Meet Megan Rutel | Behavior Analyst & practice owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Megan Rutel and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Megan, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I used to work for a really big company and being a mom of two (at the time) and having just gone through the burnout associated with being in healthcare during Covid, I knew something had to change. I took 18 months off of work so that I could focus on recovering from extreme burnout and be emotionally present for my young children. Then, I got pregnant with my third. After she was born, I knew I eventually wanted to return to the field, but working for a large company was out of the question. I needed something flexible, that I could mostly do from home when I am not out seeing clients. My kids are my number one priority, and I wanted to be able to be more present in their lives. In addition, there are so many changes going on right now inside of my field. I started to find that my values were no longer aligned with many of the big companies in my area. As I really listened to the voices within the neurodiversity movement and began to change the way I practice, there wasn’t a single company in the area that I felt was doing the same thing. So, really, I formed my own company so that I can live my life in accordance with my own personal values both as a mother and professionally.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Much like anyone else who enters a healthcare field, I went into my field to help others. However, I quickly came to realize upon completion of my masters degree, that there were countless autistic individuals who took issue with the field for some completely justified reasons. As I began to get curious about these individuals experiences, I couldn’t help but question everything that I had learned. When Covid hit, it only added fuel to my already intense dissatisfaction. I felt so discontented because personally, I had began the process of aligning my beliefs about how I wanted to practice with neurodiversity affirming practices but the sad reality is that its hard to change the way you practice when you are operating within a much larger organization who is not changing alongside you. After a while, I finally gained the courage I needed to put in my resignation. I took a year and a half off and really just used that time to heal from intense burnout and explore my personal values. As I began to get clear on what my values were, I was able to begin taking some huge steps to align my life with those values. Thus Kids Thrive, PLLC was born. A company that prioritizes neurodiversity affirming practices, and collaboration with related healthcare providers (SLP’s, OT’s, etc). We are a company who prioritizes parent coaching as we believe that when parents are well equipped to handle their everyday stressors, the whole family unit functions so much better. Kids Thrive is also different in that we don’t use a tiered model which is most common within the field. Typically, a behavior analyst will oversee a case and then behavior technicians, with very minimal training will implement the day to day therapy. At Kids Thrive we value high quality serves, therefore, the clinicians with the highest qualifications are the one’s providing both parent coaching and direct therapy as clinically indicated. We are a small company and prioritize quality of services over everything else. I’d rather have fewer clients that are served exceptionally well, than a lot of clients who are receiving subpar services. At Kids Thrive we focus on play-based, child-led therapy and we strive to form connected relationships with our clients. We are working hard to overthrow the typical deficits based mindset that dominates healthcare spaces in favor of a strengths-based model that emphasizes the social model of disability. The social model of disability views disability as the result of the interaction between people living with impairments and an environment filled with physical, attitudinal, communication, and social barriers. This model allows us to not see the individual as the one who needs to change, but rather the environment in which the person is operating in needs to change. At Kids Thrive we focus on removing barriers so that the individual is able to participate in life in a way that they find most meaningful.

Alongside my work establishing my practice has come an unexpected role of advocacy. On instagram, you can find me regularly posting to my (mostly clinical) audience fervently advocating for change within our field. In addition to this, I am in the process of dreaming up some continuing education content and hope to release some CE’s to clinicians within the field over the next year. I’ve also recently enrolled in leveling classes to go back to school for speech language pathology. My ultimate dream is to be a dually certified clinician (SLP/Behavior Analyst)

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
When friends come to visit, one of my favorite places to take them is Hard Eight BBQ in The Colony. We have lots of friends and family that don’t live in Texas so it’s fun to give them a Texas BBQ experience and there is no place better than Hard Eight. We also love to take them to Harvest Hall in Grapevine. It’s a really cool old train station turned upscale food court. After a meal at Harvest Hall, downtown Grapevine is really fun to explore with lots of boutiques and cute outdoor spaces. In the summer we love to hit Hawaiian Falls in Roanoke. The Fort Worth zoo is also really fun to explore. My family loves it so much we have passes and go about once a month.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I could absolutely not be where I am today without the unwavering support of my husband. He is also a business owner and has a creative agency called Creative Nomads. His company focuses on branding solutions for non-profits. He launched his business right before Covid and we have lived through the hardships associated with Covid and learned a lot of valuable business lessons over the last 3.5 years. He was able to develop my website, logo, and anything else I needed. He has cheered me on from the beginning encouraging me to pursue the person God has created me to be and his belief in my abilities has given me the courage to make the leap into business ownership.

Website: www.kidsthrive.co

Instagram: @kidsthrivetx