My Background
I live in Portland Oregon with my wife and two children. I was diagnosed seven years ago with an attention deficit disorder (ADHD), which likely influenced me to pick up a wide range of hobbies and interests throughout my life. Some of these include but are not limited to: juggling a variety of things, unicycling, improvisational comedy, drawing, painting, hiking, camping, growing flowers, jokes, foreign languages (Specifically German, Spanish, ASL), board games, and a general desire to play and try something different. I use the influence of these interests in my practice to make time with my clients as approachable, fun, comfortable, and dynamic as possible.
My journey into becoming a speech therapist began with my passion for learning about foreign languages and understanding different cultures, highlighted by the year I spent in Germany as a teenager, living with a German family. That was when I became fascinated with the linguistics of a communicative act—figuring out what was said, how it was said, what was the intent, and, ultimately, how that communicative act can be more effective.
For the past 5 years, I have owned and operated a private speech therapy clinic. I work with clients of all ages and backgrounds, from preschool to retirement age. In my practice I can treat a wide range of communication disorders and issues; however, I focus on treating Auditory Processing Disorders (APD), social communication difficulties, accent reduction, and school-age language and articulation delays.
Before I opened my practice, I worked for 10 years as a school-based speech and language pathologist with pre-school age to eighth-grade students. While in the public school setting, I worked with a large variety of students who experienced many different kinds of language and articulation delays.
I developed a focus on working with individuals who experienced Autism. Some of these individuals needed help with social communication skills. Others were more complex communicators and had to discover their own unique way to communicate through the use of low or high-tech means.
In addition to being a licensed speech-language pathologist (SLP), I have a certificate of clinical competence (CCC), as well as a certification in high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (HFASD) from Portland State University. I have a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Dakota and a master’s degree from Northern Arizona University.