Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Bergen County
Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Ep. # 77 Therapy That Feels Like Play: How Village Therapy Is Revolutionizing Care
Are you ready to explore a transformative approach to pediatric therapy? Join us as we engage with Debbie Horowitz and Faigy Szanzer, the co-founders of Village Therapy Place in Wyckoff, New Jersey. Their inspiring journey begins with a vision—a vision to create a nurturing environment where children can receive personalized therapy that feels less like work and more like play.
In this episode, we delve into the multi-disciplinary services offered at Village Therapy Place, including occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy, and the emerging DIR Floor Time methodology. Discover how this innovative practice adopted a child-centered approach, allowing kids to engage at their own pace while promoting social and emotional connections. We discuss the founders' personal reasons for venturing into pediatric therapy and how the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic shaped their practice.
Through dedicated collaboration and community engagement, Village Therapy Place aims to empower parents and families with tools and resources. Debbie and Faigy also offer insights into workshops that extend their reach, educating not only families but other professionals working with children. Whether you are a parent seeking services for your child or curious about modern therapeutic practices, this conversation highlights the incredible world of pediatric therapy.
Join us for this enriching episode, and discover how healing through play can create lasting impacts on children's lives. To stay connected, don’t forget to subscribe, share your thoughts and join our efforts in making a difference!
The Village Therapy Place
Debbie Horowitz & Faigy Szanzer
541 Cedar Hill Avenue Wyckoff, NJ, United States, New Jersey 07481
(201) 201-8220
office@thevillagetherapyplace.com
thevillagetherapyplace.com
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Doug Drohan.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast brought to you by the Bergen Neighbors Media Group. I am your host, Doug Drohan. We are in Bergen County. I am on the east side of Bergen County and about 35 minutes away, 15 miles as the crow flies, are Debbie Horowitz and Faigy Szanzer, the co-founders of the wonderful Village Therapy Place in Wyckoff, New Jersey. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Thank you. So nice to be here.
Speaker 2:I'm glad you joined, because the village therapy place sounds like a therapy place, for want of a better word, that is, you know the term. It takes a village, but you know, therapy can come in many different forms, right, there's physical therapy, there's occupational therapy, there's speech therapy. So is that what, you know, the village is all about? Is it like all these different modalities of therapy in one place?
Speaker 4:So actually, hi, this is Faigy. I'm a physical therapist. I graduated from Columbia University in 2006, and it is so fun to be on your show, so thank you for having us, doug.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 4:So, in terms of the village, debbie and I were both very intentional with the choice of name. We chose the village because our goal and our vision is to be a child's village. So we hope to be, and aim to be, and strive to be a place where a child can get everything he or she needs, whether it be the physical therapy, the occupational therapy, speech therapy, feeding therapy, and we now also offer a full suite of DIR floor time therapy services as well, which we'll discuss further a little bit later. So that is actually what we are, and the village is a multi-disciplinary pediatric therapy practice and we offer, we aim to offer just incredible, high-quality, collaborative, wonderful therapy services for the children to help them thrive.
Speaker 2:That's great, that's great. So when did you start? When did you open your doors?
Speaker 3:So Faigy and I have both been working I'm an OT, this is Debbie. Uh, we both been working in the in our respective fields for many, many years. We opened the village therapy place about five years ago. Um, as they say, timing is everything. We actually had our open house February 2020. And then, as we all know, march 2020, 2020, covid hit, so that was a bit of a delay. We had to kind of restart again about a year later, and that was definitely a challenge trying to, you know, get people out of survival mode and back into doing, you know, what they needed for their kids in a more streamlined way.
Speaker 2:So had you both, like, quit your other jobs and started this business, or did you still have another job at the time?
Speaker 3:We went totally. We had both been working together. We had worked in public schools and private schools for many, many years, and then we worked together at one school and we just decided this is what we wanted to do and we were all in.
Speaker 2:And you both studied in New York City.
Speaker 3:Yes, I went to NYU, got my master's in occupational therapy just a few years ago.
