We recently connected with Hannah Zimmerman and have shared our conversation below.

Hannah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

The name “Just Once” comes from my brother. My brother has complex communication needs. “Just once” is something that he always says. Usually it is when my family or I are trying to convince him to try something new like going to a sleep away camp for the first time, playing a new game with us as a family, trying kayaking, or starting a new job training experience. And usually he says it pretty grumpily. But he always tries the new something and usually enjoys it (even if it’s just a little bit). When he says “just once,” I’ve learned that he is saying “this new thing sounds hard and maybe even scary but I will try it in my own time and space.” As parents and as clinicians, isn’t that what we want for our children and the clients that we work with at the end of the day? For them to be able to communicate exactly what they are thinking (even if that’s a no), to be understood completely, and to try new experiences that could fill their life with joy and meaning.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Just Once provides in-home and community-based speech and language services to children ages 0-21 with complex communication needs. We serve individuals with a variety of communication differences, including but not limited to Childhood Apraxia of Speech, autism, Sensory Processing Disorder, AAC users, and gestalt language processors. We offer speech and language evaluations, speech and language therapy sessions, feeding therapy sessions, group sessions, summer fun groups and parent/caregiver consultations. Our goal at Just Once is to guide our clients to lead meaningful lives through increased self-advocacy skills, independence and autonomy in communication, and an empowered family support system. First and foremost, we are dedicated to teamwork, respect, and put the priority on relationships and connection. We want parents and caregivers to ask questions, share feedback, share struggles, share hopes, and collaborate with us every step of the way. At Just Once, we will always respect our clients in how we speak to them, speak about them, and act towards them. We presume potential and have high expectations for them! Building connections with clients and families are at the heart of all we do because strong relationships are foundational to learning. We will spend time getting to know our clients, their parents/caregivers, and what is meaningful for them as family so that we can best support them on their communication journey! We are committed to lifelong learning and are constantly seeking out educational opportunities to learn how to better our service delivery even more.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

For most of my early career, I tended to do the practical thing. I went to grad school, got a job right away, and worked a few steady jobs. In late 2019, I had reached a point where the predictable thing wasn’t making me happy anymore and I felt like I wasn’t learning or growing. So I decided to go on an adventure and live and work as a SLP in Australia for 6 months. It was such an amazing experience! It definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone! I had to learn to use new vocabulary words like “bin” instead of “trash.” I also had to learn how to spell in Australian English for all of my evaluation reports. In addition to those small things, I had to completely adapt to a new culture and adapt my therapeutic practices to it. I’m so glad I got the opportunity to pivot and have that unique experience because it made me a better clinician. It gave me a better understanding of how the environment can impact our comfortability and our communication skills. It also gave a view of how we can provide better services for clients no matter where they are in the world.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Focusing on providing quality care and building relationships with other professionals in the area have been the best ways to gain new clients. I have been fortunate enough to work with many amazing professionals in a variety of settings, including other private practices, clinics, and schools, who share the same clinical values that I do and have been a great referral source for me. Another way that I have expanded by business is word of mouth from my clients. It is an amazing feeling when a client passes on my name to others because they appreciate my services. I’m very grateful that I’ve been able to grow my business while keeping relationships at the forefront.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.justonce-slp.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/just.once.slp
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/just.once.slp