Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Perigord.
Hi Jennifer, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I have been practicing pediatric occupational therapy for the past 18 years. My nature has always been to help so becoming an occupational therapist was a perfect fit for me. For those of you that don’t know, occupational therapy is a profession within healthcare that focuses on developing, recovering, or maintaining meaningful activities and occupations for people of all ages.
I started my career working in a private pediatric therapy clinic working mostly with children with sensory processing disorder and autism. I loved seeing the smiles on the children’s faces when they saw me and hearing that they couldn’t wait to play with me. This is when I knew working in pediatrics was where I wanted to be. The kids loved creating obstacle courses and playing games on the swings. This experience really taught me how to connect with children through play!
My next career opportunity brought me to a special needs early childhood school. I worked both in the classroom and in a therapy gym. My caseload was mostly children with neurological disorders including cerebral palsy, genetic conditions, and other developmental disorders. I learned so much working in the classrooms and so closely with teachers. I really enjoyed helping children with special needs participate in classroom activities. My favorites were adapting chairs and utensils so a child with cerebral palsy can eat with their peers, sitting with a child with autism during circle time to help them connect to the world around them, and helping the child with sensory sensitivities complete classroom arts and crafts projects to share with their family.
My next career opportunity brought me to hospital-based pediatric therapy. This was my introduction to providing therapy to very young babies and sometimes newborns. It was nerve wrecking and fascinating at the same time, but I had the very best mentors guiding and encouraging me along the way. I started first working in the outpatient pediatric department with a very full caseload and a wide range of ages and diagnoses. Interventions were short and treatment space was limited and sometimes lacked sufficient supplies and equipment. Although this was very frustrating, this helped teach me to be flexible with my treatment plan, adapt to different environments, and really focus intervention on areas impacting their function. However, the most meaningful experience from the hospital and the one I am most grateful for today was the introduction to the life-changing intervention for my family and career, the MNRI (Masgutova Neurosensorimotor Reflex Integration) method.
MNRI is a non-invasive technique that aims to restore genetic reflex programs in the brain to improve neurological circuits for natural development and recovery of overactive fight/flight/freeze responses. Learning this method helped me assess and treat the root cause for developmental delays, sensory processing deficits, and behavioral problems not only for the children I worked with but also my own children.
During these years working at the hospital, I had become a mother myself of two very special boys. Both of my pregnancies were complicated with bedrest due to preterm labor and both were very precipitous or fast labor and deliveries. However, only one of them was born preterm with birth trauma but both had developmental delays related to trauma.
My first son was born late preterm at 35 weeks via vaginal delivery and forced vacuum extraction. He did not require NICU hospitalization, but he was failure to thrive for the first six months and had developmental delays. As a pediatric occupational therapist for many years and student training in the MNRI method, I knew in infancy that something was not right even though nothing was identified by his pediatrician. It was my suspicion that my son had very early signs of autism in infancy which included sensory sensitivities, overactive fight/flight responses (sweaty hands and feet, clenched hands, startled easily with fear response) flat affect, delayed language, and repetitive behaviors (turning hands and feet and grinding teeth).
During his first four years, I seeked alternative professionals, including Dr. Masgutova and her team of core specialists, cranialsacral therapy, and homeopathy, to help him recover from his birth trauma and rewire his brain for natural development. This experience taught me so much and helped start to construct the framework around my future holistic occupational therapy practice! Fast forward to today. My first son is a typical 8-year-old in 3rd grade, races BMX competitively, and has many friends.
My second son was born full-term without a complicated birth however he also had a traumatic experience in infancy. My husband and I decided to have his circumcision after his birth hospitalization with a urologist. He was three weeks old when we were able to get him scheduled for circumcision and was very alert and active. The crying from the waiting room still haunts me to this day. He was inconsolable when the nurse gave him back to me after the procedure. I tried to nurse him, rock him, and sing to him. Nothing worked. He cried himself to sleep in the car seat on the way home and then slept for 6 hours. From then on, he cried with a startle response every time I opened his diaper. Which then turned into an overactive startle response to sounds and panic response when I would put him in the car seat or bathtub. Later I started recognizing his legs and feet weren’t properly aligned and he wasn’t putting weight through his feet. A MNRI core specialist and good friend confirmed his lower limb reflexes had become dysfunctional and his fight/flight responses were hyperactive. We worked intensively for two years on his reflexes to help recover from his trauma as well as improve natural coordination and strength in his legs. Fast forward to today. My son is riding a bike without training wheels at 3 ½ years old.
