Melissa is a California-licensed and ASHA-certified speech-language pathologist and the heart behind SoulSpeak Speech Therapy. She graduated and received a Bachelor's and Master’s Degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders from Sacramento State. With over a decade of experience, she's worked alongside children with diverse developmental profiles and communication styles across clinic settings, schools, and teletherapy. She brings experience treating individuals across the lifespan with a wide range of speech and language needs, including neurological conditions, articulation and phonological disorders, expressive and receptive language delays, autism-related communication differences, voice disorders, stuttering, aphasia, and dysarthria. ​She specializes in working with children who may not speak yet, speak very little, or are late to speak and helps them find their way of being heard. Her goal is to provide support for families that is neurodiversity-affirming and honoring of every child’s inner world.