Ep 129: The Speech Therapist Who Lost Her Voice – and Rebuilt Her Practice on What She Learned

Imagine being a speech therapist and waking up in an ICU, unable to speak, swallow, or move your head and neck. That's what happened to Vanessa Abraham, MS, CCC-SLP, seven years ago when she was paralyzed by the pharyngeal-cervical-brachial (PCB) variant of Guillain-Barre. In this episode, she shares the full story from ventilator, tracheostomy, G-tube, and eye gaze boards through her path to eventually rebuilding her voice, her ability to swallow, and her clinical practice.  We cover: The PCB variant of Guillain-Barre and what recovery actually looks like How Vanessa found the Neubie, which turned out to be the missing link in her recovery The ways she uses electrical stimulation on the head and neck in her speech-language pathology practice, and how she dials in for swallowing and vocal cord function Polyvagal theory, why the body can't heal in a state of fight-or-flight, and how Vanessa uses the Master Reset Her frameworks for working with children with autism, adults with neurodegenerative conditions, and people experiencing PICS (post-intensive care syndrome) Vanessa is now one of the first SLPs in the world using the Neubie and has become a passionate educator through her book Speechless, her various talks and appearances, and her clinical practice. Her story is a very powerful pain-to-purpose conversation.