Speaker 1: Welcome to Katie's Crib, a production of Shonda land Audio
Speaker 1: in partnership with I Heart Radio. Just a quick disclaimer,
Speaker 1: this episode was recorded pre pandemic. Hi, everybody, we are
Speaker 1: back with another episode on Katie's Crib, um one that
Speaker 1: I know you guys are going to find very informative.
Speaker 1: This This topic came about because a few of my
Speaker 1: friends have kids that are slightly older than Alby, so
Speaker 1: I always looked to them to like, tell me what
Speaker 1: the hell is going on? And their kids are currently
Speaker 1: an occupational therapy and I was like, wait, what is
Speaker 1: occupational therapy? I don't know much about it. So when
Speaker 1: a mutual friend introduced me to Marlene Handler, who I
Speaker 1: have sitting across from me, I knew I had to
Speaker 1: have her on the crib and I have to ask
Speaker 1: her all my questions, so you know. Marlene is an
Speaker 1: occupational therapist who currently works at a high school called
Speaker 1: the Brooklyn Transition Center, where the curriculum is designed with
Speaker 1: the focus on basic vocational training. She integrates mindfulness and
Speaker 1: wellness strategies into her personal practice to help her students
Speaker 1: navigate everyday stressors and function better at school. Hi, Marlene, Hi, Katie,
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for coming on the show. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for having my gosh, my pleasure. Like,
Speaker 1: what is occupational therapy? Can you tell me? Goodness, tell
Speaker 1: me seriously the million dollar question? Does everybody ask you that?
Speaker 1: You know? It's funny because all through OT school, everybody
Speaker 1: is like, what is OT? What is it? We're studying
Speaker 1: this and what is It's so so broad, it's so broad,
Speaker 1: it's like all encompassing. I think the simplest way to
Speaker 1: explain it is that it's helping people engage in the
Speaker 1: activities that they find meaningful throughout their day in a
Speaker 1: more functional way, in a more independent way. So I mean,
Speaker 1: and this can range from adult children to adults, Like
Speaker 1: it's through the entire lifespan like zero to a million,
Speaker 1: because it involves a lot of caretaking and it involves
Speaker 1: a lot of likea I mean, it's like helping people
Speaker 1: like holistically thinking about everything that you engage in your
Speaker 1: life and what you want to do and what's meaningful
Speaker 1: to you and really tailoring a plan to like help
Speaker 1: you be more functional and more independent and those activities.
Speaker 1: So it could really be everything like gardening, being a mom,
Speaker 1: being more organized with your job, learning vocational training, even
Speaker 1: just learning how to socialize better with people or your peers,
Speaker 1: or I mean I work in a school, so it's
Speaker 1: like play and and like academic success and socialization. So
Speaker 1: it's truly a case It sounds like it's truly a
Speaker 1: case by case plan for someone how to get them
Speaker 1: um moving in the way that they want to be. Yes.
Speaker 1: So when you walk into a classroom, you have to
Speaker 1: gather a lot of information about what does the student need,
Speaker 1: what does the teacher think they need, What are their
Speaker 1: parents think they need, what are they kind of are
Speaker 1: they at the same level as their peers, all of
Speaker 1: these things you're looking at. Some kids I see in
Speaker 1: the classroom. Some kids I see like in the cafeteria
Speaker 1: if it's like during like feeding or manipulating a spoon.
Speaker 1: It just really I like, go to them wherever they
Speaker 1: need me. Wow. But a lot of them come to
Speaker 1: the O T room. And I'm very, very fortunate to
Speaker 1: work with an amazing team of ot s in my
Speaker 1: school and have our own space because a lot of
Speaker 1: you know, New York City public schools like OTS, don't
Speaker 1: have any space. They're treating in the hallway. They like
Speaker 1: they get like a hundred dollars a year for like supplies.
Speaker 1: This is not my school. My school is outstanding. O
Speaker 1: T s are so like underrepresented. The name implies, like
Speaker 1: most people think the name. We need a rebranding of occupations.
Speaker 1: Occupational therapists need to go to like a branding manager
Speaker 1: and get their ship together. I've been saying this is absurd.
Speaker 1: It sounds sounds like we like help people with job applications.
Speaker 1: What is that? I know? Trust me? Why I know
Speaker 1: we need to rebrand the O T profession. This is
Speaker 1: why I think we don't get a lot of I
Speaker 1: don't know, love or you know, you know, public knowledge.
