
but it's a really great thing.
Let's pivot a little bit.
I want to talk about yourspouse, if that's okay, what it
looks like for you to have aspouse in medicine, because I
(29:21):
think being a medical spouse ischallenging.
Tell us a little bit about yourhusband and his journey, but,
more importantly, how you'refeeling and how you're
supporting him.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Yes, so my husband is a third year medical student.
We live in Miami, Florida.
It is very hard.
I think a lot of people see theglitz and the glam of being a
doctor but people do notunderstand the sacrifice that
goes into that.
My husband studies pretty muchevery waking hour.
Even on our honeymoon this pastMay he studied every single
(29:50):
morning because he had his boardexam the next month.
It's so much sacrifice.
We lived down here in Miami.
We left all of our friends andfamily and then we will move
again for residency.
A lot of people don't realizethe sacrifice, not only
financially but also personally,being away from so many people.
(30:10):
But I will also say it is funat times because he understands
my profession.
I understand his profession.
We've had so many funconversations over the years
about different experiences thata lot of spouses don't get to
have.
It is very hard on me.
I want to know that I'msupporting him enough and I get
down on myself and I'm like am Idoing enough to support him
(30:32):
Because he's going through a lot?
It's hard, it's challenging andI don't think people talk about
it enough until I had talked toother spouses and they're like,
yeah, it's very hard.
So yeah, what are?
Speaker 1 (30:44):
what's your recommendation for somebody
who's going to find themselvesin that position, whether
they're medical or not, you know, perhaps they might not know
specifically what it is about,what their spouse is studying
that is making their life sohard, but if you know your
spouse or your significant otheror your partner, you should
know that they're having a hardtime.
(31:04):
What's your recommendation whenyou kind of see that?
What's your first step?
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Something I do before I even get to that point is we
try to carve out at least 10 to15 minutes of quality time every
night.
We like to walk every night.
We have a little walking trailthat's by our apartment.
We always eat dinner withoutour phones, even if that's just
the only time we have duringthat day to sit down and look at
each other and have aconversation.
(31:29):
Carving out 10 minutes everyday to get that quality time in,
then I think you can ask thosequestions like how are you
feeling?
How can I support you, how canI be a better spouse and being
honest both ways, him knowingthat he can be vulnerable with
me, but also I know that I canask him also for the same things
.
But yeah, I think, justspending quality time together
(31:51):
and being honest, and before youeven get to that point where
you're desperate for thatsupport.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Thank you for speaking so much on this because
it's so important and I know inprevious episodes we've talked
a little bit about mentorshipand how mentorship really guides
us.
A lot of times it supports usand motivates us, and then our
partnerships and ourrelationships are just
mentorships on like super duper,uber steroids.
(32:17):
Exactly Whether you work in thesame profession or not, you are
witnessing each other's hobbies.
You're witnessing that personbeing constructive or
destructive with their time.
Just as I expect my mentors tostep in and say, ash, let's move
back this way a little bit, Ialso expect that from my spouse,
family and friends as well.
(32:39):
I think we speak aboutmentorship like it's just one
person and it's some old grayhaired guy that went to school
50 years before you did.
But that's not true.
I have mentors much youngerthan me as well.
Obviously, my spouse and myfamily are one of my biggest
places where I seek thatmentorship and guidance.
Thank you for speaking on that.
I think it's great to hear thatyou're laying very strong
foundations.
(32:59):
So, while we wrap up, whatadvice would you give to someone
interested in medicine, justgenerally speaking, because you
can speak on that, your husbandand you have navigated that
whole road.
And then, what advice would yougive specifically to someone
who's been listening and whosays that sounds fantastic.
(33:19):
I want her life, I want her job, I want to do what she does.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
So my number one answer would be to shadow, which
is so funny shadow me next butto go and shadow what you think
you want to do.
My husband shadowed manydoctors.
He really wants to doorthopedic surgery but he didn't
know he wanted to do that untilhe shadowed several different
people.
I mean he's shadoweddermatologists.
(33:43):
You need to really think aboutwhat you might want to do.
Go shadow a few, then, afterthose first few, they might
guide your next.
Let me try this so you mightpivot a little bit, I think,
with speech.
I would recommend shadowing PT,ot and speech and then also
figure out your why.
That can really direct yourpath.
You might be a speech pathologymajor your freshman year and
(34:06):
you might graduate with a degreein business because of things
pivoting.
I just really think aboutleaning into that why and then
also shadowing other people andgetting thoughts from other
people.
I would never be a speechtherapist if it wasn't for my
cousin redirecting my path andshadowing some.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Well, I'm so glad you said that because I created
this podcast for that exactreason.
I had student after student for10 years of practice that I
hosted as shadows, while I wasconfident in the experience I
was providing them.
I have two daughters and oneday they'll come to me and say
mom, I love what you do, but Idon't know if I want to be a PA.
