What Is ABA Therapy? Autism, Communication & Hope with Therapist and Business Owner Ellen Emrick

In this episode of Clarksville Insider, Josh sits down with Ellen Emrick, the owner of Inspire Learn Grow ABA, to talk about her lifelong connection to Clarksville, her winding career path from speech therapy into applied behavior analysis, and what inspired her to start her own business. Ellen explains what ABA is, how her clinic helps children with autism build communication, social, and everyday life skills, and why involving the entire family is such an important part of the process. She also discusses her commitment to serving military and underserved families, and explains why the ultimate goal is to help children learn, grow, and eventually move confidently into the next stage of life. 

SHOW NOTES

Inspire.Learn.Grow. ABA - Official Website

Inspire.Learn.Grow. ABA - Facebook

Transcript

0:05

Well, hey everybody, welcome back to Clarksville Insider. My name is Josh Atkins. I'm your host, and on this show, I get to sit down with people who are making an impact in Clarksville. Sometimes it's through a business, sometimes through a nonprofit, sometimes through real estate, and sometimes it's just someone with a really interesting story. And today's guest definitely checks more than one of those boxes. Now we're gonna be talking about her connection to the community. What inspired her to start her own business and some of the moments that remind her why she loves what she does. So settle in and let's get to know Ellen Emmerich a little bit better. Ellen, thanks for being on the show. Thanks for having me, Josh. Um, you have a really unique story and we're gonna get to all of it and um but if you could tell just a little bit of what you're currently doing, so let people know um your primary reason why we're chatting today, but also a little bit about, you know, family, connection to Clarksville, how long you've been here and if it's been a while, what's kept you here? So what I'm doing right now, um, I currently own and operate an inspi uh ABA company. we right now are um providing early intervention services in a clinic setting. I have been in Clarkshall my whole life. Um, I actually was born pretty much here. Um, I was born in Springfield, but that was just because my mom worked in Springfield. but we lived here. Um, Grandparents are all from around this area. Um, my grandfather was a professor at Austin P. Um, my mom's dad on the other side, he helped build um the steam plant in Cumberland City. Um, so we've all been here for my whole life and a pretty good amount of My parents' life as well. My my mom and I actually lived in the same apartment complexes when she was a young adult and when I was a young adult. Um which is kind of a cool cool little history there. but yeah, I've been here my whole life and you know, I think just having family here has really kept me here. Um I met my husband here at Austin P. Um His family moved here when he was in first grade. So, um, you know, we've got all the grandparents on both sides, great grandparents on both sides, or our side at least, um, available for, you know, doing family things, babysitting, hanging out, all of that. So that's been, you know, how we're here and why we're still here. Nice. That's that seems like it's a rare a rare treat to have that. Um and to really be able to just have all that family together. I can see how that would just be like, no, we're here. This they're here, we're here, we're making it a thing. So that's cool. Um so could you could you help people understand like the ABA a little bit more just about just what your what your clinic does. And just kind of break down even some of the terms and the acronyms. So as we're hitting them a little bit later, people are tracking. And when I say people, I mean me. If you could really clue me in on all the the letters and everything, that way I'll be I'll be tracking and um but yeah, just get give people a little bit of intro and then we'll we'll track. I'd I'd love to hear how you got into this line of work, but just defining our terms a little bit before we get rolling. Yeah, sure. Um, so ABA is the field that I work in. that stands for applied behavior analysis. We work with children with autism or individuals with autism. And the primary focus of ABA is shaping behaviors. it doesn't necessarily have to be like challenging behaviors or behaviors that you, you know, want to reduce. That's definitely a part of it. but the other side of that is um skill acquisition and teaching different behaviors. So, um, we focus a lot on increasing functional communication, um, building social skills, um And then in addition to that, working on, you know, some of those challenging behaviors that you might see with some kiddos with autism, um, as well as for some of our kiddos, we can work on like daily living skills or you know, just general like tolerating things that you don't really like so much. Um there's really just a wide array of things that you can do in that field. Um, and then ABA also is not specifically for people with um autism. that's a big part of it. but there's a whole side of it that um focuses on um like maybe in a corporate office or something, shaping the behavior for that to like make people more productive or um you know, just different things. I use ABA a lot at my own house, you know, with my kids, with my husband to get things done the way I want them done. Um So it's really just all about shaping that behavior. Um and so that's what we um are primarily primarily working on during the day. Um because I