We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Karolina Claxton a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Karolina, thanks for joining us today. Can you recount a story of an unexpected problem you’ve faced along the way?

Competing with businesses and practitioners who are less qualified but better at branding

This issue may resonate even more with creatives and craftspeople than with other helping service professionals, as most psychiatrists or chiropractors have consistent training toward their licensure. Educational therapy is an unlicensed field. My cat can call himself an educational therapist. So there has always been a range in the backgrounds of people who have done that side of our work. While the field of neurodiversity/neurodivergence consultation is new enough and changing rapidly, the understanding of the importance of “executive functioning” has been prominent in work with children and teens for at least a decade.

During the COVID-19 pandemic we saw the emergence of a particularly green version of an “executive functioning coach.” Some coaches have training as coaches or were legit therapists first. But many misunderstood what “executive functioning” is. They believe that because people with poor EF (often with ADHD and/or Autism) don’t use calendars or complete tasks, if they sat with those people and made them fill in calendars and finish more tasks, they are working on EF. (I am actually writing a book that addresses this misconception.) The touted their Ivy League degrees (or even student status) and compiled websites echoing and validating parental woes about the productivity habits of children with ADHD. They worked in-home, steadily making themselves fixtures in families, solving the immediate problems presented by poor attention and follow-through, especially when learning was remote. But they generally didn’t – and still don’t – do much to improve real executive functioning, the habits of mind surrounding memory, focus, task analysis.

A colleague and good friend asked who our biggest competitors were and I realized that we were not losing a lot of business to other ET groups – we were losing business to these college kids and actors needing work who were putting very charming band aids on the problems!

Reinventing the models of support and consultation we provide to meet current needs, trends, and shifts in educational and professional demands has always been a important to me. In this case, the solution was one part branding and two parts shifts in services. For the branding part, we leaned into our strengths: our deep expertise, experience, and commitment to constant professional growth and a a holistic model of care. I boasted about our collective century of experience, focused more on speaking and training gigs, and even explicitly contrasted our approach to the charlatans’. I developed branding around “working on the edges” of our specific areas of focus, built a financial structure around quarterly “quarterbacking” and drove home the point that we are not for everyone. For services, we took a broader perspective on the factors affecting functioning – nutrition, sleep hygiene, trauma, inflammation – and shifted the balance of our work to incorporate more coordination of care in those areas. We doubled down on the roles of psychoeducation and neuroplasticity in cognitive and behavioral change. And we started to work closely with allied professionals to treat more adults and more complex cases.

Problem: Client concerns about progress
I call these the “what are you even doing?” calls and every type of therapist gets them. Some looks at their bank statement or calendar, feels the drain of money and/or time, and questions the value of the work being done.

My answer to these is largely preemptive. I guide my team to think about every client having an “opinion box,” which, over time, becomes empty, meaning that the opinion that client once had – that wonderful comment he made about how much better focus was getting or how much she appreciated the assistance navigating the system – has faded away. There are some people who lean optimistic or are compelled by choice bias and so they are inclined to continue to fill the opinion box with regularly updated positive comments. But most people who are seeking our help are struggling with aspects of their life enough that they can be prone to thinking that is similar to that of voters, i.e. a greater likelihood to focus on things that are not working than things that have improved. So we emphasize ongoing, preemptive – but brief – client communication on honest updates of our observations of response to coaching, ET, or consultation, as they align with the goals we have identified. I always say, “the one who makes the observation first wins.”

Problem: Feast or famine for a service-based business: regulating the flow of referrals
Many businesses, especially smaller or local ones, have to carve a path between selling as much as they can and being unable to meet demand, thereby getting a reputation for being full or too busy, having long waits, etc. Many, if not most other ET groups, really struggle with this issue. We don’t as much.

Our solutions: (1) our model is focused on training; independence is the goal for 85% of clients so we don’t keep people forever; (2) incentivizing associates to open available hours; (3) subtly point out client progress to the referral sources; (4) ask colleagues for referrals or advice on something else to put us back on their radar; (5) in a pinch, I can do a speaking engagement for free.

Most of all, I never, ever take it for granted. I have seen other entrepreneurs proudly delete referral inquires they felt were beneath them, announce with great swagger how full they are and always expect to be, or brazenly engage in conflict with clients with the understanding that they “don’t need” that client. I have never operated that way. In some ways, I run the business with the thought somewhere in the back of my mind that, while unlikely, technological advances, new competitors, or even a huge reputational hit could take it all away.

Problem: Allied professionals who don’t want to collaborate and prefer to work in silos while we take a very integrated approach
Solution: Client needs must be greater than our professional egos, so we send updates anyway. If needed, we let the client know.

Problem: Someone says something bad about us, true, half-true, misunderstood or totally false
Solution: This quotation from Vir Das: “Your talent belongs to you, and weirdly, your reputation belongs to other people. . . . You can’t control it.. Focus on the talent you have in front of you and you’ll always be okay.”

