Bloom and Grow Therapy Services
Bloom and Grow Early Intervention, LLC.
148 West State Street Suite 304 Kennett Square, PA 19348
Phone; 610-947-0404. Fax 610-947-0405
Neurodiversity, Strengths, and Relationships
Relationship Based Occupational and Speech-Language Therapy Proudly Serving Southern Chester County, PA and Surrounding Areas
Meet the Team
Cindy Duckworth
MOT, OTR/L, IMC, DIR-FT
Occupational Therapist/CEO
cindy@bloomandgrowtherapy.com
Roots: After growing up in Delaware County, Cindy graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from Shippensburg University in 2002. While teaching an inclusive 3rd grade class, she discovered the field of occupational therapy. Cindy obtained her Master of Occupational Therapy from Temple University in 2006. While a graduate intern at Temple, Cindy had the privilege of conducting interviews with autistic adults, both speaking and non-speaking. This experience allowed her to learn from true experts. Highly influenced by these interviews, Cindy's philosophy, practice, and "way of living" is strongly rooted in always presuming intellect.
Professional Experiences "The Bloom": Cindy brings 15 years of OT experience in a wide variety of settings with clients across the lifespan. These settings include the NICU, acute care, rehabilitation, hospital outpatient in pediatrics and adults, private practice outpatient, early intervention, preschool, sensory and interest based social groups, aquatic therapy and specialized private and public schools that included programs for autistic adolescents and young adults.
Specialized Training "The Grow": Cindy has participated in specialized training and mentorship in Sensory Integration, DIRFloortime through ICDL, Interoception, Interactive Metronome, Therapeutic Listening, kinesiology taping, Handwriting Without Tears, Size Matters Handwriting Program, pediatric yoga and mindfulness, infant massage, aquatic therapy, and NDT. Cindy is certified in Interactive Metronome, Integrated Listening Systems, Safe and Sound Protocol and Focus System.
Cindy has completed multiple trainings with ICDL and earned her certificate of proficiency in DIR-Floortime. She is also completing a training on a new found interest- Gestalt Language Processors.
Why: Bloom and Grow Therapy Services was launched to provide high quality OT to the greater Southern Chester County area with a focus on relationships, sensory processing, and strengths. Cindy currently holds OT licenses in PA, DE, and MD. Cindy resides in West Grove, PA with her husband and 3 children. She enjoys anything musical, watching her children play sports, and time spent in the mountains, down the shore, and OBX.
Cydney Panichi, COTA/L, IMC, CEIM DIR-FT
Lead Outpatient Therapist
Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant
DIRFloortime Practitioner
Outpatient and Early Intervention
Roots: Cydney grew up in Chester County PA where she graduated from Unionville High School. After high school, she worked as a teaching assistant in an Autistic support classroomat the Delaware County Intermediate Unit. It was here that she found her passion for helping children learn and grow as well as her love for Occupational Therapy. Cydney went on to pursue her degree as a Certified Occupational Therapist Assistant at Harcum College and graduated in 2016.
Professional Experiences: “The Bloom”: Cydney has 15 years of experience working with the
pediatric population throughout her life. Prior to becoming a COTA, she spent many years babysitting infants/children and was even a full time nanny for multiples. This is where she learned a lot about the importance of development! After graduation, Cydney gained experience working as a COTA both in an outpatient setting as well as a school-based setting. She also spent some time working with the Geriatric population in a Skilled Nursing setting.
Specialized Training: “The Grow”: Cydney’s passion for working with children started when she was younger and continues to grow as she furthers her career. After experiencing the
importance and great benefits of DIRFloortime, she went on to receive her certification. She is also certified in Interactive Metronome. Cydney also has experience with Tomatis sound therapy and sand tray therapy. She hopes to one day receive her certification in sand tray therapy and Trauma-Informed care. Cydney is a Certified Educator of Infant Massage.
Why: Cydney believes in the importance of helping children grow and develop to their utmost potential. She feels as though relationships play a key role in both of those pieces and strives to create an individual
relationship with each of her clients. Cydney also sees and understands the significance of social-emotional skills in development. She loves to work on building these skills.
