Today we’d like to introduce you to Maricarmen Romero Mondragon.
Hi Maricarmen, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My journey towards becoming an occupational therapists began my sophomore year of college at the University of Texas at Austin, when I decided that I did not want to pursue a career in medicine. I come from an immigrant family and I am a first-generation college graduate, and from a young age I had told my parents that I wanted to be a doctor. I think this was because I had always cared for people in one way or another being the oldest child out of four. Also, I thought that having a career in medicine would make my parents proud. However, the more I thought about it the more I felt that medicine was not my true calling. Telling my parents this decision was nerve racking, as I felt that I was going to disappoint them. However, my parents took the news well and all they said was “we just want you to have a career that will be fulfilling”.
I knew I still wanted to work in health care but I wanted a career that could follow patients more closely. After months of researching, I stumble upon pediatric occupational therapy (OT), a career that sought to help children engage in activities that were important to them and their families such as play, meals, socializing, and academics. Through my research I learned that pediatric occupational therapy required creativity, critical thinking, and therapeutic play! The play part was the most enticing aspect of pediatric OT! I could actually play for a living! After learning that occupational therapy had its roots in mental health, I decided to switch from a biology major to a psychology major and that is what I got my Bachelor’s degree in. Prior to attending OT school, I worked as a therapy technician at a pediatric therapy clinic, was a counselor at a special needs summer camp, and worked as a teacher’s assistant for the special education department at an elementary school. All of these jobs gave me further insight into the pediatric population that I hoped to work with as an occupation therapist.
I obtained my Master’s in Occupational Therapy from The University of Texas Health and Science Center San Antonio. During my pediatric clinical rotation, I had the privilege of being placed at the Children’s Rehabilitation Institute Teleton (CRIT) in San Antonio, Texas. CRIT specializes in pediatric neuromuscular rehabilitation and families travel to CRIT from all over the nation. While I was at CRIT about seventy-five percent of my caseload had a cerebral palsy diagnosis or another neuromuscular disorder. The therapists at CRIT were highly skilled, and they helped each of their patients reach their full potential no matter their diagnosis or physical impairments. This is where my passion for treating children with neuromuscular impairments started and that is why as Lifting Limits Pediatric Services we specialized in neuromuscular rehabilitation.
After OT school, I worked in home health and then at an outpatient clinic setting. It was in these settings where I was able to further develop my skills to treat infants and children with feeding difficulties, with the help of many great mentors. Although I really enjoyed working in these settings, there were many times that I was frustrated because I felt that sometimes the children that I was treating were coming to me a bit late. I remember that sometimes I would get a six or seven year old and thought, “oh goodness, I needed to have seen you years ago”. It wasn’t that I was frustrated with my patients, it was that I knew that many red flags were probably missed early on and now those six and seven year olds were going to need OT for longer periods of time. As a result, those children often had to play catch up to gain the skills that they needed to succeed in their daily occupations at school, home, and their community. Whether, it was a child struggling with motor coordination, sensory processing or feeding, I knew that often the root of their behaviors and difficulties had been set early on in infancy. Difficulties with sensory processing, motor coordination or feeding don’t happen out of nowhere. Problems in these areas often come from infancy and when the subtle red flags are consistently missed, as children get older, problems are amplified.
Another frustration that I ran into while I was at my home health and outpatient jobs was that parents often asked me about other resources for their children, which I often was unable to provide as my 6-8 patient daily caseload left me with little time to connect and learn from other providers and community resources. Therefore, coordination of care with providers outside of the clinic was often difficult. The more and more I thought about it, the more I knew that there needed to be another way to do this job.
