Today we’d like to introduce you to Marley Juarez.
Hi Marley, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Thank you! My name is Marley Juarez and I am the Co-Founder and Director of Operations at Strides Pediatric Therapy, an outpatient pediatric therapy clinic offering occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy, mental health therapy, and recreation therapy to kids ages 0-21 with a variety of disabilities or needs. I have wanted to be a mental health therapist since high school, and I grew up riding and competing for horses so I knew I would love to incorporate that into my work.
My sister, Grace, also rode horses growing up and is a recreation therapist so we had always talked about combining the two, and our mom was onboard to be a part of that dream. When we met Kacie, our clinical director, we learned about the world of physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy that can also use horses, and decided to open a clinic with all five!
We purchased property, renovated the existing barn, and put it in a clinic building as well as many outdoor therapeutic spaces. We opened in March 2020 and have just grown from there, adding more clinic space and more therapists to meet the growing need for therapy services in our state!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The road was not easy. First of all, we didn’t know what we didn’t know. A lot of it was us learning on the fly and through mistakes. We were brand new to the world of insurance credentialing and contracting, licensing, zoning, building permits, etc!
We hit a lot of setbacks along the way, a few of which we thought were going to be the end of this dream. But we pushed through, working as a team to figure things out and tackle each obstacle as it came up! It was a stressful but wonderful process. The biggest challenge we faced is that there is no manual for starting a small business in a pandemic.
We opened a week or so before Covid-19 locked everything down. While we were able to remain open as an essential business, the pandemic significantly impacted our growth and ability to stay afloat. We couldn’t visit doctors’ offices or schools to market, and a lot of the natural marketing that happens by word of mouth at children’s activities was not happening.
We were not eligible for a lot of the financial aid available to businesses because since we had just opened and went from zero patients to having patients, we were not showing a “loss” in income that was required to qualify. We also hadn’t been open long enough to qualify for some of the aid programs.
So, while we were absolutely impacted by the pandemic, there was not a lot of help available and that was really difficult.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Strides Pediatric Therapy?
As I mentioned, Strides is an outpatient pediatric therapy clinic offering occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy, mental health therapy, and recreation therapy to kids ages 0-21 with a variety of disabilities or needs. We absolutely adore our jobs!
We have a ten-acre facility that has clinic buildings with a sensory-motor gym, gross motor gym, and offices, as well as outdoor spaces and an equestrian facility. All of our therapists are trained to incorporate the use of a horse when it is beneficial and desired. We get to help kids crawl or walk for the first time, say “mama”, learn to ride a bike, and just, in general, make huge strides towards living happy, healthy, independent lives!
The horse piece is definitely unique. In PT, OT, or speech therapy, it is called hippotherapy, which uses the movement of a horse to facilitate a change in a child within that PT, OT, or ST program. Our mental health therapists use equine-assisted psychotherapy, and recreation therapy uses horseback riding as the recreational activity used to make a change.
These tools offer something that cannot be accomplished using just clinic space, and it is a fun and therapeutic tool that our therapists can use to achieve the kids’ goals!
One of the biggest things that set us apart is the atmosphere. We are a small, family-owned and operated clinic, so everyone that works there knows each child, their parents, and their siblings. We try to avoid the feeling of a doctor’s office waiting room, and instead, aim to make Strides an enjoyable place to spend time for everyone involved.
Parents get to know other parents as well as staff, and we take steps to make siblings of children in services feel welcome. Parents of kids with special needs spend hours each week to get their children what they need, and we want to make this as enjoyable as possible.
We are also unique in that we have all five of these services in one location, with a team that works closely together to make sure that we are addressing all of a child’s needs in a way that coordinates with and builds on each other.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
I don’t think I have one favorite childhood memory, but I am definitely a fan of the simple ones- the days spent playing in the backyard together, tubing on the boat, or a lazy day by the pool- those are my favorite memories.
Anything that involves quality time with the people I love!
Contact Info:
- Email: mjuarez@stridespediatrictherapy.com
- Website: www.stridespediatrictherapy.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StridesPediatricTherapy
Image Credits
Accidental Exposure Photography and Macey Berg
