Meet Briana Falgiano

We recently connected with Briana Falgiano and have shared our conversation below.

Briana, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.

My confidence and self-esteem has come from the performing arts and has from a young age. I started performing when I was 4 years old, I even learned to read through reading lines for various shows and plays I was a part of. Through getting on a stage, acting out what I was feeling, and expressing myself authentically even through fears of inadequacy, I learned to believe in myself and my own abilities. I learned to be my own voice of belief and developed the ability to speak to God on my own terms. In those conversations, I was constantly reminded of my strength, my abilities and how He saw me. Believing in who I am because of who God says I am allows me to let go of my constant belief about myself based on my behaviors or traumas.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I am a speech language pathologist (therapist) determined to combine my love for the performing arts and speech therapy to deliver top-notch treatment methods that get to the core of our children; to see our children for who they are, to develop language expression and promote a greater sense of self confidence. I am very interested in pursuing my doctoral degree in speech therapy to develop a thesis and appropriate research methods to further examine the benefit of my treatment methods. I am currently completing a certificate in sensory integration for my autistic clients and am developing an IEP advocate angle for the families I treat to make sure each family gets exactly what they deserve in the public school setting as well. I am also creating several printable materials for purchase to allow other therapists and parents to use my materials in the home or therapy setting to take the lessons wherever my families and people are! I run several classes in the Central Florida area that target speech and language skills such as: Fun-ctional Musical Theater (at the Imagine Performing Arts Center) for ages 15+ that focuses on musical theater, budgeting skills, money management, script development, writing, costuming and more, a Drumming for Self Expression class (at the Imagine Performing Arts Center) that focuses on developing self expression through drumming and music as well as building literacy skills through music, several Drama Clubs at Alpine Academy, Gabriel Therapy Group that focus on different character’s point of view, script writing, music engagement and more, a Music and Movement class at We Rock The Spectrum Gym North Orlando that combines music and movement for the purpose of sensory regulation and better overall language acquisition and development. In the future I am looking to expand to Showtime USA in Eustis as well. I am currently developing a music class that targets dyslexia and other reading challenges to aid in better reading skills for this group of kids as well! My classes are currently being added to a virtual bank to be shared with children all over the world- so stick around for that!

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Critical thinking is the biggest skill I have acquired and the most important to be able to develop something new and perpetuate the future of creating new treatment methods. To be a great therapist, teacher, or human in general, we have to keep pushing the question “why?”. Just because something has ‘always been done’ doesn’t mean that it’s the best way to do it. Ask why and then determine if you agree with the answer or not. If you don’t, make it matter for yourself. Connect what was learned to your personal experiences and I guarantee you will create something new that only you could do! Perseverance is the second. I had to keep pushing forward. There are still many road blocks I face and not giving up on my ideas, or changing the idea, pivoting what I already know and what I want to know has pushed me in places and areas that allow me to keep moving forward. Giving up is the only way to fail. Lastly, knowing my boundaries. I am not a machine, and I am also a mother and a wife, a performer and a friend. I have to be aware of how much of myself I am pouring into everything and myself included. Taking care of myself and my family comes first always.

What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?

I believe playing to someone’s strength will always be the best. Humans cannot be the best at everything and while we can always improve in certain areas, placing focus on the areas we are not the greatest in tends to slow us down, tear away at what we enjoy and even depreciate our own self confidence. Great leaders know their people and they play to each person’s strengths. My supervisor, Katherine Logan, M.S., CCC-SLP, for the speech program would constantly ask me questions that were specific to who I was as an individual and would use those answers to challenge me further. With Mrs. Logan, I once worked with a client who had a significant language impairment and only spoke a few minimal words. When working with this child, I used the puppets to play imagination and developed stories involving many dramatic play events which used words to build on each session. Through the connection we developed, this child blossomed to using and speaking several word sentences both in his sessions and in his home setting. My supervisor challenged me to ask me why this treatment method worked. Upon researching for the answer, I determined there was no simple answer and the answer was within myself: using imagination developed from my knowledge of the performance art world. From this instance, I created everything you see today. The Dramatic SLP is something that was made for me and something only I could create. My strengths were what led me to be where I am. I am not the best therapist for every single practice within the scope of speech therapy and that is perfectly fine. We each have a niche and should work with what we do best.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thedramaticslp.com/
• Instagram: @The_Dramatic_slp

Image Credits

Koontz Photography (in association with Circus Inferno Entertainment), Katrina Falgiano