Our Values
The Friends name represents the foundation of our practice, as well as the social connections and supportive community we hope to facilitate for you. We understand that voice, speech, swallowing, or communication challenges can impact your personal identity, feelings, and participation in life situations. Our practice is about addressing your individualized needs, fostering meaningful relationships and helping you build and maintain them.
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Our Services
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PARKINSON'S DISEASE THERAPY
Your voice is such an important part of who you are and how you engage with your friends and family.
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Our comprehensive evaluation will guide your course of individualized therapy, as well as address any additional needs that may occur such as speech, memory, or swallowing challenges.
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2
POST-STROKE THERAPY
Following a stroke, some people experience a loss of language. This is called Aphasia. Aphasia is a language problem that masks a person's inherent competence, and can surface in different ways, such as loss of words, spelling difficulty, reading difficulty, difficulty understanding spoken language.
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We provide communication and language retraining for stroke survivors and their communication partners, as well as cognitive and swallowing therapies.
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OTHER
SERVICES
We offer:
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Speech clarity
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Language
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Communication
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Memory/Thinking
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Swallowing
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Community engagement
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Voice
(Speak OUT!® certified, hoarse voice, loss of voice, vocal cord paralysis, vocal cord nodules, aging voice)
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Tele-therapy offered in California and New York. In-person services available in Los Angeles, and Orange County. We accept traditional Medicare and direct pay only. At this time we cannot serve individuals with supplemental coverage, with the exception of AARP.
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What Sets Us Apart
We offer a variety of voice and speech language pathology services, and we specialize in post-stroke and Parkinson's care. Whether you were just diagnosed, your symptoms are worsening, or you are looking to maintain and plan for your future, we will meet you wherever you are in your journey and stick with you as long as you need support.
We provide focused therapy for communication, speech, swallowing, and cognition, as well as informational counseling that empowers you to make the best decisions for your medical care.
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We believe that community is one of our greatest resources; to maximize your care we incorporate our extensive network of speech pathologists and medical professionals, and also provide a space for you to grow your own sense of community. We encourage you to bring a friend, old or new, or a family member to a session. We can train you and your friends in how to best communicate.
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Coming soon...
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Aphasia social group - Free to our patients, meets virtually monthly
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Parkinson's singing group - Free to our patients, meets virtually weekly
Meet the Team
Collectively, Natalie and Michelle have 12 years of experience as Speech-Language Pathologists. Natalie and Michelle met while pursuing professional training for speech-language pathology and connected over a shared dedication to patient advocacy and lifelong learning. Natalie and Michelle are committed to staying current with the latest advances in the field of Speech-Language Pathology. Our approach to therapy is one that is rooted in compassion, authenticity, and evidence-based practice. ​
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Natalie and Michelle are both certified in SPEAK OUT! Parkinson's voice therapy and are experienced providing speech, voice, swallowing and language therapy for adults.
Contact Us
Opening Hours
Monday- Thursday
8:00 am – 6:00 pm
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Resources
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Parkinson's resources
https://www.parkinson.org/your-area
https://parkinsonvoiceproject.org/
Relevant Articles:
The plight of loneliness in Parkinson's disease: New opportunities:
https://www.prd-journal.com/article/S1353-8020(22)00357-1/fulltext
Aphasia Resources
https://www.aphasia.org/site/
https://www.aphasia.org/
https://www.stroke.org/en/about-stroke
https://www.aphasia.ca/family-and-friends-of-people-with-aphasia/resources-tools-for-pwa-and-families/
https://www.aphasia.org/aphasia-resources/communication-poster/
Relevant Articles:
A scoping review of friendship intervention for older adults: lessons for designing intervention for people with aphasia
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09638288.2022.2117866
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