Building Bridges | Episode 2: 20 Years of Hopebridge

Hopebridge Founder and Early-Career Clinician Connect Over Two Decades of Autism Care

In celebration of Hopebridge’s 20th anniversary, this episode of Building Bridges explores the evolution of the autism care industry since 2005. Hopebridge founder Kim Strunk reflects on her mission to create a collaborative model of interdisciplinary care for children with autism. Kim is joined in conversation by Sydney Frye, Lead BCBA at the Cumming, Georgia center, who offers her perspective as an early career clinician.

Kim and Sydney discuss the profound value of collaboration between Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy and occupational and speech therapy, which has been a cornerstone of Hopebridge’s mission since the beginning, and how this collaborative approach inspired and shaped both of their careers. They discuss the major changes to the autism care industry over the last two decades, and share their visions of the future of compassionate, progressive ABA. Tune in for insightful conversation, encouragement and advice for clinicians and autism parents alike!

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Kim Strunk (00:03)

Welcome to Building Bridges. I’m Kim Strunk, founder of Hopebridge. Today I’m joined by BCBA Sydney Fry to talk about Hopebridge’s legacy and future. Enjoy the episode.

 

Hi, I’m Kim Strunk, founder of Hopebridge.

 

Sydney Frye (00:17)

And I’m Sydney Fry, Lead BCBA at Cumming, Georgia.

 

Kim Strunk (00:21)

We’re here today to talk about the legacy and the future of Hopebridge.

 

Okay, Sydney. So we have this icebreaker we’re going to start with. And it’s, is your favorite reinforcer? This one I have to really think about.

 

Sydney Frye (00:37)

Favorite reinforcer is hard. My motivation is constantly changing. I will say that. So I would say I’d have to pick the one probably of the month. And I would say that is probably any book by Rebecca Yarros. She’s, that’s going to be my reinforcer. What about you? What would be your favorite reinforcer?

 

Kim Strunk (00:54)

Hmm. Okay. Yeah, I’m with you. I mean, it varies. I think a constant though, constant reinforcer for me is time with my family. I’ve got three great kids and now five grandkids and a new baby as of three weeks ago. So I think when I can spend time with them, that’s my reinforcer.

 

Sydney Frye (01:29)

Is there a reinforcing activity that you do with them that’s up there? Like a movie night or outdoors, anything?

 

Kim Strunk (01:36)

You know, with the older grandkids, it’s definitely, you know, it’s around watching, when I say the older, the oldest are nine, the twins that are nine down to four and then the new baby. So yes, it’s usually watching, you know, some kind of Disney movie together where we snuggle up on the couch and get popcorn and watch movies. With the new baby, it’s just the snuggles. It’s just those baby snuggles that I love to have. And with my kids, we really enjoy doing stuff outdoors. so any type of activity that we can do where we’re just hanging out outside and playing games, whether it’s cornhole or whatever, that’s… That’s the reinforcement with them. So it’s a little different for each of the groups that time together, quality time with them. So I’m not familiar with this author, so tell me the book. Tell me, give me a title.

 

Sydney Frye (02:41)

Well, so there’s a whole bunch of them. I mean, that’s just one author I’d pick, I’d say, for right now. But the most recent one I read from her was The Last Letter, I believe. And I think for me, it’s a decompression thing because she’s a tearjerker. She writes some really, really sad books, but I do love them. So for me, I think it almost resets everything. So to get a nice healthy cry. Yes.

 

Kim Strunk (02:58)

You can kind of escape into a different spot that allows you to kind of get in touch with feelings. yeah, I like that.

 

Sydney Frye (03:16)

So, they’ve given us a few questions to kind of guide our conversation today. So I’m going to go ahead and kick us off with the first one. So Hopebridge is an interdisciplinary autism therapy provider. So with building this company, what kind of sparked your decision to move towards the 360 care?

 

Kim Strunk (03:33)

I think about this sometimes, because other people have asked me, how did that even come about? It was all very natural to me. My clinical background’s OT. So starting in the field of OT, and 20 years ago, ABA was still fairly new in terms of application and practice.

It always made sense to me. The areas I had worked, I’d always collaborated with PTs and speech therapists. so I guess I never thought of it any other way than doing a collaborative interdisciplinary. It’s just, again, it’s kind of how I grew up in my own profession, clinically. And so it just made sense.

You know, and I thought about, I did think about when I started looking at, you know, what services could provide an intense level of care for the patients that I had identified as needing something more than I could give them and learned about ABA, I felt like there was so much synergy and compatibility between specifically OT and ABA that it made total sense that it would be interdisciplinary and collaborative because I felt like there was so much alignment as I looked at the domains that as BCBAs you guys are working on, they’re really the same domains, we’re coming about it from different perspectives. Like I say, I don’t know that I ever considered that it couldn’t be interdisciplinary.