Speaker 2:Two, three years ago and so are you from New York. Like what brought you both from working and while going to school in the city and then opening a practice in Bergen County.
Speaker 4:That's a good question. So actually, bergen County is really equidistant to where Debbie and I both live. I moved up to Rockland County and I'll just talk for Debbie. For a second, debbie lives in Bergen County, in Teaneck, so it just, it's a.
Speaker 4:it's a nice spot for the two of us to be able to have our practice and we actually we were looking for the right place, the right community to to create and find that space and also community that is looking, a child-friendly community where there's lots of kids who can benefit from these services that we offer, but that wasn't terribly swamped with other therapy practices. So we really found just a great space in Wyckoff. We started out in Waldwick out of the one gym for all, we went to some space there and then we moved out to our own space on 541 Cedar Hill Avenue and we just love it there and we're just so blessed to have such great, great families in our practice.
Speaker 2:That's great. Up the stairs from you is Dr Daniel DeFeo of Osteopathic Family Medicine, who is a big expert contributor. Sponsor of the Wyckoff Magazine. Plug, plug, yeah, so it's a great. The Cedar Hill Medical Building, basically, I guess, is what you'd call it right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's great. It's great, we're so happy with our space.
Speaker 3:Yes, it's a great location, you know, after working in schools for such a long time, we loved it. We loved working with family, with teachers and in a school. But we kind of felt like there's limitations when you work in a school. The timing sessions were generally 30 minutes. We had limited space, limited equipment, and so we just that's where we kind of came together. We wanted to open a space where we could just give kids what they needed, without limitations, as much as possible. So that's kind of how we ended up here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so what age groups do you treat when you say kids? What's the typical range?
Speaker 4:So all kids from babies. So we work with little babies who are having a hard time rolling over, for example, and having a hard time with their feeding to bigger kids. We see children upwards of 15 to 17 years old as well, so there's no limit to the kids and we just really any child. We're trained to work with anybody and our practice is open to any children. So, yeah, and a huge part of what is super important to us is that our therapists come highly, highly experienced.
Speaker 4:Part of what is super important to us is that our therapists come highly, highly experienced. So we're proud to say that all of our therapists have at least five years of experience on them and constantly learning and upping our knowledge and upping our skill. And because we're a collaborative facility where we have all different disciplines, we get to really talk and connect and also share ideas and also share about our clients that we're working with. You know it could be a child who's receiving PT, ot and speech in our center, so we get to really just focus and work and it's really. It's such a great setup and our therapists are so happy. Also because it's so rewarding, because the children do make really good progress and we actually discharge kids from our facility Like kids do get better, which is so, so nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's great. So you both studied I mean Debbie occupational therapy and Peggy was physical therapy. So when did you decide you wanted to focus on pediatrics?
Speaker 3:I think for me I actually did start out with adults and I loved it. I mean I'm so lucky, I just love being an OT and any population I've worked with I've really enjoyed. But I think when I had my own children I felt like I wanted to know that I had all the patients I needed for. I mean, I guess I learned a lot when I had my own children and I just felt like and I wanted to be able to be home when they were home. So the schedule that I was able to work in a school worked very well for that. So when I had my own children is really when I made that shift and I just found it really very rewarding.
Speaker 2:That's great.
Speaker 4:And for me, I knew through my training that I'd be working as a pediatric therapist I actually but I actually chose to start working at a rehab facility. I worked at joint diseases actually for three years. That was my first at NYU joint hospital for joint diseases for three years before shifting to peds. But my dream was always to be a pediatric therapist. I did that for the first three years. I felt like I wanted to work in an organized facility with good supervision, really get out there as a therapist and really become just competent and skilled as a PT and just really be a solid therapist. And then I went out and it's been such a party since and I love the kids and it's been in schools, at their homes and just in the community and something that I'm going to also just say in terms of the village it's been so with the kids.
