Unity Therapy Solutions

If your child eats purées and meltable snacks but seems to get “stuck” when you try to move beyond them, there may be more going on than simply needing more exposure to table foods.

Purées and meltables can be successfully managed with a fairly limited set of oral skills. As foods become more complex, the demands change—and that’s often where we start to see which skill is making progression difficult.

For one child, it may be moving food to the sides of the mouth. For another, it may be developing an effective chewing pattern. Another child may break food down but struggle to collect and organize it for swallowing.

And for children with swallowing difficulties, I also have to consider whether a food is appropriate for their swallow, not just whether they can manage it in their mouth.

That’s why I’m usually less interested in asking:

“What texture should we try next?”

and more interested in asking:

“What is making the next texture difficult for this child?”

Once we understand that, food can become part of the intervention—not just something we keep offering and hoping eventually clicks.

Unity Therapy Solutions is entering a more focused chapter.

As I return to clinical practice, I’m narrowing my work around the children and families I feel best equipped to support: those navigating complex neurologic, neurodevelopmental, oral-motor, feeding, and swallowing needs.

Through UTS, I’m now offering two individualized intensive therapy pathways:

• Whole Child Neurodevelopmental Intensive
• Complex Oral Motor & Feeding Intensive

For families looking for ongoing weekly feeding therapy, I also see children through TheraHappy.

This page will continue to be a place where I share practical information about pediatric neurorehabilitation, complex feeding and swallowing, oral-motor development, and the clinical reasoning that guides individualized treatment.

If you’re considering an intensive through Unity Therapy Solutions, you can learn more about the available pathways and schedule a discovery call through the link in my bio.

It’s been quiet here for a while, and I’ve gone back and forth about what to say when I returned.

After a long journey through IVF, we welcomed our daughter, Hannah—the baby we waited and hoped for so deeply. Our rainbow baby was born in November of last year after so many tears and prayers. Becoming her mom has brought more joy than I can put into words. It has also been a much more complicated transition than I expected.

Postpartum has held beautiful moments, but it has also been hard. I’ve needed time to adjust, recover, and find my footing in a version of life that feels both completely new and incredibly precious.

Deciding whether—and when—to return to work hasn’t been easy. I love being Hannah’s mom, and stepping away from her is difficult. At the same time, I’ve missed the work that has meant so much to me: supporting children, helping parents better understand their child, and walking alongside families through challenges with communication, feeding, and development.

Both things are true. I want to be present for this season with Hannah, and I still feel called to help families.

So I’m slowly finding my way back.

For those who are new here, I’m a pediatric speech-language pathologist, feeding therapist, and MNRI® Core Specialist. My work brings together communication, feeding, sensory-motor development, and reflex patterns while always keeping the individual child and family at the center.

I’ll be sharing more soon about what returning to practice will look like, along with the speech, feeding, and MNRI topics that I hope will support families here.

If you’ve been part of this community before, thank you for still being here. I’d truly love to reconnect. 🤍

We are so excited to offer this intensive option for children with neurological motor impairments! We are still ironing out the details but hope to start these intensives mid-February 2025. Email myself or Franchesca to stay up to date with all the information!

Disability pride month was established in July 1990, the same time the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed. As a neurodivergent (ADHD) person with mental health issues (clinical depression), I definitely would have never chosen to be wired differently than "normal". Even though my mental differences create extra stress in my life, they also allow me to have creativity and an appreciation of true joy. I want to celebrate and honor the lives of other people with disabilities because we are all made in the image of God, no matter how different we seem.