Welcome to Dark Horse Therapeutics! If you’ve found us, you may be seeking the services of a speech language pathologist. SLPs are professionals that specialize in diagnostics and therapeutic interventions for communication, speech, language, and feeding disorders. Dark Horse Therapeutics was established in 2020 to serve the greater Austin community with high quality, private therapy services for children and adolescents. We recognize the primacy of parent-child relationship and center that relationship in plans of care by emphasizing child-driven goals, and a strong parent coaching model. We also recognize that communication and feeding happen everywhere, not just in school or in a clinic. Therefore, we are mindful and creative about using the home and community setting to best meet the needs of our clients. Welcome, let’s work together!
I’ve been working with Veronica for the past year to help my three-year-old Deaf son develop language in ASL and English. When I met her, I was impressed with her compassion. I remember that she called herself a language therapist, and that is truly what I was looking for. She works with my son’s school team and uses her contacts to benefit us. I can feel her empathy for parents and children. She comes to my home and makes sure that her recommendations match our needs, without taking away my power as a parent. She has given me hope. Words cannot express how much it means to have someone understand.
Veronica has extensive experience in the assessment of communication, speech, language, feeding, and voice disorders in pediatric populations. In her clinical fellowship she received training on the principles of dynamic assessment-- an informal method of evaluating language and communication competencies that captures the child's functional abilities with more depth and application than traditional standard scores might provide.
Scheduling ongoing treatment can be a chore for busy families-- let the therapy come to you! Veronica brings engaging therapeutic activities for your child targeting their goals to the comfort of your own home. This is great for carryover of skills!
Parent and family coaching are naturally woven into treatment sessions. This may look like a 10 minute debrief after a session to discuss what was targeted and why, including a sibling in therapy, or providing specific feedback about how to engage with your child to facilitate their goals when the therapist isn’t around. In my experience, parent coaching is likely to be the component of treatment with the biggest impact on outcomes.
If you are not located in Texas, or feel you’d benefit from additional support, parent coaching sessions may be a good fit. Coaching sessions occur in person, over the phone, or via video conferencing and focus on understanding your child’s plan of care and how to elicit targeted skills in daily routines. My goal is to help you become the therapist for your kid.
After taking a break from teaching due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I’m thrilled to be working with wonderful local equine facilities again. Equine-facilitated speech-language therapy is the most fun, functional, and joyous way for me to practice. Horses are amazing teachers and motivators.
If you are a parent interested in equine services, please contact me to be added to my waitlist. If you are an equine facility interested in working together, please reach out too!
Veronica Looney, MS CCC-SLP, CTRI (PATH Intl.)
Veronica is a lifelong horsewoman native to central Texas. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014 with a BS in Communication Sciences and Disorders with a focus in American Sign Language linguistics.
Veronica pursued her Masters of Science in Speech Language Pathology from Gallaudet University, awarded in 2016. She holds her CCCs from the American Speech Language and Hearing Association and is licensed to practice speech-language pathology in the state of Texas. She is fluent in American Sign Language and enjoys providing services in ASL.
Veronica was able to intersect her personal interest in horsemanship with her professional vocation as a therapist in 2019 after achieving the Certified Therapeutic Riding Instructor status with PATH International (Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship).
Veronica currently resides on a horse farm in the Austin area with her dog Lucy. She works full time as a school-based SLP for a large residential school for the Deaf. In her spare time, she rides and competes dressage with her thoroughbred gelding, Gem.
