Authentic Health
Pediatric Occupational Therapy Testimonials
From T.L.:
When our son was about 18 months, we sought out an evaluation through Early Intervention. Our son had lost the few words that he spoke, and wasn’t making his milestones. Christie was the Occupational Therapist sent to evaluate our son. Within 15 minutes, she knew exactly what was going on with our son. He had Sensory Processing Disorder (later diagnosed with ASD).
Christie was able to provide us with the tools and exercises we needed to help our son with his needs. He made progress every single day. He became more comfortable within himself. I truly believe that Christie changed our life. She is amazing at what she does. She has even helped us during her free time on several occasions.
From B.M:
My family has had the privilege of having Ms. Christie as our OT for our youngest son for the past 3 years. My son has autism and Ms. Christie has had a considerable impact on my son’s improvements in his ability to navigate the world, both in his home and school environment. Ms. Christie is incredibly insightful and offers on point strategies for working on developing skills. My son is always very excited to work with Ms. Christie and is eager to ‘start work’ when he sees her! She makes the sessions fun, educational and provides all the information for parents to be able to replicate and work on the skills at home. I could not recommend Ms. Christie enough! Our family has been truly blessed in having her in our lives!!
From A.H.:
Christie Pride has a unique ability to observe a child, immediately identify the underlying challenge that needs to be addressed, and propose a treatment plan (often a very creative one) to solve the problem. Her extensive background in sensory processing and neurodevelopment give her client’s parents an entirely new perspective on their child’s fine motor issues that is missing in school-based therapies. School therapists can only focus on skills needed in the school setting, while Christie concentrates on the underlying sensory-motor development required as a foundation for those skills before addressing the skills themselves. Christie has worked with three of our children—all with entirely different issues—and, in every case, she has identified specific interventions that resulted in immediate improvements.
From a toddler with global delays to a pre-teen with handwriting difficulties, Christie has always exceeded our expectations with her outside-the-box thinking and dedication to improving the lives of our kids. It is a great blessing to the Warrenton community that she will be opening a private practice here.
From K.C.:
Christie Pride is an extraordinary person. She was an important resource to my family for a number of years and, I know that if I had a question or needed to meet up with Christie now, she would work to make that happen. I have 3 children who are 6, 4, and 2. I met Christie when my oldest, who was 20 months at the time, needed to be provided occupational therapy for sensory processing issues.
When I learned this, I had just given birth to my second child, so I was certainly freaked out and extremely tired. I had never really heard of sensory processing difficulties/disorder before, at least not in the way that she kindly explained to me and my husband. Christie came to our home biweekly and weekly to work with Vincent for a full year. She always demonstrated and explained each strategy and exercise that my son needed and the purpose of it helping him with his sensory issues. Christie eased my worries when I truly felt helpless with my son.
Her way of working with parents is with professional ease, but also with a caring heart and the experience of being a parent, too. In addition to working with my oldest, Christie came to visit me when I had speech concerns regarding my 2nd child. She offered and demonstrated many strategies related to sensory processing that I could use to help my then 18 month old and eased my worries that she was going to be OK and start talking, which is currently does all the time!
When child 3 came along, I had Christie over to work with him because he was demonstrating tactile defensiveness that also interfered with him nursing. Like a godsend, she came into my home and kindly educated and demonstrated what I could do to help my son. With all three of my kids, Christie demonstrated love, passion, and consistency. She was fun, but firm at all times. My husband and I feel very blessed to have met Christie Pride. I would recommend her services to any family who had occupational therapy concerns with their child. She is a genuine professional with an obvious love for working with children, parents, and caregivers.
From M.D.:
Our adopted son Jacob was born with several issues to include cerebral palsy, fetal alcohol syndrome, sensory issue, global developmental delay, drug addiction and was several weeks premature to name a few. We were given very little hope from the hospital when we agreed to take him into our home.
Christie Pride was his first therapist and it was not long before we noticed a vast difference. She basically worked miracles with Jacob, and through her efforts he gained mobility in his legs and began to act more like other newborns. Christie continued to work with Jacob for several years and he continued to improve in all areas. As Jacob got older we found that he also suffers from autism.
The University of Virginia Medical Staff and Culpeper Department of Social Services have followed Jacob since birth, and all have called him a miracle child. He has exceeded all expectations. I attribute Jacob's success to the efforts of Christie. None of this would have been possible without her.
We have fostered other children, some have been clients of Christie's. Those children could not have been in better hands and were fortunate to have her as a therapist. We can not praise or say enough about Christie and her talents, and would recommend her to anyone with a child in need of services.
From JC:
Our six year old son was struggling in school, not completing his worksheets, having trouble staying seated and his teachers were requesting testing for ADHD. We tried a therapist and while helpful, didn't get him to the level we were hoping for. We got a referral to Christie Pride. She gave us a personalized program for our son that did not include any medications. He has improved so much that his new teacher this year told us she would not have known he had any struggles the previous year based on his behavior this year.
Christie has been committed to our son's health and growth. She's been easy to communicate with and always answers questions. We cannot thank her enough for her commitment. We were not sure our son would ever be able to be in an inclusive classroom but he is and his changes have been extraordinary. Our family is eternally grateful to Christie Pride and Authentic Health.
From R.M.
When our son entered middle school and writing continued to be a serious challenge, I reached out to a friend who referred us to Christie at Authentic Health for OT services. He had a diagnosis of dysgraphia which made writing and completing journaling assignments very difficult. I was initially apprehensive about starting OT. While I knew he needed it and would benefit from it, what would our son think of it? Would he be cooperative during sessions? I chatted with her over the phone and after an initial in-person meeting was really excited to get started - and so was our son! He enjoyed going and really dug into many of the sessions and loved the mental challenge. As a result, he has grown tremendously!
Because of the work he did with Christie, his attention span and focus has improved. His ability to retain information has also greatly increased.
After working through lots of different exercises his dysgraphia no longer holds him back, he has managed to overcome it! In fact, when recently re-evaluated for IEP services it was no longer detected!
If your child is struggling, I cannot recommend Christie Pride enough. Have a conversation and discuss any troubles. She is a wonderful listener as well as very thoughtful, thorough, and knowledgeable. I am so glad we found her! It has had a tremendous, positive impact on our child. We are all so immensely grateful!
From J.Z.
Our son Logan was diagnosed with apraxia and had sensory needs that we felt could be addressed at Authentic Health. Logan has made tremendous progress in many aspects. He is more centered and balanced, has started singing, has less behavioral outbursts and has acquired a greater attention span. Christie has been excellent to work with. She is very knowledgeable, gifted, with a special talent in working with children like Logan. She gladly answers our questions and communicates well with timely progress notes. We feel so blessed to have found Christie and Authentic Health. The private, personal therapy sessions and integrated care plans tailored to meet Logan's needs have proven to be incredibly beneficial.