SERVICES

The system gave you compensations. What your child actually needs is a neuroplastic approach.

WHY FAMILIES COME TO ME

Tutoring. IEPs. Medication. These manage the surface-level symptoms but don't address the underlying root cause.

What’s driving most learning and behaviour difficulties is happening at a neurological level — weak brain connections, underdeveloped lower brain levels, retained primitive reflexes that should have integrated in infancy, and body chemistry that isn’t giving the brain what it needs to function. These are not things you can tutor around or accommodate away.

Educational therapy is fundamentally different. Where compensatory approaches work on symptoms, educational therapy is neuroplastic and corrective — it works directly on the brain systems causing the struggle and builds the connections that weren’t there before. The goal is never to help your child cope with a weak brain. It’s to build a stronger one.

All services can be delivered in-person in Ottawa or virtually to international clients, and are typically combined into a personalized plan based on your child’s specific profile.

WHERE WE START

Neuro-Functional Assessment

Before any intervention can be effective, you need to know exactly what you’re working with.

The Neuro-Functional Assessment goes beyond a psych-ed evaluation or a diagnostic label. It screens the specific areas of brain function, neurological development, and biochemistry that are most commonly at the root of learning and behaviour challenges — the things that standard assessments almost never look at.

This includes testing for retained primitive reflexes, hemispheric imbalance, cerebellum function, processing and cognitive skill weaknesses via the Gibson Cognitive Assessment, the Woodcock Johnson, PASS etc as well as the biochemical and nutritional factors that affect how the brain functions. The result is a clear picture of what is weak, what is underdeveloped, and what needs to be addressed with targeted neuroplastic therapies — and in what order. This is the foundation of every personalized Better Brain Plan.

INTERVENTIONS AND EDUCATIONAL THERAPIES

Primitive Reflex Integration

Primitive reflexes are automatic movement patterns that develop in the womb and should integrate — switch off — during the first years of life as the brain matures. When they don’t integrate, they leave behind underdeveloped lower brain levels and weak neurological connections that interfere with everything that depends on them: learning, reading, focus, coordination, emotional regulation, and more.

Retained primitive reflexes are one of the most common and most overlooked root causes of learning and behaviour difficulties. They don’t show up on a psych-ed report. They aren’t addressed by tutoring or IEPs. But they are directly and measurably addressable.

Using Dr. Harald Blomberg’s Rhythmic Movement Reflex Integration and Dr. Robert Melillo’s approach to brain hemisphere integration, I work to integrate retained reflexes and develop the lower brain levels that all higher-order learning depends on. This is typically the first area of intervention — because until these foundational levels are developed, other therapies cannot reach their full potential

PACE – Processing and Cognitive Enhancement

PACE CERTIFIED

PACE was developed by internationally recognized Learning RX to target the specific underlying processing skills that academic learning is built on: auditory processing, visual processing, working memory, processing speed, attention, and logic and reasoning.

When these foundational skills are weak, a child can practice phonics, writing or learning strategies endlessly and still not learn to read, write and learn independently because the issue is not the phonics, handwriting or lack of strategies. It is the weak cognitive system underneath like working memory, processing speed, auditory and visual processing as well as logic and reasoning that needs strengthening. PACE targets those systems directly, so that when a child applies academic skills, the cognitive foundation is actually there to support them.

PACE is particularly effective for children with dyslexia, reading and writing difficulties, auditory processing disorder, intellectual issues and attention challenges.

NILD Educational Therapy

National Institute for Learning Development (NILD) Certified

NILD Educational Therapy is a research-based, individualized intervention that builds cognitive capacity from the ground up. Unlike tutoring, which focuses on academic content, NILD Educational Therapy blends structured literacy, multi-sensory literacy built off Orton-Gillingham approaches all while targeting the underlying thinking and processing skills that all learning depends on — memory, language, perception, sequencing, and reasoning.

Sessions are one-on-one and use structured cognitive techniques to develop new neural pathways in the brain. The goal is not to help your child cope with how their brain currently works — it is to change how their brain processes and learns.

Like all neuroplastic therapies, NILD Educational Therapy is a long-term intervention that is not compensatory but rather corrective. Real neurological change takes time and consistency. The result is fluent reading and writing, stronger memory, better problem-solving skills, executive function, focus and greater independence. These results last because they are built into the brain’s actual wiring, not layered on top of it.

Brain Integration Therapy

Most learning struggles are not about how hard a child is trying. They are about how well the two sides of the brain are communicating. Brain Integration Therapy is rooted in the work of Dianne Craft and internationally known, functional-neurologist, Dr. Robert Melillo who pioneered the research in how brain hemisphere imbalances show up as reading difficulties, attention problems, poor coordination, and emotional dysregulation.

When the left and right brain are not working together efficiently, no amount of tutoring or repetition will close the gap. This therapy uses targeted movement, hemispheric stimulation and brain exercises to build those missing connections – so learning becomes easier.

Master the Code

Learning RX Certified

Reading is not a natural skill. The brain has to be taught to decode – and for many kids, that wiring never fully develops the way it should. Master the Code is a structured, research-based program developed by LearningRx that targets the underlying cognitive skills needed for reading: phonological awareness, processing speed, auditory memory, and visual tracking. It goes beyond phonics drills to actually train the brain processes that make reading click. For children who have been through reading programs and still struggle, this is often the missing piece.

