We are a passionate and dedicated company that takes on life’s challenges alongside you with grit, determination, personality, and a little wit. The words discouragement or impossible will not be found in our vocabulary and our voice is compassionate, motivating, and educational. We’re here to be your biggest cheerleader and supporter along your rehabilitation journey. There’s no doubt we’re well educated in our field and strive for excellence in all we do, but our down-to-earth and approachable attitude makes us trustworthy. Without being overly emotional, we are empathetic, emotionally informed, and grounded in practical science and hard work.
People with aphasia may have difficulty understanding what is said, finding specific words, and speaking in sentences. They may struggle to read and write words or sentences.
Labels for the type of aphasia can be helpful initially, but rest assured that our comprehensive evaluation and treatment will always be personalized to target your goals and address the underlying impairments.
Our neuroplastic treatment stimulates the brain to grow and find new pathways.
We target mindfulness with the mantra
know > plan > think > do > remember
Acquired apraxia of speech is a disorder that affects the brain pathways involved in planning the sequence of movements involved in producing speech. The brain knows what it wants to say but cannot properly plan and sequence the required speech sound movements. Effective treatment targets communication.
Dysarthria is a speech disorder due to muscle weakness resulting from damage to the nervous system. The muscles used to speak become damaged, paralyzed, or weakened. A person with dysarthric speech can sound slurred and often has a one-sided facial weakness.
People with aphasia do not inherently have cognitive deficits. However, as with all neurologic conditions, language does not happen in isolation.
A growing body of evidence and research suggests that aphasia can also be affected and compounded by specific, and often invisible, cognitive deficits of attention + working memory.
Our approach is comprehensive: addressing attention, working memory, and executive function is build-into our innovative treatment program.
Parkinson's Disease responds to precise treatment. We have been a certified provider of LSVT (Lee Silverman Voice Treatment) for 25+ years.
We are experienced in supporting each client and their family living with Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA).
Traumatic Brain Injury needs a foundational, cognitive approach to treatment that is personalized for what the client and the family need.
No matter the condition, treatment is customized to where you are and your needs.
Aphasia can be defined by specific language characteristics such as Wernicke’s, Broca’s, Anomic, Transcortical Sensory, Transcortical Motor, or Conduction Aphasia. You may have heard that you have "xyz aphasia." Aphasia symptoms can improve and a person can improve from one type of aphasia to another.
We are not about labels.
We are about digging in and treating the underlying impairment.
A young adult has distinct needs and wants after a stroke or diagnosis of a neurologic condition. They often have a different life focus than someone who is established and well into their career and social system. We consider many factors as part of a holistic approach to treatment and goal setting. We incorporate social, emotional, psychological, health, language, and cognition into our program and the development of patient-centered goals whether is it starting a job, going to school or dating. We are here for you.
For clients in the prime of their careers, a stroke can be detrimental to returning to work successfully. LIFE Speech Pathology considers the impact of aphasia on language and thinking skills for employment and how it breaks an individual's confidence. Treatment incorporates career-specific skills, terminology, and situations into prioritized, functional goals. We'll use comprehensive evaluation methods and patient-reported outcome measures to collaboratively build a comprehensive program to get you back to your career.
You've made it to retirement, woo hoo! Whether it's a minor stroke or more impactful, we have the knowledge and experience to meet you where you are now and provide comprehensive, patient-centered treatment to reach your goals. Trust in the knowledge and expertise of clinicians who understand where you are and how to improve your communication so you can enjoy retirement. Treatment can target communication skills needed to plan a vacation, manage household duties, and negotiate at the auto repair shop. Your goals are our goals.
・Standardized, dynamic, and person-centered assessment
・Functional goals that promote life participation
・Innovative, out-of-the-therapy-box, evidence-based treatment
・Medicare B provider
・Out-of-Network insurance provider
・Quarterly membership
・Client-directed topics + tasks
・Personalized hobby and project support ・Brain-health program
・Socialization opportunity groups
・Book club
・Movie club
・Games
Courses
・Aphasia Field Guide
・Communication Partner Training
・Aphasia Coach University Listen for LIFE podcast
Listen for LIFE Aphasia Village
Private Facebook group for survivors and family to support one another
LIFE Speech Pathology + Aphasia Academy℠ is based on 40+ years of clinical experience and practice. Our program dives deep into the neurological processes that impact speech, listening, reading, writing, and cognition. We utilize specialized and in-depth evaluation tools. Therapy is individualized with an emphasis on both the underlying deficits and the carryover of skills to functional communication. We specialize in treating persons 6+ months after a stroke. Chronic aphasia treatment is our specialty. Let us help you reach your communication goals.
Ready to get started? Schedule a complimentary phone consultation consultation below via our secure portal. We'll spend 15 minutes discussing your goals for therapy and design a plan specifically for you.
Complete a simple intake questionnaire to help us get to know you before the consultation.
Following the phone consultation, you'll be asked to snap a photo of the front and back of your insurance card(s) and Driver's License or state identification. You will be able to upload these images directly into your chart.
Download the Health Insurance Benefit Worksheet to understand your benefits and coverage.
Prepare for your evaluation session by completing the steps in our Telepractice Setup + Troubleshooting Guide. Please reach out to our office if you have any technical issues prior to your first appointment.
You are now ready for your first official Zoom session. Woo hoo! Be sure to have your computer plugged into power, sit in a comfortable chair, and have good lighting on your face, a glass of water is good, too.
Let’s Zoom!