work in a early intervention clinic or own an early intervention clinic, um Everything is really play-based. So we're doing a lot of just let's play with this toy, let's go to this room, let's do this fun thing, and then how can we incorporate language into it? And how can we incorporate, you know, social skills and maybe some of those non-preferred things like taking turns and ending a preferred activity and things like that. Yeah, that seems like that trying to inject those along the way, that's like, wait, no, that was fun, this is not. But yeah, we're we're gonna do all of this here, pal. Yeah, and early intervention a lot of it is how much of this is my co my client has autism and how much of this is like he's a three year old and also just doesn't want to end what we're doing, that's fine. No, that's yeah, and you you said you at your at your house. Have your have your kids caught on or is has your husband caught on? He's like, Wait, is this am I getting worked right now? Is this is this part of a strategy? No, I keep all of that secret, so don't tell them. Well, I won't directly, but it's it's here. So it it may be out in the open, but maybe he maybe he'll skip over this part. I know. Yeah. Just kidding. Never happens. Um so it seems like a very specific job, like a a clinic that deals specifically with one thing. and I would imagine at some point early on. Maybe even when you were a kid or teenager, even in college, there were moments or just even markers along the way that were like, I wanna help people, I wanna help these kind of people, I really wanna help these kind of people. Like is is there a is there a track or just even a little bit of when time when you first realize like, man, this is this is what I want to do, or just even started to shape that along the way. Sort of. It's kind of a a uh curvy wavy tract of how I got here. My dad was a teacher, uh, when I was growing up. So I definitely always thought that that would be what I would do. Like anytime I could go to school with my dad, I love that. My dad would bring home like all of his leftover teaching things, and I was all about that. I had, you know, my whole school set up and it I would practice, you know, teaching a class and loved laminating things and just, you know, having all of the school stuff. That was super cool. Um And then as I grew up, um, I thought maybe that wasn't exactly the path I wanted to go into after, you know, hearing some of the maybe not so much fun parts of being a teacher. Um And then I for a moment thought I was gonna be a dental hygienist. so I started, that's when I started school. I started at Austin P and just gonna like knock out my core classes. Um really thought I wanted to do that. I really discovered pretty quickly on that I don't actually like teeth. and they really gross me out, like loose teeth, unclean teeth, anything like that. Really that would be a barrier to entry on the hygienist role. It's like, you know what? that was a pretty quick pivot. Um I was like, No, that's that's not actually gonna be for me. Um and so I never even like started any coursework for that. I just was at L S and P doing all my core stuff. And then at some point in time during that transition, I decided I was gonna go into speech therapy. Um, and so I finished my core Coursework at Austin P and transitioned to Middle Tennessee and finished my bachelor's degree in speech therapy. Um and then I switched I I got a job working for the school system here as a speech language teacher. I didn't have a master's, so I wasn't an SLP yet. as an SLT. Um Was doing that for a little bit, but wanted to do something else, you know, in a different position, maybe not be in school. Picked up a part-time job for a company that was hoping to develop their speech program. they didn't quite have it up and running yet. So they're like, Hey, we don't have this going yet. Can we hire you as a behavior technician? Um, until we get that going. And I really didn't know what that was. Um But I was like, sure, I'll do that for a little bit until you guys get that up and running, no problem. Um hop into hopped into that and quickly learned what ABA was. Um And so I started working as a behavior technician for this company. I had just one kiddo that I went and saw after school. He was four. We worked on really cool stuff, got to hang out in the evenings and play games and you know work on his communication, work on his social skills, and quickly, very quickly fell in love with ABA and discovered that like ABA was definitely where I was intended to be, getting to see the progress that kids made in that setting, opposed to you know what I was doing. doing in the schools, you know, seeing these kids in small groups, for thirty minutes at a time, once or twice a week, where then I was going in home and seeing these kiddos for four to six hours a week, um, you know, in their home, working on the skills that they needed to work on at home. I was able to see just that huge progress and, you know, exciting things happening and the parents got to be a part of it. Um and so very quickly I like, yeah, this this is where it's at. This is for me. Um and so from there I applied for grad school and pursued my B C B A, which is a board certified behavior analyst, which is the degree you have to have to kinda implement and run things. Um without being underneath someone. Um and so I started that and then the rest kinda is history from there. I can I can see where there would just be that huge distinction of hey, I'm I'm here with this in this spot for this one little bit of time to just like