Meet Amanda Donaldson

We were lucky to catch up with Amanda Donaldson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Amanda with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?
Hi, thank you for having me. My work ethic was most heavily influenced by my parents. Reflecting on my childhood, after the young years, my parents were both employed full-time and did not have jobs in which work was always left at the office. Being in multiple meetings a day and working globally meant inboxes were flooded at all hours. Between work, fitness, dinner, and house chores, my parents were always on the move getting things done. I can distinctly recall Friday nights in my middle school and high school years in which my parents were working late, my brother and I were keeping busy, and suddenly it was 8:00 before we turned the oven on to make Friday night pizza! With that being said, weekends were the best: family dinner and games. Witnessing the strong work ethic of my parents definitely shaped me into an ambitious, motivated, and independent individual.

From what I remember, the real start of my driven work ethic was when I was in sophomore year of high school. My algebra teacher posted his syllabus on the website on Sunday or Monday night. I would check routinely for it and as soon as it was posted I got to work: not just on Monday night’s homework but on the homework for the whole week. Similarly in college, I was always trying to get ahead of the syllabus for each class.

Now as a business owner, I am constantly striving to find more, do more, and create more in order to serve as many clients as possible making a difference in the lives of those with whom we work and being involved in the community.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
When I was a child, I had a speech therapist who came to my house to help me with some of my articulation skills as I had difficulty with the production of the “s” and “r” sounds. I knew I always wanted to work with children and the initial obvious answer was to become a teacher. My mother reminded me of my experiences working with a speech therapist and shared some of the “before and after” recordings with me. I began to look into the field a little more and realized it was a perfect fit. It allowed me to work with children but in a smaller scale (more individualized) while serving others and making a difference in the lives of others while giving back to a field that made in a difference in my own life. I am so glad I took the path I did because it was led to me to so many new doors and opportunities many of which I would not have had if it weren’t for being in this field.

I went to school in Scranton, Pennsylvania, yes, where the office is filmed although, no, I have never watched all the seasons. There I completed an accelerated five-year program where I received by bachelors, masters, and teaching certificate. After graduation, I came out to Phoenix, Arizona: my brother was in Tucson and we knew my parents would also be making their way west upon retirement a few years later. I worked full time in the schools for four and a half years and part time on the weekends at a rehabilitation hospital for three years.

In 2019, I opened up CommuniCAN Speech Therapy, as a part time business on the side of my other commitments. I focused on providing in-home services since (a) I did not have the time or means to open a clinic and (b) it allowed for me to see children in their natural setting while making things convenient for the family. In January 2022, I quit my job in the school system and transitioned to being a business owner and speech-language pathologist full time! From there, my business quickly grew and expanded and continues to do so. Now, I have a team of three therapists including myself as well as an administrative assistant. We cover a wide area of the Phoenix, Arizona valley serving children and adults in home and/or via telehealth. Our team is a small family feel business that puts our clients and families first believing in collaboration and individualized approaches in a natural environment.

New this summer I am also launching our Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Coaching Program. This allows parents, other therapists, and/or facilities and classrooms to work individually with me to learn more about a child’s specific device and how they can help facilitate the use of the device throughout the child’s day. This is fully customizable to the individual and we work a lot on education, recommendations for activities, how to program, and suggestions of how to verbally model language while using the AAC device.

CommuniCAN Speech Therapy is dedicated to delivering skilled, individualized, and high-quality services backed by evidence and experience. We believe in family involvement and a client centered approach to foster progress and help every individual achieve maximum success. Our mission is to help clients overcome challenges and to provide support and resources to families and the community. We are fueled by our passion for making a positive lifelong difference in the lives of others.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Reflecting on my journey, three of the most important qualities would be: trust (in the process and oneself), acknowledging and being okay with mistakes and being open to learning new things daily, and independence and self motivation or drive. Some of these can be obstacles in and of themselves especially for me as I am very type A personality: I like to have a plan, I like to make sure things are done correctly, and I am an overachiever. Starting out I had, and sometimes still have self doubt, but as friends and family remind me, I will continue to encounter new and unfamiliar situations each of which is a chance to grow and learn. Finding a support system outside of friends of family consisting of people doing something similar to you, reading books, and listening to podcasts can all be helpful outlets for these “unchartered waters.”

Going into private practice and starting your own business can be scary! But you can’t get anywhere without trying. I like to compare my journey to standing at the edge of the cliff: I was working in the schools which was the safe side but I knew I wanted to try to explore private practice and starting my own business. I couldn’t do that unless I took a leap of faith and gave it a shot. I knew that I was and am in a field that is always in need and that if something didn’t work out I could always go back or find something else. As luck would have it, I took the leap, stumbled a little bit as I got my feet steady on the other side, and am now standing up! Yes I trip every so often, but I have found a support system to help me get back up. Through this I found, utilized, and enhanced my skills mentioned above of trusting the process and myself, growing from mistakes or challenges, and continuing to push myself.

How would you describe your ideal client?
CommuniCAN Speech Therapy is a private practice serving a wide variety of children and adults in-home or via telehealth. We work with individuals of all ages who have needs in the areas of speech and language. These may include concerns related to articulation, oral motor skills, receptive language, expressive language, social skills (pragmatics), voice, fluency (stuttering), cognitive impairments, word finding, and/or swallowing deficits. We also work with individuals with autism, developmental delays, down syndrome, post-stroke patients, traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients, and more.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.communicanspeechtherapy.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/communicanspeechtherapy/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057067825449