(34:42):
What else is out there?
This is all I know how to be aPA.
A part of this podcast was merealizing there's more out there
.
I always knew I wanted to gointo medicine, specifically
wanted to be a PA, and I'm verysatisfied with that.
But in order to be a better PA,a better medical provider, to
do right by my kids and myfriend's kids, exploring these
(35:05):
avenues was on my heart and thestudents who have the
opportunity to shadow in personshadow me next does not replace
that experience.
What I'm hoping is, bylistening to the stories on
shadow me next, they willrealize hey, this sounds like me
.
This sounds like where my heartis.
(35:25):
This sounds like something Iwant to do.
I'm going to start researchingspeech language pathologists
close to me.
I'm going to be specific withmy requests and see, and then
maybe I'll shout on orthopedicsurgeons, since we talked about
that too, just to compare.
Comparison is going to be thebiggest thing for these people
and I'm so glad you brought thatup.
(35:46):
This is amazing.
I want to go hug my kids now.
I want to make sure, like I hugall the parents, just because
you've motivated me so much tobe good and be better.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
It's been such an honor, so thank you for having
me Thank you so very much forlistening to this episode of
shadow me next.
If you liked this episode or ifyou think it could be useful
for a friend, please subscribeand invite them to join us next
Monday, as always.
If you have any questions, letme know on Facebook or Instagram
Access.
You want stories you need?
(36:18):
You're always invited to shadowme next.
Hello and welcome to Shadow Me Next, a podcast where
I take you into and behind thescenes of the medical world to
provide you with a deeperunderstanding of the human side
of medicine.
I'm Ashley, a physicianassistant, medical editor,
clinical preceptor and thecreator of Shadow Me Next.
It is my pleasure to introduceyou to incredible members of the
(00:22):
healthcare field and uncovertheir unique stories, the joys
and challenges they face andwhat drives them in their
careers.
It's access you want andstories you need, whether you're
a pre-health student or simplycurious about the healthcare
field.
I invite you to join me as wetake a conversational and
personal look into the lives andminds of leaders in medicine.
(00:43):
I don't want you to miss asingle one of these
conversations, so make sure thatyou subscribe to this podcast,
which will automatically notifyyou when new episodes are
dropped, and follow us onInstagram and Facebook at Shadow
Me Next, where we will reviewhighlights from this
conversation and where I'll giveyou sneak previews of our
upcoming guests.
And where I'll give you sneakpreviews of our upcoming guests.
(01:10):
Today on Shadow Me Next, I amjoined by the amazing Michaela
Elrod, a dedicated speechlanguage pathologist whose
passion for early interventionis literally changing lives, one
child at a time.
Michaela shares her journeyfrom dreaming of becoming a
doctor to finding her truecalling in speech therapy
through a single life-changingshadowing experience.
In this episode, we'll explorethe vital role of speech therapy
(01:32):
in child development, theunique challenges and rewards of
working with families, and theprofound impact of early
intervention on a child's future.
Stay until the end to hearMichaela's amazing perspective
on how partnering with parentsand embracing vulnerability can
create lifelong change, not justfor children but for entire
(01:54):
families.
Please keep in mind that thecontent of this podcast is
intended for informational andentertainment purposes only and
should not be considered asprofessional medical advice.
The views and opinionsexpressed in this podcast are
those of the host and guests anddo not necessarily reflect the
official policy or position ofany other agency, organization,
(02:17):
employer or company.
Hi, michaela, thank you so muchfor joining us on Shadow Me
Next.
I'm so glad you're here.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Yes, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
I cannot wait to talk to you about what you do.
This is such an interestingpart of medicine and something
that I think a lot of us havehad experience with either
directly or peripherally.
I know a lot of friends whosechildren have benefited from
working with a speech languagepathologist, which is what you
do.
I can't wait to dive into thatwith you.
We'll start at the beginning.
What drew you to medicineinitially?
Speaker 2 (02:49):
So when I was a little girl I would line up all
of my baby dolls and I wouldpretend that I was their doctor.
From a young age I've alwaysknown I wanted to go into
medicine.
My senior year of high school Ireally thought that I wanted to
be an OBGYN.
I love the thought of helpingmamas and babies and working
(03:11):
with babies all day.
My cousin is an occupationaltherapist and her husband is a
doctor.
We got to talking about thework-life balance, of what it's
like to be a woman in themedical field, and she's like I
really think that you would bean excellent speech pathologist.
I work with them every day.
Because I was having doubtsabout going into the med school
(03:35):
route, I decided to shadow aspeech pathologist and from the
first client I saw I was likethis is exactly what I want.
I'm still working heavily withparents and little babies, which
is what I was drawn to.
It took one time for me toshadow a speech therapist and I
declared that as my major myfreshman year of college and
never changed.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
That's fantastic.