just all that you can see and interact with and just you I mean you probably almost would get like a different kid if it was the same kid from school and then you get him at home. It's like, who are you? What is going on? Like you probably it seems like you probably could get some different, uh a whole different view of of how to help and the best practices to do that. Yeah, definitely. I mean, you know, you have kids and I feel like my kids, the way they are at home and the way they are at school, are very different. Um, and so, you know, being able to kind of meet them where they're at and, you know, their comfort space or, you know, the place where maybe they do engage in more behaviors'cause they're comfortable or, you know, maybe it it's you know, just different socially or communication wise in this setting. Um you know, you just get to kind of see that different aspect. and then, you know, having a client where you're able to kinda work in all of those settings is really fun because then you do get to see like, this is how you are at school, this is how you are, um, at home, you know, maybe you're in a clinic or, you know, just a different community setting and being able to kind of focus on those skills too. that was always really fun as I was like learning everything. Yeah, if I'm sure it it it probably and it sounds like it opened a door to like, this is what it could be. Like, this is this is how I can really help getting in here and and doing that and being around this particular spot. Um is that pretty close to is like, okay, like when that light bulb went off a little bit. Um so so you were in in the schools for a little bit. Um did you go straight from the school into um into this or was there a gap? I think we talked a little bit there was there was a gap in between um but how how long was that and what what kind of got you or what kind of stirred in you're like, all right, I gotta get back in the game. Um, so there wasn't really a gap. while I was working for the schools as a speech therapist, I started working after school. So I was kind of doing both at the same time, doing you know, SLT school stuff during the day and then working as a behavior therapist in the evenings. Um, and then once I had our first kiddo um in twenty fifteen, um Then I decided I didn't want to do school anymore. Didn't want to do the school system work for them anymore. Um, at that point I had already started my master's program for ABA. Um, and so I just went to working strictly as a behavior therapist and pursuing my master's degree. Um so it was it was all continuous during that timeline. Um and then I finished my master's program in twenty eighteen and then got my BCBA certification in twenty twenty. Um and so so twenty twenty and then uh up to that point it was all like in somebody else's space. And so then at what point was it, you know what, I gotta do this. I think I can do this myself. I I I should open something here. Um, so that really was definitely more driven by my husband. Um, he is the entrepreneur in this family, not me. Um, there are definitely things that uh In the field of ABA, I always was like, I could do this better or I could do this differently. you know, this maybe isn't how I would run things or how I do it. Um, but the business side of it kind of terrified me. Um, especially, you know, talking about billing and credentialing and, you know, the finances of everything. Yeah. Yeah. Basically everything that's not just the job that I was already doing. Um, 'cause I had been in leadership positions before, um as pursuing my B C B A degree. Um I'd already been, you know, running a clinic, so I was already responsible for hiring and, you know, responsible for other people. And so I could handle that. I could handle scheduling. You know, I could handle being a BCBA, but it was just that side of like business business that I was just like, I I don't know that that's really it for me. Um and I can't say that there was really like just like a switch of all right I'm done, like let's let's pivot and do this. Um, I think it was definitely a long time of Mike, my husband saying, like, we could do this. We could do this. You know, you could do this. I think you could do this. This is how we could do this. Um And then at some point it turned into, crap, we're doing this. Basically, um, I think I came home one day and like things were already rolling. you know, whether whether I fully was in it or not. Um, I don't know if that's legal, so anyways, uh it kind of like it was just constantly different little things that, you know, working for different companies, being, you know, not in charge, not able to execute things exactly how I wanted to do them, compounding over time to where it got to the point where it was like, okay, I think that, you know, I may not be able to do everything. I may not have all the knowledge. I'm not gonna be perfect at it, but I think I can do better than, you know, some of these other people that are my bosses right now. And so that was kind of the Pivot one again. there's probably been a lot of just businesses that have been inspired by people that are like, you know what, I think I can do this. And I've never done it, but I'm doing it. So here we go. And was there just in the world of of therapy? And I know you said you got into a little bit of the the speech early on, was there sp something specific that got you into more of the ABA side of things? Or was it um just more of an opening and you're like, hey, I kinda like this, I'm gonna keep doing it, or was it I'm gonna get into this and I'm gonna