All of your appointments will take place via a HIPAA-compliant Zoom meeting. We offer the best telepractice platform for working with our clients that provides the greatest flexibility for sharing information via a variety of devices. Zoom works easily with desktop and laptop computers, tablets (Apple or Android), Chromebook, and smartphones.
Our preferred devices are a computer or iPad as this provides the ability for both the client and clinician to annotate (to write on) the whiteboard (think colorful chalkboard).
Our practice selected Zoom for several reasons which include seamless integration with our practice management software, a robust whiteboard that allows all participants to type, draw, highlight, and change colors, and more, low utilization of bandwidth (internet speed) requirement, allowing more people to successfully connect to the session, even in many rural settings, the ability to save whiteboards into the client’s file allows for review of content, practicing of words, sentences, strategies, and overall carryover of lessons learned from one session to the next.
We teach our clients how to be the pilots of their rehabilitation process by mindfully exploiting neuroplasticity, i.e. the brain’s ability to heal itself. We target the foundation skills that support communication and meet our clients where they are in their recovery. Your communication goals are our goals. We have the specialized skills to analyze and create a step-by-step process to reach your LIFE goals.
Mindfulness refers to consciously attending to thoughts without placing any judgments upon them. We train our clients to think first, say what they are thinking, reflect, and then make calm repairs, if necessary. Mindfulness combats aphasia stress which is detrimental to rebuilding neural pathways in the brain.
Online, telepractice delivery allows us to reach a greater number of clients with chronic aphasia without the limitations of a physical location. We have delivered innovative treatment over telepractice since 2014 before telepractice was mainstream due to the public health emergency. Our clients continued to receive communication treatment they would not have realized without the internet and our ability to deliver a comprehensive, quality speech and language program. Clients receive their therapy, regardless of their location, or ours. We see clients across the USA and abroad.
Absolutely! WE DON'T BELIEVE IN PLATEAUS! Working with chronic aphasia, defined as six months after the stroke, requires a specialized therapeutic toolbox and speech pathology mindset and approach. Chronic aphasia treatment requires a Whole Person + Whole Family approach. We utilize innovative, mindful, neuroplastic philosophies, methodologies, and treatment techniques to achieve patient-centered communication goals. Utilizing out-of-the-therapeutic box thinking + motivated clients = successful communication.
We are an enrolled provider for Original Medicare part B (outpatient services). Medicare will be billed directly for qualified services. Medicare pays 80% of the allowed rate and your secondary insurance will be automatically billed the remaining 20% per visit. If you do not have secondary insurance, you will be responsible for the co-payment at the time of each session.
We are Out-Of-Network (OON) Providers for Medicare Advantage and all private insurance. We'll provide you with an Insurance Benefits Worksheet that will guide you through the questions to ask your insurance provider to determine your OON benefits. OON services are paid by the client at the time of service. If requested, we are pleased to provide you with a Superbill (like a receipt) for the evaluation and treatment so that you may obtain reimbursement directly from your insurance company.
We offer transparent pricing for all of our services and this will be discussed during the consultation call. We will provide you a Good Faith Estimate for the services recommended so there are no surprises.
A valid credit card is to remain on file for the entirety of treatment.
You do not need to have a referral from your physician to start therapy. However, Medicare regulations state that a physician must sign the plan of care within 30 days of starting treatment. Speak to your physician about starting telepractice speech therapy. We like to partner with your physician to provide excellent care and communication. A physician referral is a great first step in this relationship.
LIFE Wellness Coaching nor LIFE Aphasia Academy require a physician referral.
No, LIFE Speech Pathology cannot see your loved one in the hospital. We provide only outpatient services, under Medicare part B. If your loved one is admitted to the hospital, those services will be covered under Medicare part A. d.
Our services can be reestablished via a reevaluation AFTER your loved one is discharged from the hospital.
Are you still making progress? You call the shots! Some clients work to reach a couple of specific goals and others choose to continue regular sessions in our wellness program. Some choose to take a break from therapy or shift their treatment to group opportunities where their communication is supported, as needed, by the speech pathologist.
We are out-of-the-box clinicians. Your treatment can be adjusted for time, intensity, and tasks. Our clients continue to work with us because they believe in and see the progress they make in their communication. We work with you to meet your goals, whatever that means for you.
Many of our clients choose to continue treatment to work on higher-level communication goals that exceed what is referred to as ‘medically necessary’ by Medicare. For those clients who want to keep working, we offer an individualized Communication Wellness program to meet your communication goals. In general, the cost is based on the session length of time and frequency per week. Group treatment is also available for the carryover of learned techniques.
Under Original Medicare part B, speech-language pathology and physical therapy ‘share’ the same pot of therapeutic money. We can definitely see you for speech pathology services, reimbursed by Medicare for services that are medically necessary.
Overall, both our clinic and the physical therapy clinic will have to monitor for benefits utilized and actively monitor for claims reimbursement. Often, once the allowed therapeutic amount of money has been utilized for the year, many of our clients transition to our Communication Wellness program to continue working towards their speech-language-communication goals.
“Telepractice therapy has been a great opportunity for my dad to continue his speech therapy. He was unsatisfied with his speech when he was discharged from outpatient therapy 4 months ago. Genevieve is so compassionate. She has helped him focus on the quality of his speech, eye contact, and think first before speaking. He has progressed so much and is now able to talk on the phone to his granddaughter who is away at college. We are so grateful to work with LIFE Speech Pathology.”
- Oliva P., daughter
LIFE Aphasia Academy was designed for you. We offer courses, the Listen for LIFE Podcast, and an Aphasia Village where you can find community and support.
You are not in this alone. Let us be your village.