I'm so glad that you determinedwhat you wanted to do and you
made that pivot based on talkingto somebody else, because I
think so often that's how wemake that realization.
Shadowing is fantasticin-person shadowing, but really
just sitting down and having aconversation, sometimes with a
friend or someone that you trusttheir opinion on, somebody that
(04:17):
you know is going to be honestwith you with what they do.
So glad you said that.
That's one of the big reasonswhy I wanted to start this
podcast is, you know, it doesn'treplace in-person shadowing
You're not going to see theminteracting with patients but it
is going to give you thattrusted experience, that
conversation that you might nothave otherwise.
I'm really glad that you hadthat experience.
(04:38):
It sounds like her story isvery similar to yours.
I know your husband is also inmedicine.
We're going to talk about thata little bit later.
I am also really excited todive into that because I do
think a lot of times similarpeople attract each other, and
in medicine you can see a lot ofcouples who are both in
medicine, and it presents itsown fair share of challenges.
So, when it comes to speechlanguage pathology, what does
(04:59):
the schooling look like for that?
Is that something after collegeor instead of college?
What does that look like?
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Yes, so you will go to college and complete a
four-year degree, typically inspeech pathology my major was
speech pathology and audiologyand I had a minor in psychology,
which I found very helpful.
Then, after that, you will takeyour GRE and then you will
apply to many grad schools.
Then, after you get into gradschool, that is two years of
(05:25):
schooling and then you willapply to many grad schools.
Then, after you get into gradschool, that is two years of
schooling and then you willcomplete a clinical fellowship
in which you're working but alsobeing supervised.
They might not be at your site,but you have to get certain
supervision hours.
After that you will apply foryour license and you are done.
So it sounds very easy, and soit's definitely easier said than
(05:46):
done, but yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Is it a master's program?
Do you get a title?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yes, it is.
It's a master's.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Yes, speech language pathology was not your
undergraduate major.
Could you go to graduate schoolfor that, or do you have to
kind of retool?
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Yes, so you will have to take leveling classes.
Different grad schools willcall them different things, but
there are some classes that youwill have to take for classes
that are necessary and you musthave in order to go into grad
school.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Yeah, so interesting.
So it's a little bit differentfrom from being a PA, for
example, right?
Speaker 2 (06:19):
So as a.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
PA, you can.
You can major in anything andundergrad totally, and you could
be an art history major.
You can major in.
You can.
You can major in anything andunder that it totally.
And it could be an art historymajor.
You can major in.
You know pottery, it doesn'tmatter, you can major in
anything.
As long as you took the likethe prerequisite classes biology
, chemistry.
It differs for differentschools.
If you took those, you canstill apply to PA school after
(06:40):
you take the GRE, things likethat.
So it sounds like in order todo speech-language pathology,
you really have to have a keenidea early or retool and take
those classes.
Tell me about the schoolinggenerally speaking.
Was it incredibly hard comparedto what you studied in high
school?
Speaker 2 (06:56):
So in high school I took all of the AP classes AP
biology, ap chemistry, biology,ap chemistry.
I love school.
I love to read.
I definitely had a bit of aculture shock going from
undergrad to grad school becausein undergrad a lot of the
topics came very easily to me.
In grad school you're in aclass or in a cohort of 40,
(07:20):
typically girls.
40 girls are just as smart, ifnot smarter than you are.
It's often very competitive.
But you have to change the wayyou study.
That's something I struggledwith, because learning a
complete new routine does atotally different look at
studying, because you just havemass and mass and mass amounts
of information that you have toknow.
(07:41):
We say speech pathology is aprofession that's womb to tomb,
so you really have to know thelifespan and it's a lot of
information.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
I've really had to change my thought processes
towards studying quite a bit ingrad school, and that's
interesting, especially comingfrom someone who loves school,
and I think that you have peoplewho go into master's level
positions who do love school.
You have think that you havepeople who go into a master's
level positions who do loveschool.
You have people, of course, whoare just innately intelligent,
(08:11):
but you also have people thatreally, really love school.
And when you get there and yourealize that the learning is
very, very different, the waythat they teach is very, very
different.
Sometimes it's a culture shocka little bit, and you know the
fact that your class wascompetitive.
I'm so glad for that because Ido think that it sharpens us and
it pushes us, but at the sametime we're all learning how to
learn a little bit differently.
(08:31):
So I think, overwhelming atfirst, and then you find your
groove, right I mean by the endof schooling you find your
groove and then all of a suddenyou're actually working and
seeing patients and that sort ofthing.
So it all pans out, in the end,good.
So tell me, I want to knowabout a day in your life.
I'm so excited to hear aboutwhat you do on the regular.
I think it sounds like you workso hands-on with your patients
(08:53):
and their families.
Walk us through what your dayusually looks like.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
So I tell everyone I'm the type of person I would
rather work out at 5 am than 5pm.
