We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Marissa Tijerina a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Marissa, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about how you got your first non-friend, non-family client. Paint the picture for us so we can feel the same excitement you felt on that day.

I had started getting my ducks in a row for private practice in 2020. I was furloughed during the pandemic which gave me a lot of time for thinking and self-reflection. I also had twin 2-year-olds at the time and the thought of a private practice kept coming back to me. The thought of me seeing my own clients privately was not well embraced initially so I started making plans to slowly transition myself into private practice. My first step was to leave my current position and work in a completely different setting for a while I worked on the start-up paperwork and website building.

In 2021, my family and I moved into new neighborhood. I joined the neighborhood pages but hadn’t started advertising yet. I came across a parent who was asking about SLP services in the area. I had everything ready to go and let her know that I had just moved to the area and was starting to see clients privately. She had been stressed about her child’s feeding difficulties and was eager to get an assessment. I was able to refer her to other specialists based on my findings. One year later, I was able to catch up with her at the neighborhood park to find out that my evaluation was part of the catalyst of getting the root of his medical issues. I just love that I had the knowledge and skills to help point her in the right direction and seeing her child gave me the confidence to continue pursuing community outreach and not being afraid to find my own clients.

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 back background and context?

I’m Marissa, the founder and sole Speech Language Pathologist at Bluebonnet Therapy (for now). I grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas and moved to San Antonio in 2007 to attend UTSA! Go Roadrunners! After completing my Master’s in Communication Disorders at UT-Dallas in 2013, I returned to San Antonio to start my career in a pediatric clinic and then married my loving husband in Gruene, Texas.

In 2018, we became twin parents to our happy-go-lucky girls! We moved to Garden Ridge in 2020 after daydreaming about living in that community for a few years.

I started a private practice in response to children having limited access to speech therapy due to availability/scheduling based on family needs or not qualifying under the educational model. Of course, I also appreciate the flexibility that it gives me to meet the needs of my clients and to be available for my little ones!

My mission as an SLP is to help individuals and families improve their quality of life through optimal orofacial functioning and supporting meaningful relationships. I especially enjoy working with children who have speech sound disorders, orofacial myofunctional disorders, and complex speech and communication needs, including feeding and AAC (Alternative and Augmentative Communication). Orofacial myofunctional disorders refer to muscle misuse due to structural abnormalities, oral habits, open mouth breathing, forward resting tongue posture between or against the teeth, or tongue thrust swallow. I believe in a collaborative approach, working with other professional and caregivers to best support client needs.

As a SLP, I have enjoyed working closely with other disciplines (OT/PT) while working in multi-disciplinary clinics, and currently with school staff in the educational setting. I also gained valuable experience from adults in the inpatient rehabilitation and acute care settings. I am child- and family-centered in my therapeutic approach. In my sessions, children enjoy developing new skills, and I enjoy working with caregivers to help them feel confident in supporting their child’s development. I believe that parent involvement is essential to a child’s development and success. It’s important to work with the parent to help all involved build confidence and thrive.

Through Bluebonnet Therapy, I have loved partnering with local daycares over the last year to provide complimentary screenings to students in need. It has been so rewarding to get some little people started in therapy early on! I’ve also enjoyed meeting families at their homes in Garden Ridge and surrounding areas for screenings, evaluations, and therapy. I’m passionate about children accessing therapy early and enjoy introducing families to other ways of accessing speech therapy (ECI, local school districts, home health agencies, and clinics). Parents have shared that their children love coming to speech therapy and usually see progress within the first few months!

I’m grateful for the people I’ve met and the outreach that I’ve been inspired to do through Bluebonnet Therapy. When I’m not wearing my SLP hat, you can find me spending time with my family at the library, zoo, parks, or museums! That is if I’m not knee deep in a course of some kind. I enjoy learning, organizing, being busy, and helping others. Growing Bluebonnet Therapy and becoming the best wife, mom, and clinician are my current endeavors.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

I love listening to audiobooks. The ones that resonated with me the most have been The Big Leap, Free to Focus, and the Confidence Gap. I was mentored in a group setting from a SLP and Business Coach. It was really helpful to surround myself with people who had similar goals and were a few steps ahead or behind me in growing a practice.

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

Community outreach like providing doing speech/language screens for daycares/families in the community and staying active on community facebook pages has helped me to reach my clients.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bluebonnetkids.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bluebonnetspeechtherapy/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bluebonnetkids/

Image Credits
Juan Encalada, Jody A Khmaro, Christian Bowen