Welcome back to the All About Audiology podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Lilach Saperstein. I’m an audiologist, a speaker, a podcaster, a parent coach. I do lots of things within this mission of helping people understand: What is hearing? What is hearing loss? What are the impacts of audiology on our day to day lives, in our relationships, and in our ability to communicate and learn. So, we try to take a really big, open, inclusive approach here but I’m always constantly learning. And I want you to know that I’m so grateful for all of you who send me messages on Instagram, on Facebook, and through email. Yes, I am just so blown away by the reach and community that this podcast is creating.
I also would like to tell you, very transparently, that I have not had any sponsors to the show. This is something that is completely self-funded and it really, truly makes a difference if you are able, if you are interested, if the podcast brings you value to become a patron on patreon.com/allaboutaudiology. There are some great perks over there to people who become patrons.
A shout out to Darla who is the first and awesome patron that I have for the show that helps to cover the hosting, the editing, all the time of bringing the guests and producing this show. And in addition, I also want to let you know, that in the past several months, I’ve been doing these workshops with chapters of organizations, specifically with Hands and Voices. But also with other groups, parent groups, other speech therapists. Different workshop topics that can be customized or a topic that I have prepared. And the goal of these workshops is to really dive in to your experience with audiology. Whether it’s a specific topic, like winter is coming and we need to talk about middle ear stuff and how are we going to prevent it and treat it. And what is the whole story with all these ear infections. That’s one topic.
But one of my most popular workshops is the F-I-G Method for Advocacy, which is really an incredible tool that once I explain it and teach it and we work through the workshop, people have a sense that it is useful immediately. That they can apply it to the situations that they are in, that are upsetting, that are difficult, that are challenging right away. Today! They can go and decide what is the conversation that they need to have or not in the world of advocacy.
I also have another workshop that I offer is about breaking the stigma around hearing loss. So many communities have a lot of internalized ableism and issues around what it means to have a disability or how do we treat someone, even within our own family. How do we accept that news? The feeling of grief, sometimes in itself, is a little bit problematic. Someone will say, why are you grieving this thing that other people might celebrate. But everyone goes through their own challenges and has their own history and has their own experience. That is what is so important.
So, if you or your organization, your school, your parent group, anybody who is interested, please contact me and we’ll set up a workshop that is exactly customized to your members, to your group and to your needs. It will help you feel that sense of possibility, the sense that you can do it, and you’re doing an amazing job for yourself, your family or your students. So, feel free to be in touch and we can create an amazing workshop or even series of workshops for you.
With that being said I’m excited to jump into this episode with Natalia Popham, and we actually recorded this episode many,