Speaker 1: Are people constantly in your life like, wait, what do
Speaker 1: you do for a living? Like? Are your parents like
Speaker 1: what I think? You know? It's funny my mom is
Speaker 1: still like, UM, I know you're not a teacher, but
Speaker 1: we just like tell that to our friends because they
Speaker 1: don't really understand. Like so many people in my life,
Speaker 1: they're like, I know you're not a teacher, but I'm
Speaker 1: still not quite sure what you do. What would be
Speaker 1: um examples of like what you're doing in the day.
Speaker 1: I know each one is very varied. Okay, let's just
Speaker 1: pick one the first one that comes to your mind.
Speaker 1: A lot of the kids in my school, many of
Speaker 1: them are non verbal or have very limited verbal skills.
Speaker 1: So you imagine being sixteen years old having raging hormones.
Speaker 1: You're you have special needs, so you can't like express
Speaker 1: your function in the world like most people, and then
Speaker 1: you also can't express yourself. So I do a ton
Speaker 1: of like movement based activities, yoga, exercise, we have tons
Speaker 1: of dance parties, just really fun, engaging, full body movements.
Speaker 1: And then we do a lot of grounding work, which
Speaker 1: is like devating meditation, guided meditations, body scans, um, closing
Speaker 1: our eyes in a dark room and just feeling like
Speaker 1: taking breaths. I mean really just that that is really
Speaker 1: beneficial for the kids that I work with, because they
Speaker 1: already have a lot of difficulty with expressing themselves and
Speaker 1: they get frustrated really easily. They act out in ways
Speaker 1: that are really aggressive. That's the other thing is like
Speaker 1: teachers like, oh, I can't deal with this kid. They're
Speaker 1: hitting my other students or they're throwing things. And then
Speaker 1: you walk into a classroom and you do like a
Speaker 1: dance party and you have them do some yoga and
Speaker 1: like the rest of the rest of the day, the
Speaker 1: kids like chilled out, And that's like what I mean,
Speaker 1: that's obviously the you know, the most successful thing that
Speaker 1: you can wish for. Um, it doesn't always happen that way,
Speaker 1: but you know, in terms of success stories, I see
Speaker 1: tons of kids all the time that have really really big,
Speaker 1: explosive behaviors, and then I start doing like weekly meditations
Speaker 1: with them, and things get a lot smoother. They calm down.
Speaker 1: They come immediately into the O T room and they
Speaker 1: pick up the headphones to gesture that they want to
Speaker 1: do a meditation. A meditation is on headphones for some students. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that like need less distractions rather than doing it like
Speaker 1: on a speaker in order to cope with everyday stressors
Speaker 1: like mindfulness and yoga and movement is really helpful for
Speaker 1: all of us. I mean, it's something that I do
Speaker 1: every day too. Um So I practice what I preached,
Speaker 1: but it's definitely a practice it with their own kids.
Speaker 1: I absolutely, Oh my gosh, tell me more I need
Speaker 1: to be doing this. How old are your kids? Well,
Speaker 1: my daughter, um I won't say her name on air,
Speaker 1: but she just turned four in November and she's got
Speaker 1: big feelings and big emotions, and we send her to
Speaker 1: med Aitaian camp and yoga. Like my daughter like retains
Speaker 1: so much. Like she'll be frustrated and she'll be like,
Speaker 1: I need to smell the flowers and blow out the candles.
Speaker 1: I need to go sit in my tap. Imagine what
Speaker 1: it's like for being a kid in days this day
Speaker 1: and age, like when screens and everything's in your face
Speaker 1: and we are at such a high frequency and culturally,
Speaker 1: I mean we are just plus they're living in New York,
Speaker 1: but like to just really take time. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: just very different from my childhood. I just remember like
Speaker 1: hours of boredom and like I just feel like which
Speaker 1: is so important because that's where imagination comes out of
Speaker 1: and that's where when you're a kid you start to
Speaker 1: create games for yourself. But like that is just not
Speaker 1: not something anymore. It's it's a shame because it's you know,
Speaker 1: there's I know how sensory overloaded I get, and I
Speaker 1: have all of these tools at your disposal. I have
Speaker 1: like frontal cortex function, and I like know what you
Speaker 1: know what's going on. I mean, children have no idea,
Speaker 1: and kids with special needs extremely don't know, like they
Speaker 1: really did have a hard time. How early can occupational
Speaker 1: therapy because I think my friends in l A who
Speaker 1: have occupational therapists, I think some of them have started
Speaker 1: pretty young. Yeah, so it starts like in New York
Speaker 1: State specifically, you can get early intervention services from birth
Speaker 1: and if you need an evaluation or your pediatrician says,
Speaker 1: you know, your kid is not hitting major mark. Remember
Speaker 1: happening my friend had like a maybe it was a
Speaker 1: thirteen month old girl, and you know, she only had
Speaker 1: a sound or something and they weren't saying anything yet.