Typically my day starts at 3 or45 am.
I get up, go to the gym, comehome.
I like to have a little bit ofa slower morning so I give
myself time to do my devotionalread and get ready for the day
and not be so insanely rushed.
(09:18):
Then I'll eat breakfast, driveto work and typically work from
9 to 5.
I work in a private practice.
Some days might be from one tofour, some days might be eight
to six, but typically it's nineto five.
Then after that I will comehome.
My husband and I love to go ona walk every night, so we'll
typically walk, make dinner, Iwill read or do something to
(09:41):
kind of decompress at night andthen we started all over again
the next day.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
I love the rhythm of that.
That's really nice.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
I'm a creature of habit.
I love the routine.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
I have created.
I do too, and I think thatthere's some people out there
that are looking at us thinkinghow boring is their life.
But that steadiness is whatkeeps me grounded, and there's
enough chaos surrounding me andI think if I can kind of control
my daily rhythms, that bringsme joy.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
During my workday I sometimes have clients back to
back and then sometimes I willhave a little bit of breaks in
there and I'll lesson plan orsession plan, write notes, do my
charting things, I will betalking to parents, so there's
lots of little things like thatthat might go on during my day
too.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
That's so fun.
So, when you're working withpatients, what are some of the
conditions that you usually see?
What are some of the thingsthat you're treating?
Speaker 2 (10:33):
So one of my favorite areas or kind of areas of
expertise, I love the earlierintervention and preschool age.
Preschool and toddlers are myabsolute favorite age.
I just think it's so special towork with those ages because
they are at a critical time ofdevelopment.
If you get in there early andget them the therapy they need
(10:57):
and start strong from the start,get that parent education, you
can make amazing strides ofgrowth.
Especially early intervention,getting in there as soon as you
possibly can and getting yourtherapies can make a lifelong
impact on a child.
I love the early preschool ages.
I work with children withdevelopmental disabilities,
(11:18):
autism, down syndrome, prettymuch any type of disorder.
I work with a lot of veryinteresting clients that might
not have a disorder.
We're trying to figure out whatmight be going on that we don't
really know yet because they'reso young, but we know something
is not right, you know, andthen also work with children
that are just typicallydeveloping and they're just late
(11:38):
talkers, you know.
So I have a few of those aswell.
So I have seen quite a bit ofdifferent cases and things, but
I would say I primarily workwith children with autism.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Amazing.
So how does that work?
Does the child's pediatricianif they have a pediatrician that
they trust does the child'spediatrician make a referral?
Or does the parent just findyou and seek you out and say I
think there's something going onwith my child that I'd like to
talk to you about?
Speaker 2 (12:04):
So I think by both ways.
You know, parents can reach outto us and we have people do
that daily, but also we get alot of referrals from
pediatricians and even referralsfrom preschools, referrals from
other schools, so it can comein a variety of different ways.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
That's neat and I'm so grateful that parents have
that outlet too, because I thinka lot of times in the
healthcare system we can feelvery trapped because we feel
like there's something wrong.
As parents I am a parent, Ihave two daughters, a
four-year-old and a two-year-oldyou can feel trapped because
you're waiting on a referral,you're trying to convince your
pediatrician, perhaps, that youfeel there's something wrong, so
(12:40):
I'm so glad that they have thatoutlet where they can reach out
to you and you guys can workthrough it.
Let's talk a little bit aboutearly intervention, because I
think that's a word that peoplemight not be familiar with and
it sounds like it is soimportant to your practice, so
that is the age of birth tothree, typically even birth to
two.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
But that is mainly focused on parent education and
a lot of our early interventionclients we see in the home my
approach, at least when I'mthinking about early
intervention.
I want to talk to the parentsand do parent coaching and give
them strategies they can usethroughout their day, whether
that's breakfast time, bath time, little things they can embed
(13:20):
in their day to make their livesnot only easier but also get
their child talking, their otherchild talking, and not only
that.
You know there's so many stepsthat go before talking.
You've got eye contact?
Okay, if we can't get eyecontact, a child is not going to
be talking in sentences at agetwo.
But really it's just gettingthat parent coaching.
(13:41):
If I see a child in the home,something I like to do is I do
not take any of my own materials.
I use everything in the homeBecause when I'm not there, I
come in with all these bells andwhistles and my bag of toys and
of course the child wants tointeract with me and they want
to see what I brought that day.
But when I'm not there theydon't have those toys.
I want to show the parents whatthey have in their house,
(14:04):
whether it is literally acardboard box, how they can make
that work for their child.
And this strategy through teensthey can do with the toys that
they already have and not makingthem feel like they have to go
buy the next hot item.
Giving them strategy they cando with what they already have.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
There's so much I want to say to that.
This is fantastic.
First and foremost, thank youfor doing that, because, as you
were talking about all the bellsand whistles, I was thinking
about all of the things as aparent that I would try to buy
to encourage my child tocommunicate with me, and that
gets so expensive.