Speaker 4:It's just incredible and something that we offer, just in terms of being part of the community as well, just is that we ought we do offer screens to schools. We have great relationships with schools, so a lot of the time schools will come and we'll give in services and educational talks to their teachers and we also do evaluate not evaluate we do screen their students for any OTPs or speech needs, and the schools, we have such a great relationship with them and we just and we talk to, we talk with the teachers afterwards about our findings and it's so great and I just feel like just being a therapist, also being a mom as well, but it's, I mean, the kids are our future and I just love it and I feel like being in the schools is such a great way to just to kind of like increase our impact. So it's really cool that we've had the opportunity to do that as well. And yeah, so that's the short and long of, you know, wanting to become a pediatric therapist, and also what we do at the Village, which is just incredible.
Speaker 2:So you go to school for OT and PT and then you're working for other people, you're working for the hospitals and different medical practices, going and starting your own business. What was the impetus in that Like, why did you two decide, you know, let's do this on our own? I think we can do it differently. We could do it better.
Speaker 4:What was?
Speaker 2:the kind of the reason behind that.
Speaker 4:We had to. It was. It was. We loved what we were doing in the schools and we loved being part of the school team, but we were so limited by the actual physical space in our in our therapy room. We're limited with our equipment and also, and one of the biggest limitations was the time we had with our students, so we were given 30 minute sessions.
Speaker 4:By the time we got the children from their classroom, made their way down to the therapy room, which was a pseudo therapy space, and then back up to their classroom, we were talking, we maybe had 18 minutes of really of quote unquote work, which is really play and really fun and the kids love it. But it was just so limiting and so and a little frustrating because we felt like we could accomplish so much more if we just had the time and the space. And also over here was really communicating with with parents as well, because parents are bringing their, their children here to the village. We have much more of a direct relationship with these parents as well. Because parents are bringing their children here to the village. We have much more of a direct relationship with these parents as well. So it's just so much better in terms of the time. The space constraints, the equipment constraints the relationships we have with the parents. Yeah, that is the reason.
Speaker 3:I think we, just as much as we love the school environment, we both just felt like we just wanted to give kids more, and there were a lot of times where the paperwork took a long time, so kids who were struggling in class couldn't get seen for months and months, and it was. There was just a lot of frustration there and so we just said let's just do this. I don't think we appreciated that the challenges of we weren't business people, so we we we got a lot of coaching from from business people and that was definitely. We learned a lot in the process, but really the main goal was just to help the kids in a way that they would really get very strong benefit in a way that we weren't able to accomplish in the same way in the school system.
Speaker 2:And there's so many business owners that I speak to on my podcast that didn't have any kind of business background whether they're doctors of different disciplines or other things that they just followed a passion, they saw a need.
Speaker 2:Maybe it was something that started out of you know COVID or before that, and you know it's the American dream in some ways. You know it's what Shark Tank and a lot of these shows, these reality shows, if you want to call it that. That. It's that I have an idea and I want to bring it to market and we have this acceptance culture in America where it's okay to fail. So I think it's not okay to fail when you're providing for your family and you need the money, and it's tough emotionally, but the risk takers are rewarded and I give you guys a lot of credit for doing this. Because, looking at physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, feeding therapy, and then something you touched on that I want to get into now, which I never heard of before, and something you touched on that I want to get into now, which I never heard of before, is.
Speaker 2:D-I-R-4-10. Not D-Y-I, but D-I-R-4-10.
Speaker 3:Yeah, what is that? What is D-I-R-4-10? So it's actually a way of working with children who have challenges generally in the area of social interaction. A big part of the clientele that that uses it our kids on the autism spectrum but it's not only for that, and traditionally aba was the go-to and it's wonderful.
Speaker 3:Aba is wonderful for some kids, but there are some kids that needed a different approach and so we offer this, which is becoming more and more popular, and we have just seen incredibly beautiful, magical things happening with the kids that work with. We have an incredible floor time staff and they just bring out the kids in a way that that they, you know, they were never. You know, we had a child that never, a three-year-old who was never able to hug their mom, just didn't, couldn't relate in that way, and we we ran an intensive camp this summer and three days into camp she came home and gave her mom a hug and has been hugging her ever since. So it's those those kind of things where, like you know, the child just did not know how to interact and engage with her mom in that way, and that's just one example. But it's just a beautiful therapy.
