The Untethered Podcast™
by Hallie Bulkin
Hosted by Hallie Bulkin, a Certified Myofunctional Therapist™ (CMT®), Feeding Specialist and Speech Therapist, The Untethered Podcast™ focuses on the latest research and clinical evidence in Myofunctional Therapy, Tethered Oral Tissues (TOTs, AKA Tongue Tie, etc), Airway and Pediatric Feeding. Produced with both providers and parents in mind, episodes include interviews with experts, personal stories from parents, and Q&A from our listeners.
Episodes
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Scope of Practice vs. Clinical Competence: Are You Prepared to Treat?
Just because a clinical intervention falls within your legal scope of practice does not automatically mean you possess the clinical competence to execute it safely and effectively. In a field as fast-evolving as pediatric feeding, airway health, and myofunctional therapy, confusing scope with...
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Connect Before You Correct: Rethinking Patient-Centered Care with Dr. Catherine Murphy
Healthcare is undergoing a radical paradigm shift. For orthodontists, pediatric therapists, and airway specialists, delivering transformative patient care requires moving far beyond basic mechanical interventions to treat the whole patient - and their family’s underlying nervous system…
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Tongue Ties Revisited: Why Not All Ties Need Release
In a digital age where social media posts and quick photos often drive clinical discussions, it is easy to mistake an anatomic tether for a definitive diagnosis. However, looking at a static picture of a lingual frenulum tells you almost nothing about how that tongue functions in real time during...
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What I Was Missing in Feeding Therapy: ARFID, Airway, and Myo with Samy Hernandez
When pediatric therapists treat feeding and speech in isolation, critical underlying root causes are easily overlooked. From jaw instability and retained primitive reflexes to phonological processes that are actually unaddressed motor speech deficits, true clinical progress requires an…
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92507 Is Ending: How to Bill Speech and Feeding Together with 92526 in 2027
Navigating healthcare billing is about to undergo a massive structural shift. For speech-language pathologists, feeding therapists, and private practice owners, the sunsetting of long-standing core CPT codes requires proactive preparation, documentation adjustments, and clear system updates. In...
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Oral Motor and Airway Red Flags in the First Two Years with Mackenzie Shiba
When a baby struggles with infant feeding, weight gain, or subtle airway restrictions, parents are frequently told to "wait and see." Yet, waiting often turns minor early red flags into complex speech, feeding, and oral-motor challenges down the road. In this episode, Hallie Bulkin sits down with...
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Kids Are Not Small Adults: Why Pediatric Feeding Isn't Adult Dysphagia Scaled Down
One of the biggest hurdles clinicians face when transitioning into pediatric feeding therapy is realizing that traditional graduate coursework and isolated weekend seminars often leave massive gaps in clinical application. Too many training programs treat pediatric feeding as if it were simply...
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What’s Really Driving the Feeding Challenge? Looking Beyond the Symptoms
In this episode, Hallie Bulkin sits down with Shayla Bollman, MA, CCC-SLP, CPFT, CLC, to discuss her journey as a pediatric speech-language pathologist and how earning her Certified Pediatric Feeding Therapist (CPFT) credential transformed her clinical evaluation process, treatment approach, and...
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Strategies vs. A Plan: Why Feeding Therapy Feels Like Guesswork
When feeding therapy stalls, it is rarely because a clinician lacks exercises - it is usually because intervention began before the child’s foundational systems were fully understood. Trying to fix oral-motor mechanics without addressing postural stability, airway integrity, or sensory overload…
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Beyond Tonsils & Adenoids: Digging Deeper Into the Pediatric Airway
When a child presents with sleep-disordered breathing, chronic mouth breathing, or persistent feeding challenges, evaluating the upper airway becomes a top priority. However, determining when conservative management is sufficient versus when surgical intervention - like a tonsillectomy or...
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What Myofunctional and Feeding Therapists Need to Know About Scope, Coding, and Documentation
For many speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, and myofunctional providers, billing and documentation feel like navigating an ever-shifting maze. Between selecting appropriate CPT codes, justifying medical necessity, and adhering to strict scope-of-practice guidelines, clinicians...
