Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Levy.
Hi Amanda, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My path to audiology started sideways. I was a music major at UCSB, and the only thing standing between me and my degree was a math requirement. I fulfilled it with a class called The Physics of Sound, taught by an audiologist, and it completely rewired my plans. Here was a way to combine my musical ear with real science, and to build a career around helping people hear better. I switched course and never looked back.
In grad school, I had exactly one class on auditory processing disorder, and it wasn’t nearly enough. I wanted more. During my residency at a pediatric nonprofit clinic, I started shadowing the one audiologist there who did APD testing, just to learn the ropes. A few years later, I was the clinic’s APD specialist.
Over the next several years, I worked as an educational audiologist across multiple school districts and in private practice with both children and adults. But everywhere I went, treating APD was a tough fit. It’s time-intensive and requires specialized training, so even when I wanted to provide it, the answer was usually no. Meanwhile, the need kept growing in plain sight. More audiologists diagnose APD than treat it, which means families were walking away with a diagnosis and a recommendation for therapy that, practically speaking, didn’t exist. What good is a recommendation if there’s no one to deliver the treatment?
That gap is why I started Levy Audiology in 2022. I quit my full-time job with a one-year-old at home, and I was juggling three other part-time audiology jobs while building the practice on the side, offering mobile and virtual services. Slowly, I was able to let those other jobs go one by one. We’ve been full-time since January 2025, and one year ago, we moved into our office in the San Marcos City Hall building. What started as just me doing everything has grown into a full team, with a patient care coordinator and a second audiologist now providing remote auditory training services.
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?
It hasn’t been smooth, no, though I don’t think any meaningful thing is built that way.
The hardest stretch was probably the first year, building Levy Audiology part-time while also working three other part-time audiology jobs and raising a one-year-old. There were a lot of very long days where I was stretched in five directions at once, trying to prove out a new practice while still meeting my obligations everywhere else. Mobile and virtual services helped me keep overhead low in the beginning, but it also meant I was constantly on the move instead of building something rooted in one place.
There was also the slower, quieter struggle of trying to do something the field hadn’t fully made room for. APD treatment takes time and specialized training, and I’d spent years being told, in one way or another, that it wasn’t worth the investment. Betting on it anyway, with no guarantee it would work, was its own kind of leap.
Letting go of the other jobs one at a time, instead of all at once, was a deliberate way to manage that risk, but it also meant the transition took longer than I might have liked. It wasn’t until January 2025 that Levy Audiology could stand fully on its own.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Levy Audiology is a private practice based in San Marcos, California, specializing in the evaluation and treatment of Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) in both children and adults. We also provide contracted educational audiology services to school districts in the area.
Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) is when your brain has difficulty understanding what you hear. People with APD typically show “normal” results on a traditional hearing test. The issue isn’t the ears picking up sound, it’s how the brain processes and makes sense of it. That can look like trouble understanding speech in noisy environments, difficulty following multi-step directions, struggling to distinguish similar-sounding words, or losing track of conversations in group settings. It’s especially common in people who had frequent ear infections early in life, since those repeated episodes can interfere with how the auditory system develops. In kids, APD is often mistaken for inattention or a learning disability, and it can also contribute to difficulty learning to read. In adults, it often goes undiagnosed for years, with people assuming they’re just “bad listeners,” and it can create real added stress at work and in relationships with family and friends.
What sets Levy Audiology apart is simple, but it’s the whole reason the practice exists: we actually provide the treatment for APD, not just a diagnosis. There’s no shortage of audiologists who can test for APD and hand a family a report full of recommendations. What’s rare is finding someone who can actually deliver the auditory training therapy those recommendations call for. That gap is what I built Levy Audiology to close, and it’s still what we’re most known for.
Every program we build is customized to the individual, but it’s grounded in evidence-based auditory training methods. I also love that my background as a musician lets me bring music into the therapy itself. It’s a piece of my own story that ended up becoming a real asset for my patients. We offer flexible ways to access care too, including in-person and remote auditory training, so that location and schedule aren’t barriers to getting help.
What I’m proudest of, brand-wise, isn’t really about the brand at all. It’s the number of people we’ve been able to help. APD is an incredibly isolating condition. Most people have never heard of it, and even those who suspect something is wrong often struggle for years to find anyone who can properly identify it, let alone treat it. Every person we’re able to reach is someone who now has support they may not have known existed.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
I’d say it’s how deeply I love this work. That is what keeps me going when things are challenging.
Building something that didn’t quite exist yet meant a lot of people telling me, directly or indirectly, that it wasn’t practical. I could have taken that as a sign to stop. But I’d seen firsthand how isolating it is to have APD and not be able to find anyone who can actually treat it, and I couldn’t walk away from that. So I kept adapting: taking on multiple jobs in the early days, teaching myself the business side as I went, making mistakes and fixing them rather than seeing them as proof I shouldn’t be doing this.
That same passion shows up in how I treat patients, too. I’m always looking for better ways to reach someone where they are at, so they can make meaningful progress forward. I learn so much from my patients, from hearing about their careers and interests to their dreams and struggles. I have developed entire therapy sessions around my patients’ niche interests from K-Pop music to robot vacuum cleaners to Ted Lasso to ducks! Yes, it is extra work but it helps when therapy is fun, engaging, and my patients truly feel seen and heard. At the end of the day, I don’t think I’d have kept going without genuinely loving the work and the people I get to work with.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.levyaudiology.com
- Instagram: @hearwithyourbrain
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/levyaudiology/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@dramandalevy
