How Rebecca Found the Will to Move Forward With Her Dreams, Despite Multiple Setbacks
On this episode of the Learn With Less® podcast, Ayelet sits down with pediatric occupational therapist, mother, parent educator, Learn With Less® facilitator, and founder of Santosha Wellness, Rebecca Hernandez. Rebecca lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and has her own private pediatric occupational therapy clinic where she serves new families in multiple ways via developmental therapies, infant massage, and now, caregiver & me classes using the Learn With Less® curriculum, leading infant and toddler enrichment classes to provide resources and support to parents and caregivers.
Rebecca’s practice is focused on sharing her love and passion for the needs and development of children through empowerment, advocacy, education, collaboration, and support. She believes that in order to help children, we must first take time to understand each child’s rich life background: developmental history, caregiver support structure, the cultural lens through which the child identifies, socioeconomic needs, and the child’s strengths and interests. These values on top of her robust skillset as not only an occupational therapist, but also a Feeding Therapist, infant development specialist, certified Infant Massage therapist, kids yoga teacher, and CrossFit trainer (for both kids and adults), make her an incredible asset to the Learn With Less® program as a facilitator of “caregiver & me” classes.
Not familiar with the term, “caregiver & me” classes? We use it as a more inclusive term instead of “mommy & me” classes. Our classes are open – and meant for – ALL parents and caregivers: not just moms… but also dads, non-binary folks, grandparents, foster parents, babysitters, and other amazing grownups who care for tiny humans. We’re going to play the “search term” game here (so you can find this great content more easily!) and help shift the conversation from “mommy & me” classes to “caregiver & me” classes… to do our part to shape the more inclusive world we’d like to live in.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Rebecca’s biggest skepticism in joining the Learn With Less® Facilitator Training & Certification Program, and what value it provided her even though she wasn’t new to parent education and providing family enrichment services
- Why conversations about self-identity as a facilitator are valuable in responsibly and responsively serving families who hold various identities
- What helped her pushed ahead even when life felt overwhelming
- Why her plans include holding both virtual and in-person caregiver + child classes in her community
- The role of “facilitator” and how that affects one’s ability to lead a class for other families
Helpful Resources Related to This Episode
Learn With Less® podcast episode: Why Become a Parent Educator? Ask These Learn With Less® Facilitators!
Learn With Less® podcast episode: Leading Caregiver & Baby Classes – From Therapist to Parent Educator, with Carly Dorfman
Learn With Less® podcast episode: Enrich Your Practice as a Parent Educator, with Sara Moreno
Learn With Less® podcast episode: Educating Parents to be Their Child’s First Teacher, with Rachel Kammeyer
Learn With Less® podcast episode: How to Impact Your Community With Parent Education and Parent Coaching Skills, with Laurel Smith
Learn With Less® podcast episode: How Lesley Took Her Existing Skills as an Educator, and Started Serving Infant/Toddler Families In a Holistic, Meaningful Way
Learn With Less® podcast episode: How to Use Your Skills as an Educator or Therapist to Serve Families Holistically as a Parent Educator, with Allie Glazer
Learn With Less® Bundle: get our favorite infant and toddler development resources (save 70%)! Discover how to support & connect with your tiny human, without having to buy a single toy.
Learn With Less® Facilitator Training & Certification Program: Use your existing skills as an educator or therapist to serve families holistically with a high quality program that will provide lasting impact! Apply now to become a licensed facilitator Learn With Less®.
Learn With Less® “Caregiver & Me” Classes: the magic of Learn With Less® lies in the communal aspect of coming together with our resources, in community with other families. Join us for a virtual or in-person class led by a licensed facilitator near you!
Connect With Us
Rebecca: Website / Instagram / Facebook
Ayelet: Facebook / Instagram / Pinterest
Text Transcript of The Episode
Ayelet: Before we get started today, I want to just let you know that we will be speaking a lot today about the Learn With Less® Facilitator Training & Certification Program. If you are an educator or therapist interested in becoming a licensed Learn With Less® Facilitator and integrating “caregiver & me” classes into your offerings or practice, you are invited to apply now at learnwithless.com/certification. If you’re actually listening to this on or around the day this episode airs on in late November, 2021, I recommend you get your application in today, as we’ll be leading a live Goal Setting and 2022 Planning Workshop event on Friday the December 3rd, for our entire Learn With Less® facilitator community! Just head over to learnwithless.com/certification and submit your application today.
If you are a parent or caregiver interested in learning more about resources to help you feel confident you can support and connect with your tiny humans, we would love you to start by downloading my free infant/toddler development blueprint, over at learnwithless.com/blueprint, today!
