Meet Amy Williams | Occupational Therapist & Pediatric Feeding Specialist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Amy Williams and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Amy, what’s the most important lesson your business/career has taught you?
I have a career where I am welcomed into the homes and lives of the families I work with everyday. Because of this, I have learned there is truly no one “right” way to eat and there is so much more to food than healthy and unhealthy. We can eat to grow, eat to have more energy, eat because it smells or looks good, eat to connect with others, and eat because it feels good to our bodies. This lesson has led me to create a business that values every aspect of the child I am working with and I’ve realized their actions around food, often considered “behaviors,” are a form of communication. Each child needs individualized support and each family has different routines to consider. What I am most proud of in my company, and when providing therapy, is that every opinion, routine, interest, and connection matters. I am not coming into your home to “fix” any child or make them eat everything that’s in front of them. Rather, I pride myself on celebrating small wins, advocating for sensory needs, and emphasizing the importance of feeling safe before seeing changes around food.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?

San Diego Feeding Therapy provides in-home pediatric feeding therapy for restrictive (traditionally called “picky”) eaters, neurodivergent individuals, children with feeding tubes, and children diagnosed with Pediatric Feeding Disorder or ARFID. My current caseload has me mainly working with toddlers and school-age kids. What sets my business apart is my underlying focus on nervous system regulation. If the child that I am working with doesn’t feel safe and is in “fight or flight” mode, then there is NO chance they are going to willingly try something new, or even want to be around food. I spend a lot of my sessions helping the child and their family understand signs of nervous system dysregulation, sensory strategies to support their nervous system’s needs, and ways to bring in preferred interests and play to mealtimes. We spend a lot of time in our sessions away from the table while building confidence, self-advocacy skills, and understanding sensory needs so that the child feels prepared in new situations and around any kind of food.
While I love working directly with families, and I have a full-time caseload doing just that, I am starting to branch out to work with other feeding therapists, as well. Feeding therapy is a very small part of the field of occupational therapy. It took me four years of extra coursework, mentorship, and real time application to become specialized in pediatric feeding therapy and obtain an advanced practice in swallowing. While seeking out education in this niche area, I found that a lot of feeding therapists are still working under the medical model of care where compliance is expected and “behaviors” are considered inconveniences which need to be extinguished. I recently created two online courses, for seasoned and new practitioners who are just starting their journey into the world of pediatric feeding therapy, which can be found on my website (https://www.sandiegofeedingtherapy.com/courses). These courses provide education and support from neurodiversity affirming, sensory, and nervous system lenses. In an education area that felt saturated with long, complex, and expensive courses, it was hard for me to feel like my voice and opinion needed to be shared. However, my goal with these courses is for providers to have access to quick, inexpensive, and effective material that they can implement in their affirming practice, right away. My courses teach the strategies I put into practice everyday and I truly believe these courses ARE needed to support other practitioners in this field like me.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Even a week in San Diego wouldn’t be enough time to explore all the best places!

Just staying in North County, I would definitely take them to the beach. Moonlight Beach in Encinitas is my favorite. Afterwards, we would pick from one of the great restaurants along the 101 like Encinitas Fish Shop or Temaki Sushi. For breakfast, I always recommend the breakfast tacos deal at Mr. Peabodys or the breakfast burritos at Pipes Cafe. I would also take them for a walk on the coastal path in Cardiff, making a point to end up at The Lost Abbey’s Confessional for a beer and East Coast Pizza for a soft serve ice cream! You can tell I practice what I preach as a feeding therapist because all my recommendations start with a regulating movement activity and are followed by food!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Well, first of all, there is no way I would have had the opportunity or confidence to open this practice without the support of my husband (thanks, Jake!). Despite never seeing me work with my clients (hello HIPAA), he is my biggest supporter and was convinced my own practice would be successful well before I knew San Diego Feeding Therapy was going to be a real thing. He has been a consistent sounding board for all my ideas, despite being a software engineering manager, and, not to mention, has edited countless website updates, Instagram stories, all of my online courses, and the answers to these questions, too.

Also, being an in-home, solo-practitioner in a very niche area of OT can be really isolating. I don’t have direct coworkers anymore to run therapy ideas by or ask for help when I get stuck. My old colleagues at Cameron Roberts Speech Therapy have been so helpful in staying in contact with me, which made the transition to my own company so much easier. Plus, I have been lucky enough to be included into a feeding group with some amazing practitioners (OTs & SLPs) to share ideas with and ask for support. These amazing practitioners have problem-solved with me, supported my new course ideas, and been amazing cheerleaders from the beginning!

Shout out everyone at Cameron Roberts’ Speech Therapy, Karyn at Food is Fun Let’s Eat, Shari at Nest Pediatric Therapy, Carmen at Little Roots OT, Brittany at Eat Play Love OT, Lauren at OT Mama, Laureen at Thriving Littles, Stephanie at THOR Occupational Therapy, Lizzie at Thriving Beginnings, Olivia at Tied Together, Yvonne at Baby & Beyond Therapy, and Brittany at Wayz to Play!!

Website: https://www.sandiegofeedingtherapy.com/courses

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sandiegofeedingtherapy

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-williams-b2495a139/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sandiegofeedingtherapy/?_rdr

Image Credits
Sheila Chen Art
San Diego Feeding Therapy