Chassidy Staves is a 26-year-old mother of two, an occupational therapist and a new business owner. Last month, she opened Staves Occupational Therapy Services and is now taking patients.
She has been working as an OT for two years but the road to get to where she is now was not always easy. After graduating from WKU in December 2014, she had not yet heard back from the graduate schools she applied for and was not sure where she would end up.
Then she got married in April 2015 and moved back to Owensboro a month later and decided to build a house. At the time she was really counting on getting accepted to the graduate program at the University of Southern Indiana’s program but ended up on the waitlist and was never offered a spot.
“I had to wait until August to hear back from Tennessee State University where I got a spot in the class that started just two weeks later,” she said. “I knew I was supposed to be an OT so I made the decision to accept the spot and drive back and forth from Owensboro to Nashville for classes each day. It was a long two years and our poor car saw a lot of miles but it was worth it in the end.”
Staves said during that time she became interested in the pediatric field, specifically working with babies and young children. She had the opportunity to observe and work in a variety of pediatric settings and completed a clinical rotation at Wendell Foster.
After graduation and passing her board exam, Staves took a job in Owensboro as an independent contractor providing occupational therapy services for children in homes, preschools and daycares.
During the last two years, Staves said she has learned a lot about treating children with a variety of diagnoses, birth complications, as well as interacting with families and caregivers to help them be able to best help their children thrive in their development.
“Having two children of my own has only strengthened my passion for working with children,” she said. “Through my experiences with my own children, my patients, and continuing education I have developed a passion in a specific area of treatment that has been greatly underserved in our community and one that education is not really provided in the typical coursework for as an occupational therapist.”
Oral motor therapy which can include working on jaw, cheek, and tongue strength, range of motion, coordination, and texture aversions were hardly talked about in her schooling and Staves said unless you seek out continuing education or training in this area, it is hard to even know where to begin when patients need these kinds of services.
“I have spent a significant amount of my time working towards continuing education and specialties in the area of oral motor skills, assessing oral motor restrictions, most commonly known as tongue ties, and being able to provide hands-on treatment to correct compensatory motor patterns that those oral motor restrictions can cause throughout the body,” she said.
Staves said her training was put to use in her personal life when her son was born earlier this year.
“He had trouble breastfeeding due to a shallow latch, began to show signs of reflux, was very irritable and not easily consoled, and was not able to turn his head to the right side very easily,” she said. “Sometimes these symptoms work themselves out, but I knew that something was not right. We discovered he had not only a tongue tie but also a lip tie, and twp cheek ties that were causing increased tightness in his body.”
Because of her training, Staves was able to assess his movement patterns and decrease his tension in his mouth and neck while also using oral motor exercises to prepare him to have the ties revised by a pediatric dentist.
“Long story short, before our son was born I was already interested in the idea of providing oral motor therapy services but I knew that my current position would not allow me to do this in a way that I would like to or to be able to use all of the knowledge and training to the fullest extent,” she said. “I knew I would be able to continue to help children with their development and play skills in my current role, but being able to provide thorough oral motor therapy while also working on development is a service that is not currently provided in this community.”
She said she decided to take a leap of faith and open her own clinic.
“It feels very surreal to be able to say I own my own therapy clinic,” Staves said. “The days of preparation for this and all of the paperwork have been very long but being able to do things like see my name and credentials go up on the door of the office or walking patients and referring providers through the office to see the services I can provide have been just small but surreal moments that have made the work worth it.”
I do know that no matter how much knowledge and experience I have gained I know that there is always going to be so much I have to learn.
Staves Occupational Therapy Services is located in the Springs at 2200 East Parrish Ave., Building C Suite LL 107. For more information call 270-681-0274 or email at [email protected]. They also have a Facebook page, Staves Occupational Therapy Services.
