We recently connected with Chelsea Knowles, MS, CCC-SLP/ RMIII and have shared our conversation below.
Chelsea, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
Chelsea, a pediatric Speech Language Pathologist in Florida, said “If I had not have fallen off of that skateboard, I may not have taken the risk to step outside of my comfort zone to start my own private practice!”
Here’s more: Chelsea’s entrepreneurial story began In 2017, when she was skateboarding with some friends, tried out a new board, and fell, breaking her wrist. Due to lifting restrictions at the Pediatric Outpatient Hospital where she worked in Miami, she had to take 6 weeks off from her busy job. She had space in her schedule for the first time in a long while.
She had a deep entrenched fear of self-expression, stemming from childhood when she was told, as innocent, sensitive, curious, gifted, and loquacious child, “Don’t talk back to me!” that she wanted to get rid of; so she stepped outside of her comfort zone and took an Improv Comedy class. When they asked for volunteers she made herself raise her hand, and when everything inside her was screaming “No!” she made herself say “Yes!”
As she began to become more and more comfortable in the spotlight, she decided to reach further and read her poetry (she had been writing poetry since the age of seven) on stage at Tea and Poets in Miami. Little by little, she pushed the envelope and entered a Spoken Word Poetry Competition (she had done some poetry readings but had been afraid to try spoken word). She placed as a finalist!
Having overcome a deep seated fear, she dubbed her 40’s the “fearless forties” and, being a rebel, decided to use this “mandatory down-time” to research the process for starting her own Private Practice, a longtime vision of hers.
She had finally found her own voice and now she was ready to help children find theirs! She opened Look Whoo’s Talking, LLC in Miami, Florida five years ago, and relocated the practice to Jacksonville, Florida in 2020, right before COVID hit.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?
Sure. I got into the field of Speech Pathology in undergraduate school while attending the University of Florida, where I met someone whose uncle was a Speech Pathologist, and started researching the profession. I had always wanted to work with children and was curious about this career where I could work in all settings and treat people across the lifespan. It seemed like a job I would never tire of. I have not only never lost interest, but my continued passion for my job and love for learning never expires. I now treat children of all ages (6 months and up) as well as adults in my private practice. As skateboarding and spoken word poetry played a roll in my private practice, surfing played a roll in my life choices as well. While in undergraduate school in Gainesville, I often took trips to the East Coast of Florida to Saint surf in Saint Augustine.
After obtaining my Bachelor of the Arts in Communication Processes and Disorders at the University of Florida, College of Health Sciences in Gainesville, Florida in 1996, I followed a colleague’s path, and my love for surfing, and went on to secure my Master of Science in Speech Pathology with a Minor in Audiology in 1998 at the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in Honolulu, Hawaii. Here I could practice my two passions, surfing and Speech Pathology. I also continued to develop my interest in complementary medicine and the healing arts.
Following my love for the Healing Arts, In Hawaii, in 2001, I was attuned to Usui Reiki Mastery during an intensive on Oahu’s North Shore. I am 10th generation Reiki Master under the lineage of Dr. Mikao Usui in Universal Reiki. I am passionate about the health of Body, Mind, and Spirit. I hope to one day, combine these three pursuits into a holistic practice for all ages.
I still skate occasionally (long-board) with my kids, and have performed Spoken Word Poetry in Saint Augustine and Jacksonville, where I work full-time as an SLP. I now live on the East Coast of Florida where I first learned to surf, 30 years ago, and surf (super fun-board) year round with my husband, Chris, and our three young children. My husband is a chef/food truck owner whose business also reflects his love of cooking and surfing “Blade and Wave.”
As much as I enjoy spending time with my family, surfing, skating, poetry, and the healing arts, I never tire of my love for helping children communicate through my career as a pediatric Speech Language Pathologist (with 25 years of all pediatric experience and a private practice specializing in early language, childhood apraxia of speech, and feeding therapy).
At Look Whoo’s Talking, LLC, we offer both individual evaluations and therapy to children with varied diagnoses, as well as groups for children of all ages. Sensory Social Group is our social language group with a focus on sensory play, pre-feeding skills, social language, receptive and expressive language skills, fine motor skills, and movement to music! We also offer an intensive feeding group in the Summer. We offer free screenings to daycares that partner with us and low cost screenings to individuals.
What sets us apart is going above and beyond for our clients and fostering engagement between client and therapist so that learning is as fun as it is functional!
We are most proud of the successes of our clients and the fear and anxiety that is alleviated in the parents when they see their children bravely explore new foods and clearly communicating their wants and needs to others, finally feeling the expansive joy of being understood!
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
When the Pandemic approached in 2020, I had 4 clients, just enough to afford to sublease a treatment room from another Speech Pathologist specializing in Reading Therapy. The space was perfect (just like it was in Miami) with a large waiting room, a bathroom, and a kitchen for feeding therapy. However, due to quarantine and shut-down, my clientele dropped to only 1 child during that first year.
Although I continued to pay rent, my office space went unused as I saw my only client (the rest discontinued due to COVID) outside of their home with masks and face shields to ensure safety.
However, because it was exactly what I wanted, I was resilient enough to take another risk to keep holding out hope for the future and to not let go of my perfect little office. Now I am blissfully operating my Private Practice, Look Whoo’s Talking, LLC and supervising graduate students from Jacksonville University.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
One lesson I had to unlearn was the importance of having a proper diagnosis. I had a two-year old client whom I had been seeing since the age of one, that I had diagnosed with Suspected Apraxia of Speech. I wanted to do the assessments to determine if he presented with Apraxia of Speech, but the parent didn’t want the diagnosis confirmed. She felt that if the diagnosis were confirmed, we might face a limiting belief as to what to expect with his prognosis and with his progress in therapy. We continued to “treat as if,” me seeing him three times a week for 30 minutes as “frequent and intensive” services were recommended if Apraxia was the suspected diagnosis. He soon began to make so much progress, that we were able to drop down to two, then one time a week, and finally discharge him from therapy with his speech and language in the average range! We will never know if he truly had Childhood Apraxia of Speech but the parent and I experienced the miracle of what happens when there are No Limits put on a child! I stay in touch with the family and he is now speaking in full sentences and is able to sing all of the verses to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star! This brought me to tears! He will always be my “Star” student who taught me that “The Sky’s the Limit!” with our kids. Do not be defined by your diagnosis and know no limits!
Contact Info:
- Website: Heal.me/
lookwhoostalking - Instagram: @look_whoos_talking
- Facebook: https://www.
facebook.com/ lookwhoostalkingllc/ - Yelp: https://yelp.to/
t9foCaugkqb - Other: Email: Chelsea@lookwhoostalking.org Phone: (727)-667-7282
Image Credits
https://www.instagram.com/linaocampochic/; Brian Knox; Brittany Portalatin