Today, I’ve got Rebecca Hernandez with me. At the time of this recording about a month ago, Rebecca had just completed the Learn With Less® training program and was about to host her demo class, which is a right of passage within our facilitator certification program, and the last step toward certification. She’s now moved into our certified pool of facilitators, and is developing her plans to serve families using Learn With Less® in the new year, with both virtual and in-person “caregiver & child” classes in and around her community of Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Rebecca had a heck of a year – the pandemic was tough on her business, she gave birth to a second child, and just had hurdle after hurdle thrown at her… but what I love about her story is that it’s one of resilience. Rebecca is committed to serving her community. She’s not a beginner to, as she puts it, being a “therapreneur” (just to be perfectly clear, that’s a therapist who’s also become an entrepreneur or small business owner). But she’d invested in the Learn With Less® program when all of that went down. Now, “life” nearly took over and ravaged that dream of leading family enrichment classes using the Learn With Less® curriculum. But Rebecca charged on, at her pace. Sometimes she completed a few minutes of the training, sometimes weeks would go by before she was able to get childcare and commit the brainpower to sitting and moving toward her dream. But she did it. And I can’t wait to share the power of what she’s gotten back from that, in her own words, with you here, today. Let’s get to it!
Hi, it’s very nice to see you!
Rebecca: Nice to see you, too. What a, what a time it’s been since that last zoom call. I think the last zoom call I was on was in my office like pre was at pandemic but like early on.
Ayelet: Yeah. Yeah. I’m so glad you are here, like, in the program, where you are and ready to… ready to demo and move forward.
Rebecca: So excited. And I have it’s it’s kind of perfect timing in a sense for the demo class because all of kind of my mom group of friends and just group of friends in general, we all just had babies this past spring and summer, and so it’s going to be so nice. My sister in law is going to come my backyard and everyone’s craving that community. And I was like, I can create that. And this is so
Ayelet: That’s it! How old is your daughter now?
Rebecca: Five months.
Ayelet: Oh my gosh.
Rebecca: And so I think she’s teething. And she’s just feisty. She was born on the full moon and just the opposite of my son who was just very mellow in general. And I’ve also forgotten that baby is, you know, your brain protects you and for you to have more children. And so like she only put her to bed at eight last night. And then at 11 she woke up. And I was just like, having to bouncer in the carrier holding her like standing until two. It’s all temporary, but I’m in it. In the thick of it!
Ayelet: In the thick of it. I mean, I think for me, the best part of having the second child was just being like, Okay, remember, this is just a season of my life. Remember, this doesn’t last for 18 years. Remember, things will shift everything shifts, and just knowing because it might not look the same as it did with the first one because they’re totally different humans, but that first time around and you’re like, Oh my god. This is my life. Right? It’s okay.
Rebecca: I have that, it is so true. And I have thought that so many times, at least like this time, I know, like, Oh, this is just temporary. And all of a sudden I’ll realize, Oh, she’s sleeping. And it also goes by so fast. And now that I have that like actual experience of it going by so fast. Like I can be tired. And no, this is not gonna be my always. Oh my gosh, totally. Yeah. So I’m just looking at myself in the video like, Oh, man…
Ayelet: You look great, amazing. Well, let’s just chat a little bit you had written that first of all, you said, What was your biggest skepticism upon joining like that it might not be necessary that you’ve taught, you know, classes like these in the past, that you have the skills and you weren’t sure if you need to add training to that professional area. But you’ve learned a lot and the cohesiveness of this program and then the support. I’d love to hear to just in your own words, like when you were first drawn to the program, like what did you see specifically that led you to think that still would be useful?
Rebecca: Yeah. It’s interesting, because there’s like a large part of me, and I don’t know if this is just like an entrepreneurial therapist thing in general. But I tend to like go a little crazy with courses. And I’m like, yes, yes, yes. Right. Yes. Certification. Sure. This one, this one…
Ayelet: Right. This is part of what we talked about in the like, imposter syndrome area, right?
Rebecca: Exactly. Yes. And so then I’ve tried to read more recently be a little bit more selective, and, Okay, do I really need this? And so that’s where I was sort of at with like, okay, is this you know, is this another class, but I was really drawn to, like, the philosophy of it, of the Learn With Less®, like, you’ve really don’t need anything. And that’s just something that I’ve said so often had so many conversations with. So that was a huge.
And then just listening to your podcast, seeing your marketing, like and your, your website all looked so great. And so I felt like I could also just tell like, there’s more to this than just like someone who just randomly decided, like, I could teach a class, you know, not to say like, other courses I’ve done haven’t been beneficial, but like, there just seemed to be a depth to it. And I was like, I think I could get a lot out of this. And then after our conversation was like, Yes, this is totally what I need to just kind of deepen. So the philosophy is what sort of drew me in to think, oh, this could be something that may be beneficial, even though I’ve already done some of these classes. And it just you could just tell it was… you really had it really organized and I was like, I’m gonna get the support. There’ll be curriculum support and for me, like all of that stuff. And I was like, that’s the stuff I need to learn and get more of. So…
Ayelet: What at the time I’m curious also, like, what were some of the areas that you still felt were a challenge for you, particularly, when you were looking at joining Learn With Less®? What were those pieces that you still felt like, Oh, I could use some support specifically in these like around this or that?
Rebecca: Yeah. I mean, I think the business side of it, I think like the vision of my classes, like I had this idea, like yes, I see There’s benefit in bringing families together. But I felt myself sort of like not feeling organized and really knowing how to make it a program. So like, you know, I could lead a class and have content but was I really having something that was cohesive, that flowed week to week or what I really know what… because excitement is one thing, and I’m good at that. Yeah, but translating it into, you know, an actual class. And that’s something that has really solid content so that I can then can market it.
I think that’s where I was felt like I was really lacking, it was like, I don’t really know what I should put into this class. Because I had, I would sometimes I remember thinking, like, I had a little whiteboard that I’d write out like kind of what we’re doing in class, almost like 10 things like I am, this is too much! And then I felt stressed that people were talking, and I really wanna get my thing… But I feel like families really need to, they want all of the stuff… I know that really what they want us community. So, I think I was looking for something that would give me this ongoing support, vision, and you have done the work to create this program that is like, Yes, this is what I want. And it’s already here. So why try and reinvent the wheel.
Ayelet: Good! That’s awesome – good to hear! You had said, as far as the overall content of the program, you said you love the content overall, it was especially focused on the business side of things, and you learned a lot even after having run classes through your business for you know, going on for years. But for instance, with module four, and we talked through the culturally responsive delivery of services…
Rebecca: I loved that. Yeah, it’s so nice sometimes to be in your like little bubble of like, this is all important to everybody. Right? Then outside, you pop that bubble, which is also important to do. And then you realize, oh, my God… I’ve had so many conversations, one of my really good friends is a social worker with our Early On team in the county. And she’s like, I have tried to have so many conversations around diversity, inclusion and equity in talking about how we are a group of all privileged white women (in that particular group) and what does that mean for the families that we’re serving? And let’s have conversations, and people are like, “Oh, no, it’s not important. We’re, it’s fine.” And she’s like, we can’t even talk about it? I mean, come on!
Well, and I will say, it’s one of the most profoundly, it’s just an amazing part of the program that you give, and it makes it so much different than others. That’s what starts to create this access to families is having these hard conversations, when we’re training, in the people that are going to are going to be mobilizing these, you know, these types of groups. And I just loved that that was so… I mean, that was woven into, somehow, every single conversation in the training, and I thought that was just so amazing. So it made me think, and I felt like it kept it at the forefront of, this is why we’re doing this. This is this is a huge part of why this program exists. And yes, we’re supporting kids and families. And this is a huge need. And I so I thought that was… and it’s a hard thing to do. So I love that.
Ayelet: Yeah. Awesome. I’m happy to hear that. All right, you had said that this is a very well organized, well thought out deep and supportive program. Not that I had a poor reception by any means beforehand, but it’s certainly more evident, now. I mean, you’ve been expanding on that the whole conversation, but I’d love to hear more about… it sounds like it was, in the beginning you were hoping for that. And then the end it was delivered.
Rebecca: Yeah, I mean, even like, just those those little things that aren’t little things, but like, you know my name, and you know, my story and like you, you support so many people going through this program. And then the way that you facilitate conversations on the Facebook group, and then it was like learning those little things of oh, wait, there’s like calls every month like, especially once I start running these like that will be so helpful. And knowing like there’s a group once you’re a facilitator that like, that’s just, I’ve never had that in a, in a program that I’ve done in training, and it’s sort of like you’ve finished and it’s like, “click, done, here’s your certificate,” and you’re, and you’re done.
But to have that, and I mean, because then you’re like, I love reading through the comments and all of the like the prompts, like I learned so much. And to just have that always, that’s where I felt like, oh, wow, this is even so much more than I thought that it would be. I don’t even know I would want something like that. And now I’m like, Oh, I totally want something like that. Honestly, with everything that was thrown my way this past year, constantly, I would not have… I would have just called my losses and been like, this was meant to be, another time.
It was solely because you outreached, you made me feel like it’s okay that it has taken some time. Like what can we do? Let’s try this. You’d notice when I was… you engaged in conversation right away, like that’s the stuff that kept me going. And now I’m at a place where I can, I’m excited and energized and have capacity to start running them. It would have been years if I had ever even finished for no other reason than I just felt like I couldn’t. So that’s great. It’s been a year.