really, really settle in here? Um I mean speech and ABA we have very similar you know, just backgrounds and um policies and just the way things are kind of done. They speech and ABA just kind of overlap each other quite a bit. Um and so I don't think that there was anything specifically that I was like, all right, I'm done with speech and you know, ABA is the way to go. I definitely still use a lot of my speech background um when I'm working with kids, especially, you know, a big part of my job is communication. my preferred caseload is, you know, little bitty kiddie kiddos that are non-verbal. teaching them just that basic, this is how you communicate, this is what communication looks like. This is, you know, how you get there. and so having that speech background definitely supports that. Um and I feel like I'm able to pull some from that to get to get there. Um but to answer the question, I don't think there was just like one pivotal point of, all right, I'm done with speech and moving on to ABA. Yeah. So just probably a few, maybe even confirmations along the way, just kind of keeping you moving forward a little bit. Cool. I would imagine the work working with kids, especially in the the clinic where you're at, um, it I'm sure it comes with some emotional highs and lows. Um, what keeps you coming back every day besides being the owner? Like what gets you what's gets you up and excited and about going back and saying, Okay, today's a new day. Um, what what gets you excited about the work itself? Um definitely just the progress that my clients can make. Um, you know, seeing them do something cool and new and different that they weren't doing last week um is really exciting and fun, especially getting to share that with my staff and then you know, to see them show that to their parents and them get to, you know, see like, my gosh, my kid can do this now and they couldn't do that before. Um it's been really fun. you know, even before owning my own business, it's always kind of been a side. of it and so you know that i think that definitely like keeps keeps me interested and going and and you know keeps me wanting to be a part of it all um the other side of it now owning my own business is also getting to be a part of that like reinforcement and excitement with my staff um you know they're out there doing the hard work all day you know they're hands on with the kiddos From the moment they start in the morning until the moment the last kid leaves for the day. Um, and so, you know, getting to watch them experience those things and um, you know, see watch them watch them watch the clients grow and to see my staff grow um is super exciting and, you know, very reinforcing for me. It makes me wanna, you know, get to be a part of it. There are definitely days that I like work I work from home. um, try to do like a half day or a day here and there just so I can like get stuff done. And every time I do, I'm like, my gosh, I'm missing out on everything that's going on in the clinic. Um and so it's always this like weird like, I n I need to get this work done. And like, no, I'm missing it. Yeah. like, oh man, you guys are doing great. I wish I could be there for you kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah, like my s we communicate throughout the day with just like a messaging system and so my staff will be on like telling me things that our my clients are doing during the day. And so yesterday I did a work from home day and they're like, my gosh, he peed on the potty today for the first time. I'm like, I missed it. Yeah. Yeah, and so it's just, you know, that's super fun and to just be able to like provide a place where, My staff wants to come. They wanna be at work. Um, you know, they want to be a part of what we're doing. Um, my clients, you know, they're excited to get there in the day. They, you know, are beating down the door sometimes to come back into the clinic before we open. You know, our parents are always excited to see us and they have, you know, trust in us, you know, leaving their nonverbal two, three, four-year-olds with us for a day. you know, they have built that trust and that relationship with us. And so, yeah, I feel like it's it's just a really cool thing to get to be a part of. There was there one child or one family or maybe just a a couple that have really changed how you've view the work or maybe even solidified it? It's like, yeah, this is this is how I do it. Um, is has there any been anybody that you've you've really can cite as man, this this family has really helped because of this or really um given me a chance to Hone my skills a little bit even. Yeah, there's definitely been a couple different situations like that. I mean all of our kids are making progress and growing and you know, having cool things that are happening. most recently we had a kiddo just start um Say he started like mid-May, so he's not been with us for too long. Um, right at about two months. Um, he's been on wait lists to get into ABA for a couple years now, um, and has never had any services up until he started with us. Um, first day, um, just engaging in lots of um tantrum behavior. Um, his primary behavior is that he pulls his own hair out. Um And if he doesn't have access to his hair because you know parents have given him a haircut or something like that, then he was just like clawing at his head, you know, scratching himself, his head, his face. Um, so first first day in the clinic, like that was pretty much the entire day. Um, was just him, you know, hurting himself for most of the day. and then I was actually talking to his