Lifting Limits Pediatric Services was founded in 2023 from a need to connect with more providers and resources for my patient and a desire to educate families and the community on the importance of early intervention. Through Lifting Limits I have learned about many great resources for our patients through connections with non-profits, lactation consultants, pediatric dentists, doctors, therapists and other providers that support our children and caregivers. Understanding more about these professionals and resources has also allowed me to better coordinate care with these providers. Additionally, I have provided presentations to non-profits, other healthcare providers and therapy students on the importance of early occupational therapy support for children who experience feeding, motor, developmental, sensory and neuromuscular difficulties.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
On January 2023 I suffered a miscarriage. This experience was very difficult on me . However, it allowed me to slow down and reflect. After the miscarriage, I decided to decrease my work load and work part time. This time away from work allowed me to heal myself and provided me with the time to think about what I wanted Lifting Limits Pediatric Services to become.
On July 2023 I quit my outpatient job and decided to embark on the scary journey towards private practice. When you have never been a boss, starting out seems so scary. However, I had so much support from my husband, my family, therapy friends and mentors that I felt so empowered to make this move.
On August 5th of 2023, Lifting Limits Pediatric Services opened its doors and on August 21st of 2023, I found out I was pregnant! So, that first year as Lifting Limits Pediatric Services, I was literally growing two babies. My practice and my own child. In the middle of my pregnancy’s nausea and exhaustion I was still determined to make Lifting Limits Pediatric Services happen.
Being pregnant while starting my practice was a little difficulty but it was also the biggest blessing. On April of 2024 I had my little boy. Becoming a mother has truly opened up my eyes to so much. Apart from my OT educators, I feel that my best teacher has been my son. Being a mom has given me so much prospective and empathy for the parents and caregivers that we serve. I truly believe that motherhood and my son have made me a better therapist.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Lifting Limits Pediatric Services provides highly skilled pediatric occupational therapy. Our therapy team is currently composed of myself and three amazing ladies, Haley, Sabrina, and Jasmine. Additionally, we have our wonderful administrative assistant Olivia, who is on her own journey towards becoming a nurse.
Through Lifting Limits Pediatric Services, we provide home and clinic base services to children 0 to 6 years old. For home base visits we currently cover South Austin, North-Central Austin, East Austin, and surrounding areas. We specialize in early intervention, neuromuscular rehabilitation, and infant and child feeding difficulties. We are committed to providing high-quality and individualized care. We seek to empower children and their families by celebrating their uniqueness, delivering personalized, evidence-based therapy, and seek to enhance their overall quality of life through overcoming limiting beliefs.
Here is a list of some of the services we provide.
Infant Feeding
• Oral motor dysfunction
• Torticollis/head turn preference
• Bodywork
• Tongue/lip ties
• Sensory aversion
• Breastfeeding/bottle feeding
• Reflux/constipation
• Transition into solids
Early Intervention
• Infant motor development
• Gross motor skills
• Fine motor skills
• Child feeding/picky eater
• Sensory processing
• Social emotional skills
• Self-care skills
• Visual motor/perception
Neuro Rehabilitation
• Neuro-developmental treatment
• Motor planning
• Balance control
• Soft tissue mobilizations
• Electrical stimulation
• Kinesio tape
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Part of the success of Lifting Limits Pediatric Services is rooted in the fact that occupational therapy is not only my job but also my passion. I truly love what I do, and love celebrating the milestones that our patients achieve during each session. Additionally, I value an eagerness to learn and believe that all of our team members have this quality. I believe that a highly skilled OT should never stop learning. Thus, our team members are provided with support that allows them to attend continuing education courses to gain knowledge on new strategies and skills that allow us to better serve our patients. As a result, our therapists have advance training in neurodevelopmental treatment (NDT), task specific electrical stimulation, oral motor/feeding interventions, infant development, sensory process and reflex integration.
Another core believe that guides our success is the understanding that there is not a one-child-fits-all therapy approach. We are committed to individualizing each treatment session and empowering parents and caregivers so they are comfortable in their abilities to help their child progress. Our average patient usually gets occupational therapy for one to two hours per week. Therefore, the true magic is made possible by parents and caregivers who are incredibly supportive and help carry over the skills learned during our OT sessions.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.liftinglimitspeds.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/liftinglimitspeds/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Lifting-Limits-Pediatric-Services/100095247077580/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maricarmen-romero-mondragon-mot-otr-c-ndt-9158981a0/
