We were lucky to catch up with Samantha Elder recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Samantha, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory of how you established your own practice.

The beginning stages of opening a private practice were very scary and daunting. I felt a little intimidated by business as I had no experience or background, but I knew my passion for the field would be the driving force. Coming up with a business name was very challenging for me and I actually opened as SEE Therapies and ended up rebranding once I landed on the perfect name that encompassed my true belief in empowering the little years of a child – The Little Years Therapy Co. I know more now about boundaries, how to face the difficulties of insurance and billing, and work life balance. I struggled with a lot of those in the beginning but feel like almost 2 years in, I am gaining a stable footing in meeting my expectations I set for myself.

Samantha, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Samantha Elder, a mom of a sweet baby girl and 2 golden doodles, a wife and the owner of The Little Years Therapy Co. I am a Speech Language Pathologist who has been working in Early Intervention since 2019 when I graduated with my masters degree in Speech Language Pathology from USF. The Little Years Therapy Co. is a boutique private practice in Tampa Florida offering speech, language, and feeding therapy to the community in clinic, homes, daycares, or preschools to primarily ages birth to 5. We believe in high quality services along with parent education and empowerment so your child can get the support they need and get back to being a kid. We offer neurodiversity affirming practices rooted in low pressure, child led play in the child’s most natural environments to maximize functional outcomes. I am most proud of the community we have created and the relationships we’ve built with our families; we are so honored to walk along side families in their journeys to watching their child meet goals and thrive at their highest potentials.

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

I think being a Speech Language Pathologist requires the skill and knowledge, but more importantly relies heavily on compassion and empathy for human beings. It is really hard to provide quality services involving parent coaching and education without those qualities. I truly believe they allow families to fully trust and respect the work we do because we provide a space that allows them to open up about their vulnerabilities. It is hard enough to worry and confront something being of concern with your child, but it’s another to be judged or shamed for that whether it is a direct or indirect offense. I hear often that professionals along the child’s journey to dealing with certain difficulties can be unintentionally hurtful and build a bigger pattern of grief that takes over the parents focus vs focusing on how to assist the child. Using your passion and “why” for choosing to be an SLP assists in engaging in compassionate and empathetic conversations with families and their children.

Can you open up about how you managed the initial funding?

After resigning from my corporate hospital position, I worked PRN at an Inpatient Rehab Hospital (I still do actually) that allowed me to still bring in money without relying on my practice initially. As I made money, I continued to invest in the business and allow for growth. As I began to receive more and more inquiries, I slowly backed down my PRN shifts to slowly add more to my private caseload. For the first year of business, I didn’t pay myself to continue investing more into what would help grow the fastest. Slow and steady wins the race!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thelittleyearstherapyco.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelittleyearstherapyco/