About
You’ve had speech therapy before, and it was not successful.
You still saw little progress after completing workbook pages and doing all the drills and flashcards.
The therapy didn’t address YOUR goals and YOUR everyday needs. The experience was impersonal, and you felt more like a number than a human.
This experience caused you to wonder if and how these rote activities would help you with real-life interactions with your family, friends, teachers, and co-workers.
You did your time, reached some goals, and then discharged – NOW WHAT?
No one ever talks about the functional side of therapy.
It’s no one’s fault and especially not yours, but being functional is my specialty.
So, what’s “functional?” Is it a buzzword, or is it real?
For me, functional is the basis of my therapy, making it very real and tangible for you.
It doesn’t matter what I define as functional because I am not the therapy receiver.
You matter here!
Functional is WHAT IS MEANINGFUL for you to work on.
I have had patients choose to work on personal academic work. Others have worked on using interests like cars, tractors, family life, or their profession to lead our goals and interventions in therapy.
Children lead with play.
You guide the goals and interventions.
I’m so glad you’re here. You’ll probably feel nervous at your first therapy appointment, but I greet you with a smile and compassion to lessen the stress. I honor the difficulties you’ve experienced and listen to and hear your worries and concerns.
Our first session will discuss your wants, needs, and goals. More importantly, we’ll address your speech, language, or cognition concerns and how they affect your life. This conversation may or may not take the entire first session. There’s no rush.
Our working relationship is very important to set you up for success from the beginning. This relationship helps establish trust in me as your therapist. It strengthens your faith and trust in the rehabilitation process because I don’t consider you broken, no matter where you are in your recovery.
After the initial evaluation, we will schedule follow-up treatment sessions. My role is to make this process as relaxed and stress-free as possible. To help put you at ease, I will talk you through the process and explain the why behind each step as we journey forward.
Scheduled appointments can be in person in a private room at the Chesapeake Central Library or the comfort of your home while using a secure and HIPPA-compliant platform.
We will celebrate together…
…those small steps and significant wins as you speed forward toward success!
I’m fully committed to our work together. I am an “out of the box” thinker, researcher, motivator, and caregiver.
As a therapist and a mom, I love to continue developing myself and doing challenging work for the benefit of others. But my favorite part of this work is seeing you light up when you break through those plateaus you never thought you would.
Reach out today, and let’s talk about your concerns.
About Me
It’s so lovely to meet you!
Since I was little, I have loved being a helper while caring for my family and animals and helping my teachers in school. I would be one of the first to raise my hand to help wash down the boards, run errands, and pass out papers.
I felt strongly called to Speech Therapy during my junior year in high school. My grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and I often visited the doctor’s offices with my mom. I learned of this amazing profession through a pamphlet my mom gave me after an appointment.
While it’s rare, I knew this is what I was meant to do for the rest of my life.
Little did I know how much I would love my job and every patient I met in this extraordinary healing journey.
The journey …
Once it was implanted in my soul to be a speech therapist, there was no stopping me. I began my college career at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA, and received a Bachelor of Science with high honors.
A few years later, after lack of sleep, hard work, determination, and long days and nights, I completed my Master of Arts degree in Speech-Language Pathology from Hampton University, again with high honors.
My professional experience includes working with children, adolescents, and adults in various settings. I worked in acute care, inpatient, outpatient, skilled nursing, and schools. Through those environments, I gained understanding, empathy, and insight into not only my patients, but also learned new ways to help each individual on a deeper, more profound level with a more significant impact on their daily lives.
I’ve worked in private practice for several years and continue to bring the same understanding, empathy, and insight to the patients I have the privilege to work with every day.
There is never a dull moment.
Along the way, I met my husband, got married, and started my journey into motherhood with our first-born son and puppy.
As life happens, there is happiness and sadness along the way, including love, laughter, happiness, stress, loss, grief, change, and growth.
I quickly learned that to grow – things must change.
And today,
I am a homeschooling mom to three of our four children, have my practice, love to garden and be outdoors, and enjoy hiking, the beach, and spending time with family, friends, and our two dogs.
Remember …
When you get to where you’re going, the path can seem long, winding, sharp, and severed, but faith is at the core of getting you there.
“You’re off to great places. Today is your day. Your mountain is waiting. So… get on your way!”
– Dr. Seuss