Speaker 1: But then you know, the doctor was just sort of like, Okay,
Speaker 1: if we come back at eighteen months or two years
Speaker 1: and she hasn't progressed to like two words or something
Speaker 1: like that, I don't. I'm like being so don't take
Speaker 1: that personally, you know, I mean, don't be measuring your
Speaker 1: child's word account. Talk to your pedetrition. But um, it
Speaker 1: was like that was the first sign. And then they
Speaker 1: had him evaluated and then evaluated again, and then probably
Speaker 1: around three they told her he's autistic. And that's but
Speaker 1: it was great because they put him in occupational therapy,
Speaker 1: speech therapy, all these kinds of things, which is really
Speaker 1: helpful at that age because that's obviously there's the most
Speaker 1: coming together happening in your brain, and that's when you
Speaker 1: have really really make big changes and big strides. What
Speaker 1: what would be signs like milestones of Toddler's correct like
Speaker 1: like not hitting developmental milestones, not engaging, it's a lot
Speaker 1: of contact, Like if you point to something across the
Speaker 1: room as your kid engaging with you, are they able
Speaker 1: to look their peers, are you know, animals in the
Speaker 1: eyes like things like that. I mean, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I'm not a doctor that be diagnosing autism, but those markers,
Speaker 1: you know, are they able to you know, have parallel
Speaker 1: play or cooperative play with their peers like these kinds
Speaker 1: of things. But I have to say I was pretty
Speaker 1: shocked and alarmed at the cost for private For instance,
Speaker 1: insurance would cover certain hours for her. But like when
Speaker 1: she wanted to put him in preschool, they said what
Speaker 1: was best for him and his diagnosis was for him
Speaker 1: to be in a preschool, like not a preschool for
Speaker 1: special special needs, but that they wanted him to have
Speaker 1: a shadow like someone that goes then because he's someone
Speaker 1: that really copies, like he's a copier. So they were like,
Speaker 1: the more he is around kids in a regular preschool,
Speaker 1: he's going to learn that stuff really quick because he
Speaker 1: was very good at that. And but she had to
Speaker 1: pay out a pocket. Yeah, a lot of people just
Speaker 1: don't have access to good care, which is really shame.
Speaker 1: And I mean a lot of the kids in the
Speaker 1: school that I work as well, they're from you know,
Speaker 1: lower socio economic backgrounds, and they didn't have a lot
Speaker 1: of the supports early on and these because I feel
Speaker 1: like early on it's very much out of until you
Speaker 1: can get in this system. I mean in New York
Speaker 1: State because of EI services, you can get free state
Speaker 1: funded support, the you know, proficiency or the there's a
Speaker 1: range of people doing it. So is it are you
Speaker 1: getting getting quality? Who knows? That's really it's various depending
Speaker 1: on where you live and who's available. But there are
Speaker 1: services and then there the services continue from basically pre
Speaker 1: K through twenty one within the school system if they
Speaker 1: are evaluated within the school system for needing special accommodations.
Speaker 1: So there are free services. Again, good quality is very
Speaker 1: Do you find that people talk about in your profession
Speaker 1: that there are more autistic kids now or is that
Speaker 1: not true. Is this like, is this like a very
Speaker 1: triggering question? I'm not sure I've heard it a before,
Speaker 1: is why I'm asking it. Like, So, I looked just
Speaker 1: today at the statistics these guys. Did I tell you
Speaker 1: Marlene Handler came in here with just she's such a professional,
Speaker 1: and I just can't believe how many no cards you
Speaker 1: have written night Adoria. Um, so tell me what are
Speaker 1: the statistics on this? So today when I looked, it's
Speaker 1: one in thirty seven boys and one in a hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty one girls. So there, like the stats are
Speaker 1: changing so quickly because a few years ago it was
Speaker 1: like one in fifty nine boys, and now it's one
Speaker 1: in thirty seven. I think it's because obviously it's many factors.
