“Our daughter Naomi was born with a congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) and spent her first 2 months in the NICU. When we finally came home, Naomi was struggling with feeding. Children with CDH often suffer from reflux; therefore, Naomi was not interested in eating, but when she did eat she tended to throw a significant amount back up (which made her even less interested in eating, a vicious cycle). It’s been a difficult thing to witness as any parent might imagine and eventually, she ended up with a feeding tube. Then, we met Nissa and the main thing we took away from the first encounter was that there was HOPE and there might be a solution.

After the evaluation, Nissa would spend a full day with us, observe all of Naomi’s meals and offer techniques to break the vicious cycle. We saw improvement with each visit. Soon, Naomi was starting to hit her milestones and was catching up. The process took several months and by then end of it Naomi was eating and drinking normally! Nissa was patient, knowledgeable and always available to address a question or concern. The feeding tube was removed several months ago as Naomi is now able to eat and drink independently. She is almost two-and-a-half years old and thriving. We are truly grateful for what Nissa was able to accomplish with our daughter and would recommend her warmly to any family whose child has feeding issues.” 

– Jake Spivack, M.D.

“I’m a dietitian and I can’t get my kid to eat.” That thought felt awful, knowing my 18-month old’s nutrition was solely from 5 bottles of PediaSure a day.

After extensive research, I reached out to Nissa and asked 7 million questions about an ABA approach, because I had hesitations. Up until then, I’d imagined following a plan that put kids in charge of what and how much they ate. I felt a little better after talking with Nissa, though I still watched like a hawk for signs of pressuring at the first feeding session.

Instead, I found myself close to tears as my child, who up until this moment had expressed zero interest in food, willingly drank juice off a spoon with so much positivity from Nissa, then proudly played with the toy he had earned. It seemed unreal.

While our child’s acceptance of new foods grew we still experienced challenges in getting enough food into him. His OT’s approach helped him explore new foods, but not eat enough of the food. Nissa tirelessly developed new approaches, games and ideas to ensure the food went in. And he grew, at the 96 percentile for height, with a much healthier weight.

We held a “graduation” party when he turned four. At that meal, he was chomping away on his food, albeit at his own pace, and drinking his protein milkshake with gusto. I can’t say enough about how instrumental Nissa has been in our life, an answer to prayer and a hero to us.”

–Laura Harris

“Nissa was a Behavior Consultant for our autistic son. She led a team of therapists who came to our home daily to work with our son on self-help skills and some feeding problems. Nissa has a vast skill set and expertise in her field. She is creative, loving, ethical, professional, and fun to work with. She has a passion for what she does and makes sure the entire family is making healthy progress, not just her client. She drove her team with high expectations and she got fantastic results.

We were amazed at our son’s progress once Nissa came into our lives. We consider her a gift and I would be honored to recommend Nissa to anyone looking for a brilliant therapist for special children or adults.” 

– Karla Leach