BCBA one day last week. Um, And she was telling me that he's, you know, showing a we're seeing in the clinic a super reduction in those behaviors. Um Parents are reporting a big reduction in those behaviors. And then she was also telling me that um he was starting to get upset. Mom told mom was relaying a story where he was starting to get upset about something, um, and he like ran across the house and went and got his communication book and like brought it back to mom to tell her like what he wanted. Um, and she's never in the years that he's been alive, um been able to experience him communicating anything to her in any functional way other than ripping his hair out or scratching himself. And so that was a tool that you've you and your team have have helped him express. And that's that's gotta be from a parent perspective. I've got a 12 and a nine year old just like just help me help you and just to probably have that or not have that for so long and then to to be able to share with you like, hey, we have that now. He's he has that for me, and I have that for him. That's gotta be just mind blowing. Yeah, 'cause if if you think about it, like when your kids were babies and they cried for whatever reason, um, you know, sometimes you knew, sometimes you're like, they're hungry, they need a diaper change, whatever it was, but sometimes they just cried and you didn't know what they wanted and what they needed and like how frustrating that could be as a parent to try to like figure out, How can I fix this? What do you want? What can I do? Yeah. Um, and then, you know, imagine like that's your six year old that's still doing that. Maybe they're not crying, but maybe it's, you know, a different behavior and they're they're frustrated 'cause they need something and then you're frustrated because you don't know what it is and neither of you know how to communicate with each other. and so like to be able to just bridge that gap and to provide those families just that little bit of support, even if, you know, it never went anywhere from there is amazing. Um But the the communication that we've been able to expand with our clients ah is just life changing for, you know, everybody, for the parents, for the client, for you know, wherever they're gonna go in their futures. And it's it's almost like when when you're have when you have the infant, you got the baby, you get through it because you know it's gonna end. At some point they're going to be able to communicate. So I just gotta get through this point. But yeah, I'm sure it's really just frustrating and disheartening and just just all of the things that you're carrying as a parent, knowing that like I I wish I could help, but I can't, and then being able to to to create that that bridge of connection. That that's pretty awesome. Um so so the name just it's inspire, learn, grow. Um how did you settle on multiple names, those three, like all those things, was it, was each one kind of its own story? Just how did you settle on? it was that that was honestly probably looking back the hardest part of starting the business. I definitely thought like figuring out everything else was gonna be harder. Um figuring out a name was very hard. Um not so much for lack of ideas, but just like A lot of the ideas that we originally came up with were already taken. Um, so, you know, we came up originally we came up with like just Inspire ABA, already gone. trying to remember even like some of the other ones. It's been so long now, 'cause, you know, we had to do that before we could even apply for a license, which we did back in November of twenty four. Um, so it's been been a a pretty good while since we we did all that, but You know, we wanted it to be something that was kind of catchy. We didn't want it to just be like ABA or autism or, you know, something like that. We wanted it to to be something that could kind of represent, you know, who we are, what we are, what we're trying to do. and so we it kinda just came from just playing around with different Different words and different um thoughts and I honestly don't have like that recollection of like the aha moment of this is the name. Um but I think it just kind of developed from like, okay, we're not going to be able to use just a single word 'cause all of the single words are taken. Um and so we'd kinda settled on inspire. Um you we wanted to inspire something different, something new, something positive, um, for our clients and for the community. Um, and then just kind of from there, well what else do we want to do in addition to inspiring? You know, we wanna um help our kids learn new cool stuff. We wanna continue to grow. Um, you know, not only as business, but we want our clients, you know, want our kiddos and clients to grow, we want our staff to grow, you know, we want the field of ABA to continue to grow. Um and so that was just kind of how we got to those different names. But it was definitely a lot of, oh this is a great idea. Oh, that's already taken. what about this? Oh yeah. Lots of that. doggone it. Um it's it's it's funny how the the process to get there doesn't like it doesn't feel inspired. Like it's not like okay, this was, you know, from when I was eleven and this one is but like the way they work together, it it definitely feels ah like a process too. Like like okay, we're we're inspiring to learn. to grow. Like you can definitely feel that movement. And I'm sure that's part of what you want too. Cause you don't want kids to just come in, you know, play around and then leave. Like you're hoping to move them through the process. Um and