All the Melissa and.
Doug toys, that I can think ofeverything that pops up on
(14:42):
Amazon.
I'll think, ooh, let me trythat.
Ooh, let me try that.
The fact that you come intotheir home and use what they
already have and you provide theparents with those tools of
just things that are that arejust laying around their house,
thank you for that.
That's huge and we all knowkids would much prefer a
cardboard box for the toilet.
Comes in it anyway.
As medical providers, I thinkand this is me speaking honestly
(15:02):
I think as medical providers,we're very used to the limelight
.
We're very used to thespotlight.
Right, we walk into the roomand we have.
We have our bright white coatson Sometimes they're like
bedazzled with sparkly pins wehave all the gadgets.
We run the appointment.
Obviously, we're communicatingand we're working with the
patient, but ultimately we walkin, we determine when we start
(15:23):
and we leave, we kind ofdetermine when it ends.
We kind of are on center stageand I think a lot of medical
providers like that youmentioned that you're trying to
just kind of assimilate intotheir daily life.
You walk in, you're notbringing a bag of fun stuff, you
don't want the kid to befocused on you, you're just
partnering with their parent,their caregiver, the person
(15:43):
helping this child.
It sounds like a reallybeautifully humble aspect of
medicine that I think wouldresonate with a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Is that true?
Yeah, I would definitely say so, and I think one thing about
speech is we work so much withparents Parents.
I don't want to say thatthey're desperate for
information, but they are sohungry for information.
They want anything they can getto help their child and I think
it's you know.
They are showing you one of themost vulnerable parts of their
(16:12):
life.
They're not going to tell theirbest friend that their child is
not talking and reallystruggling with that, but
they're going to be reallyhonest with you and really
vulnerable and being able tojust be a source to them and let
them know that you are therefor them, I think is something
that's really special.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
I love that and it's probably great that you minored
in psychology specifically forthat reason.
I'm sitting here thinking aboutmy pediatrics rotation in school
and how much I loved workingwith children and how difficult
I found it was working withtheir parents, only because I
had 20 minutes and half of thattime I was trying to evaluate
their child quickly, head to toe, all the things.
(16:50):
And then you're right, theparents are hungry for
information and they'redesperate to know and this can
be a perfectly healthy child andthey're still desperate for
information.
They don't have any concernsabout their kid, but they want
to know X, y and Z.
I find that very taxingsometimes, but in your position
you're equipped to answer all oftheir questions and to partner
(17:11):
with them and walk alongsidethem through some really scary,
complicated things, and you know, I'm sure, that they're
frustrated that they're in thatposition, but they're so
grateful to have your care.
Tell us, if you can, about aparticularly difficult situation
, if you've ever been in one,and how it kind of changed the
way that you view things orperhaps even changed the way
(17:32):
that you practice.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
I think there's difficult situations every day.
You're going to have a clientthat you just cannot figure out
their behavior, or you mighthave a difficult parent that is
questioning everything you do.
For me, personally, it'ssomething that I struggle with
and I think is hard is keepingyour energy levels up throughout
the day.
You know, I sometimes get downon myself because the speech
(17:55):
therapist I am at 8am might looka little different than the
speech therapist I am at 4pm,and I get down on myself because
I want to provide that samequality of care at 4pm that I
did at 8am, because that childis so deserving of that.
So you know, I think learninghow if you're a specialist,
learning how to fuel your bodycorrectly, you know figure out
(18:16):
your, what you need to do in themornings to get prepared for
the day.
But yeah, there's learning howto keep your energy levels up,
because two-year-olds are veryexhausting and I will say I do
work with elementary school, Iwork with middle school.
I've even had clients that arein their 20s, but typically I do
work with the younger ones andeven the kids in third and
(18:37):
fourth grade.
They want to do all the thingstoo and I want you to be super
high energy and they want toplay pretend they want to do all
the things.
That is a difficult thing tobalance.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
It goes back to what you were saying about your
routine too.
You know work is exhausting andwork with a two-year-old and
their concerned caregiver parent, and at the same time you're
not just playing with the child,you are also evaluating the
child, looking around trying tofind the tools that you're going
to use to teach the parents too.
(19:11):
I think where burnout comes inthis is a huge topic and you
feel it towards the end of theday.
It's this cycle and it justtakes a little bit more of you
every single day, but that's whyit is so important to have that
lifestyle that you have outsideof the office.
I think people poo, poo,hobbies and exercise and diet
and say, well, yes, of course wewant to be this perfect person
because that's going to make usfeel good, but that's also going
(19:33):
to make us work better andserve our patients better and be
able to get down on the floorwith that two-year-old at four
o'clock in the afternoon withouthaving all of your coffee, and
really perform and do your joband what you need to do.
It's motivating.
Thank you, it's very motivating.