Speaker 1: They're honing the diagnostic criteria, they're finding it earlier, right, So,
Speaker 1: like there are probably many people walking around with some
Speaker 1: variation or some you know, level of autism or Aspergers
Speaker 1: or something, and they're functioning in the world fine, but
Speaker 1: they're you know, they're getting better at finding it and
Speaker 1: diagnosing it early. And it's I think it's like as
Speaker 1: early as like I want to say, like ten months.
Speaker 1: I'm thirty seven, and I don't remember even hearing this word.
Speaker 1: I know that when I grew up in New York,
Speaker 1: there were definitely kids in my high school with Down syndrome. Yes,
Speaker 1: for sure, that was and it was something in our lives.
Speaker 1: It was on our TV shows. There were characters on
Speaker 1: our TV shows. You know, that was something I knew.
Speaker 1: I never knew autism and I never knew askers for sure.
Speaker 1: And I just feel like it's a real thing now,
Speaker 1: especially when you're when you're a new mom and you
Speaker 1: hear other moms standing on you know, soap boxes talking
Speaker 1: about you know, whether it's backs well kids because you're
Speaker 1: going to give them autism and slow down that I
Speaker 1: didn't know. You know, you hear all these things, whether
Speaker 1: everything is up just for some reason in culturally, like
Speaker 1: in the zeitgeist, you hear this kind of stuff. But
Speaker 1: obviously we're hearing it because the numbers are staggeringly high.
Speaker 1: It's crazy, like that's that's not a little bit that
Speaker 1: I know of the diagnosis and everything. It's like, it's
Speaker 1: definitely genetic factors. If you have a kid with autism already,
Speaker 1: you're you're more likely to have another kid with autism
Speaker 1: or some level of it. Um you know age there's
Speaker 1: women like women and men. This is another big thing
Speaker 1: in like big urban areas is that we're having children
Speaker 1: much later in life. The mean age before it was
Speaker 1: like twenty two and now it's like or something. You know,
Speaker 1: Like I always worried. I mean I'm forty. I have
Speaker 1: a one year old and a four year old. Like
Speaker 1: I was definitely right there with you know, I hope
Speaker 1: everything is okay. And I work around kids that have
Speaker 1: a lot of special needs and I see it all day,
Speaker 1: so it's like it's always in my face and I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, the likelihood is so high. What what
Speaker 1: are some like are there are some success stories you've
Speaker 1: seen with OT for some of your students, like where
Speaker 1: you've seen O TEA makes such a huge difference. I
Speaker 1: mean every day I see some sort of success, you know,
Speaker 1: in terms of like a kid making a social gesture
Speaker 1: to another kid. I mean that's so big and huge. Yeah. Um.
Speaker 1: One of the things that my coworkers and I do
Speaker 1: we run like a weekly cooking group and it's so fun.
Speaker 1: I mean we're teaching these kids really really important and
Speaker 1: necessary skills for themselves to like be able to make
Speaker 1: themselves a meal, but there's so much that goes into it,
Speaker 1: you know, learning to do like a task that has
Speaker 1: more than one to two steps, that's really hard. Um
Speaker 1: socializing with their friends, to like set a table, to
Speaker 1: gather ingredients, to clean up, Like these are all really
Speaker 1: you know, to us, it's like, oh, that's like set
Speaker 1: a table, like that's so simple and whatever. But real life,
Speaker 1: so you're doing real life skills, you know, like kids
Speaker 1: that like learn to put on their jacket by themselves
Speaker 1: that have never been able to do that before. That's
Speaker 1: that are fifteen years old. You know. It's like or
Speaker 1: you know, I had a kid once that his I'm
Speaker 1: not sure why. At his otique goal for many many
Speaker 1: years was like to be able to write his name.
Speaker 1: And I was like, this is just ridiculous. This kid
Speaker 1: is like six years of the same goal. Like obviously,
Speaker 1: like we have to think of a different strategy here,
Speaker 1: you know. And we just started playing around with like
Speaker 1: different modalities like shaving cream and you know, putty and
Speaker 1: all these different things, and he just started like making
Speaker 1: shapes of the letters of his name and now he
Speaker 1: writes his name. It's like just teaching them a different
Speaker 1: It's like every day. You have to really be creative
Speaker 1: and think about like how am I going to reach
Speaker 1: this kid today? Bless you that you're really use outside
Speaker 1: of the box thinking. Um, I was going to ask
Speaker 1: you what happens to your kids at school that are
Speaker 1: twenty one and they're done with the program? Like where
Speaker 1: do they go? So there are Again New York City
Speaker 1: is a very unique place. There are tons of agencies
Speaker 1: and support services for kids once they we say age out,
Speaker 1: like in quotes, Um, there's like respite services that can
Speaker 1: be taken to the movies, it can be taken to
Speaker 1: summer camp, they can work in day have programs, um.