Ayelet: It’s, it’s been a year, man. Absolutely. Is there anything else that has you know, come up for you in general or just anything else that you can share, would like to share, how you feeling?
Rebecca: Nothing that I can think… I’m feeling really good about the class, that’s my favorite spot to be is sitting in a circle with other caregivers in their, in their little ones and some excited to be doing that I have too many ideas. And so that’s why I’m like, I’m going to take some dedicated time finished going through bonus content and actually, like, map out my class, match it to Learn With Less®, that’ll be really helpful. And I’m so excited. There’ll be little babies, which is kind of a nice place to start. Because they’re not mobile, totally. And anyway, it’s all my close friends and my sister in law. So yes, I don’t really have any questions about that.
Ayelet: And you’re doing it in your backyard.
Rebecca: I was gonna do it virtually. And I was like, you know what, I know enough people in my community, and we can, it’s fall. So it’s kind of perfect out right now. Because unless it’s rainy, but then I have a really nice just big garage that’s, we could go in the garage. Like if we can be in person – I would love that. And I’m proud of myself, I almost was like, I just can’t, like no, you want to do it, just do it! Don’t feel like, you know, it has to be perfect or whatever, so…
Ayelet: Yeah, get it done, move to the next level. And then you can….
Rebecca: And I want to be doing virtual classes, I have so many ideas and so many people that want to do it. And so I was like, once I’m done, then I hit the ground running and go from there.
Ayelet: Yes. That’s amazing. I’m so happy for you. Well, and you have, obviously, a big community of people who you have been serving for years. So now that you’re…
Rebecca: I’m back! And I have, I’m ready to go when… I think I’ve decided for myself was, I’m gonna do virtual and then, once the pandemic is in a space where it’s over or like, it’s, you know, it’s safe to be indoors, unmasked. And that’s like the smart science thing to do, I have four or five people who are like, yes, please use my space. So I’ve got all this stuff on deck. And I have a whole map of, this is what my business will kind of look like right now. So I’m super excited that I have that and then I can do that when it’s ready. I was gonna start trying to do stuff now. I was like I feeling overwhelmed by it.
And then I feel like should I really be in spaces with little babies and right, they can’t wear a mask? And then like is yeah, the virtual is so nice. Go figure, it’s not in person, you don’t know each other. So you think this is gonna be like, how are we ever going to connect? But I did a virtual prenatal yoga class and it was my best friend’s a teacher. And so some of the people I didn’t know because their local but then she started pulling people from all over the US doing it, man. It was just as connecting as it would be in person and I never would have guessed. Yeah, that. Yeah. So I’m excited to take little snippets of like, what made me feel connected in that and bring it to… It’s totally possible! I’ve found, too, like sometimes parents worry, they’re like, “I’m so sorry, my baby was asleep.” One, you should never be sorry that your baby’s asleep. Thank goodness. Yeah. But they get worried…
Ayelet: And you might even write that in an email before the class to be like, listen, even if you’re if your child is sleeping, or if you have a diaper change, there’s still ways to engage. It’s totally fine.
Rebecca: Yeah, I mean, the thing I’m, I think I’m not nervous to teach because I’ve done it enough. But like, I’m honestly a little bit more nervous, because it’s all people I know. And so I feel silly, almost. And I know, I’m being recorded. And so that will be a thing to like, get over. And remember, they’re still parents! It’s just like any other parent, but you know, sometimes you almost feel like – it’s like when you’re in a class and you have to pretend-do whatever.
Ayelet: Well, I think to that point, it does help that your role is not teacher it’s, just the group, it’s the group that you’re – just, you just happen to be leading the group. You happen to be the one who has access to the paper that says what you’re doing and you’re doing it in a trained way.
Rebecca: Yeah, that’s so true.
Ayelet: You’re not in charge of them. You’re not telling them how to parent, you’re just sharing information that you’re gonna be doing alongside them because your baby will be there too!
Rebecca: Yeah, it is, it’s like sometimes you feel this like pressure of like, I need to give like the most valuable mind blowing content every time I… you know, you put this pressure on yourself. Really like what’s valuable is just all being together, take a breath, actually look at your baby, pause for a minute. And, here are some tidbits. Oh, that’s it. I needed that reminder that like, just a facilitator. Yeah, you just happened to be happening.
Ayelet: Well, I can’t wait. I’m so excited.
Rebecca: And thank you. I mean, I know I’ve said this before, but I really am so grateful that you just were so encouraging, very grateful. Because this is a phenomenal program. So…
Ayelet: Thanks, Rebecca. Thanks for being part of it!
