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

Hi Neta, thanks for joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I have been a pediatric acupuncturist specializing in sensory processing and emotional regulation (which is often a sensory issue), fore over 17 years. Working in private practices and at Stanford Children’s’ Hospital . During COVID, my practice filled with children suffering from anxiety, depression, impaired social skills, and parents were helpless, relying on long waitlists for pediatric therapists. I wanted to empower parents, and provide them with tools to help their children by creating a language of E-motions that would allow them to communicate openly about emotions, come up with coping skills and all through – PLAY!

My goal was to have play based tools that kids would easily connect with. The most inclusive characters I could come up with was the 5 elements within us: Wood – represented by “Ryangry”, fire – represented by “Dramamia”, earth – represented by “Pleasington”, metal – represented by “Perfectron” and water – represented by “Fearolina”.

As reserved as parents could be, when presented in the clinic with such games, they immediately stepped up and became role models for demonstrating emotions. communication, even acting skills! and so upon our relocation to Austin, 2 years ago, I began officially creating games and activities and even printing them locally – right here in Austin! Since the, My E-motions ahve been used by schools, counselors, therapist, teachers and parents

Neta, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I grew up with a brother who suffered from a genetic disease, he was always surrounded by a team of practitioners. In my eyes, they were all angels! I knew I also wanted to help kids, when I grow up. We also did not have an open communication at home, so I promised myself, it will be different when I have my own family. it was actually a very long journey to get there, but eventually – I did. After taking a “detour” through the world of hi-tech, I finally realized I wanted to work with people, specifically the little ones! So I began with Chinese medicine and Shiatsu, became a teaching assistant and continued with specialization in pediatrics. The fear kids had with using needles led me to seek more tools and I discovered ways to to work with kids without any needles! The next step was to dig deeper into the root cause of things and that is how I got into using Kinesiology and sensitivities. From there to digging deeper into sensory processing was a natural progress and that led me to emotional regulation which very often is a sensory issue!
When we relocated to Austin, I decided to split my time between my practice which now became mostly telehealth (but not only!) and into creating games and activities to help kids master the language of E-motions! Through playing with their family, educators, practitioners, they can mimic healthy communication, learn coping skills, empathy, social skills, and so much more!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When we relocated to California 11 years ago, my dream was to work at Stanford Children’s Hospital. My first challenge was to get a professional license in California which seemed impossible at first. Later seemed very time consuming and expensive and for a minute I actually considered going back to hi-tech! But after that minute it hit me – it’s my destiny to stay on the healing path, and although I just had my twins, I pursued that license. Later I was able to approach the hospital and get myself an interview. And it worked.. or did it…? The clinic wanted me to begin but the administration could not officially open the position. To keep a long story short, it took me 3 years, and when I began working there it was such a sweet victory to will-power.

Have you ever had to pivot?

When COVID lockdowns hit, I felt very luck that I had already began doing telehealth 2 years prior, for patients that have moved away. So the transition was going very well (although I did return to work face-to-face) but it was an opportunity to save people the drive if they chose to. My bigger challenge was actually to give lectures and workshops online, as the human interaction is such an important factor in these events. But overcoming the awkwardness was not as difficult as when I first began public speaking… I used to have the worst stage fright but I made myself practice and give lectures and workshops in case someday I would have something to teach, I didn’t want this fear to stand in my way. Little did I know I will have so much to teach, and grow to love teaching!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mye-motions.com/ and https://sensorybalancing.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/my.e.motions/ and https://www.instagram.com/sensory_balancing_neta_shani/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MyEmotionsmonsters
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neta-shani-85724497/

Image Credits
Gosia Domas for the profile pictures