Speaker 1: But it's a huge, huge process like years of you know,
Speaker 1: evaluations and psycho socials and doctor visits and all this stuff,
Speaker 1: and like a lot of people just don't want to
Speaker 1: go through all that bullshit basically to get the services.
Speaker 1: But like then they end up sitting at home for
Speaker 1: the rest of their lives or they go into like
Speaker 1: nursing you know, assisted living facility because they become too dependent.
Speaker 1: They can't do anything, can't do anything the day jobs
Speaker 1: or night jobs or whatever it is. And so yeah,
Speaker 1: it's really really sad. Actually it is. Mind blowing to
Speaker 1: think about having a special needs kid who will be
Speaker 1: your responsibility probably till pass your passing. Well, then I'm
Speaker 1: when I go to these meetings. Yeah, it's terrifying when
Speaker 1: I go to the meetings with the parents. But we have,
Speaker 1: you know, these meetings called individualized education plans, and we
Speaker 1: meet with the family and we meet with the team
Speaker 1: and kind of discuss what the kid is doing well
Speaker 1: and what they need more support with a lot of
Speaker 1: these parents are like, what am I going to do?
Speaker 1: Like my kids, my kid is only sixteen, I only
Speaker 1: have five years? What am I going to do? And
Speaker 1: they're just terrified, like what if something happens to me?
Speaker 1: You know, And it's like, I mean, I've i cannot
Speaker 1: tell you the amount of times I've walked away from
Speaker 1: these meetings in tears, Like I'm like the mountains that
Speaker 1: these people are climbing every single day is profound, and
Speaker 1: I you know, I feel like so incredibly grateful to
Speaker 1: have two healthy children and be able to communicate with
Speaker 1: them and they can express them. Yeah, yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: simple things, but these chants also, you know, they have
Speaker 1: so much stress on their plates. So they have health
Speaker 1: problems and they have financial problems, and they have all
Speaker 1: these things, and it's like, if I can just help
Speaker 1: in like the smallest way, I feel like I'm doing
Speaker 1: something good, you know, each day. I mean, especially when
Speaker 1: I hear these staggering numbers, I'm like, how do you
Speaker 1: not take that home with you? I think somebody who's good,
Speaker 1: Like when you get in your subway or car, you're
Speaker 1: like transition. I do take a little bit home with me.
Speaker 1: But I also like I have like my own, like
Speaker 1: a million of my own strategies that I use every
Speaker 1: single day, Like I meditate regularly every single people. We
Speaker 1: need to get it together. I need to let you win.
Speaker 1: What time do you do that? I wake up at
Speaker 1: five thirty every day, I get out of here, I
Speaker 1: set my alarm. My kids get up at seven, so
Speaker 1: I wake up and meditate, I work out. Arlen go
Speaker 1: way from me. This is why you look the way
Speaker 1: you do, And I mean, this is the way car,
Speaker 1: this is the way that I stay safe. And then
Speaker 1: I work in a way that's healthy. For what if
Speaker 1: you don't get sleep though I often don't get sleep,
Speaker 1: So you rather wake up at five thirty meditated workout
Speaker 1: because you feel like that will be more beneficial to
Speaker 1: your day and how you handle these versus the alarm.
Speaker 1: See convinced that side of my brain because I don't
Speaker 1: ever make that choice? Can we? We're gonna make like
Speaker 1: a very sharp left turn. Listeners, Um, Marlene, you are,
Speaker 1: but you are leaving a little bit of this job,
Speaker 1: like you are going to go into a different sort
Speaker 1: of helping world. Marlene will be helping pelvic floors from
Speaker 1: here on out. Finger. I know we talked about the
Speaker 1: pelvic floor finger banging episode with Stephanie prender Grass from
Speaker 1: My Believe Season one of Katie's Crib, but it was
Speaker 1: in the thing why are you switching from this to
Speaker 1: the other? Like what what is inspiring this? I mean,
Speaker 1: you're a mom, so do I really have to go
Speaker 1: into a full You sort of told me a little
Speaker 1: bit your own pelvic floor stuff fascination and experience with
Speaker 1: birthing to childre started having really a lot of peblvic
Speaker 1: floor dace function, you know, really embarrassing things like continence,
Speaker 1: all these things, and it's like really embarrassing and limiting
Speaker 1: to like the activities that I love physically fit and
Speaker 1: you're so active for you to have to worry about
Speaker 1: whether or not you were going to pee is insane
Speaker 1: and my job is like I don't get too special
Speaker 1: needs children on nyoga balls. Yes, so I just started.