Speaker 4:So yeah, I'm going to Before time.
Speaker 2:I was thinking maybe it's like a core somebody, a child with a weak core. That's funny yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:So, so quick. So just just briefly, also just because I'm I'm very passionate about DIR floor time. It's really a it's a relationship based approach to children. So for the kids who are struggling relating and you'll see this often with kids on the spectrum, like Debbie has said so the idea of D is for developmental, I is for individual differences and R is for the relationship. So basically we're respecting the children's differences in their own personal makeup and we relate to them in that way, meet them where they're at.
Speaker 4:It is such a respectful, beautiful, happy and joyous way of relating to children and basically, when we relate to them on in their level, where they're at, we get they, they they're safe and they get to just expand and magnify who they are and and they're all these developmental levels that they just what it's organic growth, where they just get to the next place. So, instead of teaching a child, you say thank you when you leave somebody's room or you say goodbye, you know, you know thank you, goodbye. These things kind of happen organically when you're in their space, meeting them where they're at and then just taking them to that next level. It's just, it's so beautiful, it's so respectful, it's not redundant. Where we're doing constant repetitions, there's a lot of play, it's just such a happy place and the kids just do incredible and yeah, like Debbie had said, there is real magic that happens and it's just, it's a beautiful, beautiful approach to children. We're very excited about it.
Speaker 4:New Jersey is of the first states in the country where it's now approved by insurance. So I believe California, I believe Illinois is also in the works now. There's tons of research out there, but New Jersey's up there and it's starting. I believe Illinois is also in the works now. There's tons of research out there, but New Jersey's up there and it's starting. I believe the Medicaid covers it and now some commercial plans are starting to cover it as well, which is super exciting and we're on it. We love floor time and we love what it does for children. It very much goes with our approach, how we relate to the kids, and it's just an incredible, incredible approach to children and their development.
Speaker 2:So if your child and I guess this is like some children that might have autism or have sensory sensitivities Traditionally they would go to for ABA, which is applied behavioral analysis, so what if you're there now? Are you saying, oh my God, I was giving my child, I was doing my child a disservice, or is it more of like? I mean, there's a difference between the two? Is it considered DIR is better than ABA? And that's one question, and I don't want to put the ABA practices on notice or criticize them. But the other thing I wanted to ask you is that one of the main differences is that ABA therapy is therapist-led and DIR is child-led and I'm like, what does that mean? Like you let the kid run the know and yeah, so I just wanted to. It's a two part question.
Speaker 4:So Okay, I'm happy to take, I'm happy to take it away. And just in terms of, just at the village, we're very respectful of everybody, so I would, I would, it would. It would be terrible for us to say you must do certain things and not do other things, or respectful of all approaches. And there are some children who are doing super well with ABA and it's working for them and it also depends on the therapist and the technician that's actually doing the work. But definitely for us, we prefer, again, without any judgment, we prefer floor time. Now, with regard to the parents who say oh my goodness, did I do my kids a disservice? I feel like that. It's a little harsh. Why would I feel like?
Speaker 4:As parents and as therapists and as individuals in this world, we're constantly just trying to grow and learn and as more information comes in, we may decide to pivot and do something different. It doesn't mean that you were bad for doing something. It means you did what you knew and you did the best you could under with information you had, and now you may decide to just try something else. So there's no judgment, there's no parents. You must. You are terrible for not doing certain things? Absolutely not. Never, ever, ever. It's okay, we did what we could and now maybe we'll try something else. And that's always our approach, even if it's exercise or physical therapy. It's no, you're, you're, you're doing well, we're going to. Just we may have to tweak some things and let's try this now. It's never your bad or you messed up. There's. There's never that. So that's that.
