Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristen Latta and Ashley Walker.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Kristen and Ashley. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Kristen: I came to speech pathology as a second career. After working as a book editor in New York for several years, I was ready to come home to Houston. Along with changing cities, I changed careers. As much as I loved (and still love) books, I really wanted to work with people with disabilities. That goal, along with a nerdy love of neuroanatomy, led me to speech-language pathology. I went back to school in my late 20’s and earned a Master’s (and first-rate education) at the University of Houston. Ever since, I have worked in a private-practice setting, which I love because I get to know my patients and their families so well, and I love having a front-row seat for the changes we can accomplish together through speech and language therapy.
Ashley: My original interest was child language development, which led me to a career in speech-language pathology. I began my career in a hospital setting. I found a love for feeding and swallowing immediately when I started working in the hospital. After I had kiddos of my own, I transferred my interest in feeding and eating into the pediatric world and began specializing in oral-motor and eating disorders and feeding aversions. After working for private practice for about five years, I knew I wanted to have a method of my own one day.
Both: We had worked together in the past, and one day over coffee and chocolate, realized we had a lot of the same ideas for how to develop a client-centered private practice. We wanted to start something that focuses on therapy specialization with a service delivery model that accommodates the duration, frequency, and even location that best suits each case and promotes carry over into “real life.” Once we decided to start something, we, of course, had to nail down a perfect location. So many new families have been moving into the Heights and surrounding neighborhoods over the past several years, and it emerged as a prime location for serving a booming community. We then found the perfect place right in the middle of Heights, Garden Oaks, and Oak Forest, and The Speech Space was born!
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It has been a pretty smooth road, but there has certainly been a steep learning curve! We have had to go outside of our comfort zone of clinical practice and become somewhat-overnight experts on business development, marketing, social media, accounting, and networking. It has been a lot of work, but we are both really enjoying the process.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
We are a private clinic serving patients with speech, language, and feeding disorders. We focus on fostering specialty areas so clients can feel like they really are matched with the perfect clinician for their individual needs. All therapists at The Speech Space have focused interests, which they develop by diligently keeping up with the latest research and in which they have pursued extensive training. For example, Ashley is one of only a few certified orofacial myologists in Houston. Her practice centers on tethered oral tissues (i.e. lip and tongue ties), swallowing disorders, tongue thrust, feeding aversions, and oral habit elimination (i.e., pacifier and thumb-sucking elimination). People from all around the city seek out her expertise in these areas. We have a passion for helping people and are most proud of providing quality care in an area that has increased demand and needs for speech therapy services.
What were you like growing up?
Like almost all speech pathologists, we are both Type A! Then and now, once we set our minds to something, we find a way to accomplish it!
Contact Info:
- Address: 1900 North Loop W, Suite 500
Houston, TX 77018 - Website: www.speechspacetx.com
- Phone: 713-252-2082
- Email: info@speechspacetx.com
- Facebook: fb.me/speechspacetx
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