Biography

Cathy Salciccia
MS, CCC-SLP

Personal Statement

 "I work to improve upon and maximize the communication potential of others. I believe this has far reaching consequences. When I was young, I observed that those individuals who very easily expressed themselves had the potential to exert positive ( and sometimes negative) impact upon their own lives and the lives of others. I have worked with those who were born without communication ability and perhaps, developed maladaptive communication behavior as well as those who became either severely disordered or so totally without communication to the degree that their lives came to a standstill. I advocate for them and teach them to advocate for themselves. Over time, I integrated my interest and training in career consulting with my work in communication disorders due to the severe impact that a communication challenge can have on one’s vocation. Fulfilled personal and professional lives have a common denominator -- communication -- with others ones’ self and with others. My life's work is to help you achieve this. I invite you to take this journey with me and to allow me to take it with you. For additional information about me, please see my biography below " - Cathy

“When a man is singing and cannot lift his voice and another comes and sings with him, another who can lift his voice, the first will be able to lift his voice too. That is the secret of the bond between the spirit and the spirit.” -Rabbi Pinhas

Biography

Cathy Salciccia is a certified and licensed Speech Pathologist and has provided communication services across the life-span for individuals with learning disabilities, developmental disabilities and neurological conditions. She holds a Master of Science degree in Speech Pathology from Columbia University and was awarded the New Hampshire Clinical Achievement Award by the American Speech and Hearing Foundation for her legislative efforts in the state of New Hampshire. She was a guest lecturer in New York at Adelphi, New York University and Columbia University. She developed workshops which focused upon communication services for ventilator dependent patients along a continuum of care and specialized in augmentative communication for patients with progressive degenerative neurological impairments.

Earlier in her career she developed an interest in autism and provided services to individuals with this diagnosis at the behavioral school for autism at Douglass College. While working for United Cerebral Palsy she received a certification in neuro-developmental treatment. At Crotched Mountain Rehabilitation Center she served as Clinical Services Director where she coordinated rehabilitation services for developmentally disabled children and adolescents as well as those with head injury.

While an undergraduate student at Douglass College, she served as a research assistant in the area of reading disorders and continued to expand her knowledge in this area over the course of her career. Later on, she held a graduate faculty appointment with the Communication Disorders Program of the MGH Institute of Health Professions where she taught clinical classes in adult neurological impairment and supervised graduate students in areas related to language and literacy. While there she continued to provide clinical services in sub-acute and long term rehabilitation centers and nursing facilities and instructed for the Division on Aging at Harvard Medical School in areas related to communication, cognition and swallowing disorders in the aging person. Cathy additionally developed a clinical education program for the Beacon Hospice’s Deep Harbors Program where she trained multidisciplinary staff in the management of cognitive and swallowing experienced by those with advanced dementia.

Cathy holds additional certifications and training in myofascial release, Reality Therapy from the William Glasser Institute, The Listening Program, Interactive Metronome, The Lee Silverman Vocal Technique, Life Purpose and Career Clarification and is an advanced trainer in the Lively Letters Program. She also received an additional certification in accent reduction from the Institute of Language and Phonology. She is a singer and instrumental musician and applies these skills in her practice especially when treating individuals with voice disorders, stroke and ADHD. During the early 1990’s she photographed and authored a photographic essay containing entitled, “The Seasoned Nature of Your Character,” a sociological commentary about the elderly.

Cathy’s comprehensive general practice is motivated by her commitment to optimizing the communication and career potential of her clients where she believes that effective communication is the key to successful relationships at home and at work.