 

Sydney Frye (05:26)

With the OT background, because I am new to knowing this, that’s really, really fascinating. Was there anything specifically that you were like, wow, I think that now learning about ABA, they would really benefit from this specific information from OTs or vice versa, or speech as well?

 

Kim Strunk (05:43)

You know, think initially, obviously, because I was just kind of green and getting my knowledge around ABA, it was around the intensity of services. Because again, I was seeing kids for an hour, maybe two hours a week. And that was great.

I knew these kids needed more. And when I learned that at ABA, you know, your dosage was, you know, up to, you know, five, six, seven hours a day, I was like, my gosh, this is amazing. Because again, we’re kind of working on some of the same concepts with these children. And so if I had five hours, how much more could I do? So I that was the initial, you know, was like, but you know, obviously as I’ve learned more and over the course of the 20 years, think that I’ve learned so much about reinforcement, what we started our icebreakers with, reinforcement, what drives behavior, really just kind of understanding that that I didn’t have initially. So it’s been a great learning experience. And I think, and you can tell me, because I’ll be curious on your experience like working in our interdisciplinary model. And if you’ve had any experience before, I think that our OT and speech team is able to share tips and techniques of things that perhaps were not always a part of BCBA’s repertoire, specifically around, you know, maybe motor development, for example, or sensory processing that was not always a part of, you know, from a BCBA’s perspective, how they looked at a case. So, you know, I guess for you, I would ask, like, how did you, how do you feel about interdisciplinary and how did you come about thinking about that when you looked at Hope Bridge? And had you had any experience previously in that model?

 

Sydney Frye (07:31)

Right. I would say for me, even still being a fairly new BCBA right now, I am still constantly learning. I’m still in the process of learning so much from so many other different providers and collaborating with them. But one thing that stuck out to me even before I made it into my role as a BCBA and I was still an RVT at the time, I think a big area, one, was the sensory processing disorder and just becoming aware of these individual needs that some of my clients, you know, had. And then also along with that was the feeding because that was a big one through the OT we worked with, like working on like the desensitization of different textures. That was something that hadn’t even really crossed my mind newly in the field. And I know a lot of their techniques early on were game changing for some of my kids, even when I was working, you know, one on one.

So that for me was a really big eye opener as well, just sensory needs in general that I wasn’t completely aware of at the time with dry brushing and things like that. Things that I just got to watch in action, even though, like you said, 30 minutes or an hour could kind of observe it, but it made a really big difference in some of my kiddos. So that to me was really incredible just to have a little snippet of it.

 

Kim Strunk (09:10)

I love it. I love hearing that.

It makes my heart so happy because I will tell you, 20 years ago, these CBAs did not really embrace, for the most part, they did not really embrace the value of considering a child’s response to sensory stimuli and how that contributed to seeking or escape type behaviors and how valuable having some understanding of just how our central nervous system processes sensory input, how that can affect regulation. And you know… so it makes my heart so happy to like hear you, you know, like you really got something from seeing that and appreciated, you know, that there is sometimes where the sensory system is really kind of, it really needs to be addressed because it is really, it’s not just maybe an escape behavior from a child from a demand, that there is, you know, something that is aversive to the child’s sensory central nervous system that needs to we need to modify and figure out how do we help them accommodate so that then you can place that demand on them and so it makes me happy makes me happy that I see our teams really starting to you know learn learn from each other.

Okay, we have a next question. how did our interdisciplinary collaboration affect your decision to join Hopebridge?

 

Sydney Frye (10:58)

Yeah, well, in all honesty, really my kind of journey into finding about Hopebridge. I didn’t really know that actually right off the bat. I did not even know that the 360 was a thing. Our clinic has gone through a bunch of changes. So we at one point did we were able to have, the 360 other points we have that we currently don’t right now, which I think seeing it and then not having it currently, I feel like does really dive deep tells me deep down that, you know, the need for it and that not only it’s just nice to be a part of a company where it’s not just encouraged to have collaboration, but it’s almost like embedded in the culture of what we’re doing. So I think for me, it wasn’t maybe a factor, it wasn’t a huge factor in my decision to joining Hopebridge, but coming a part of it and joining the team and just seeing that there was opportunity at other clinics where they could have this consistent communication and work on constantly learning from whether it was an SLP and OT and just having that communication. think overall, I mean, three brains, three different services I feel like are stronger than one. So if anything, it just could help us provide that higher quality, more individualized care. So for me, I think it’s just an incredible aspect. And also too, I think about the families. I mean, for our kids, they’re going from place to place to meet their individual needs, whether it’s extra speech, OT, feeding. So to have something already, like I said, embedded from the beginning, I think it shows that we’re trying to work with them even more so and just continue collaborating the best that we can and learning from each other. think that’s the most important part, constantly being able to learn from somebody else.

