Today we’d like to introduce you to Chelsea Knowles. Them and their team share their story with us below:
Chelsea Knowles, MS, CCC-SLP of Look Whoo’s Talking, LLC is a Speech-Language Pathologist with a pediatric private practice in Mandarin, Florida. She specializes in early language, childhood apraxia of speech, parent coaching, and feeding therapy.
She is a mom of three children, including boy/girl twins, and the wife of a chef/food truck owner. In 2018, her family, made Saint Johns, Florida their home, where they surf with their kids every summer and take trips to go skiing and snowboarding with them every winter.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Her entrepreneurial story began In 2017, when she was skateboarding with some friends, tried out a new board, and fell, breaking her wrist. Due to lifting restrictions at the Pediatric Outpatient Hospital where she worked in Miami, she had to take 6 weeks off from her busy job. She had space in her schedule for the first time in a long while.
She had a deeply entrenched fear that she wanted to get rid of so she stepped outside of her comfort zone and took an Improv Comedy class. When they asked for volunteers she made herself raise her hand when everything inside her was screaming “No!” she made herself say “Yes!” As she began to become more and more comfortable in the spotlight, she decided to reach further and read her poetry on stage at Tea and Poets in Miami.
Little by little she pushed the envelope and entered a Spoken Word Poetry Competition (she had always been a poet but had been afraid to try spoken word). She placed as a finalist! Having overcome a deep-seated fear, she dubbed her 40’s the “fearless forties” and decided to research the process for starting her own Private Practice, a longtime vision of hers.
She had finally found her own voice and now she was ready to help children find theirs! She opened Look Whoo’s Talking, LLC in Miami, Florida four years ago, and relocated the practice to Jacksonville, Florida in 2020, right before COVID hit.
When the pandemic approached, she had 4 clients, just enough to afford to sublease a treatment room from another Speech Pathologist specializing in Reading Therapy. The space was perfect (just like it was in Miami) with a large waiting room, a bathroom, and a kitchen for feeding therapy. However, due to quarantine and shut-down, her clientele dropped to only 1 child during that first year. Her office went unused as she saw her only client outside of their home with masks and face shields to ensure safety.
However, because it was exactly what she wanted, she never let go of her little office. Now she is blissfully operating her Private Practice, Look Whoo’s Talking, LLC three days a week, servicing children ages 1 to 17 years of age. She also contracts as an SLP in a local high school in Saint Johns County.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Chelsea received her Bachelor of Arts in Communication Processes and Disorders from the University of Florida in 1996 and her Master of Science in Speech Pathology with a minor in Audiology from the University of Hawaii in 1998.
Her career includes experience as a Home-Based Early Intervention Specialist in Hawaii, a Travel Speech Language Pathologist in the Schools in Hawaii, California, Maryland, and Florida, an SLP in Pediatric Outpatient Hospitals and Specialty Care Centers across Florida, and working for a variety of Private Practices and Non-profits, before contracting in Duval County Schools and the Saint Johns County School District.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
Chelsea says, “If I hadn’t broken my wrist skateboarding at age 42, I may not have tried Improve Comedy, performed Spoken Word Poetry, and let go of the fear holding me back from finally starting my Private Practice!”
Pricing:
- Therapy Thursdays 6 Week Sensory Social Language Group $444 (45 minutes per week)
- Full Evaluation of Speech, Fluency, Language, or Feeding $444 (90 Minutes)
- Partial Evaluation of Speech, Fluency, Language, or Feeding $222 (90 Minutes)
- Early Language or Feeding Therapy Session $111 (45 Minutes)
- Speech, Language, or Fluency Therapy Session $85 (45 Minutes)
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: https://look-whoos-talking-llc.square.site/
- Instagram: @look_whoos_talking
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lookwhoostalkingllc/
Image Credits
Brian Knox, Brittany Portalatin, Chelsea Knowles, and Lina O’Campo Chic