During my tenure working in the hospital, I became trained as a neonatal therapist in the hospital’s NICU (neonatal intensive care unit). This was a life-changing experience for me as a person, therapist, and a mother. This is where I really came to understand trauma and how it affects development, behavior, and life choices. Babies in the NICU, preterm or full-term, are fighting for their lives and their survival instincts are constantly being activated. Using my MNRI training, I serve to help the babies release the negative protection in their body and start the process of rewiring their brain for natural development through reflex integration. This is truly a remarkable experience because I see babies in the most primitive state of survival start to develop normal reflex patterns sometimes before being discharged home. However, it became clear to me that the babies were not the only ones suffering from trauma. Their parents were suffering as well. That moment of joy when first meeting their baby was quickly replaced with fear and confusion. I observed some parents being withdrawn and disconnected, some were overly anxious about everything, and some very scared and sad but all were showing signs of trauma.
I worked for many years at the hospital in both the NICU and outpatient pediatric clinic leading the NICU grad program which involved starting therapy intervention after NICU hospitalization and before identified delays. I had amazing relationships with the families because I was there with them from the very beginning. Each developmental milestone met was just as exciting for me as it was to them since I knew how far they had come. Our team helped most babies meet developmental milestones on their expected track and the other babies with neurological complications were developing much better than expected with this very early intervention.
This experience is what brought me to my career mission to change the mindset of developmental care to be proactive rather than reactive. Why are we waiting for babies to have developmental delays to be referred for therapy intervention? Early intervention needs to start at birth! The first year of life is the most rapid period of development in a child. The neural pathways are multiplying so rapidly that the brain grows by 1% every day for the first year with 90% of brain development completed by five years old. Just imagine how many children’s and family’s lives would change if babies started intervention at birth!
As a parent myself and working with families over the years, I realized that parent’s mental health is often put on the back burner for their child’s needs. Chronic or traumatic stress is not only mentally exhausting for the parent but also leads to problems with relationships with their children and other family members and can also contribute to health issues down the road. This led me to my next career mission to help not only children but also help their parents recover from stress through my MNRI training.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I have to thank the pandemic for pushing me out of my comfort zone to take the leap into private practice. Leaving a full-time position and having a family was a scary decision that I put off for way too long.
Looking back, I wish I would have done it sooner for my own mental health. Transitioning into private practice has helped my life become balanced. I struggled for many years trying to be the best mom, therapist, and wife that I could be but I was slowly being broken down by all demands and expectations.
My private practice allows me to schedule clients around my schedule. I also have had the most “me” time since having children. I am finally in a place that I can work towards my own personal goals.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
I specialize in primary reflex integration and traumatic stress recovery for all members of the family. I provide individualized intervention programs that focus on reflex integration to directly address primary concerns.
My interventions are provided within the comfort of their home. Typically they are at least 60minutes and for mature clients interventions are mostly performed on a massage table.
My stress recovery interventions involve specialized massage aimed to release trapped unconscious tension in the body that is contributing to overactive stress hormone production. For mature clients, I pair guided meditation to help bring conscious awareness to the unconscious traumatic stress the body is storing.
As a holistic occupational therapist, I understand that one type of intervention is not the cure for all. I find the best outcomes are when a collaborative approach is provided using alternative and sometimes traditional interventions.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
My mission is to help children and parents become their best selves!
For way too long, we have accepted that compensations to reach developmental milestones is normal. We have focused on trying to teach children to manage their behavior through higher-level cognitive skills rather than working on the body’s natural stress response system. We as parents have accepted that being overwhelmed, tired, and unhappy is just part of parenthood.
I disagree with all of these! What are your goals for your child and yourself? Don’t disregard these goals with the notion that they are impossible. Anything is possible with the right support and help!
Pricing:
- Reflex assessment starting at $150
- Reflex intervention starting at $100
- Stress release bodywork starting at $200
Contact Info:
- Email: holisticfamilyot@gmail.com
- Website: www.holisticfamilyot.com
- Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/holistic_family_ot
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/holisticfamilyOT