 

Kim Strunk (12:43)

For sure. I have said many, many times, I learned more about myself as an OT from working alongside my speech and PT colleagues. mean, honestly, it really shaped my ability and my therapeutic use of myself by observing and working, like I say, side by side with those colleagues. So I think that piece is huge. I love also what you said about the families, because I think about our families and I think about just the complexities of… As educated professionals from a clinical standpoint, the challenges sometimes we have for collaboration. And then I think about our families who are trying to navigate this crazy world of autism and services. And so they’re going one place to get speech, they’re going another place to get OT, then they’re getting their ABA and the providers aren’t necessarily talking. So they’re hearing one thing from each of those providers and the family’s left to try to process that. And I’m thinking, you know, I mean, that’s hard for us to do sometimes. you know, we’ve got the clinical background. You’ve got a family that’s, you know, like I say, they’re managing and dealing with so much oftentimes with these kids and just their regular daily life. I mean, that complexity alone, I feel like is so much. again, it never didn’t make sense to do interdisciplinary for so many reasons. mean, the value is, I think, across the board from what our families get and what our clinicians get.

So I love that you’re able to recognize and see, and I hate that you don’t have 360 in your center right now. So we’ll definitely need to work on that. I’m not going to say we’re going to have to like step up the recruiting. You know, it’s hard. All the services, you know, BCBAs, I they’re high demand. All of our professions are in high demand and-

 

Sydney Frye (14:44)

Any speech or OT in the coming Georgia area, please send them our way.

 

Kim Strunk (15:02)

So I think that word of mouth, we got to continue just getting it out there of what the needs are and the opportunities. That’s why I love our field work programs. We show people the opportunity.

 

Sydney Frye (15:14)

I think. Absolutely. I think it’s also been kind of an incredible thing that we did get to have it for a little bit, you know, and then it actually has some of our case managers have discussed wanting to go after, you know, following through with their BCBA and testing and getting their hours have wanted to dive into their field because they do know there’s such a need for that and just how the collaboration is so important and also that they want to learn the other side. So I feel like it has been a good thing for them as well to be okay, you know, I think after this, I’m to go back and I really want to do the SLP. And it’s just, it’s, it’s really exciting to watch. So.

 

Kim Strunk (15:50)

And that’s a very cool, I mean, that’s a very cool combo. We actually have a number of providers now that are like dually, you know, they’re dually certified or have dual degrees in, you know, BCBA and OT, BCBA and speech. And I mean, what a great combo. mean, you know, wrapped up into one person, that knowledge base and expertise. So I love to be a part of that inspiration. I love that our teams can be a part of that inspiration for people to find their passions in serving. So very, very cool.

 

Sydney Frye (16:28)

Okay, so we have our next question over here. Question number three, how have you seen the autism care industry change over the last 20 years? It’s a good question.

 

Kim Strunk (16:40)

That’s a big question. There’s been a lot of changes over the last 20 And it’s been an incredible journey. And I feel really grateful to have been able to be a part of seeing the journey. Because 20 years ago, people just, well, first of all, you know, people really weren’t talking about autism. I mean, that really wasn’t, you know, a conversation. And particularly for me, for me specifically, and personally, the population I specialized in from a clinical standpoint was like the birth to three early intervention. So for sure, people weren’t talking about, you know, two and three year olds having autism. It typically was once kids got, you know, into school and started failing in school that you know, that’s when you would start to hear, you know, potentially autism. So, you know, in the early days, I got to be a part of, you know, helping educate like our physician partners. So I would go out and talk to pediatricians and help educate about autism and about what we were seeing and about treatment options available. Because again, also ABA was not, people weren’t, there was no reimbursement for ABA. So there wasn’t a lot of options for ABA providers or for ABA services at that time. The few families that I was able to find that really served as you know, guides for me really in this journey. You know, they were paying out of pocket, which was oftentimes a huge burden for them and having to travel because there really wasn’t anything locally. you know, fast forward to today and we have, you know, early identification. We have an awareness.

You know, I will tell you The grass root efforts of families that advocated for their children during kind of those early years was amazing to watch and inspiring to see. Those families were, you know, when they felt like there was something that was being missed and there was something that they still needed, they fought. And I think you’d like say you look today and you see.

That was a lot of really hard work from families and early providers to get us today where we now have an avenue to be able to provide these services and get reimbursed. And I think there’s been a sophistication in the ABA space that wasn’t there. I think we’re continuing to see that. don’t think it’s done. think the insurance companies… I don’t think they quite knew what to do with ABA initially. think they’re starting to figure out some of it and model it after more of like a medical type model. But I think that was a challenge in the early days especially, because they didn’t even have procedure codes for what we were doing. So I think, again, there’s been a lot of work put into continuing to advance opportunities and access for families. That’s been amazing to see, because so many kids are now able to get services that weren’t able to get support and services back then.