Speaker 1: I was really embarrassed. At first, I didn't talk about it,
Speaker 1: and then once I started talking about it, every single
Speaker 1: person I know was like, oh my god, me too.
Speaker 1: And then I was like, oh my god, this is
Speaker 1: not normal. We're young, like healthy women. What is going on?
Speaker 1: This is not normal. We're not being offered the help
Speaker 1: where to be. And then yeah, I just started talking
Speaker 1: to a ton of people. I started learning about it.
Speaker 1: I read a bunch of research, and the statistics on
Speaker 1: the pelvic floor dysfunction are just insane. I mean, like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, fifty percent of women like after after
Speaker 1: one child. You know, it's just crazy. Yeah. And then
Speaker 1: and then it's something really shameful. So a lot of
Speaker 1: people aren't even reporting it. Of course, so it's probably
Speaker 1: more like eight p UM. So yeah, So I just
Speaker 1: started talking to people about it, and I was like,
Speaker 1: let me take a course and just learn a little
Speaker 1: bit more. So I'm currently getting trained in pelvic floor
Speaker 1: rehabilitation and my hope is that by late spring I
Speaker 1: will be launching my private practice in Brooklyn as a
Speaker 1: based private home base. People come to your house, you
Speaker 1: go to there, go to their home. Oh my god.
Speaker 1: And also you being able to take all of your
Speaker 1: mindful work, your mindfulness, and it's so so much about
Speaker 1: like just kind of that mind body connection, getting accessing
Speaker 1: your avic floor, breathing properly, your posture, how you sit,
Speaker 1: how you hold your child, how you sleep. I mean,
Speaker 1: all of these things are so critical. The way that
Speaker 1: we exercise. I mean, people think they're doing good for
Speaker 1: their bodies and they're not, and they're doing horrible things
Speaker 1: to their pelvic floor. What I learned, Thank god, I went.
Speaker 1: First of all, she examined me and massaged me internally
Speaker 1: and externally. And I'm going to tell you, guys, like
Speaker 1: that's what it involves. And no, it is not like
Speaker 1: I'm going to have Like it's not in any way
Speaker 1: shape form sexual you guys. Um. Also, I don't know
Speaker 1: if any of their moms had this or you, but
Speaker 1: not only the p problem, but my orgasm was completely
Speaker 1: fucked up, completely, Like it was like a gun like sadness,
Speaker 1: right because because all the muscles are blown out and
Speaker 1: nobody tells you that. No, good luck with your baby.
Speaker 1: Good luck if you ever want to enjoy sex again. Um,
Speaker 1: but it was really great to go to her, and
Speaker 1: I feel very lucky that I and I just feeling
Speaker 1: term that other moms don't get that access even though
Speaker 1: that a public force, but specialists exists. Sadly, they have
Speaker 1: to probably pay for it out of pocket. It's like
Speaker 1: a new thing in the US. Like sadly, I mean,
Speaker 1: most developed countries have been having public floor physical therapy
Speaker 1: or some sort of public floor rehabilitation for years, and
Speaker 1: it's mandatory after you have a baby. Only in the
Speaker 1: US do people not know about it. I won't mention
Speaker 1: my doctor's name, but when I went to my six
Speaker 1: week appointment, I said, listen, doc, like, what's going on
Speaker 1: with this thing hanging out of a prolapse? I had
Speaker 1: something that I was not sure what it was. And
Speaker 1: the doctor goes, listen, sweetheart, tell your husband never to
Speaker 1: look there again. Everything works and just continue on. And
Speaker 1: I was like, what you ask? It's not like, is
Speaker 1: this thing happening? Like no, like, let me refer you
Speaker 1: to a specially friends. I have not to scare any
Speaker 1: of you women listening currently pregnant, but like I have
Speaker 1: a lot of friends who had pro lapse uterus, prolapse,
Speaker 1: bladder a proas anus, all of those things. And this
Speaker 1: is not This is the ship that is not being
Speaker 1: talked to. This is exactly. This is like the down
Speaker 1: and dirty, like why are we suffering? This sucks? Oh,
Speaker 1: we carried all of your babies, push them out of
Speaker 1: agenda and they're weapon so you are taking I feel like, actually,
Speaker 1: so many of the skill sets that probably make you
Speaker 1: an incredible occupational therapist are making you an amazing public
Speaker 1: floor specialist hopefully, oh without a doubt, because you're a
Speaker 1: caretaker and you are and I'm a person who's lived
Speaker 1: through it to through it too. Um, And is there
Speaker 1: any advice like that you'd want to give to parents
Speaker 1: listening to this podcast who might be going down the
Speaker 1: OT path? Yeah, I mean I think you know, it's
Speaker 1: obviously when you have anybody even mentioned that your kid
Speaker 1: might need o T, that's terrifying. I've had ends reach
Speaker 1: out to me and say, oh my god, you know,
Speaker 1: the teacher says they my kids should be evaluated. I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: first of all, let's take a few deep breaths. It's
Speaker 1: not as scary as you think. And ultimately what we
Speaker 1: do as otis is encouraged success. So like, even as
Speaker 1: scary as it may sound, it's super fun, it's super playful.
