Meet the Team
Meet our team of neurodivergent and neurodiversity-affirming pediatric speech and occupational therapists dedicated to supporting neurodivergent children and their families with care grounded in respect, connection, and empowerment.
Mary Coburn, M.A., CCC-SLP (she/her)
Speech-Language Pathologist, Owner/Director
Sound Youth Neurodiversity Collective Founder
Mary is a pediatric speech language pathologist with 12 years of experience supporting children and families in private practice. Her work is grounded in neurodiversity affirming, strengths based, and relationship centered care that honors each child’s unique communication style, sensory profile, and developmental pathway.
Mary is Hanen certified in It Takes Two to Talk and More Than Words for social communication, Level 2 trained in the SOS Approach to Feeding, and incorporates approaches such as Natural Language Acquisition for gestalt language processors and Collaborative and Proactive Solutions. She supports children with a wide range of communication differences, feeding challenges, and social emotional and behavioral needs, with a strong focus on understanding what is underneath challenging behaviors.
Mary earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Communication Disorders from New Mexico State University and has worked exclusively in pediatric private practice since 2014. Her approach emphasizes deep understanding, collaboration, and practical support, helping families move away from fear based or deficit focused narratives and toward clarity, confidence, and connection.
As a neurodivergent provider and parent of neurodivergent children, Mary brings both clinical expertise and lived experience to her work. She understands firsthand how overwhelming it can be to navigate diagnoses, services, school systems, and daily challenges related to communication, feeding, and regulation. This perspective allows her to support parents with compassion, honesty, and respect, creating space for concerns, questions, and frustrations to be met without judgment.
Mary is especially passionate about helping parents better understand their child’s brain based differences, navigate challenging behaviors, and feel empowered in supporting their child at home, in school, and in therapy. Her goal is to ensure families feel seen, supported, and equipped, while honoring each child for who they are.
Crys Hassler, M.S.Ed., CCC-SLP (they/them)
Speech-Language Pathologist
Crys strives to meet clients and their families where they’re at and assist them in finding strategies, tools, and frameworks to reach their goals. Since beginning their career as a speech therapist in 2021, they have built a therapeutic foundation based on establishing trust, presuming competence, and taking the time to get to know their clients as a whole person, not just their speech concerns.
As a queer and neurodivergent provider, Crys seeks to use their lived experiences to empower families by gaining a better understanding of their child and helping children to advocate for themselves. Their intervention is tailored to each child using a strengths-based model that builds on a child’s interests and passions. Crys has extensive experience working with non-speaking and minimally speaking individuals and going through the funding process for a speech generating device (AAC).
They also have training and experience in assisting transgender and gender-nonconforming youth in developing a voice that is true to them. Outside of the office, they enjoy spending time with their partner and two cats, playing video games, and delving into their most recent creative endeavor.
Amy Arotca, M.S., OTR/L (she/her)
Occupational Therapist
Amy loves working with clients to increase their success and satisfaction with their valued daily activities. She has been an occupational therapist since 2016 and has worked in a variety of settings with people of all ages.
She works with clients and their families to create individualized goals. Goal areas often include improved independence with everyday activities, self-regulation, and sensorimotor skills. Intervention includes building or strengthening skills through play and engaging activities, as well as suggestions for supports and new strategies. Her favorite moments are when a client engages in an activity that seems difficult or scary and when a caregiver learns a new idea to support their child outside of therapy.
Outside of work, Amy enjoys spending time with her husband and daughters, reading a good book, and painting.