Rachel Parisi, MS, OTR/L, IMC
Senior Occupational Therapist
Outpatient
rachel@bloomandgrowtherapy.com
Roots: Rachel grew up in Chester County, PA and graduated from Downingtown East High School. She attended Temple University and went on to complete her Masters in Occupational Therapy at Thomas Jefferson University. She specialized in Pediatric Therapy and Autism Spectrum Disorder. Her passion and dedication to help families and children started in high school and continues to increase as she furthers her experience and continuing education in her field.
Professional Experiences "The Bloom": Rachel has over 11 years of experience working with children in a variety of settings which include: private schools, outpatient clinics, pediatric hospitals, and early intervention in homes.
Specialized Training "The Grow": Rachel continues to learn and enhance her level of expertise in the field. She has received mentorship and training on sensory integration and DIRFloortime. She is certified in Interactive Metronome. She values education and enjoys searching for ways to learn and further her expertise.
Why: Rachel believes in the power of educating families to enhance their child’s development. She strongly believes relationships shape the way a child grows and develops. She understands the importance of social-emotional skills and loves to collaborate with families in order to help a child bloom and grow.
Kara Shipley, MS, CCC-SLP
Speech and Language Pathologist
Nattural Language Acquisition (NLA) certified
After school sessions and Saturdays
Roots: Kara grew up in Northern New Jersey. While in high school, she worked as a dietary assistant at a nursing home, and that is when she first saw the impact that communication has on one’s quality of life. She shadowed the speech-language pathologist and decided it was the perfect career for her. After high school, Kara attended La Salle University for both her bachelor’s and master’s Degrees in speech-language pathology. Now she is happy to call Chester County home.
Professional Experiences “The Bloom”: During graduate school, Kara focused on evaluating and treating children and teens with selective mutism. She saw how anxiety affects communication skills and found passion in treating children with selective mutism. Kara currently works in a local school district serving children with ranging communication needs, including supporting students in both autistic support and life skills classrooms, students with speech sound disorders, developmental delays, and language disorders.
Specialized Training “The Grow”: Kara is familiar with various AAC programs including Proloquo2Go, Snap Core First, LAMP, and Touch Chat. Kara is eager to expand her skillset by enrolling in DIR Floortime courses.She has earned her certification in Natural Language Acquisition. She attends continuing education classes to remain current on the most up to date therapy approaches. She is currently enrolled in DIR 201 with ICDL.
Why: Kara believes in honoring all forms of communication. She thinks it is important to build strong relationships with children and their families in order to show all of the ways their child is communicating to them. She is excited to help families learn how to be good listeners and communication partners.
Melissa Crowell, MOT, OTR/L
Roots: Melissa grew up in Chester County, where she graduated from Avon Grove High School in 2015. While attending Avon Grove, Melissa discovered the field of occupational therapy through the Allied Health Program at the Technical College High School- Pennock’s Bridge Campus. Melissa earned her Bachelor of Science degree in 2019 from West Chester University where she majored in Exercise Science and minored in Psychology. Through her undergraduate internships, Melissa discovered the wonderful world of pediatric OT. After graduation, Melissa moved to Southern California to study occupational therapy at the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences and graduated with her Master of Occupational Therapy degree in 2021.
Professional Experiences "The Bloom": While attending occupational therapy school in California, Melissa had the opportunity to gain experiences in both the inpatient rehabilitation and outpatient pediatric settings. Melissa completed her first level II fieldwork experience at Casa Colina Hospitals and Centers for Healthcare in Pomona, CA. Here, she was a part of the spinal cord injury team and enjoyed being a part of her patient’s journeys. Melissa completed her second level II fieldwork experience at the Launchpad Therapy for Kids in San Juan Capistrano, CA. This experience enriched her knowledge of sensory integration and the importance of play and having fun! After completing her master’s degree at the University of St. Augustine, Melissa moved back to Pennsylvania to be closer to family.
Specialized Training "The Grow": Melissa has gained experience with spinal cord injury rehabilitation, Ayres’ Sensory Integration, hippotherapy, outpatient pediatrics, and school-based OT.
