About Blossom Rural

As a Speech Pathologist, I love working with rural families on their child’s literacy, speech, language and fluency skills.

I opened Blossom Rural in January 2021 after noticing the lack of Speech Pathology services in my local Far Western NSW region. The number of rural children, living on properties and remote towns, who were not able to access regular Speech Pathology intervention without driving to a major capital city, was astounding. These were the families I had always hoped to work alongside and provide an accessible service to.

I grew up in Broken Hill before heading to Adelaide for Boarding School at 12 years of age followed by university. The healthcare gap between country and city was very obvious! I would often catch up with friends travelling to Adelaide with their families for medical appointments. For me, this meant an afternoon outside the Boarding House, having a nice meal and enjoying conversation about home, with people I loved – I was not complaining! But for them, it was a massive time and financial expense, to make a trip to Adelaide for a service that was not available in the country.

Outside of my time spent as a Speech Pathologist, I enjoy heading out of town to the family station, with my partner Josh. We love this way of life, and hope in the near future, to move out there ourselves. I also love baking cookies, cakes or anything sweet!

Ness has experience working in a range of different settings including private practice, community health services, schools, and aged care in rural and remote as well as regional and metropolitan areas.

Ness adores reaching rural and remote communities via telehealth, as this reminds her of the community she grew up in and the lack of services available due to geographical location.

Ness has further training in Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS), Sequential Oral Sensory (SOS) Approach to feeding, READ3, Orofacial Myology, Collaborative & Proactive Solutions, and will soon be completing Hanen’s Learning Language and Loving It.

Ness also works collaboratively with the Charles Sturt University, assisting to train up our next generations of Speech Pathologists.

In her spare time, you can catch Ness driving out to her family’s property, meeting friends for a coffee, running after her sausage dog, Bentley, or doing some form of craft (crochet being the favourite at the moment!).

Hi! My name is Sarah and I live in beautiful Perth, Western Australia. I’m so excited to be working as a speech pathologist at Blossom Rural as I have a passion for working with families in rural and remote areas, helping them to access the support they need.

I love to work with all children, and I am particularly interested in working in school-aged language and speech sounds and, I am passionate supporting neurodiversity in all people.

My favourite thing about being a speechie is the beautiful relationships I am lucky enough to build with my clients and their support people as we work towards their therapy goals.

Outside of work, I love to hike and upcycle furniture, and I am also a book worm and I love to read fantasy and romance novels.

Tahnee is passionate about holistically supporting participants to enjoy the simple things in life, like sharing food with family and communicating about their day.

She enjoys working across a range of areas in speech pathology but has special experience in motor speech and alternative and augmentative communication (AAC).

Tahnee loves getting stuck into weekend projects, cuppas and sweet treats at the cafe, and her cat, Oberon.

Kate has worked in a variety of Paediatric speech pathology settings and loves working in the areas of speech, language and literacy. Kate is passionate about communication and supporting children and families to meet their goals.

Kate has sparked an interest in telehealth and how this can be used to make service more accessible to families in rural communities.

In her spare time Kate enjoys gardening and taking care of her many indoor plants. She is also an avid reader and has a great book collection in her office, which you can see in her video calls.

She has experience working with children of all ages but has a passion for intervention in the early years of development. Her special interest areas include developing social and emotional skills in children and empowering parents to understand and support their children to the best of their ability.

She regularly presents information sessions to educators and parents on topics including handwriting, fine motor skills, attention, feeding, sensory processing, motivation and social/emotional development. Her article addressing how to teach handwriting skills to young children was published in the Journal for Early Education. She has presented at the Early Childhood Intervention Association conference on this same topic and has run workshops for OT Australia on keeping distracted children engaged in the classroom. Erin also works in tertiary education supporting occupational therapy students.

Erin works part time at Blossom Rural (Wednesday-Friday) and enjoys spending the rest of her free time with her 6 year old daughter and husband.

Meg has a love for helping clients with goals related to

🤩 Paediatric Feeding

🤩 Early Language

🤩 AAC

Meg has lived far and wide, so understands the difficulties families face when trying to access Speech Pathology services!

My name is Daisy and I am an occupational therapist at Blossom Rural! I graduated from James Cook University in 2021 and have worked in North West Queensland ever since. I live on a cattle station near Mount Isa, Queensland and love living a country lifestyle.

I am very passionate about paediatric therapy and love the excitement and energy that kids bring!

I love that there is always so much to strive for, so much to celebrate and that there is often, never a dull moment! I aim to facilitate informative, family-centred therapy, where we put the ‘fun’ in functional.

When I am not at work, I enjoy spending time with family and friends, riding horses and motorbikes and playing with my puppy dog, Lucci

My name is Sophie and I am an Allied Health Assistant at Blossom Rural. I live in Adelaide, South Australia. I am in my final year studying a Bachelor of Speech Pathology (Honours) at the University of South Australia.

I have experience as a disability support worker and respite carer. I love that I can help other people and make a positive difference!

I was drawn to Blossom Rural because I understand the need for this service. I feel passionate and would like to advocate for country kids who may not otherwise be able to access speech pathology and occupational therapy.

In my spare time, I enjoy cooking for my friends and family, reading and playing with my adorable rabbit, Casper.