When Imposter Syndrome Shows Up in Pediatric Feeding Therapy (and What to Do Next)

After each session, I want you to ask, like, what works? What didn't? What will I do differently next time? Each time you do this, you're going to build speed, you're going to build intuition. It's going to become easier, right? That, my friends, is how you go from anxious to aligned and from doubting yourself to diagnosing and assessing with confidence. If you've ever looked at another therapist confidently treating feeding and thought, I could never do that, this episode is for you. Because I was you. And today I'm pulling back the curtain on how I became a pediatric feeding therapist, the roadmap I wish I had when I started, and how to overcome that imposter syndrome that tries to keep you small. This is your 2026 feeding therapy roadmap and your reminder that you're absolutely capable of becoming the confident feeding therapist that your clients need.

Welcome to the Untethered Podcast. I am your host, Holly Balkan. I'm a certified myofunctional therapist, feeding specialist, podcaster, business owner and mentor. This podcast is all about getting your questions answered and collaborating with colleagues to bring you the most up to date information in the orofacial myofunctional therapy, airway, tetheral tissue and pediatric feeding therapy space. If you're new here, I challenge you to keep an open mind and join my mission to spread this message far and wide.

If you've been around since June 2019.

Thanks for being a loyal listener as we jump into today's episode. Remember to listen with correct oral rest posture, tongue up, lips closed, teeth apart.

Breathe through your nose.

Let's get started.