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Beyond the Appliance: How MARPE Changes Breathing, Sleep, Speech, and Function
Maxillary expansion isn't just an orthodontic intervention - for adults navigating narrow palates, compromised airways, and chronic TMJ dysfunction, it can be a total health transformation. In this episode, Hallie Bulkin sits down with Jeannie Nelson, MS, CCC-SLP, to share an unfiltered…
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Seeing It vs. Understanding It: The Gap in Myo Training
Taking a weekend course can make you see tongue posture, restricted movement, and mouth breathing everywhere you look. But recognizing a pattern is vastly different from truly understanding it. In this solo episode, Hallie Bulkin addresses "The Myo Gap" - the space between noticing an isolated...
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The Hidden Link Between the Pelvic Floor, Breathing & Constipation
When we think about core stability, digestive efficiency, or functional breathing patterns, we rarely consider the foundational muscle group resting at the base of our pelvis. Yet, pelvic floor health directly dictates everything from diaphragmatic excursion to bowel regularity, posture, and...
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Why Some Cases Stay Stuck: The Clinical Thinking That Changes Outcomes
When a child walks into your clinic presenting with a tongue thrust, a high-arched palate, or a complex feeding delay, what is your immediate clinical instinct? Is it to reach for a specific exercise in your toolkit, or is it to zoom out and analyze how the entire system is functioning together?…
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Mouth Breathing vs. Nasal Breathing: Changing Lives Through Early Airway Intervention
When a child exhibits behavioral challenges, facial recession, or struggles with sleep, the root cause is frequently hiding in plain sight: their breathing habits. Unfortunately, these vital signs of compromised airway health are often overlooked by traditional medical models. In this episode,...
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Screening vs. Assessment vs. Treatment: Why Every Clinician Needs to Know the Difference
As therapists, it is easy to fall into the trap of protocol-based treatment—treating a clinical diagnosis like a strict recipe book. But true, transformative patient care requires us to step back from the "cookbook" approach and lean heavily into intentional clinical reasoning and pattern...
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How Root Cause Assessment Changes Feeding and Speech Outcomes
When a child presents with complex speech or feeding challenges, it’s easy to focus solely on the surface-level behaviors. But true, long-lasting transformation happens when we dig deeper to look inside the mouth and assess the underlying muscle function. In this episode, Hallie sits down with...
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Myo 101 for Feeding Therapists: Why You're Already Doing It (And How to Do It Better)
When a child struggles with swallowing, chewing, or food transitions, our first instinct is often to look directly at traditional feeding strategies. But what if the missing piece of the puzzle isn't the food itself, but the foundational resting posture and function of the orofacial muscles? In...
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Why Great Therapy Starts With Better Parent Conversations
As pediatric therapists, we know that our time with a child is only one small piece of the puzzle. Real, lasting progress happens when parents and caregivers feel confident carrying strategies into everyday family life. Yet, navigating parent communication can sometimes feel like its own clinical...
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Am I Looking at a Feeding Problem or an Airway Problem?
When a child struggles with feeding, it’s easy to get laser-focused on oral-motor exercises or sensory strategies. But what if the root cause isn't a lack of coordination, but a struggle to breathe? In this solo episode, Hallie Bulkin dives deep into a critical, yet frequently missed, component…
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Dr. Richard Baxter on How to Know If a Tongue Tie Is Really the Problem
When looking into tethered oral tissues, it is easy to focus entirely on visual structural appearance. However, judging a restriction by looks alone frequently misses the true clinical picture. Real progress happens when healthcare providers shift the diagnostic paradigm away from what a tie…
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How My Son’s Down Syndrome Diagnosis Changed Me as a Feeding Therapist
Making the leap from a school-based setting into a specialized pediatric feeding niche is an incredible professional transformation. But what happens when that career pivot collides with your own deeply personal parenting journey? In this episode, Hallie sits down with Aerica Walsh, M.S.…
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Is the Tethered Oral Tissue the Problem or Just Part of It?
Navigating the world of tethered oral tissues (TOTs) can often feel like wading through murky waters. With so much conflicting information out there, it’s incredibly easy for clinicians to fall into the trap of letting a visual anatomical structure dictate their entire treatment plan. But looking...
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From Guessing to Growth: How a Clear Framework Transformed My Practice
If you’ve ever felt like you were "guessing" your way through a feeding session, you aren’t alone. In fact, many clinicians enter the field with a passion for OT or SLP, only to realize their foundational schooling barely scratched the surface of pediatric feeding. In this episode, Hallie is…
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When You Screen a Child and Think 'Now What?
In this solo episode, Hallie Bulkin dives deep into a common pitfall in pediatric feeding therapy: treating red flags as a diagnosis rather than a starting point. Many clinicians feel the pressure to jump straight into treatment the moment a concern is raised, but skipping the foundational steps...