So when you have let's talkabout autism a little bit,
(19:54):
because it's something that canfeel very mysterious If you
don't have a child who hasautism.
It is a spectrum disorder,which means there are children
who have a more obvious effecton their life from autism and
then there are children who havea less obvious effect.
Do you work with children onthe whole spectrum?
(20:14):
Do you get to pick and choosethe severity of your cases?
What does that look like?
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Yeah, so I have worked with children on the
whole spectrum.
I've never seen two childrenwith autism look the same.
Before I moved to Miami, Iworked in a school with very low
functioning children.
Every child on my caseload wasin a wheelchair or had some type
of physical disability.
Now I'd work with the wholespectrum.
(20:41):
It keeps things interesting.
They're the same.
I work with low functioning allthe way to high functioning.
So much so you might not.
If you met them, you might notknow they have autism.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Wow, that's really interesting.
It is.
I think it's a very difficultcondition because of that.
You mentioned that you'veworked in schools too, michaela,
so you've worked in a varietyof different settings schools,
private practice, home therapy.
How do those environmentsdiffer, in terms of patient care
, for example?
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Yes, so I also did a rotation in a hospital and I was
on the acute setting.
I've done that as well.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Everywhere.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Yeah, so I've had a taste of everything.
But this school is going to befocused more on group therapy.
You might have 70, 80 kids onyour caseload and you are doing
groups of therapy in five,setting your five kids in your
group, typically 30 minutesessions.
They're kids in your group,typically 30 minute sessions.
They're quick.
In your private practice that isgoing to be your individualized
care.
You know I see some kids 30minutes, I see some kids for an
(21:40):
hour, I see some kids for twohours.
They're typically individualsessions.
So I do a lot of you knowdifferent things with that.
And then the home therapy, theprivate practice I work out.
Now we do home therapy but wealso have contracts with school.
So I've also had experience ofbeing a contract worker in a
school and not necessarilyworking actually for the school.
(22:02):
And now I can say home therapytypically is your early
intervention and then schoolcontracts.
It's almost like privatepractice but you're just going
into the school and pulling thechild out for the session.
And then the hospital.
Obviously I did acute care andthen I did inpatient and
outpatient rehab during thatrotation.
So, and obviously your hospitalsetting, which I had the three
(22:25):
different kind of sectors inyour hospital setting for your
adults, but those are a lot morefast paced and I do think the
school setting is lot more fastpaced and I do think the school
setting is definitely more fastpaced than private practice
because you have faster sessions.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
No, that makes sense.
So when you're in the hospitaldoing acute care, you're
obviously you're not bringingtoys in trying to teach them how
to speak.
Is this after?
Is this after like an injury?
Speaker 2 (22:49):
and they're relearning how to do things yeah
, so well, that is more so withyour adults.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
So I worked with adults that had strokes or
traumatic brain injuries, thingslike that as a speech language
pathologist, you can specializein either age or disorders,
which sounds like they probablygo a little hand in hand.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Yes, I tell everyone there's not much of a difference
between a child and an adult.
They both get excited by a lotof the things that we get
excited by.
So there's a lot ofsimilarities I've found over the
years between the two settings,even though they seem polar
opposites it sounds like such afun job.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
After every single episode I go and I talk to my
husband I'm like, listen to thisspeech, language pathologist.
And he goes Ash, you're notchanging careers.
I said I know I don't want to.
I love being a PA, but justgetting to speak with you about
what you do and seeing howpassionate you are about it, it
gives me so much hope formedicine and for those
interested in medicine.
I think, like you said, onceupon a time, we were all playing
(23:53):
with our Dr Barbies or our DrGI Joes if that was your thing
and we didn't, really nobodyever said oh, you should be a PA
or oh, you should be a speechlanguage pathologist, you know
something we had to discoverlater, more as an adult.
So thank you again for sheddingall the light on all of this.
I am so excited about it.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Let's talk about quality questions.
This is a segment in the showwhere we talk about something
that you've been asked, orsomething that you have asked
that's been just reallymemorable.
Do you have a quality questionBefore we hear what Michaela's
quality question is?
Keep in mind that there's moreinterview prep, such as mock
interviews and personalstatement review, over on
shadowmenextcom.
(24:30):
There you'll find amazingresources to help you as you
prepare to answer your ownquality questions.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Whenever I was applying to grad schools.
I applied to LSU and one of theinterview questions they asked
me was what was the most recentbook I had read that was not
related to speech pathology Forthe GRE.
I was trying to get into gradschool.
I'm trying to read all of mytextbooks, do all the things.
I had not touched an actualbook for fun in so long.
(25:02):
I was so thrown off by thatquestion and I was at this time
this was in 2020.
So I was looking around my roomlike what is the most book?
You know finding a book aroundmy room.
But it made me realize you needto have hobbies and something
outside of your profession.
