| CA Brooks & Associates The Communication Center |
Please Note the Following Changes!! The Lynnwood location for C.A. Brooks & Associates closed on 12/31/07. The West Seattle location closed on 2/15/08. The previous phone numbers of (425) 275-9071 and (425) 275-5003 are no longer active. Please refer to "Letter from Carla" below. New Location Information Ms. Brooks has a new office in Edmonds. Address: 7907 212th St SW, Ste 105 Edmonds, WA 98026 Phone: 425-672-2928 (Primarily for messages) e-mail: carla@cabrooksandassociates.com Please refer to programs for additional information. Catherine Stafford, MSW continues on Ms. Brooks' staff and is located at the Lynnwood Speech and Language Services Clinic noted below. Staff Changes and Locations Previous Staff and Colleagues Contact Information: Lynnwood Speech and Language Services Phone: 425-582-2473 Located on 40th near 196th Susan Stewart Alice Stroutsos Kelley Ford Sarah Parsons Tony VanZeyl Christine "Chrissy" Thompson Nancy Rutter If you would like to contact the rest of the staff, please let Ms. Brooks know and she will pass on your information: Mary Brennan (In practice on Whidbey Island) Jim Mancini Heather Schuman (In practice in Seattle) Jennifer Johns (In practice in Bothell) Julie Burgess-Dennis Jessica Pruitt Stephanie Payne (In practice in Bothell) Letter from Carla February 10, 2008 Dear Families, Colleagues and Friends, I want to begin by thanking you for your commitment to our clinics and for the trust you have had in allowing us to serve your children, clients, and patients. I also want to thank you for all your support of me as a clinician and member of the SLP and ASD community. I have decided to make some significant changes in my personal and professional life. I have decided to downsize my practice by closing both the Lynnwood and West Seattle clinics. In January, I opened a small practice in Edmonds by myself. I am supporting having my social worker, Catherine Stafford, continue in a new clinic with our colleagues in Lynnwood. My staff members have either begun their own practices or have gone to work in other settings. Please see the contact information on my website for their contact information. I would like to share some information and perspective on the reasons for my changes. I know that other clinics have been forced to close their doors suddenly, but I want to reassure you that this is not the reason behind my downsizing. This is a personal decision which has been very difficult for me to make. I will not minimize the financial strain that has resulted from being underpaid by insurance companies and by the constant delays in reimbursement. I cannot continue to keep a large clinic open at this rate and pace of reimbursement. However, it is not the only reason for making my difficult decision. I have been practicing for 35 years as a speech/language pathologist. As you know I LOVE my work. I have been in a private practice for over 20 years and have worked at the UW, at Children's Hospital and have provided workshops and consultations to the schools and to the community. I had a dream to build a clinic that would serve more clients and families. I made that dream come true. Unfortunately, it is not possible to keep a large clinic open. I need to move on to another dream - a smaller dream - and I'm excited about my future! I have been so blessed to have such a wonderful staff to work along side, to mentor and to appreciate every day of the week. I have also been blessed to have served the hundreds of children and families that I have met along the way. I have been reminded by many of you that I have "touched" so many people in our community. I appreciate all of the kind words. I feel that I am the one who has been blessed and honored to have been able to teach, to share and to learn over the years. You will see, on this web-site, that I have made some plans for myself. I will see individual clients about 2 days a week. I will do consultations a day a week. I will be working on creating new materials for workshops, books and for the Internet one day a week. And I will take a "day of rest" one day a week. I hope that I can rest, recuperate and heal by following this plan. Thank you for supporting me in this new journey. Please allow me to thank you again, whether I've known you for many years or only moments. I will be glad to help you in any way I can, even if it is to refer you to my colleagues. Please look for future announcements of continuing education. Sincerely, Carla A. Brooks MA CCC |