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a consultant working with families, schools, and organizations on issues around neurodiversity and neurodivergence. I run a boutique educational therapy group that provides educational therapy focused on executive functioning, language problems and complex profiles; coaching to adults on productivity and personal goals; and speaking and training engagements about learning, motivation and performance to school faculties and businesses.

I was a teacher in NYC and I had started working with students with special needs, running programs for ELLs and doing work on curriculum and professional development. I needed to get a master’s degree for my credential and when I was in undergrad at NYU, I had been really excited by rational choice theory. So I left NY and completed a master’s in public policy (now called a Master of Policy Analysis, I believe) with concentrations in education and abnormal child psychology. I wanted to work with children in the criminal justice system but Schwarzenegger had frozen many of those types of positions. I went back to the classroom in special education and in the meantime, while I had been tutoring during graduate school, a parent of one of my clients who was a psychotherapist mentioned, “you know, what you’re doing is really educational therapy.” And so my educational therapy practice was born. I rented some office space from her and felt very important. And then it turned out she had Borderline Personality Disorder. I recovered from a falling out with her and pursued kind of a hybrid of tutoring and ET, with only my teaching background, my MPP, and what I was learning on the job – again, ET is not a licensed field.

Eventually I completed the equivalent of a second master’s in special education and then went to USC to get my doctorate in ed psych because I felt it was the best way to gain more legitimacy for the work I was doing. But to be completely honest, I learned most of what I know about how to do my job from the intensely collaborative approach I have taken to it, probably borne from my high level of extroversion (coupled with the potential isolation of this work).

I flirted with the idea of school leadership – twice was offered or could have been offered positions leading schools – but stayed the entrepreneurial course. I think many teachers have this kind of independent, rebellious spirit. I worked on-site at several schools conducting long-term professional development training for faculty on serving students with special needs.

Personally, I am a twin mom, I love animals and nature and I fly trapeze for fun. (see photo)

Perspectives Group provides these services:
• Educational therapy to students K-12, especially those with executive functioning weaknesses and/or complex profiles; higher-order language work for older students
• “Launch coaching” and “strategic life coaching” models for college students and adults with challenges with executive functioning, information processing or productivity
• Family consultation in a “quarterbacking” role to help translate, prioritize, align assessments and treatments and placement
• Expert testimony in the area of neurocognitive functioning and psychoeducational needs
• Speaking engagements and professional development training in areas of learning, motivation, performance

What Sets Our Group Apart
Holistic approach
We pride ourselves on a whole-person approach to helping people overcome obstacles to processing information and managing their lives. We do what we call “working on the edges” of our scope of practice, meaning that we make observations, offer early-stage strategies, make referrals and coordinate care in areas such as: sleep hygiene, nutrition, social distraction, stress management, technology behavior/abuse/addiction, trauma, medicine, vision, family communication, and others.

Our focus
We address a wide range of needs, but at our core, what we are doing is improving the information processing system, the way the brain attends to inputs, and the ways in which we engage with the brain’s primitive instincts as we try to retain and recall information.

We specialize in clients who do not fit neatly into diagnostic profiles; they tend to have features of several diagnostic profiles and yet strengths that may be atypical of those profiles. Often their academic and life demands are suited to their strengths but leave little space for their weaknesses.

We see children as young as six years old, but we are some of the only educational therapists who work with adults, in college and beyond, locally and remotely if needed. Our adult clients include young people who have struggled to succeed in college, as well as midlife adults struggling to pass professional exams due to their learning differences.

We always have an eye on every client’s next steps in life. In addition to the most immediate needs that sent the client to our office, we also monitor and address their level of preparation for a globalized economy. In addition to managing the demands of tests, research papers and life balance “in the now,” people of all ages need to develop an understanding of self, as well as the skills of self-regulation and decision-making necessary to compete in the 21st century workforce.

Our collaboration
We work hard to maintain open lines of communication within a clinical team to understand and support holistic needs (e.g. psychological, medical, self-regulatory, academic). That collaboration incorporates the development and alignment of complementary goals, the exchange of observations and critical background information, and the active reinforcement of each other’s training. This work often includes: participation on DBT and other teams, parent training to support ET goals, instructional design consultation to educators, and referrals for medical or nutritional tests or support in areas that affect cognition.

Our training
Our clinicians’ backgrounds range widely and span a collective century of experience in: cognitive/organizational psychology, clinical psychology, adult coaching, case management, teaching, crisis intervention, social problem-solving, school leadership, intervention design, & wellness.

Our model of accountability
Usually within the first three sessions, we hone SMART goals from the areas for referral. We measure ourselves on four levels of response to intervention: engagement, knowledge/learning, implementation, and results. We track session and training notes and make them available to clients and parents. We have an exit plan: we believe strongly that for nearly all clients, the long-term goal is increased academic independence, so scaffolds should be removed when they are no longer needed.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

1. It’s not just about you and your business. People may work for you because they believe in what you are doing, but that is usually not what gets them out of bed in the morning. They need to provide for their families and pursue their own career goals, which you need to keep in mind always. The moment you stop thinking about where Tyler hopes to end up in five years is the moment you lose them.