Speaker 1: It's we want to figure out the best way that's
Speaker 1: going to support your kid, and giving them some extra
Speaker 1: love and support and encouragement is never a bad thing,
Speaker 1: you know, and maybe they only need it for a
Speaker 1: short time. That's the benefit of starting so early. I mean,
Speaker 1: I say, if you somebody says to get an evaluation,
Speaker 1: do it, and do it sooner, like sooner, like, don't
Speaker 1: put it off until the kid gets older, because like
Speaker 1: you want to see if we can support them while
Speaker 1: they're young, while their brain is developing, and really give
Speaker 1: them the best tools for success as possible. And then
Speaker 1: to make another ruinating return. Advice for women struggling with
Speaker 1: their pelvic floors reach out to Yeah, like it's I
Speaker 1: know that it's scary. I mean I also as somebody
Speaker 1: that's now studying it and learning about it, have been
Speaker 1: really nervous and like the powers and like getting help
Speaker 1: and getting the education and just you know, you can
Speaker 1: have so many like benefits long term just from a
Speaker 1: very very short Yeah, like therapy gets six sessions and
Speaker 1: it could be the thing that makes the difference between
Speaker 1: you meet having an organism, yeah, or having a surgury
Speaker 1: by the time you're forty, because everything just everything is
Speaker 1: calling up, falling out. Yeah, right, so get help, help,
Speaker 1: and the therapists are really there to like make it
Speaker 1: smooth and easy for you. And we're looking at like,
Speaker 1: you know, six to twelve sessions and you're like functioning again.
Speaker 1: One hunt. That was exactly. It's not like it never happened.
Speaker 1: It's not like talk therapy, Like I go to talk
Speaker 1: therapy and I'm like, oh my god, I could be
Speaker 1: in this. Tell him a hundred years old and this sucks.
Speaker 1: It's like Fellos for therapy. You can see results very rests,
Speaker 1: very fast. So just get yourself some help, like that's
Speaker 1: my advice, and call me or email me if you
Speaker 1: call Charlene. You guys when Marlene's private practice, it's fun
Speaker 1: saying that it's so great, like like the TV show
Speaker 1: brought to you by SHAWNA. Rhymes. Um, when this becomes available,
Speaker 1: we will list um. I will post it for sure
Speaker 1: and we will be listening it in the Katie's Crib
Speaker 1: notes where we can make appointments with Marlene Handler if
Speaker 1: you're in the Tri State area. Once you start, I
Speaker 1: can also give you email If people have any great
Speaker 1: OT question based related questions you can. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for being on King Wonderful guest and I loved
Speaker 1: how different these two topics are and yet we covered
Speaker 1: so much round h Thank you all for tuning into
Speaker 1: Katie's Crib and for your beautiful messages and reviews. I
Speaker 1: absolutely love connecting with you and hearing your stories and questions.
Speaker 1: So email me at Katie's Crib at Shonda land dot com.
Speaker 1: We may just feature you on an episode, so hit
Speaker 1: me up. Thanks guys. Katie's Crib is a production of
Speaker 1: Shonda land Audio in partnership with I Heart Radio. For
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