It all started with a pair of earrings purchased at Mariposa Market in Orillia… one earring said ‘speak’ and the other said ‘freely’. Such a fitting purchase for a speech-language pathologist! And perfect for a small private practice.

From those earrings emerged a number of meanings, which have evolved over time.

The first meaning refers to our aspirations for our clients. For most of us, the ability to talk developed naturally when we were young children and we don’t even remember what it was like to not have that skill. As adults we take for granted the effortlessness and power of talking. Children and adults who have communication challenges, however, have not experienced the same learn-by-osmosis and take-for-granted skills. One of the hopes we have for the clients we support is that our services will help them be able to experience the joy of ‘speaking freely’ – effective and easy, with no effort required.

Another meaning for ‘Speak Freely’ refers to both our clients and their extended family, educators, employers, etc. For all those individuals, we strive to create an atmosphere where their opinions and feelings are respected. Everyone who interacts with us quickly learns that they can ‘speak freely’ and be heard.

The third meaning of ‘Speak Freely’ has grown as the staff size has grown. We believe that an environment of caring, sharing and mutual support facilitates a healthy environment for staff that spills over into client care. No office politics or drama allowed on the Speak Freely team!

With all the services that our diverse and talented group provides, we could easily add ‘play freely’, ‘work freely’, ‘write freely’, ‘move freely’ and ‘think freely’ to our name…  but we believe that “Speak Freely” summarizes it nicely. So simple and yet so complete.