Creating a truly safe place and welcoming environment for families is a crucial yet often overlooked aspect of patient care. Beyond clinical expertise, the real key to attracting and retaining families lies in making them feel genuinely heard and safe. In this series, you'll learn actionable insights from a parent who has traveled the world seeking care for her child, offering you valuable lessons on how to create a space where families feel understood and supported. Don’t miss these vital tips to become the go-to place in your community for families seeking healing and solutions.

Dr. Amy Spoelstra and Amy Yardley discuss how the initial point of contact—whether it’s via phone, online, or in-person—can determine whether families feel comfortable and choose to move forward with care. Amy Yardley shares personal insights as a parent, highlighting the importance of timely responses, multiple communication channels, and creating an environment that makes families feel seen and understood. They also stress the value of designing an office space that feels calm, welcoming, and non-judgmental, providing tips to ensure staff are properly trained to meet families where they are. 

The purpose of a case history isn’t just about gathering clinical information—it’s about building rapport, creating a space for parents to be heard, and validating their experiences. Amy Yardley shares the parental perspective, stressing how rare and valuable it is for a practitioner to genuinely listen and acknowledge the parents’ insights. By following a compassionate, step-by-step approach, practitioners can build trust, demonstrate empathy, and make parents feel seen, which sets the foundation for a successful, long-term relationship. Watch this video to learn how to structure your case history process in a way that truly connects with families and helps them feel understood.

Have you noticed parents misunderstanding your recommendations or failing to follow through on care plans? It’s not just you—it’s the way stress impacts how we process information.

In this video, Dr. Amy Spoelstra and Amy Yardley dive deep into communication strategies that work, especially when you're working with individuals in chronic stress. You’ll learn how scarcity of resources, time, or health affects brain function and how it changes the way parents hear, process, and retain your recommendations.

If you’ve ever handed out forms only to have them returned incomplete or given instructions that seem to go unheard, this video is for you. You’ll discover how to modify your communication style by telling stories, using metaphors, and repeating key points multiple times to ensure your message is truly received. These aren’t just minor tweaks—they’re essential changes that can dramatically improve compliance and long-term engagement with your care.