Speaker 4:Additionally, the second question, to answer your second question about a child led versus therapist led. So the idea of dir floor time is really that, not that a child says I want to play with box, now we're going to play with blocks. It's's more of let's see. Well, first of all, if a child wants to play with blocks, of course, why not play with blocks? Like, who cares? If it works and it's appropriate and it's a good activity, that's fine.
Speaker 4:But it's more that it's child-led in terms of his or her development. So we're looking at where he or she is and then we're going to to go and his or her interests and his or her, where they are emotionally and also sensory wise, where their body is, what they could handle then and then based on their whole picture, emotionally, physically, their sensory system, looking at their whole body and where they are. That is what's going to lead the goals for that day or the session for that day. Of course, if the child wants to play with blocks or trains or Legos, if it makes sense, of course, we're happy to do that why not? Childhood means that we're looking at where the child is right. Then, in that moment Again, just looking at their emotional, physical, sensory system, space, Does that make sense?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:It's also that the therapist is, is guiding, but in a more subtle way, and is not imposing their ideas and everything on the child, like it's letting the child have a voice and you know, but. But there's, it's. It's very nuanced, like the therapists really know how to put themselves in when they need to, but it's really allowing the child to generate their own ideas and their own sense of where they want to go. Does that make sense?
Speaker 2:So this is what you would apply. Obviously, some people come in. They only need physical therapy or speech therapy, but some of your clients or patients would need the DIR floor time for other reasons. It's not like everybody who comes in does DIR, right.
Speaker 4:No. And the beautiful part here is, say, a child comes in for floor time and then the therapist says you know, I really think you can use some physical therapy.
Speaker 4:Well, we're so happy to help you and a child comes in for physical therapy and we, oh my goodness, I think we need to do some sensory regulation here. Let's you know, I think an OT would really be a good addition to your picture today, so we can. And then a child comes in for speech therapy and we say, and they're having a hard time with their feeding or with their articulation or whatever it is. And we say, you know, we're going to tack on a once a week OT session, just to help out with different things.
Speaker 4:So we're here as a multidisciplinary pediatric therapy practice because sometimes just being in the same space we can. It's just very conducive to looking at everything that the child can do and say and we and we kind of conquer and divide and we say, you know I'm going to focus on certain skills and you focus on those, and then we'll just collaborate and see how it's going for that child.
Speaker 1:and it's a really nice arrangement.
Speaker 4:So, yes, well it if children can come in for needing ptm. We could, and we could, and we could recommend floor time and vice versa, and with all the disciplines, not just floor time, but everything so before we go, I wanted to get into um.
Speaker 2:so, aside from these services that you offer, you also have workshops and classes, correct. So, you know, let's talk a little bit about that. What are these classes, who are they for? And the workshops.
Speaker 3:So we Sorry to interrupt.
Speaker 2:So if I'm say, my child's not a patient for want of a better word, but we just want to come in for a class because you're doing a class for children for want of a better word, but we just want to come in for a class because you're doing a class for children, you're doing a I don't know. You know picky eater class or you know social skills class. Is that like? How does it work?
Speaker 3:We decide when we're going to lead a class and we advertise, we put out flyers, we send out emails to our clientele. Sometimes we've been asked by a school to a school district to do it on their behalf. Sometimes we've done it on our own. You know, we've led feeding classes, like you said, and social service classes and and people sign up and it just it extends our reach a little bit and it allows us to educate parents. We've done it actually for pediatricians and you know, just in terms of, let's say, feeding, not everybody comes at it. Every professional comes in it from their own perspective. So to be able to educate other professionals who work with kids what feeding issues look like and when intervention may be, professionals who work with kids what feeding issues look like and when intervention may be warranted.
Speaker 2:So you could sign up just to take a class or a workshop if you wanted to.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:That's great. Yeah, we're kind of running out of time here and I know there's so many different things to talk about. I know, so I'm going to have you guys back on the show.