 

Sydney Frye (20:29)

I mean, I can’t even imagine. I’m thinking 20 years because I’m coming up on five years in the field, almost two years as a BCBA. And I think back to five years ago, knowing of autism, but not knowing what an RBT was, not knowing what ABA therapy was, or having very minimal knowledge to it. And I just can’t even think back 20 years. That sounds crazy to me to imagine what it was like because I know for me How I came across Hopebridge was I actually had an RBT at the time come speak in my senior seminar class while at college from Hopebridge. Yes, she’s a BCBA now at Hopebridge, but it was incredible because they were just giving us kind of a career pathway. So, hey, you’re getting your undergrad in psychology. Here’s some options. And the girl who spoke to us, was an RBT at Hopebridge and she was like, this is something you can do to start and there’s so many ways to grow and gave us a little bit and that was the start for me. After hearing that, I was like, okay, I really want to know more about this. I find this fascinating and also just to have not heard of ABA before that was incredible change. I’m thinking just five years have changed and so hearing you talk on 20 years, I can only imagine what a different sight it is.

 

Kim Strunk (21:52)

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, yeah, it’s kind of a different world. And it’s so funny you say that. that makes me happy that, you know, and I think we still have opportunities. I think there are still people that don’t, I think they’re aware of ABA, but you know, like RBT, it’s not like we have academic programs that develop RBTs necessarily. That was always in the early days, long before they were RBTs, know, when they were just like, APA therapist or behavior technicians, everybody kind of had their own name for them. But it was like, where do you even, where do even find somebody that…

 

Sydney Frye (22:23)

Mm-hmm.

 

Kim Strunk (22:31)

…would want to be in this field because nobody knows there’s an opportunity here. And so we had to get really creative about like, you know, okay, what are kind of the qualities that you know, you would want for somebody that’s going to have to work for four hours at a time with a child, what you know, what are the skills that you would look and then where would you go? And so we spent a lot of time in the early days trying to talk to like, teachers who either were burnout working in the schools or were struggling. There was at that point, you know, teachers were there was kind of a plethora of teachers. And so there were teachers that couldn’t find jobs. And so this was an opportunity to, you know, give them to a chance to still educate in a different way. But again, they had no idea. So there was a lot of those efforts of going and talking to different programs at schools and, you know, just trying to find different ponds to fish in for people that would have kind of a base interest and skill set that you could train to then be RBTs. So it’ll be interesting to see if going forward, if any academic programs come about out of psychology that create, you know, an associate type degree for, you know, a behavior technician type role. Because I think that’s, you know, that is still, and you know, and you know what our challenges are in staffing. I mean, it’s a really hard job, and it requires a really special individual with, you know, strong skills. And, but it’s so important, you know, to find the right person, but it’s not always easy. So I’ll be anxious to watch over the next 20 years and see what happens in terms of formal education for that front line person. So as you think about…

 

Sydney Frye (24:34)

Yeah, absolutely.

 

Kim Strunk (24:39)

…you know, the next 20 years. And I just told you kind of what I would like to kind of watch. What do you want to see kind of continue to change over the next 20 years?

 

Sydney Frye (24:49)

Okay, that’s a tough one, especially thinking 20 years. I feel like sometimes it’s hard for me to think all the way to the next day. yeah, exactly. I think for me, I think it’s already the area we’re moving towards. It’s already kind of where we’re at. Today’s ABA is what a lot of people will call it. I think there has been a really positive shift into compassionate care and to autonomy and into really child led play and using the root of that as the base of your teaching as well as our foundational skills. But I think on top of that, I would love to see a little bit more integration of neurodivergent voices into our treatment planning and just building off what we already have started, the autonomy, that compassionate care, but really.

How would you like to learn this? And things like that, I think that’s huge. Getting that buy-in from our patients is, and when you watch that light change in their eyes and it’s like, okay, now this is what I want. We’re gonna get to the same goal, but this is how I wanna get there and how we can work together as a team and kind of fill that space with positivity, I think is really what I would like to continue to see happening. I know I’m very fortunate because we do have wonderful staffing of BCBAs and RBTs and Case Managers at my clinic.

That’s something I do get to, I’m very fortunate to see constantly but just to continue to see it grow in that way. I think, mean, alongside that just greater accessibility, you know, to care and our more, and just better insurance support overall, making a huge difference for our families. think us as a whole, like, like you said, it’s come a long way, but just to continue down that path, just for the field of ABA in general, would be really, really amazing to see it continue to grow for me personally.

 

Kim Strunk (26:41)

You know what I think is special about ABA and the behavior analytic field in general is the openness to shift. So like you talked about the compassionate care. mean, and that’s been a very intentional shift in service delivery and how we think about ABA.

