Where are they now? Kate Williams + Michelle Ogston

July 31, 2020

Kate Williams is back to share how her private practice has grown since we last spoke in early 2019. In this episode, Kate also brought on someone who works with her, Michelle Ogston. These two talk about the shift they made to a more holistic practice. Kate and Michelle discuss how they’ve diversified their services by adding in a life coaching aspect to further help their clients and their loved ones. They also talk about their move to a group setting and creating other systems for success to help further speech therapy progress. The two also share some advice on sitting in the why and using this time as an opportunity to go inward and really dive into who you are, what you value and what you hope to bring to the world.

What we discuss:

What’s been going on for Kate this past year
How having a life coach in their practice has helped their clients
How they noticed a need and developed something for that
What they’re doing to help other clinicians
Their hopes for the next year within their practice
Kate and Michelle’s advice for having a holistic practice

Links:
“Self-Care for Private Practitioners” with Katie Samples-Willams, SLP
Santa Rosa Speech Therapy
Kate’s Instagram
Cloud9 Life Coaching

Guest: Kate Williams, CCC-SLP
Kate is a nationally certified Speech-Language Pathologist from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and is licensed by the California Speech-Language Pathologist and Audiology Board. She completed her Bachelor’s Degree with honors in Speech Language Pathology and Audiology from California State University-Sacramento and earned her Master’s Degree in Communication Disorders and Sciences from the University of Oregon. She interned in medical speech-language pathology at Oregon Health Services University in Portland, Oregon with a strong emphasis on swallow disorders and head and neck cancer, including laryngectomy. Kate’s advanced clinical training includes certifications in LSVT for people with Parkinson’s and FastForWard for auditory processing.

Guest: Michelle Ogston, CLC
Michele has been an integral part of Santa Rosa Speech & Language Services since 2008. She is often referred to as the “Lucy” (of the Peanuts cartoon) of our practice and is usually the first point of contact with clients. Her role as our office manager goes well beyond the scope of her traditional medical management. Although Michele has over 16 years of management experience and holds certifications in telephone communication, office etiquette, billing, and workplace ergonomics, it is her role as a Certified Life Coach (CLC) of which she is most proud. Michele uses her training and her experience to not only manage our office but also is instrumental in leading several of our groups. She answers questions and sets expectations about our services that are done professionally and confidentially. Her compassionate nature, positive personality, and reliant smile help put potential clients at ease while letting them know how we can help. In her downtime, Michele loves being with her family and fur babies. She also enjoys traveling and spending time at the ocean. Outside of our office, Michele runs her own life coaching business, Coaching 9 Life Coaching. She is a firm believer in the practice of mediation and mindfulness which make her the perfect fit for our team.

Host: Jena Castro-Casbon, MS CCC-SLP
Jena H. Castro-Casbon, MS, CCC-SLP, is a private-practice consultant who has helped thousands of speech-language pathologists start and grow their own private practices through her company, The Independent Clinician. She has written articles for The ASHA Leader and Presented at ASHA Connect (2017).

You’ll find her online in the SLP Private Practice Beginners Facebook Group and in her premium programs, The Start Your Private Practice System and the Grow Your Private Practice Coaching Program.

Jena lives in Boston, MA and is a wife and mama to two young boys.