Why: Melissa believes in the importance of teamwork and collaboration with a child and their family. She loves working with kids to find and highlight their strengths and help them reach their highest potential.
Megan O'Sullivan, MS, OTR/L
Occupational Therapist
Home sessions in Delaware County
The Roots: Megan was born and raised in Delaware County and graduated from Saint Joseph’s University in 2014 with her Bachelors in Biology and a minor of study in Interdisciplinary Health Care Ethics. She discovered occupational therapy when she was looking for a way to combine her interests in science with her talent for performing arts and her passion for relationship-based and immersion-focused community service. She went on to receive her Master of Science in Occupational Therapy from Thomas Jefferson University in 2016.
Professional Experiences “The Bloom”: During OT school, Megan gained invaluable experience researching, planning, and implementing social and emotional learning curriculums for children served by Project HOME’s afterschool programs in North Philadelphia, which led to presentations for both state and national association OT conferences. Megan now brings 6 years of experience in various pediatric therapy settings to Bloom and Grow including preschool early intervention in home, school, and clinic-based settings; outpatient private practice; school-based practice; and multiple disabilities, life skills, and intensive support classrooms for students age 5 to 21.
Specialized Training “The Grow”: Megan has focused much of her continuing education on neurodiversity-affirming and strengths-based approaches to autism and disabilities, trauma informed care, emotional and sensory-based regulation, interoception, and assistive technology and AAC.
Why: No matter her degrees, experience, or trainings, Megan knows that the true expert in the life of a child with disabilities is, first and foremost, the child themselves, and then the caregivers that support them every day. While following the child’s lead, she takes pride in her ability to collaborate with families, therapists, and educators to help children gain skills, adapt, self-advocate, and live their fullest self-determined life.
Lauren Fox MA, CCC-SLP
Speech-Language Pathologist
Outpatient
Roots: Lauren grew up in Suffolk County, New York, where she acquired her love for facilitating play-based interactions with children at a young age through babysitting experiences. After graduating from Hauppauge High School, she went on to complete her Bachelor of Science degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders, with a minor in Psychology, from Towson University in Maryland. She then completed her Master of Arts Degree in Speech Language Pathology at Hofstra University in New York. Lauren’s approach to therapy is collaborative and rooted in establishing and maintaining genuine relationships with the children and families that she works with as they are the “heart” of the team.
Professional Experiences “The Bloom”: Lauren brings over 17 years of experience in an extensive range of settings to Bloom and Grow. These settings include early intervention home services, over six years of preschool based services, outpatient pediatric private practice, elementary schools with special programs, middle school, an inpatient skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility and her current position as an evaluator on a child find multidisciplinary team. Lauren is very grateful for the invaluable experience of living in Seoul, South Korea from 2010 to 2012 where she enjoyed immersing herself in their beautiful culture, working as a lead preschool teacher for an international school of students with diverse linguistic backgrounds and working as a speech language pathologist for the Department of Defense Preschool Services for Children with Disabilities program and elementary school. Some of Lauren’s professional experiences include providing family/staff trainings, feeding safety management in the school setting, augmentative and alternative communication approaches, supporting neurodiverse affirming approaches, trauma-informed approaches and focusing on pragmatic skills for helping children build meaningful relationships with others, express their authentic thoughts, wants and needs and navigate social interactions. She works hard towards individualizing assessment and therapeutic approaches for each child.
Specialized Training “The Grow”: Lauren loves to continually learn new therapy techniques, in a wide range of ASHA accredited topics, to benefit her clients and to keep up to date with the latest research. This is evidenced by an ACE award presented to her by ASHA in 2021 for demonstrated excellence and dedication to lifelong learning. Some recent coursework that Lauren took includes: Autistic Communication and the Neurodiversity Paradigm, Using Natural Language Acquisition to Support Autistic and Neurotypical Gestalt Language, Robust Vocabulary Instruction for Students Who Use AAC, Language Acquisition through Motor Planning (LAMP) and AAC for Early Intervention. Lauren also obtained her 200-hour yoga teacher training certification in 2019 and enjoys incorporating mindfulness techniques to help her clients learn and grow.