I think that, I think it’s very special that the field was able to respond. It’s kind of self-learning. They realized really what was gonna make a difference and was able to make that shift without moving off of the science, but instead embracing the science and I think that speaks a lot for the field. And so it makes me really proud to be a part of that. And, you know, I agree. think we were, just at the beginning. think there’s so much more to still, still build on. The other piece that I’m really passionate about, and I think this probably comes from my roots in early intervention is how do we also consider and integrate the impact of our family systems on our patient that also just those dynamics and how that family can then support our patient. You know what I mean? And again, I think something that goes from my, you know, my early intervention days when I was in family’s homes and, you know, maybe I’d seen them in the center, in the center setting and you have one picture, you get into their home and you’re like, okay, now things make sense that weren’t making sense before. You see a completely different perspective as to maybe why a child is responding the way they’re responding. And it gives you such an opportunity, I think, to shape and educate the families to be able to carry through what we’re doing.

You know, from a clinical standpoint and take our expertise but really apply it in their daily life. So I hope and I believe it will. I mean, I think we’re already on the way. I think we see a lot of that. But I am hopeful that we continue to see integration of the whole child as well as the whole family unit in that family system. I think that’s gonna be super important as we continue to go down this path the next 20 years.

 

Sydney Frye (29:27)

Yeah, I agree completely. I love parent training. is actually, it’s definitely, I think it’s on some ends, one of the hardest parts of my job, but also at the same time is also equally as rewarding watching, you know, something that a family says that maybe like was a huge barrier for them or something that they thought they never would be able to do. And then same kind of way about saying about our kids, but watching the light bulb go off or watching something.

 

Kim Strunk (29:36)

Mm-hmm.

 

Sydney Frye (29:54)

Wouldn’t even have thought of it that way. Or just just different perspectives and all again, back to it goes back to what we were just talking about earlier about the collaboration when we’re all kind of in this communication and you and you watch it just have a flow and there’s always going to be barriers and you know, progress is not always linear, but I feel it’s just such an important part of it. And our parents, know, they deserve to have that that hands on training and or whatever they can have, you know, to the best of their abilities.

 

Kim Strunk (30:17)

Yeah, the success to be able to witness the success of the family when they can implement something and something changes in their life and the quality of their life and the quality of the interaction with their child. Sometimes you feel like you’re a part of this very private, intimate time with that family. And I feel like it’s a real privilege for us to be able to share that with the families. But to your point in terms of being hard, it’s also a huge responsibility to, you know, take on and try to help that family navigate in a very unfamiliar space. And I can imagine for, because I remember as a younger and newer in my field, having some of those conversations with families is not always easy. And you don’t always feel like you’re in a spot to do it, but it’s…It’s so important. That’s probably one of the things I’m most passionate about is how we interact with our families and the experience that we provide them and the ability to set them up to be successful.

 

Sydney Frye (31:44)

I agree. I think the imposter syndrome can definitely hit hard while in a parent training. Just because I feel like it’s one of those things where you’re like, know you know this kiddo better than anybody else in the world. So who am I to sit here and tell you? But I think that’s when you can meet halfway and it can be a journey you take together rather than I’m telling you to do this. It’s like, hey, let’s find our own path. Let’s work on this together. And I think it’s incredible. I think with that too, it’s just seeing bigger picture on all ends. You know, I feel for even my RBTs, you see one target and you see it as, it’s identical matching. Amazing. I hope our kid can accomplish this. But then you tell them, okay, but I’m not talking about just wanting to match pictures of farm animals. I want this patient to be able to grow up and do their chores as a teenager and be able to match identical socks and then, and to see them go, I never would have thought of it that way. I’m like, it’s not just about matching farm animals. We’re making, yeah, they love farm animals. We’re making it fun, but everything that we have in place in this treatment program has a bigger picture for this kid 20 years down the line. So I think it’s just really.

 

Kim Strunk (32:47)

Yeah. That’s the beauty. I think you just hit it. I mean, the ability to paint that bigger picture for our families and for our teams. mean, again, like you say, the RBTs, mean, sometimes they don’t always see that initially.

 

Sydney Frye (33:05)

I think for my team, definitely changed their perspective on every target they were running through. Every time they were thinking, how could this affect them five years down the How could this be something that’s a game changer for them later on?

 

Kim Strunk (33:17)

I’m sure that’s been inspiring for your RBTs. I mean, I talk to a lot of RBTs when I go into centers and I’m always impressed with the RBTs that are inspired to continue their education. And inevitably it’s because of their experience with like their BCBA. And I think that is an ideal example of, know, really being able to, to open up the lens. for some, you’ve created a pathway to, they were like, my God, this is amazing. And they want to continue to grow in that. So I think that’s really special.

 

Sydney Frye (33:59)

I think that perspective too, I mean, it changes for everything. And I know for me, I’m very big on mentorship. I had amazing mentors that came before me and I can say that they’re the reason why I even wanted to be a BCBA in the first place. So, but with that, I’m going to kind of segue us into our next question because I feel like we could continue going back and forth for the next 20 minutes, but kind of going off changing in the industry. But how do you think the evolving technology?

