Meet Penny Cohen

Today we’d like to introduce you to Penny Cohen.

Penny, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I grew up in a small suburb of Montreal, Canada. When I was 18years old my mother developed vocal nodules and had to have speech therapy. I was fascinated and after volunteering at Children’s Hospital in Montreal I knew that was the field for me. I completed my B.A. at McGill University and received my M.A. from San Diego State University in the field of Speech and Language Pathology in 1985. I play guitar, sing, and have been involved in theater my whole life, so I jumped at the opportunity to use all of my talents to help people with their speech and language skills. Since 1985 I have worked in the public school system, clinics and now have my private practice located in my home office. I work with children, teens and adults in the areas of articulation, language comprehension, expressive language, voice disorders, stuttering, tongue thrust therapy and accent reduction. In 2004 I also co-produced, wrote and starred in the children’s DVD series Tot-a-Doodle-Do! and created the children’s CD “Hop N Bop”. I have also written and published a children’s book called “Tapuchim and Dvash”, and am currently completing my new CD of original songs which will be entitled Living the Dream. This past year I performed in the Musical Baby Boomer the Musical in Auburn California to a sold out crowd and had a blast!!

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The road is never completely smooth but it is the bumps and turns that make it interesting. Being a single mom for 10 years has it’s own challenges, forcing me back into the public school setting for a while and having me work three jobs at once to make ends meet from 1990-2000.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
I am so lucky to be passionate about my job/profession. I specialize in working with children, teens and adults in the areas of Articulation, stuttering, voice, tongue thrust, language comprehension and expression, social communication and accent reduction. I also do parent and teacher in-services and have spoken at conventions for educators and dental specialists. I have worked with thousands of clients over the past 35 years with excellent results, helping them to communicate with confidence and clarity. I use my theater and music background to make the therapy sessions fun and motivating. I see clients in individual and group sessions depending on their needs. I am so proud that most of my business is through word of mouth and have beautiful, touching testimonials from so many of my previous clients.

What were you like growing up?
I had a wonderful childhood growing up with supportive, loving parents and family. I was always positive, talkative and bubbly. I was involved in theater, dance and music from early childhood. I played guitar, enjoyed time with friends, acted in many plays and ice skated in the winter. I sang in a few bands throughout my teenage and young adult life as well.

Contact Info:

• Address: 8944 Caminito Fresco
  La Jolla, CA 92037
• Website: www.pennycohenspeech.com
• Phone: 858-623-9345
• Email: [email protected]
• Facebook: Penny L Cohen, Speech Language Pathologist

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