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Why Your CFY Doesn’t Prepare You for Feeding Therapy (And What Actually Does)
In this interview episode, Abigail Kemp shares her honest journey through her Clinical Fellowship Year (CFY) and into the world of pediatric feeding therapy. Like many new clinicians, Abigail quickly realized that academic knowledge alone wasn’t enough—especially when faced with the complexity of...
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The 4 Layers of Feeding: How to Finally Know Where to Start
In this solo episode, Hallie Bulkin dives deep into the "noise" of complex feeding therapy. When a child presents with multiple overlapping issues, it’s easy for clinicians to feel stuck. Hallie explains why the secret to better outcomes isn't working harder or using more strategies - it’s...
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When the Clinician Becomes the Patient
In the ever-evolving world of motherhood, the journey through breastfeeding can often be fraught with challenges. In this episode, Hallie Bulkin and Tamari Jacob (CLC, founder of One With The Pump) share their personal experiences with exclusive pumping—a path less traveled but deeply impactful…
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Why Thumb Sucking Isn't the Problem (And What Is)
Is a thumb-sucking habit just a "phase," or is it a survival mechanism? In this episode, Hallie Bulkin breaks down the often-misunderstood world of oral habits in infants and toddlers. Moving beyond the traditional "just make them stop" approach, Hallie explores how frequency, duration, and...
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The Appliance Trap: Why “One-Size-Fits-All” Myo Solutions Fail
The world of myofunctional therapy is currently seeing a surge in "preformed appliances"—ready-made mouthpieces designed to guide dental growth and improve breathing. But are they a silver bullet or a systemic shortcut? In this episode, Hallie Bulkin is joined by the legendary Autumn Henning to...
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Unlocking the Power of Breath: The Buteyko Method in Speech Therapy
The foundation of health isn't just how we move or eat—it’s how we breathe. In this milestone episode, Hallie Bulkin is joined by certified practitioner Kaitlyn Shrum to pull back the curtain on the Buteyko Method. While many view breathing as a passive act, this deep dive reveals how functional...
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Don’t Ignore the Snore: The Hidden Link Between Airway, Sleep, and ADHD
Hallie Bulkin dives deep into one of the most misunderstood areas of airway health: the intricate relationship between sleep, airway dysfunction, and ADHD-like behaviors. Hallie shares her personal journey with ADHD, revealing how unrecognized sleep disorders can severely impact neurocognitive...
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Tongue Ties, Oral Habits & the Future of Airway Health
In this episode, we continue our deep dive into the world of airway-focused dentistry with Dr. Casey Jones. Moving beyond the traditional dental drill, Dr. Jones shares her transformative journey into sleep disorders and the "wellness collaborative" model. We explore why breath is the ultimate...
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Why Two Therapists Get Different Feeding Outcomes (And How to Fix It)
In this episode of The Untethered Podcast, Hallie Bulkin tackles a question many feeding specialists quietly wrestle with: Why can two therapists treat the same child — and achieve completely different outcomes? The answer isn’t more techniques. It’s clinical reasoning. Hallie dives into the...
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Building a Medically Complex Feeding Practice
In this episode of The Untethered Podcast, Hallie Bulkin sits down with Beth R Poe, MA, CCC-SLP , a certified pediatric feeding therapist and the founder of Way to Grow Therapy. Beth shares her inspiring transition from clinical certification to the launch of her own private practice, proving…
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Mouth Breathing in Toddlers Why It Matters
In this episode of The Untethered Podcast, Hallie Bulkin exposes the "hidden" red flag that most people dismiss as just a bad habit: mouth breathing. Far from being just a look, it’s a functional crisis that can silently derail a toddler’s feeding development, destroy sleep quality, and even...
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Elevating Your Clinical Impact in Pediatric Feeding Therapy
In this episode of The Untethered Podcast, Hallie Bulkin is joined by Melanie Peacock Shell to explore the deep shift from being a “therapist” to becoming a Certified Pediatric Feeding Therapist (CPFT). Melanie pulls back the curtain on the "hidden gem" of the Pediatric Feeding Hub, sharing how...
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Why We Can’t Ignore the Airway in Pediatric Feeding Therapy
In this episode of The Untethered Podcast, Hallie Bulkin dives deep into the non-negotiable link between how a child breathes and how they eat. This conversation provides the essential clinical "missing link" for pediatric therapy: The Airway. Hallie challenges the idea that mouth breathing is...