you mentioned before, like life skills. Like this is this is future. This is this isn't just daycare. And I know I know you you really build that into the DNA. I'm sure like this is where we want the kids to go um so that they can just be part and we can hopefully help them along the way. Is that kinda what yeah. Yeah, it's definitely not daycare and you know, something that we want to you know, push for what's next, what's next? but also it's not, you know, forever. Um some of the previous companies I worked for, we would get a kid in, and then they just stayed forever and ever and ever working on like little tiny like Tweaks. Um, and that's also just not something that I really wanted to do. Like, I want to get these kids in early. I want to teach skills that are relevant to them and important. And then I want them to move on. Like, I don't want them to be 18 years old, you know, with me correcting, like, oh, you said this wrong, or you know, this little Quirk you have. I don't like that. Like I didn't want to do all of that that I had kind of experienced early in my ex in my, you know, getting started in ABA. I wanted it to be like, let's get in here, let's learn what we gotta learn, and then let's grow and like see where else you can go. And maybe that's out of the clinic, in home, in school, and then let's be done. Like Yeah, that we'll we'll add a word and it'll be launch. Inspire, learn, grow, and launch into into the next thing. Keep going. you've you've mentioned too, just talking about serving families, not just children. Um why is that such like why is that distinction so important to you? Because you can't really do this without the family's involvement and engagement. Um, you know, ABA is not like just this little like block of your life, because what you're learning is applicable for the rest of your life or all of your life. It's not like when I went to school and I learned like math stuff, geometry. I don't know. I don't I wasn't very good at math, okay? I I barely learned math stuff, so we're we're we're tracking on that one. So it's not like that where like, you know, we're bringing these kids in and teaching them a skill that they may or may not use. We're bringing them in and teaching them something that's gonna be important for the rest of their lives. You know, we're teaching them communication, we're teaching them social skills. and so with that, they can't just come in and do it a couple hours with with me and my team every day. Like that's gotta be here with my team, my m Team with the families and the clients and the families together. you know, you can't expect a kiddo to learn communication and then just go home and not communicate at all. You've got to continue to build that. Um, and so it does take, you know, a whole team approach where everybody's kind of working on that same goal. and then you know, just the other side of it is um You know, being like a real person um to these families, you know, a lot of them experience working with companies that maybe are very disconnected. You don't have that like, um, you know, here's Ellen that I can call on the phone or text and like tell her what's going on. You know, I can't just go sit in the office and talk about what's going on. Um you know, they probably for a lot of the companies here don't even know who that person would be, you know, may not know who's the boss or who's the owner or who's, you know, in charge of this or that. and so I wanted to just really make that connection with families to, you know, have them have a place that they felt comfortable and um able to come, you know, talk about what's going on. And, you know, there are definitely days that I meet my parents and we talk about nothing that's related to ABA. Um and that's okay too. Sometimes, you know, these parents just need a sounding board. They need somebody to talk to that has some sort of understanding of what's going on in their lives 'cause, you know, they're their parents, you know, grandparents, siblings may have never been around another child with autism. Um and so, you know, they just don't have that understanding. Um and so I wanted to build a place where families could, you know, come and talk to me or talk to my other staff or even just connect with each other as families. You know, a lot of our families have kind of built relationships in the lobbies at drop off and pickup, just hanging out and talking with each other. Um, and so it's been kinda cool to just foster that relationship for them as well. Yeah, there's there's something about the community. Even if you can get just another a few other people that like you kinda look and like, okay, you get it. Like you know what we're going you can it's almost like you can speak the same language and just really because it it seems like too when when you have kids that you kinda as you've described that may have things that keeps keeps other kids away or Like they're they're not able to just play just in a normal what we would call a normal situation um for protection for them for other whatever. Um and then to be able to have that environment to not just push, learn, inspire, grow, all those things. Um, but also say, Mom, dad, I'm here for you too. Like, let let's talk. How are things going at home? And 'cause I feel like it would probably be easy to overlook the parents. And it's like, okay, we got your your kid, you picked him up. All right, I'm off to on to my next thing. But um by by doing that, it seems like you're really meeting people where they are. for a lot of them probably for the first time. Yeah. yeah, a lot of our