2. Don’t just pay well; talk about why you pay well.
It goes without saying that competitive compensation helps to keep people. But it’s not enough. In order to nourish intrinsic motivation as well as extrinsic, help people understand why you are paying them what you are paying them and how their skills, expertise, work ethic, openness, etc. create unique value for the organization.

3. Take people out to do things they like that provide real bonding opportunities.
So many businesses are good at happy hours and networking events, and mixers, but a lot of people do not feel comfortable drinking among their co-workers, let alone their bosses. Try organizing volunteer outings, get creative with choices among spa days, game/poker nights, cooking classes, etc. Create annual traditions for the business but do things all year round, especially in drearier times of the year (not only in December).

4. Create policies that protect people’s time.
This is so important. Most people who work for you have likely worked someplace that did not clearly communicate that it valued their time and now is your chance to set yourself apart, create a new experience for them and build mutual appreciation. PTO is always appreciated, as is less formal time off for dentist appointments, kids’ plays, etc. and many organizations are experimenting with partial WFO weeks. Set boundaries on the demands clients can make of your team. Provide clear guidelines about expectations for answering email and texts outside of business hours. Establish times when they are either expected not to work or paid additionally if they work.

5. Set attainable goals they can meet and discuss how they attained them.
Work collaboratively with an employee periodically (somewhere between annually and quarterly) to develop goals for that person’s professional growth, as well as for his reports and his department(s). Make sure their individual goals are aligned with the department’s and the organization’s – it is actually a wonderful opportunity to gain mutual clarity on the expectations and directions of the company or divisions within it. Include goals that you know they are likely to meet and then discuss what actions, steps, behaviors, mindsets helped them meet those goals. Use that time to check in informally on any requests or wish lists your employees have.

6. Be strategic about the timing and setting of praise.
No more than 30% of praise should be general, e.g. “Sydney is an incredibly hard worker,” and focus instead on more specific accomplishments, e.g. “Under Sydney’s leadership, the team has consistently met its goals and its members report feeling that they attain life balance most of the time.” Encourage people to praise their team members in front of you or other higher ups. For your part, praise people publicly when you are able to do so genuinely. Highlight specific personal/professional expertise, talents, and style that set apart people with the same position, not to elevate one above the rest but to highlight the beautiful benefits of their unique background and approach to the work.

7. Set up time and space in an office setting that allows people to share information and learn from each other. Since COVID (and to a degree, before it), the strong push to allow people to work from home has seemed like a win-win as companies saved money on office space and workers were able to attend to their personal lives more immediately. The losses from that trend are nebulous and hard to measure but impactful: the sense of belonging deteriorated and people stopped learning from one another informally. There are neurobiological changes that occur when people are near one another in person. Be mindful and creative about how and when you do it, but require people to show up in person together.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

When I first started this work, I thought my handle on teenaged rejection of authority would result in easy success in my work on motivation and behavior. I think I had to unlearn the “I can do anything” lesson, along with the lesson I was taught that when you are passionately committed to the idea that “every child can learn,” you can inspire anyone in any situation to meet any expectations.

The need to unlearn this lesson isn’t as cynical as it sounds. Of course every child – and adult and system and organization – can learn. But at the very beginning of my career, I had been sending the message to parents that said something along the lines of, “Don’t worry – one month with me and your kid will love learning!” Not surprisingly, the inadvertent overpromising and unrealistic expectations resulted in disappointment, frustration, and misaligned perceptions of the work we were doing, as I started to realize that a person’s cognitive and behavioral habits were multifactorial. While I think the reasons for my error were more idealistic than narcissistic, there was surely an arrogance to my lack of awareness of what I did not yet know. (Ironically, this same egomaniacal misconception seems to be what drives the cringe-worthy yet often successful branding of all the unqualified coaches and helpers out there.).

I have since developed a more nuanced understanding of the attitudes with which people approach this work and have become better attuned to necessity to set and measure clear and reasonable expectations. It is a collaborative process but over these years, I’ve come to recognize myself as an expert (by now I’ve earned some of the immodesty!) whose job it is to help people understand the discomfort and openness to change that the work will entail. A person who struggles with productivity so severely that they need to invest significant time and money into meeting with a coach is not likely to be an “easy case.” Contrary to what many people believe initially, most people who struggle with executive functioning do not “just need to learn some strategies” and then things will be fine. The people with whom we work often struggle with trauma, depression, anxiety, health issues, or crises of personality development that complicate and exacerbate their executive functioning struggles. In order to help people set and meet goals, they need to understand what they are up against and begin to tease out which of their processes serve and which undermine their efforts, as well as to accept certain aspects of their minds that are likely permanent parts of themselves.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.perspectivesgroup.co
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karolina-claxton/
• Other: We took down our website to revise it. It will be back online in the next 1-2 weeks.

Image Credits
Trapeze photo taken at Richie Gaona’s Trapeze Workshop “TED” event photo taken at Windward School event The rest were from a shoot we commissioned for our own use.