Speaker 4:There is so much to chat about, I know, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And you know, one of the things I always like to talk about is is the business owner part of it? And we we did earlier in the conversation. You know something inside you. You saw the need, you decided to go off and and take the risk and open a practice. Unfortunately, it was in February of 2020, but hey, that's maybe for another talk of how you got through it, how you managed to survive. And now, five years later, which is a lot of businesses don't survive their first year or two years. And then if you had COVID on top of that? So I'd love to dig into that, because I think a lot of business owners who listen to the show. It's always good to give them hope and advice and you know it's always great, as you would know, to model after success. So I think there's a lot of things you could teach us out there.
Speaker 2:Well, that's very kind how you've managed to grow your team. You know, when we first talked, it was like five years ago, and now you've got I'm looking on your website three, six, nine, 10 people on your staff, including the two of you. So a lot of them went to school in New York, which is very cool, because I'm a New York, I'm a New York guy too. I'm a CUNY graduate, Um yeah.
Speaker 2:So, uh, yeah, so let's let's just recap where they would find you, how they would reach you, who, and you know, I think you, you assumed a lot of people who come to you have a child with some kind of special need, but I don't. So I'd like to know the types, and I know I'm going to go over time here, but what types of I guess diagnoses are you treating? And then, how do people get a hold of you?
Speaker 4:Okay, I'm going to jump in here just because there's so much to say.
Speaker 4:First of all, doug, thank you for having us and, wow, this is way too short to be able to talk about so much and absolutely we are exceptionally grateful and blessed and we are so happy to talk to any business owners and also just share our experience because, yes, it took a lot of pivoting and strength and, well, great morale to be where we are today and we couldn't be more grateful and also just really blessed. But yes, it was tons of grit for sure In terms of where to find this and reach us. We treat all children with all diagnoses. So there's the developmental stuff, there's the basic developmental delays. Then there is also children who are born with diagnoses, whether it's genetic disorders, whether it's muscular dystrophies, whether it's cerebral palsy. Then there's also the developmental stuff in terms of the autism spectrum. So there's a lot of different diagnoses. It's hard to say really. I would would say it's not so good to be so generalized. But yeah, it really, any pediatric um diagnosis is what we're comfortable treating and if we feel like I'm just going to jump in.
Speaker 3:There are also kids without diagnoses that are just struggling with one area or another. They don't necessarily have a diagnosis, but they're just, they're a little weaker or they're um, they have a visual motor issue or you know something like that, um, so so we see those kids as well if right, like, like, kind of like red flagged by their teacher and like is it keeping up with his or her friends?
Speaker 2:those are the kids that come in as well oh, okay, that's great, it's good to know, and we also have a really cool.
Speaker 4:We have this cool VR app game that we're piloting with a certain company. Artificial, intelligence Artificial. Thank you, Debbie.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 4:That was a stretch, yeah, and it's really cool. So we're piloting with another company. It's called Quoro AI and we love it and the kids get to do their homework on that, on their iPads or on their phone. So that's really neat and there's so much. But anyway, everybody can find us on our website, thevillagetherapyplacecom.
Speaker 4:We are very responsive, so if you call our number 201-201-8220, we will answer the phone during work hours, call back within a day and we're here to help. We are here to help and we typically do not have a wait list. It's important to us to be well-staffed enough that we can see and evaluate and treat straight away. We happen to have just started a small tiny wait list for OT, but we're hoping to get to that ASAP. Thankfully, we are very blessed. We have great skilled therapists and we just keep on hiring and expanding as the need is. We just want to increase our impact and we want to be able to help your child. So if you know of any children who need services or are friends, neighbors, schools, we're happy. We really just want to help as many children as we can and be a support to the community.
Speaker 2:Well, that's great. Well, thank you very much, debbie and Faigy. This has been great and, like I said, maybe we have to have you back on and talk about some of the things we didn't dig into, or just focus on one topic and do some talks around those. So we're going to have Chuck play some music and take us out, and then you and I will be right back.
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Thank you for listening to the good neighbor podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpbergen. com. That's gnpbergen. com, or call 201-298-8325.