families, you know, they maybe don't have you know, what they thought was gonna be a typical, you know, raising of a child. You know, some of them they can't go to play dates like you were talking about. They can't, you know, go to a restaurant. They can't go to the movies. They can't go do this and that. Um and so I feel like that, you know, can be pretty isolating for them. Um and so, you know, having that outlet to talk, you know, to somebody else about, or, you know, again, having other people that they're meeting in, you know, passing in the lobby or, you know, sitting in the lobby as during those drop-off and pick. times um to kind of see like yeah like you're in the same boat, well how do you guys do this or you know, where do you guys go for that? You know, sharing like, we went to this cool play space or splash pad or The movie theater apparently has movies that they show super early in the morning and no one's ever there. And my clients are all like finding out about that from some of my other clients that are are going and taking advantage of that time. And so it's been cool to kind of watch them all build, you know, their relationship and kind of their little community as well. Yeah, that's that's cool. And it's almost by accident. You just kinda run into somebody and go, yeah, cool. And just even by by sharing. I think a lot of people like to be sought out, like asked questions like, Hey, I what what are you doing for this? And then just even through those just little little things, those all those relationships that would have never would have never occurred naturally are kind of coming together. So that's cool. Um I've I feel like I saw s a little bit on your your website too mentioning military families, underserved populations. Um why was that something you wanted to build into the DNA of the company from day one? Um, so when I first got started in ABA um TRICARE, which is our military um insurance, that was the only company, that was the only insurance company that really covered ABA, um, you know, fully covered it. and so that was kind of my intro to the field was like, okay, ABA is for military families. Cool. I I can get behind that. and then you know, I kind of experienced as time went on um that the um there were laws that came out that required insurances to start paying for that and I got to be a part of like that big shift. Tennessee was the 50th state to um implement that. so that was that was really cool to be a part of yep. Yep. so But I was a part of all that. Um, and there were some like other payers that still did provide that, maybe not fully covered or you know, with some limitations. But TriCare was really the the big main one. So that was kind of just my intro into the field. Um, and then in I want to say like 2018, 19 ish, TriCare made some big changes and cut a lot of services or made them like very difficult to access. and so a lot of the Payers in our area dropped Tri-Care. there's not a lot of uh ABA clinics that provide services just because TriCare has so many hoops that you have to jump through to be able to you know, see a kid, make things work. and so I I had already experienced working with Tri-Care, I'd already experienced like all of their hoops and you know, the things that they do to make things a little extra difficult. And so that wasn't really like a challenge for me. I wasn't like scared or intimidated by that. I just knew that, you know, I'll have this this group of kids that it's a little bit easier as far as billing and insurance and everything goes, and then I'll have these tricare kids. It's you know, it is a little bit more difficult, but I think that it's not fair to just be like, all right, well, I'm not providing to them because it's scary and too much work. and so that was always something that when I had talked about doing my own thing, starting our own place that I I was pretty passionate about that I um wanted to make sure that we were able to to um see those families 'cause like I said, they're the clinics here just dropped everybody left and right. Um And so there's a huge population of people here that just aren't able to get those services that they need. Um, and so we wanted to be able to kinda um help with that. You know, we can't solve it. There's just, you know, only so much of us and, you know, not enough space for everybody, but the little bit that we can do, you know, we're happy to pitch in and and help out with those those clients and those families that need that support. And, you know, especially they that because their lives are even a little bit more challenging with the possibility that, you know, mom or dad might be gone for six to nine months out of your lives. And that's a whole big change. Um, in addition to, you know, having autism and not really liking change. And sibl and siblings too and maybe not having family support. Um, and just all of those things. so that was something that was pretty passionate about being able to help. Um, and then um just the underserved populations. Um, you know, we don't really like limit um a a lot of our services are based off of which insurances that we were able to credential with. and a lot of that is um covered by like Tennessee Medicaid and Tin Care and all of that. So um the bulk of our population is on um some sort of government health insurance. So that that allows you to really cast that net wide and and reach as many people as as you can. Um if somebody if somebody's listening and they're not sure if they need help or services or maybe they're frustrated or those kind of things and just kind of reach