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What Helps Pediatric Feeding Therapists Gain Confidence in Practice
In this episode of The Untethered Podcast, Hallie Bulkin sits down with Kelly Wenger to explore the evolution of a pediatric feeding clinician. Kelly shares her raw and relatable journey—from the initial overwhelm of entering private practice as a new mother to finding her voice as a confident...
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Chewing Patterns Matter More Than Picky Eating
In this episode of The Untethered Podcast, Hallie Bulkin dives into the intricate world of pediatric eating behaviors, pulling back the curtain on why "picky eating" is often a symptom of a much deeper developmental gap. Many caregivers and clinicians feel stuck when a child refuses certain…
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Why Pediatric Feeding Therapy Feels So Hard and What’s Been Missing
In this episode of The Untethered Podcast, Hallie Bulkin sits down with Cheryl Pelletier ,M.S., CCC-SLP to discuss the essential infrastructure of a successful career in feeding therapy: mentorship, community, and the courage to evolve. Many clinicians feel like they are on an island when...
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When Imposter Syndrome Shows Up in Pediatric Feeding Therapy (and What to Do Next)
In this episode of The Untethered Podcast, Hallie Bulkin addresses one of the most common challenges clinicians face when entering pediatric feeding therapy: imposter syndrome. Many speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, and physical therapists feel unqualified or “not ready” to...
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How Pediatric Feeding Changed in 2025—and What It Means for Clinicians
In this episode, Hallie Bulkin breaks down one of the biggest shifts in pediatric feeding therapy over the past year: the growing recognition that feeding and airway are inseparable. In 2025, feeding therapy evolved beyond skills at the table. Clinicians are now expected to screen breathing...
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Why Feeding Therapy Needs a Whole-Body Lens
In this episode, Hallie Bulkin speaks with Dr. Alyssa Welch, PT, DPT about the vital role of interprofessional collaboration in achieving optimal patient outcomes, particularly for speech-language pathologists (SLPs). Dr. Alyssa Welch, PT, DPT emphasizes that working alongside occupational...
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Tongue Tie Diagnosis: Why Function Matters More Than Appearance
In this episode, Hallie Bulkin addresses what she calls "one of the most misunderstood topics in our field" : tongue tie diagnosis. She challenges the common clinical practice of relying on visual assessment—hearing clinicians say, "it looks tied" or "it's a mild tie"—and emphatically states that...
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Ep 350: Sleep Struggles This Season? The Surprising Role of Tethered Oral Tissues
In this episode, Hallie Bulkin discusses the complexities surrounding tethered oral tissues, specifically tongue ties, lip ties, and buckle ties. She emphasizes that not all ties require surgical release and that the decision should be based on functional impacts such as speech, feeding, and…
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EP 349: Myofunctional Therapy Explained: Root Causes, Airway Health & Collaborative Care
In this empowering episode, Hallie Bulkin sits down with Angela Richwine, RDH, BASc, QOM, COM®, to dive deep into the world of myofunctional therapy and collaboration in healthcare. Angela opens up about her personal journey into the field, the pivotal moments that shaped her practice, and how…
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EP 348: Tongue Ties, Sleep Apnea & More: The Patient-Centered Approach to Airway Dentistry
In this engaging conversation, Hallie Bulkin and Kassi Klein explore the intricate world of airway dentistry, discussing Kassi's personal journey into the field, the importance of understanding craniofacial development, and the need for a patient-centered approach that focuses on the underlying...
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Ep 347: Airway First: The Pediatric Dentist's Essential Role in Treating Tongue Ties and Growth Issues
In this episode, Hallie Bulkin welcomes special guest Dr. Anita Gouri, a board-certified pediatric dentist, to dive deep into the critical, often-missed connection between pediatric dentistry and a child's overall airway health and development. Dr. Gouri shares her personal journey into airway…
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About this show
Hosted by Hallie Bulkin, a Certified Myofunctional Therapist™ (CMT®), Feeding Specialist and Speech Therapist, The Untethered Podcast™ focuses on the latest research and clinical evidence in Myofunctional Therapy, Tethered Oral Tissues (TOTs, AKA Tongue Tie, etc), Airway and Pediatric Feeding. Produced with both providers and parents in mind, episodes include interviews with experts, personal stories from parents, and Q&A from our listeners.
Hosted by
Hallie Bulkin