Expanding Potential: The Value of Outpatient Therapy

A Testimonial by Shannon Shirley, ACCESS Parent

Upon arriving at ACCESS Outpatient Therapy several years ago, Stella had many milestones to meet. As a parent, you may feel any number of emotions while seeking special help for your child. Our path, as special needs parents, is different. It is also bright, filled with love, and sacred in its purpose. ACCESS provided us with a consistent touch point of empathetic and helpful faces to sort through our missed mile

stones. We set reasonable objectives together and worked toward steady gains in the areas that matter most. ACCESS helps parents break everything down into bite size, age-appropriate goals for long-term, steady gains in your child’s abilities. Along the way, you may also wonder who is teaching whom. The truth is that it is a partnership between you, your child, and your team of professionals. This is the nature of our parental path. Watching your children blossom while gaining confidence in themselves is an achievement unlike any other. The difference this makes in the child is lifelong and deep.

At this point in time, Stella has spent years in therapy. The progress is profound. We are able to use conversational speech, and she can tell me her needs with words. She is sharing more of her thoughts, emotions, and preferences daily. I get glorious, and well-crafted objections when I try to do homeschooling lessons she doesn’t prefer. She makes her opinions known, and I’m so very thrilled to know them. We can finally purchase gifts that she asked for during celebrations and holidays, instead of guessing. We have high hopes for a summer filled with camping, fishing, visiting with family, and all of the other things we have missed for so many years. We couldn’t be more proud of Stella. I’m honestly in awe of her hard work to persevere in the face of challenges. Stella has become an increasingly independent young lady. The ability to communicate with my child is a blessing. At times, it feels like a miracle given the amount of time and effort it took to get here. We have stumbled in therapy. There have been days where tears flowed freely and sessions couldn’t continue as planned. We persevered through it all to great accomplishment, all of us, led by my one little girl’s inner drive to succeed. She is my real hero, and she is the hardest worker that I know. Our work isn’t finished, but we need recognition and celebration of our great accomplishments all along the path.

The people who come together to form ACCESS, each and every one of them, are tireless champions for children. Their specialty happens to be those children with special needs. All children require a village, and special needs children require one that is specially crafted for the situation. ACCESS is a special needs village filled with hope, encouragement, empathy, and concrete plans to find solutions in your specific situations. We are happy to be a part of the unique and caring village at ACCESS.