 

Kim Strunk (34:31)

So, and I think we’re kind of in, I mean, 20 years from now, I think we’re look back and it’s gonna be completely different. I can’t either. mean, really, five years from now, two years from now. In the, 20 years ago, of course,

 

Sydney Frye (34:39)

I can’t even imagine.

 

Kim Strunk (34:51)

We were doing everything paper. We didn’t have any electronic data collection system. So there was no rethink, catalyst. mean, that central reach of it, there was none of that then. And actually, I think back 20 years and I chuckle and we’ve got some team members that have been with us pretty much almost the whole time that can tell you we were so primitive in terms of technology and the medical records and everything was paper at that point. I mean, on the ABA side, were doing, you know, graphing by hand and, sometimes I wonder, like, do I mean, I know you guys, that’s part of your academics, but I’m like, you know, I would imagine that some of our BCBAs would be a little bit intimidated if we had to all of sudden go back and start graphing everything by hand and through Excel. we have the big binders that the RBTs and BCBAs would carry around. so there’s been a big shift in that from a clinical standpoint. Obviously, operationally, again, we kept everything. There’s kind of a running joke, but it wasn’t a joke. And people have given me over the years little things that are kind of mementos. We kept our referral list on. It was a thumb drive, one of the little things and it had a hamburger on the end of it. And so actually I’ve got it on my shelf. had given me, it wasn’t the exact one that has patient names on it, but somebody found another one and they put it in to this little like memory box for me of, know, remember when we, you know, kept our referral list and our patient list on this little thumb drive and, you know, our credentialing stuff, we used a recipe box. And we have like, you know, that’s how we had like, you know, our payer information. So there’s some crazy, crazy things. And when I think about like where we are today and the level of sophistication from technology, as much as I know, all of us sometimes want to pull our hair out at, you know, our Salesforce and some of the technology we have. We’ve, you know, it’s, been an incredible advancement. But with that, I think, where we are in like the, advent of like AI. I have no idea where we’re going. I mean, I think, you know, I think there’s some very cool things that we can do. I also think obviously AI is, you know, it’s, mean, there can be, you know, some with all, with all the good things, you know, you have to be cautious. And I think that, you know, we don’t, we don’t want to remove, that personal, because I think what our kids and our families need, I think we need to be smart and automate what we can automate and use technology where we can use it in a smart way. But I hope that we don’t ever get to the point where you’ve eliminated really kind of that personal touch, because I think that’s so important. I think being with people face to face, is a really important part of development and relationships. Just think that’s where we should be.

 

Sydney Frye (38:24)

Absolutely, absolutely. Now I think about how technology kind of rules everything right now and I can’t even imagine using a recipe box to keep some of that data. I mean incredible that you guys were able to do it. But I think that shows how far we’ve come, you know, and I agree, think we’re going to be, who knows what it’ll look like, you five, 10, 20 years from now. But I do think there’s so many resources at our fingertips. That’s incredible. And I think about, you know, even just, you know, the CEUs and having access to having those learning opportunities at your fingertips. That for me, I think is such the positive part. But I do agree with you in not wanting to lose that individualistic like aspect of, how I write a treatment plan versus how somebody else does. And then the way I choose to run a program or write a goal, even just starting there all the way up to, you know, just having that one-to-one. think it’s beautiful that telehealth is an option that we can do that and still service you know our clients that way but I think it’s amazing also to be able to pair with my patient one-on-one and have that opportunity to to give the hands-on training to my RBTs. honestly I am very impressed by telehealth. For me personally I don’t know if it would be the thing for me but I…I find it really incredible. I watched one of my first BCBAs while I was still in RVT do telehealth and I even said, was like, you’re a rock star. don’t know how you’re doing this. Maybe, maybe as I grow and get more in my experience, I could come more comfortable with the idea of it. But for right now, I think I’m going to steer clear of that technology wise, but I am glad that it’s something that’s accessible for our families and something that we can do.

 

Kim Strunk (40:11)

Yeah, for sure. mean, I think it’s been, you know, there’s not a lot of good things that I can say about COVID, but it was a time period, I think, that propelled us as an industry into being creative with, you know, how do you serve these families and these needs? And I can remember the first…you know, couple of telehealth appointments that our teams had to do and they were super anxious and nervous and there was part of me that was really excited because of my early intervention experience. I was like, you guys are gonna get like a window into their home into their real life. You’re going to see kind of behind the curtain that you don’t ever see when they’re coming into the center. And it’s going to give you so much information, you know, but you got to get to that point. But it also calls on us to be really good at how we communicate because to teach virtually without being able to show someone, and I’m kind of a, I got to see it to learn it person. So, you know, that becomes really challenging when you’re on a computer screen. don’t have that same. So I think it’s challenged us to grow in certain areas. And I too am excited and I’m happy. use obviously telehealth for our diagnostics a lot. And it’s allowed us to be more responsive to our families. But there is something about kind of sharing the same space with people that I enjoy, which is why I love to still visit our centers and be with our teams and be with our kids because there is something really special about that. So hopefully we’ll continue to find balance. that’s, think at the end of the day, that’s continuing to find balance in things is where we need to be. well, with that.