Executive Function Optimization

Executive function coaching is a service that supports how students plan, organize, start tasks, manage time, and follow through on demands like breaking assignments into manageable steps, creating clear and realistic plans, organizing materials, binders, and digital systems. Students work on understanding time demands, building effective schedules and routines, and using planners.

A significant focus is placed on task initiation, reducing procrastination and organization. Sessions also address working memory and cognitive load – helping students hold instructions in mind, manage multi-step tasks, and reduce the mental overload that makes even simple demands feel impossible. Over time, students develop self-monitoring skills that allow them to reflect on what is and isn’t working, adjust their strategies when demands shift, and build the kind of independence and self-advocacy that carries well beyond the school year.

NEURO-TECHNOLOGIES

Neuro-technologies are a suite of evidence-based technologies that accelerate and deepen the gains made through educational therapy by targeting specific neurological systems that are difficult to reach through exercise-based approaches alone. Each technology is selected based on your child’s individual assessment results and areas of need.

Interactive Metronome

Trains the brain’s internal timing — the neurological rhythm that underlies attention, processing speed, coordination and the ability to sequence and plan. Particularly effective for children with learning difficulties, dyslexia, ADHD, processing difficulties, and other reading challenges.

Unyte / Integrated Listening Systems (ILS)

Sound-based therapy that regulates the nervous system and builds the body’s capacity for focused, calm, receptive learning. When a child’s nervous system is in a state of chronic dysregulation, cognitive interventions are far less effective. ILS creates the neurological conditions for learning to take hold, optimizes auditory processing, expressive language, speech as well as overall learning and focus.

Neuralign and Cellfield Reading Technologies

An intensive, computer-based reading intervention that is research-based and uses cognitive training that targets the specific brain regions involved in fluent reading such as auditory processing, phonemic awareness and working memory. It also has vision therapy exercises to strengthen the visual and language processing systems involved in reading and learning.
Additional technologies may be incorporated depending on your child’s profile and goals.

FUNCTIONAL HEALTH SUPPORT

The brain cannot function or make optimal neuroplastic changes without the right biochemical environment. This is the piece that traditional educational therapy and learning specialists doesn’t cover. It is often the reason that even well-designed intervention programs fail to produce the results they should.

As a Functional & Holistic Health Practitioner specializing in a terrain-based approach to nutrition, gut health and detoxification, I look at the body systems that directly affect how the brain learns, focuses, regulates, and responds to neuroplastic interventions and when needed run functional lab testing like stool testing, Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis and the Organic Acids Test.

Gut Health and the
Gut-Brain Connection

The gut produces the majority of the body’s serotonin and plays a direct role in mood, focus, and cognitive function. Gut dysfunction — dysbiosis, leaky gut, chronic inflammation — is one of the most frequently overlooked drivers of learning and behaviour challenges in children. When the gut isn’t healthy, the brain isn’t either.

Nutritional Assessment and Support

Without the right raw materials — key vitamins, minerals, and essential fatty acids — the brain cannot develop optimally, build new connections, or regulate neurotransmitter production. I assess for specific deficiencies and imbalances known to affect learning and behaviour and I create a targeted nutritional plan to address them. This is not guesswork or generalized supplementation. It is precise and bio-individual.

Detoxification Support

Toxic load from environmental chemical exposures, heavy metals, mold and other sources can significantly impact brain development and function. I assess detoxification pathways and support the body’s ability to clear what is interfering with optimal neurological function.

Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA)

HTMA is a non-invasive lab test that provides a detailed picture of the body’s mineral status and toxic metal burden over time. Mineral imbalances and heavy metal accumulation are among the most underrecognized factors affecting a child’s brain function, focus, mood, and learning capacity. HTMA removes the guesswork from nutritional support and allows for a precisely targeted, evidence-based approach.

No two children receive the same program.

Following the Neuro-Functional Assessment, I build each child’s plan around their specific profile — which areas of brain development need to be addressed first, which therapies are most relevant, and what functional health support needs to be in place to allow the neuroplastic work to take full effect.

The order matters. This is not a menu of services to pick and choose from — it is a sequenced, bottom-up approach where each layer builds on the one before it. That sequencing is what makes the difference between some improvement vs real, lasting change and ultimately independent learning.

Many families work with me through the Full Potential Academy, which brings these services together in an integrated, professionally guided program over 6 to 12 months – however other options exist.

Book a Meet & Greet

Every child’s plan is different. The best way to find out which of these approaches is right for yours is to talk.

The Clarity Call is a free 15-20 minute conversation where we discuss your child’s specific challenges and whether this approach is the right fit. No commitment or pressure – just clarity.

The 7-Day Learning Breakthrough

If you’re in the early stages of trying to understand why your child is struggling, this is where to begin.

Over 7 days, you’ll work through the key areas that contribute to learning and behaviour challenges — with checklists and assessments that help you identify exactly where the breakdown is happening for your child. Most parents come out of this finally understanding the multiple factors at play that were never identified — and that clarity alone changes everything about how you approach helping your child.

$27