Obviously, you will go throughseasons where you are busier
than others, but I try to readbefore bed every single night.
(25:25):
Just carving out even fiveminutes of your day to do
something for you can make ahuge difference.
I thought that was such a goodquestion because it threw me off
, because I was so prepared toanswer why I wanted to go to
that school and why I want to bea speech therapist.
I was not prepared for aquestion about myself related to
(25:46):
my hobbies, so I thought thatwas a really good one that is a
great one.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Thank you for sharing that, and I think in the same
seat I probably would havepanicked as well.
I probably would have saidHarry Potter or the Bible or
something like that If I wereasked that question now.
And I'm not a really avidreader now.
I love listening to audio books.
It's one of my favorite thingsand I like reading books that
will give me information.
(26:11):
I've listened to a couple offantastic finance books recently
my husband's in finance, sopart of the reason is so I can
speak intelligently with him,and part of the reason is
everybody needs to know aboutfinance.
If you're making money, thenyou should probably know how to
manage it.
But a lot of those questionsabout hobbies that are specific
tell me about a book you've reador a trip you've taken.
(26:32):
If that is not your thing.
And the interviewer is askingyou that people pivot Say I
understand that people reallylove reading and they're
passionate about reading.
That does not bring me joy,especially at the end of the day
when I've had my nose buried ina textbook for 12 hours.
What brings me joy isexercising or sitting down with
(26:53):
my friends and watching trash TV, and let me tell you why that
actually is important to me andI think, you can spin it really
well, but in the moment it doesfeel very well.
It kind of makes you feel badabout yourself, like oh.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
I haven't read a book Right and, like I said, LSU was
one of my top grad schools.
I was really prepared for thisinterview.
I was so nervous, but it wasjust not on my radar at all.
But I ended up getting into LSU, so my Bible response did work.
I guess, but I was notexpecting it for sure.
Definitely expect a few off thewall questions in your
(27:27):
interviews.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
That's a really good point and I think that's why I
love this quality questionsegment so much is because you
do get to hear some of thethings that threw us for loops
when we were doing interviews.
Michaela, when you were lookingat LSU as a school, if you can
remember what were some of thethings that you researched or
some of the things you looked atwhen you were trying to prepare
for that interview, so therewere a lot of different things I
(27:49):
looked at.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
I applied to eight different grad schools.
A lot of people don't know this, but it is very competitive to
get into grad school for speechpathology because so many people
are applying.
I looked at grad schools I knewpeople at so I could ask about
their experience.
I knew a few people that hadgone to LSU so I'd ask them
about their experience.
They had amazing experience.
(28:11):
So I was like, okay, done.
But I also looked at theirfacilities and not necessarily
like, do they have places that Ican internship at?
Because you have to do acertain amount of internships,
externships.
Some grad schools will make youfind your own and then some
schools will place you withpeople.
They were one of the ones thatplaced you where you needed to
(28:33):
be, so I didn't have to worryabout that.
So that was a huge pull for me.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Absolutely the same for PA school and in many other
schools I think it is to go andtry to find these rotations and
I'm not sure about for you, butfor PAs are supervising
physicians on.
Our rotations are notcompensated financially most of
the time, so it's voluntary forthem and having a student for
however long and training thatperson for free or, as I like to
(29:00):
say, for pride of profession,it's a big undertaking for them.
So it can be quite difficult tofind that.
So thank you.
I know we didn't discuss it,we're going to talk about that,
but it's a really great thing.
Let's pivot a little bit.
I want to talk about yourspouse, if that's okay, what it
looks like for you to have aspouse in medicine, because I
(29:21):
think being a medical spouse ischallenging.
Tell us a little bit about yourhusband and his journey, but,
more importantly, how you'refeeling and how you're
supporting him.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Yes, so my husband is a third year medical student.
We live in Miami, Florida.
It is very hard.
I think a lot of people see theglitz and the glam of being a
doctor but people do notunderstand the sacrifice that
goes into that.
My husband studies pretty muchevery waking hour.
Even on our honeymoon this pastMay he studied every single
(29:50):
morning because he had his boardexam the next month.
It's so much sacrifice.
We lived down here in Miami.
We left all of our friends andfamily and then we will move
again for residency.
A lot of people don't realizethe sacrifice, not only
financially but also personally,being away from so many people.
(30:10):
But I will also say it is funat times because he understands
my profession.
I understand his profession.
We've had so many funconversations over the years
about different experiences thata lot of spouses don't get to
have.
It is very hard on me.
I want to know that I'msupporting him enough and I get
down on myself and I'm like am Idoing enough to support him
(30:32):
Because he's going through a lot?
It's hard, it's challenging andI don't think people talk about
it enough until I had talked toother spouses and they're like,
yeah, it's very hard.
So yeah, what are?