Tell me what you think about the advantage of being, you know, you said five years into your profession. So what do you think the advantages are being just kind of in the early stages of your career?

 

Sydney Frye (42:31)

Okay, I mean I would say being early in my career really keeps me almost in that learning mode. Like it was, I took the BCBA exam just about two years ago. So I feel like with that, I am constantly asking questions still and staying very curious and allowing myself to have that time to seek still mentorship from others, learn from my fellow BCBAs, my senior BCBAs, learn from my OTs and SLPs. I feel like it also has kind of given me the openness to adapt quickly because I just came out of my, you know, my masters and everything. So I’m kind of embracing the innovation and really, looking for feedback in any way possible. So I feel like that has set me up in a lot of ways to be good at collaborating. I think also too, it really just kind of with wanting to collaborate constantly, it really helps me get to know my new team members and really kind of foster a collaborative environment because that’s how I’m ready to grow. I’m not sitting here looking at my team saying, I have all the answers. I’m going to fix everything. If anything, I’m looking at them saying, hey, let’s have grace with each other because I’m not going to tell you something if I don’t feel confident or if I don’t know. And it gives me a drive to, okay, I’m going to go help find this answer for them. I’m very fortunate too that coming into this, immediately went from coming in being a brand new BCBA, to also being a supervisor to now four case managers. So it also has given me a really good insight on teaching them where especially right now, I have two that are getting ready to test and I’m really excited for them. Then another two that are right behind them. me and my other BCPA, she’s also a new BCPA who works at my clinic. We’ve said, you know, we have a nice insight because we didn’t take the test 15 years ago. We took it two years ago. So we, as far as the studying there, so that’s been really helpful for my fellowship team. I feel like we’ve been able to really work together and give them some good insight there. But I would say those are some of the bigger advantages, just always wanting to learn. I think that’s the number one, being ready to learn at any time.

 

Kim Strunk (45:00)

I haven’t even talked about that, but from your team’s perspective, yeah, they’re probably like, they’re looking at you like you’ve just been through this. So you’ve got a lot of like relevant current knowledge versus somebody that’s, you know, maybe even out there like you can’t relate because you don’t know what it’s like today. You know what I mean? So, I mean, that probably is a really great, great advantage for you, you know, in addition to you continue to learn from them too, which, know, because there’s always fresh things coming out. So, I love that. Yeah.

 

Sydney Frye (45:27)

Absolutely. No, absolutely. I think for me, the learning curve to that was I grew with this team. So they watched me from, you know, RBT to some of those. So now I’m their supervisor. So I feel like that also is kind of created a collaborative environment because I mean, I believe in all areas, any work that there’s not going to be, I’m here, you’re here. It’s been very easy to establish we’re here and we’re here together. We’re here for each other. And I think that’s something I’m big on taking suggestions from others. like, you’re with this kid one-on-one. I get to see you guys for three hours a week and it’s amazing. But what do you guys see? it’s just been, it’s been a really, a really hard thing to navigate, but wonderful thing, like learning from each other.

 

Kim Strunk (46:19)

You know, Sydney, that’s a really, I mean, that perspective I think is important. I, you know, I, I, I don’t think all BCDAs have it. I think, you know, I think as an organization, we’re fortunate. We, we do have a culture of that collaboration, but I think, you know, you just described in recognizing the value of the input of your RBT, because they are the ones day in and day out. So they may not have the same degree and the same education, but they’ve got the like hour by hour experience with that patient. And I think your openness and seeking their input into this patient’s journey with us, it’s gotta be so reinforcing to them, and so positive for them.

 

Sydney Frye (47:17)

I hope so.

 

Kim Strunk (47:18)

I think it speaks volumes to kind of your mindset about as a team, how do we operate? And I can imagine probably that transition from RBT to BCBA could be challenging. mean, depending on how you approach it, it could be challenging to all of a sudden kind of go to a different level. But listening to you, it sounds like, you know, it was more about just different roles. And we’re still at the same level because at the end of the day, we’re all still trying to make a difference in this child’s life. And we just have different roles in doing that now. So I love the way you described that. Very, very cool.

 

Sydney Frye (48:02)

Thank you. Okay. Okay. So if we could kind of give each other one piece of advice, especially with us having very different backgrounds here, what would that like for you? What advice would you give me?

 

Kim Strunk (48:20)

I don’t know that I can keep it to one and not just for you. just don’t know that I, I don’t, I think, I think there’s, I think we’ve touched on in this whole conversation. I think there’s been a common theme, um, two common themes that I would say are critical for, for any professional, um, regardless of your, you know, your background or your degree, um, collaboration and learning.