Let's rewind to where this all started because I definitely didn't begin my career as a feeding therapist. I started out as a speech therapist in the schools and I loved the work that I was doing, especially like early language and all that. But then, you know, I saw that kids were struggling with more then communication. I also had a entire caseload of kids dropped onto my lap unexpectedly. I had asked to work with feeding cases. They said we don't do that in this school. Somebody went on a maternity leave and all of a sudden I had 12 kids added to my caseload that I didn't have the week prior. And they all had feeding goals and I was like okay. Anyways, fast forward. I went. I worked in the schools for a couple years. I went to infants and toddlers and then when my contract was done I left. And so I took a little time off and then moved into private practice. And in private practice I pretty quickly Started seeing some of the same patterns that I saw when I was working with kids in the schools. Drooling, open mouth posture, picky eating, difficulty, chewing, like, all signs of something deeper. Okay. And I realized, I actually had already realized this, that no one had taught me feeding. Not in grad school, not in my, you know, not in my school job. And so when I was working in the schools, I was already like, researching and shadowing and starting to take courses that I could find. And I discovered that feeding therapy was the missing link, right? That connected everything I loved. Function, airway, oral motor, and impact. Although arguably it was lower airway, not upper airway, which came later when I got into the MYO world. But I opened up my own private practice focused on speech, feeding, tepidural tissues. And we did do some early language stuff. Other people on my team, not me. And that's really when things really took off. But I remember that, like, first, like, full on feeding case, right? Because my heart was racing. I was second guessing everything that I was doing and I was like, who am I like to handle a case like this, right? Spoiler alert. My confidence came after I took action, not before. And that is what I want for you, right? I want you to stop waiting until you feel ready and start building the identity of a feeding therapist one step at a time. Okay, so how do you actually become a pediatric feeding therapist? Like, that was a big question in my head. There was no guidance, no roadmap. It was like I piecemeal those together. I spent 10, honestly spent probably more than $10,000 and was still confused at the end of it because took all these different courses and, and so here's the roadmap that I wish someone had handed me 10 years ago. All right, step one. Well, this is going to be four steps. So let's just say the four step feeding therapy roadmap. Okay, so step one, foundations, right? And it's, it's. I've got the four Fs here. You're going to see me. I've started to realize I have a lot of like, systems and everything I do. And so you're going to probably start hearing me talk a little bit more in systematized type of language, giving you steps and things like that. Because in the past I just talk and my ADHD brain just. Things just work like that. And we've started to realize that I tend to say a lot of things, like a lot of the same things. And so we're putting some frameworks or roadmaps or systems to things so anyways, this one is like the four Fs of, you know, the feeding therapy roadmap, okay? Foundation, function, framework, and flow. So the foundation, number one is understanding the systems. You have to learn how oral motor skills, sensory, posture, and airway systems connect, right? You start observing, like, what compensations do you see in the mouth, in the jaw, in the body, right? Then you got to build your knowledge around why feeding breaks down. Not just, like, how to treat it, but, like, why is it even breaking down in the first place? If we don't know what typical is and we don't understand how we're deviating from typical, how do we know what to treat sports? Spoiler alert. We don't, right? So one, that's the foundation, like understanding the systems. Number two is function, right? We need to learn. We need to learn to assess, not guess. So feeding therapy, it's like being a detective, right? And we develop, you know, functional observation skills over time, especially with the right mentors, right? How does this child move? How do they eat, breathe, swallow? And then we can use frameworks. Like I mentioned, we're going to have all different kinds of frameworks. I recently talked about my functional diagnosis model a couple of episodes ago. Maybe it was more than a couple episodes ago at this point, but anyways. And that helps us connect our symptoms to root causes, right? Because we don't want to go chasing techniques. We need to learn, you know, how to reason clinically. And one of the things that I see is everybody comes out of every course, they're like, I want more exercises. And we. We give you exercises. We talk about them. But also, you're not going to use everything on every child. And you really don't need a hundred different exercises to use. You really just need a small arsenal, if you will, like a small tool box of tools. And that includes some exercises and some techniques. But it's not like, what I find is that so many of you are technique chasers. You're like, I just need another exercise. I need another technique for when the other one doesn't work. Let's. Let's reason and think critically. Reason clinically and think critically. All right? Okay. Number three, here is the framework, and that is practicing with support. Okay? The fastest way to grow is mentorship. We know that. So you need to get into supervision. Group mentorship Programs like Feed the Pizza give you structure and feedback and case review. And you're going to learn more by doing, with guidance than by endlessly watching webinars and online courses and all that fun stuff. Which, hi, I sell these things. But they're, they're, they're courses that are paired with guidance and mentorship. And that is what you need in order for these courses that we are required to take for continuing ed, in order for them to be worth our time and to make sense and to be applicable to our patients. Hi. You need to be doing it with guidance. Okay? Confidence, my friends, is going to compound when you have someone confirming you're on the right track. How do I know? We've had thousands of clinicians go through our programs and thousands of clinicians that could tell you this is exactly their experience. Because how do I know? Because they have. All right, number four is flow. And this is where you start to build your confidence through repetition, right? And so, look, start with simpler cases. If you can reflect on what's working and what's not working. Repeat, learn, adjust. Over time, your brain is going to build pattern recognition that's going to make things click. And you're going to move from like, oh, gosh, I hope I'm doing this right. To like, okay, I have an idea, a pretty solid idea of what this kid needs. Like, I know what this child needs, right? And people always say to me, holly, like, how is it you can literally just look at that kid and kind of know what's going on? Because the moment I see the kids start moving, breathing, like, I am taking in all this information holistically across the whole body of this child, and I'm able to go, oh, all right. I want to look in the mouth. Also want to see how they sit. I wonder if their mouth is open when they're sleeping. I start asking questions in my head. Why? Because I've done this over and over again. Repetition, right? My confidence was built through repetition. Okay? So this roadmap is not theory, my friends. It is exactly how thousands of clinicians inside feed the peas and our other programs have built their confidence and they have launched into becoming pediatric feeding therapists. Whether they are launching feeding practices themselves, whether they're working for somebody else. That's not what I'm talking about here. And yes, some have been able to launch very successful private practices. The point is, this is how they're launching into being the specialist they desire to be and truly helping the children make progress. Okay, so now what I want to focus on is the elephant in the room, because this comes up a lot whenever I'm doing my three day pediatric feeding training, my three day free training, which we have one coming up. So it's later this month. So the point that I want to make here, that I want to share with you, is that we need to look at everybody around us. Every single therapist that you look up to, colleagues, educators in the pediatric feeding space started out feeling completely unqualified. Imposter syndrome does not mean you're not ready. It actually means you're growing, you're stretching. Like, it's that uncomfy feeling of doing something new. Right? Your brain is trying to keep you safe by keeping you in what's familiar. And so the antidote here isn't like, more studying. It's getting those clinical reps in. Right? But with support, with mentorship. Right? And you're gonna build belief through evidence. One successful session, one client win, one affirmation from a mentor, right at a time. And confidence is cumulative, my friends. So if you're waiting for confidence to come before you start, you are going to be waiting forever. And most of you are probably sitting here going, oh, yeah, I've been. Takeoff is going to start for the past five years or two years or past three months or ten years or whatever. I've taken all these courses, and I'm still not working with feeding cases, but I want to. Confidence comes from starting. All right, so how do you actually build confidence step by step? One, learn it once, deeply. Like, don't scatter across 10 courses. Pick one comprehensive program and commit to it. Okay? Number two, apply it immediately. Use what you learn on real cases right away. Number three, reflect. After each session, I want you to ask, like, what? What worked? What didn't? What will I do differently next time? And number four, get feedback. Ask a mentor or community you know that you're in to review your plan or video. Obviously, keep it HIPAA compliant. Number five, repeat each time you do this. You're going to build speed. You're going to build intuition. It's going to become easier. Right? That, my friends, is how you go from anxious to aligned and from doubting yourself to diagnosing and assessing. You know, assessing, diagnosing, and treating with confidence. Okay? So as we step into this new year, which has already begun, I want to challenge you in 2026 to claim your next identity. Not someday, not when you feel ready, but now, today, in this moment. Because the only difference between the feeding therapist you are today and the confident one you want to be is reps, mentorship, and belief, my friends. Okay? So if 2026 is your year to finally specialize in pediatric feeding, I want you to get on the feed the peeds wait list right now@feedthepeds.com enrollment is going to open soon, but first we're going to do our free three day training at the end of this month. You'll be the first to know about all the things, right? If you're on the feedthepeds.com wait list, this is a new year, new specialty. Or maybe you're just going to specialize finally in the thing that you want to specialize in, that you've been dabbling in, right? Your roadmap is waiting, my friends, so come and join me. I promise you, it is so rewarding and we need so many more pediatric feeding therapists, so I can't wait to see you in there owning your identity. All right, see you guys soon.

Quick Disclaimer all information, content and material of this podcast are the opinions of the speakers and is for the informational purpose only and not intended to serve as a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis and or medical treatment of a qualified healthcare provider. Thanks for listening to this podcast. If you found value in this episode and want to hear more of these Myotots, Airway and Feeding related episodes, be sure to leave a review on Apple Podcasts and share this episode on your social media platforms. You can access free resources and all I offer@halliebalkin.com or pop over to Holly Balkan on Instagram to get all the latest updates.