Why: Lauren believes that everyone deserves a voice and we should always presume that each person has something to say. She is passionate about working together with children and their families to help empower each child with effective modes of communication for self-generating their own authentic messages, sharing their own thoughts and ideas and expressing their own feelings.
Lauren has adored her experience of living in the amazing Kennett Square community for the past two years and is honored for the opportunity to be joining this incredible Bloom and Grow team! She is excited for the possibility of working with you and your child!
Leslie Sutter, MSW
Office Administrator
Roots: Leslie Sutter grew up in Delaware County, PA and attended Cardinal O'Hara High School in Springfield. As a student, she was drawn to the "helping profession" and went on to receive her Bachelor of Social Work degree from Cabrini University in 2009, followed by her Masters degree in Social Work from Widener University in 2010.
Professional Experiences "The Bloom": Leslie spent the first 10 years of her professional career in the hospital setting, advocating for high risk and underserved populations, providing brief supportive counseling and ensuring patients were linked to all available support programs in the community. It was also in the hospital setting where Leslie was first able to work alongside occupational and speech therapists, and witness the importance of these therapies on a patient's rehab potential. Her more recent work experience has led her to account and insurance management as well as continued patient advocacy.
Specialized Training "The Grow": Throughout her career, Leslie has found herself in various settings learning and helping various at-risk populations. She completed the "Inside Out" prison exchange program in Montgomery County that allowed her to take college courses inside a prison with female prisoners; a program that fostered mentoring, sharing, and growing. She has also spent time providing counseling to youth in residential placement, and believes that relationship building can truly save lives.
Leslie resides in Media, PA with her husband and 3 children, and is excited for the opportunity to join the Bloom and Grow family!
Lauren Beeles, MA, CCC-SLP, CLC
Lead Early Intervention Therapist
Speech-Language Pathologist & Certified Lactation Counselor
Spanish-Speaking Clinician
Roots: Lauren grew up in the Thousand Islands region of Northern New York. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Nazareth University in 2017, where she majored in International Studies and Spanish and minored in Psychology and Legal Studies. While working as a full-time nanny after graduation, Lauren discovered her passion for working with infants/toddlers and their families. Lauren earned her Master of Arts degree in Speech-Language Pathology from West Chester University in 2021. As a graduate student, Lauren participated in the Bilingual Emphasis Course Sequence program, an experience that contributed to her development as a Spanish-speaking clinician.
Professional Experiences "The Bloom": During graduate school, Lauren gained professional experience working with individuals across the lifespan while providing therapy services at an outpatient clinic, several middle schools, and an inpatient rehabilitation hospital. Before moving back to Chester County, Lauren worked in Infant/Toddler Early Intervention in the Greater Boston region where she was fortunate to collaborate with children and families from a variety of cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. It was here that Lauren honed her clinical focus to specialize in feeding and swallowing disorders in premature infants and toddlers with medical complexities. During this time, Lauren completed coursework to become a Certified Lactation Counselor in order to better serve infants/toddlers that chestfeed.
Specialized Training "The Grow": Lauren has participated in several specialized trainings to continue to develop her expertise in infant feeding, focusing on topics such as adapted baby-led weaning for babies with feeding challenges and optimizing feeding/swallowing for infants with tracheostomy tubes. She is a NOMAS (Neonatal Oral-Motor Assessment Scale) Licensed Professional and a Certified SOFFI (Supporting Oral Feeding in Fragile Infants) Professional. She has also completed training in the assessment and treatment of velopharyngeal dysfunction and pediatric resonance disorders at Boston Children’s Hospital.
Why: Lauren believes that the heart of communication is connection and emphasizes the importance of building positive collaborative relationships as the foundation for growth. Lauren currently holds speech-language pathology licenses in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts and holds a Certificate of Clinical Competence (CCC) from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). Lauren loves adventuring with her dog, traveling abroad, backpacking in the mountains, baking, doing yoga, and crocheting.