I think those are, I believe we should always be lifelong learners. And the day that we stop seeking that is a scary day for me. So I’m always trying to challenge myself to continue to learn and push. so, you know, that would be a part of my advice, the collaboration. always, I do believe you learn, you can learn so much more from others. And it doesn’t have to be, it doesn’t even have to be in the same field necessarily. I mean, sometimes I look, you know, I look outside of the autism space to see how things are being done and what can we learn from, you know, different services and different, you know, medical and behavioral health type services on how they’re doing things.

We don’t have to reinvent the wheel on things. you know, I think we have to, this would be the other piece of my advice is I believe that we, always have to keep the patients and their needs at the center of what you’re doing. That needs to drive everything. And so, again, when I look outside of like the autism space, what are other people doing? You know, I know what I’m trying to do in my head. I mean, if I’ve got a patient there and I know this is their need, it’s like, how can you best meet that? And you got to pull from as many places as you can. And so that, you know, kind of ongoing, ongoing learning, you know, and I, again, I feel like a responsibility to, to continue to elevate and advocate for who we’re serving and for our individual and collective teams and disciplines for those sciences to continue to grow and evolve and continue to look at research opportunities and you know I just I would just continue to push that’s you know with always the patients and their needs at the center. So that was not one piece of advice, but a number of things rolled into one. So how about you? What would your, and I won’t keep you at one…

 

Sydney Frye (51:02)

I know, one piece. That’s hard to choose. Well, it’s also hard for me to sit here and think again, like you said, to give you advice. I feel like that’s definitely a tough fact to follow there. I do also love your term of lifelong learners. I think that’s something we should all strive to live by. I think if, from where I’m at, as somebody earlier in my career, if I could give any kind of advice to you, I think my thoughts would be…It just sounds like something you’re already actively wanting to do. So this would just be where my mindset for anyone may be on a more of an operational role. I would say to just never lose touch kind of with the clinicians. You know, we, that’s why we have this hope for 26. That’s why there’s, know, the collaboration is everything. So I think those who are doing that day to day work, whether it’s the RVT, BCBA, OTSLP, any of them, I feel like those experiences they’re having, they’re having and the challenges that they, you know…

 

Kim Strunk (51:48)

Mm-hmm.

 

Sydney Frye (52:11)

…deal with on a day-to-day basis can offer that invaluable insight to someone, just the organization as a whole, to how we can continue to grow, have stronger connections, ensure that our mission still stays rooted in that innovation and stays that, just practicing that we never lose sight of the people behind the care, I would say. I think if I could narrow it down to one piece of advice, I think it would be that. And I think that kind of goes into everything we’ve been talking about today.

 

Kim Strunk (52:42)

Yeah, for sure, for sure. And I 100 % support that and I appreciate the advice and I think it’s a constant, I think we need to constantly remind ourselves of that. As a leadership team, I think we, it needs to be forefront in our mind because at the end of the day, while the patient is the center, if you don’t take care of the caregivers, they can’t provide good care to the patient. So, you you gotta make sure you’re pouring into your teams. I, for me personally, and people do it differently. I mean, I, for my style personally is I have to like be in touch with them. And I kinda gotta, you know, touch it and feel it again. That’s just kind how I learn. So that’s how I try to stay in touch with the teams is to visit our centers, talk to our teams, you know, talk to our families because I hear you and that’s, think, it’s about. Staying in touch, knowing what they mean.

 

Sydney Frye (53:49)

I agree. Just being present, I think is a huge part of it. And I think, like you said, you can’t pour from an empty cup. So you do that also by you care for others, but also modeling care for yourself. I can’t sit there and say, tell my team to go home and practice self care and to be mindfulness and to really set in. They do hard work and that be still at times if I’m not doing that myself. And you can feel that and energy, too. So I feel like it’s also leading by example. So that’s something we definitely do.

At my clinic as well, work on kind of like how are we going to take care of ourselves so that we can give the utmost positive and healthy and comfortable care to our kids.

 

Kim Strunk (54:28)

100 % agree. So Sydney, this was great!

 

Sydney Frye (54:32)

It’s been amazing getting to know you on this level, knowing your name and getting to put a face with you. It’s been amazing.

 

Kim Strunk (54:38)

Well, I am so appreciative of just the time and your input and your passion. And I just I love the mindset and approach you’re taking to being present for your team and for your kids. And you’re a real example of what Hopebridge is about. So thank you.

 

Sydney Frye (55:00)

Thank you. That means a lot coming from you, so I really do appreciate that. And it’s been lovely getting to talk to you and hearing your perspective.

 

Kim Strunk (55:09)

And we will have to coordinate when you’re not vacationing at home with your family. I’ll do another trip down so we can actually be in the same space together. right, thanks, Sydney.

 

Sydney Frye (55:13)

Yes. Absolutely, face to face, talk about those connections. So, absolutely. Thank you.

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