in the end, what would you say or how would you help them? Find find you, not necessarily like, well go to this website. Like like really like like think more like what would you say to somebody that is has has been struggling with this for a while and maybe didn't know these services existed or anything like that. Um give give a chance to really hear, you know, from you, from your heart and really speaking to them. Yeah. I mean I would say like just reach out, you know. Reach out if if you have questions about, you know, what ABA is, if ABA would be beneficial for your child, um, reach out to somebody. It doesn't have to be me, you know, it could be anybody in the field. Um, but reach out and just ask those questions. Ask, you know, what is ABA? What what are you guys what are you guys doing? Like what this is what I've got going on with my kid. Is this something that you could help with? Um Yeah, I would be happy to field those conversations, um, field those phone calls or emails or Facebook messages, Instagram messages, um to just answer those questions for parents. You know, I I Would much rather a kiddo get the help that they need, um, even if that's not from me, um, than them just sit and not know what to do. Um, so I would say, you know, first steps just reach out and and ask those questions. You know, feel free to give me a call, email me, find me on social media, um, and I'm happy to kind of steer you in the right direction. The first steps to getting ABA services are that you do have to have an autism diagnosis for your insurance to cover it. That's the only diagnosis that ABA covers. Um, so if you have that concern, um, it's a good idea to bring that up with your primary care, then they can kind of guide you in the next steps from there. Um, and generally once you discuss that with your primary care and they refer you for an assessment, usually that assessment does already come with kind of a referral for some services that might be beneficial. Um and so that's kind of a good like next step so you know, checking in with those people often um, you know, they'll refer you to ABA, OT, speech, P T, maybe some, you know, developmental education, things like that, just depending on kind of where your kiddo is and you know what their needs are. And I would say, you know, for any of those services, if you have questions, you know, I think your best bet is to just reach out to those people directly. You can't ask your um, you know, primary care th those questions specifically because they they just may not know what's gonna be best for your kid. Um and I can't say that I know for sure what would be best for your kid, but I can run down, you know, what the different services look like and run down, you know, what behaviors you're seeing or what uh areas you're having struggles with and kind of help you make some educated decisions from there. Yeah, and I think I think just you you hit it too with the with the community aspect. Um I feel like there's a little bit of saying like, Okay, I'm I'm not alone in this. I'll reach out and and knowing that you've got people that could support you along the way. What is um what's the best way? I know you mentioned different ways, but like specifically now, let's let's get into what's the best way for people to find you um as we kind of wrap it up here a little bit. Um what's the best way for people to get in touch with you, to find you on um social or anything like that? What are some some good ways? And we'll put that in the the show notes. I'll see if I can, you know, add the links there so people can go and look for But how can people uh actually reach out to you? Yeah, um so we are on social media, so um Inspire Learn Grow ABA is on Facebook and Instagram, so you guys can follow us there. Um we do accept messages, on both of those platforms if you have questions from there. Um we do have a website. It's ilgaba.com. Um and on our website there's some different links to, you know, send us a direct message, um, fill out just like in inquiry forms. Um, you know, there's a lot of information about just who we are as a company on our website. Um so those are kind of the the three main ways to contact us. you know our email is on our website, our phone number is on our website. So those are good ways to find us as well. We're pretty pretty open to all forms of communication. um like is he in the room with you right? Is he making you blink twice if you're safe, you know? Um but no, that's that's cool. And so it's all just um inspire, inspire and learn grow ABA just wherever wherever they can find it. Cool. Well, Ellen, I just appreciate you coming on here and really just thanks again for sharing your story for everything you and your team and your you're doing for families here in Clarksville. Now if you'd if you, the audience, would like to learn more about inspire, learn, grow ABA or know a family who could benefit from the services they provide, be sure to check them out on what she just mentioned on Facebook, Instagram, and even on the website, look them up. And you will put a link in the show notes. And if it's not there, I couldn't figure it out. But I'm gonna do my best to get that ever. But Ellen, thanks again for for jumping on here. Yeah, thanks for having me. It was a really good chat. welcome. And so as always, thanks for listening to Clarksville Insider. I am your host, Josh Atkins, Like the Diet. And if you enjoyed this episode, I'd really appreciate it if you'd subscribe, leave a review, share it with somebody else who loves Clarksville. Till next time, I'll see you around town. Bye.