I’m a wife to my hubby that you all designated as Mr. TOTs (HA!), a mom to 2 amazing little girls and a furbaby, a business owner, a podcaster and a Certified Orofacial Myologist & Feeding Specialist in Bethesda, Maryland who has built up a dream of a private pay private practice in the DC/MD/VA area in the past 5 years.
It hit me, 5.5 years ago, that the time had come for me to start my own practice. I had owned other successful businesses but my heart always landed me right back in the homes and schools of little ones struggling to communicate and eat. And so, Little Sprout Speech, LLC was born. On June 1, 2014 I launched LSS, since re-branded as Little Sprout Therapy & Metro Myo. At that time, I knew I wanted to be my own boss, I put various success practices in place… but what I didn’t know was that I would get pregnant with my first daughter 5 short months later.
So here I am with a full schedule, full heart, and full belly! I brought on some colleagues to work with our Little Sprout families and took a maternity leave that I had NO idea would eventually lead to me becoming a certified orofacial myologist (thank you, Lily!)
How so? Well, I didn’t know it at the time but my little one who ate for 45-60 min per feed and then had to eat again an hour later (plus many other symptoms for both of us) was lip and tongue tied. Say what? No one taught me about this in school.
So off I went to learn about it on my own. Funny story… I had seen a number of colleagues with a COM after their names and I had NO CLUE what it was. Assumed it had something to do with “COMmunication” since we are SLP’s. Ya, nope. Came to learn COM stood for certified orofacial myologist and down the myo rabbit hole I went!
It was a confusing, time-consuming, yet exciting, supportive and never-ending learning experience (becoming a COM). There is still SO much misinformation out there and it can be so confusing to know what to listen to, who to listen to, and where to find the best information to support yourself and your clients in the myo/tots/airway space.
Naturally, I went to find a podcast and it didn’t exist, so I created it. And here we are.
Many of you have asked me to mentor you in myo and/or business. Up until this point I have mentored in the myo and private practice space one on one but I know I can help SO many more people if we do this is a group setting. Enter themyomembership.com – it’s a work in progress but it is COMING SOON! Be sure to sign up so you know when we launch the membership!
Thank you so much for supporting The Untethered Podcast thus far. It has been a blast to produce and the feedback has made it 100% worth the time and investment! Let’s keep sharing what we know, discussing what we still would like to learn more about, and bring all of this information to the masses.
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