Speaker 1 (30:44):
what's your recommendation for somebody
who's going to find themselvesin that position, whether
they're medical or not, you know, perhaps they might not know
specifically what it is about,what their spouse is studying
that is making their life sohard, but if you know your
spouse or your significant otheror your partner, you should
know that they're having a hardtime.
(31:04):
What's your recommendation whenyou kind of see that?
What's your first step?
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Something I do before I even get to that point is we
try to carve out at least 10 to15 minutes of quality time every
night.
We like to walk every night.
We have a little walking trailthat's by our apartment.
We always eat dinner withoutour phones, even if that's just
the only time we have duringthat day to sit down and look at
each other and have aconversation.
(31:29):
Carving out 10 minutes everyday to get that quality time in,
then I think you can ask thosequestions like how are you
feeling?
How can I support you, how canI be a better spouse and being
honest both ways, him knowingthat he can be vulnerable with
me, but also I know that I canask him also for the same things
.
But yeah, I think, justspending quality time together
(31:51):
and being honest, and before youeven get to that point where
you're desperate for thatsupport.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Thank you for speaking so much on this because
it's so important and I know inprevious episodes we've talked
a little bit about mentorshipand how mentorship really guides
us.
A lot of times it supports usand motivates us, and then our
partnerships and ourrelationships are just
mentorships on like super duper,uber steroids.
(32:17):
Exactly Whether you work in thesame profession or not, you are
witnessing each other's hobbies.
You're witnessing that personbeing constructive or
destructive with their time.
Just as I expect my mentors tostep in and say, ash, let's move
back this way a little bit, Ialso expect that from my spouse,
family and friends as well.
(32:39):
I think we speak aboutmentorship like it's just one
person and it's some old grayhaired guy that went to school
50 years before you did.
But that's not true.
I have mentors much youngerthan me as well.
Obviously, my spouse and myfamily are one of my biggest
places where I seek thatmentorship and guidance.
Thank you for speaking on that.
I think it's great to hear thatyou're laying very strong
foundations.
(32:59):
So, while we wrap up, whatadvice would you give to someone
interested in medicine, justgenerally speaking, because you
can speak on that, your husbandand you have navigated that
whole road.
And then, what advice would yougive specifically to someone
who's been listening and whosays that sounds fantastic.
(33:19):
I want her life, I want her job, I want to do what she does.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
So my number one answer would be to shadow, which
is so funny shadow me next butto go and shadow what you think
you want to do.
My husband shadowed manydoctors.
He really wants to doorthopedic surgery but he didn't
know he wanted to do that untilhe shadowed several different
people.
I mean he's shadoweddermatologists.
(33:43):
You need to really think aboutwhat you might want to do.
Go shadow a few, then, afterthose first few, they might
guide your next.
Let me try this so you mightpivot a little bit, I think,
with speech.
I would recommend shadowing PT,ot and speech and then also
figure out your why.
That can really direct yourpath.
You might be a speech pathologymajor your freshman year and
(34:06):
you might graduate with a degreein business because of things
pivoting.
I just really think aboutleaning into that why and then
also shadowing other people andgetting thoughts from other
people.
I would never be a speechtherapist if it wasn't for my
cousin redirecting my path andshadowing some.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Well, I'm so glad you said that because I created
this podcast for that exactreason.
I had student after student for10 years of practice that I
hosted as shadows, while I wasconfident in the experience I
was providing them.
I have two daughters and oneday they'll come to me and say
mom, I love what you do, but Idon't know if I want to be a PA.
(34:42):
What else is out there?
This is all I know how to be aPA.
A part of this podcast was merealizing there's more out there
.
I always knew I wanted to gointo medicine, specifically
wanted to be a PA, and I'm verysatisfied with that.
But in order to be a better PA,a better medical provider, to
do right by my kids and myfriend's kids, exploring these
(35:05):
avenues was on my heart and thestudents who have the
opportunity to shadow in personshadow me next does not replace
that experience.
What I'm hoping is, bylistening to the stories on
shadow me next, they willrealize hey, this sounds like me
.
This sounds like where my heartis.
(35:25):
This sounds like something Iwant to do.
I'm going to start researchingspeech language pathologists
close to me.
I'm going to be specific withmy requests and see, and then
maybe I'll shout on orthopedicsurgeons, since we talked about
that too, just to compare.
Comparison is going to be thebiggest thing for these people
and I'm so glad you brought thatup.
(35:46):
This is amazing.
I want to go hug my kids now.
I want to make sure, like I hugall the parents, just because
you've motivated me so much tobe good and be better.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
It's been such an honor, so thank you for having
me Thank you so very much forlistening to this episode of
shadow me next.
If you liked this episode or ifyou think it could be useful
for a friend, please subscribeand invite them to join us next
Monday, as always.
If you have any questions, letme know on Facebook or Instagram
Access.
You want stories you need?
(36:18):
You're always invited to shadowme next.
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