Getting started…

I have always enjoyed reading blogs from other people. Sometimes, being a good blogger comes from being a great writer.  Sometimes it just comes from having a lot of experience to share. I never considered myself to be in either of those categories.  I can think of some experiences I definitely should have blogged about (I’m sure those will get written eventually) but never felt I had the “blogging jean.”  Well, here goes nothin’!

My name is Jessica Reva. I was born and raised in the great state of Texas to two amazing parents. My parents provided me many wonderful opportunities including the ability to attend Texas Christian University. This is where I met my husband. After a year of friendship, he stole my heart. We dated, got engaged, and got married all before I graduated with my Masters in Speech Communication Disorders.

Fresh out of The University of Texas at Dallas, I went to work at Children’s Health in Dallas where I worked in their outpatient clinics and acute care settings. I was thirsty for knowledge and strived to be the best at everything I did. It was then that I solidified my love for patients with feeding and swallowing disorders. Shortly after having my first child, a precious baby girl, I realized being a parent changes your outlook on therapy. I stopped prescribing unrealistic home exercise programs that a mother of three wouldn’t have time to complete and started getting realistic. I started to understand “family centered treatment” better.

As I began looking for more flexibility in my own life, I switched from the hospital setting to home health. I started working at Therapy 2000 where I had some amazing opportunities to see the real life of patients and their families. What an eye opener!  At this time, I also became the mother of twin boys who made their arrival at 33 weeks and spent some time in the NICU.  And if that didn’t teach me enough, one of the twins had serious breathing issues at 8 months old and was transported by ambulance to Children’s ICU. After several other hospitalizations for varying reasons, I started to get a small understanding of families who have children with special needs. It’s just plain hard. (More blogging to come from those experiences)

After two years in home health, Children’s asked me to come back and help build their home care agency. For the last 4 years, I have really focused on program growth and development for many service lines with a large focus on therapy (speech, PT, and OT).

With all that experience, my love for children who have developmental delays and feeding delays, my desire to support their families, and the amazing help from my husband, I am ready for a new adventure. Drum roll please…I am opening my own private practice.

So if there were ever a time to try something new, it’s now. So I hope to be blogging on a regular basis to tell my stories and experiences. Through this, I hope my writing improves 😉 and I provide informative and realistic stories that give hope and joy to those that read them!  Thank you for reading and I hope you come back soon!