I'm (really) a teletherapist now?

A Happy Letter Vol. XI

Do you remember 2020? Of course you do.

The week before Spring Break, I left work like I had any other year, grateful for seven days off. A friend of ours was visiting from Germany, and we went to a big do, partying the way nerds do with a big ole trivia night. There were murmurings of the words corona virus, everyone speculating about what was going on but none of us really worried.

At the end of that week, I didn’t go back to work. We had an extended Spring Break in hopes that this COVID thing would go away.

It didn’t, of course.

And so, by the beginning of April I had written one of my first Substack letters: Look, ma! I'm a teletherapist, now!

Fast forward nearly three years and I find myself in the same situation, only on purpose this time.

Toward the end of November, I received an email inviting me to a teletherapy open house. I didn’t really read it, but I also didn’t automatically delete it. A week later, it caught my eye, and I signed up thinking, “It’s just an open house. There’s literally no pressure, I’ll just see what they’re all about.” I was actually feeling really optimistic though. Almost excited. I told my husband I had a good feeling about it. He questioned whether I was going because I wanted to or because I felt like I needed to. I was able to say I wanted to.

The first week of December, I went to the open house. I found out they had needs in my state. I ticked the box to talk to someone and get more information.

By the end of the next day I was signing a contract. Yesterday I finished my third week of therapy with my new students.

Yeah, I guess I’m a teletherapist now. And I have to say: I’m really enjoying it so far.

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Now, you may (or may not) be wondering: what does this mean for A Happy Learner? After all, it was only about 6 months ago that I announced I had left the SLP field for the time being to pursue some other things. And yet, here I am again! But the truth is, it won’t change much.

I’m only working as a teletherapist about 10-12 hours a week, which means I’ll still be working on building my blog, improving my TpT store, and slowly working toward an editorial business on the side. After taking January to adjust to my new working life, I’m hoping to dig back in next month.

But it does mean you’ll probably see a slight shift in some of my content, as I’ll begin to think of things through the lense of digital resources and strategies.

What I really mean is, I think I’ll finally learn how to make Boom cards (and other digital resources)!

And I would imagine these letters will start to feel more speechy again.

I’m excited to see what the future holds. But for now, I’m off to the coast to visit friends.

So, until next week,

Christin ☕️