Happy New Year 2025!

Happy New Year! Can you believe it’s 2025 already? The past years have flown by!

With staff training completed, I now have the great therapists I have always wanted for our families. As a result, I have more time to spend making Moving Parts the OT practice I have always dreamed of - a place for kids who have no diagnosis but have Sensory Processing Challenges. 

It’s also allowed me to get on top of some of the tasks that have been on my list of things to do for months which has felt so good. One of those tasks was to chat with previous clients to hear where they are now months, or even years, after our work together.

And you know what…I’ve been blown away by what’s been happening in their families.  Like Andrew– an 8 year old we worked with back in 2021.

When we first started working with Andrew he was struggling with behaviors at school that were getting in the way of his education. He was hitting his peers and was unable to sit still and focus. 

But he did not qualify for an IEP at school and did not have a medical diagnosis that explained his behaviors. 

When his mother came to us, she was beside herself with worry for his future at school, both academically and socially. After an evaluation by us, it turned out that Andrew was struggling with Sensory Processing Disorder, 

He was a very smart boy who was having unwanted behaviors because his sensory system was not working well.

We worked with Andrew to integrate his vestibular and proprioceptive systems as well as to integrate his primitive reflexes which also improved his sensory processing.

The outcome when we finished our time together was amazing. He was able to sit still and focus. He was no longer hitting his peers. School was going well. 

I spoke with his mother recently and she told me that he continues to do well. She shared how glad she is to have found Moving Parts Therapy for Andrew.

Knowing that there are many kids without a diagnosis that struggle with sensory processing, I am wondering…

Do you know a child that might need some help like Andrew?

It is our mission to provide sensory integrative therapy for these children because they may not be able to get services elsewhere due to not having a diagnosis. Their behaviors are often attributed only to lack of discipline rather than a sensory problem because there is no diagnosis to explain it.

We want to help more children find success like Andrew has found.

If you do know a child that you think we’d be a good fit for, I’d love it if you could put us in contact either via email movingpartstherapy.com or over the phone if that’s better for them.

If you have an interest in learning more about what we may be able to do to help you, let me know when you’re free so we can arrange some time to talk.

Mary

All about Mary Sahr at MPT

I love a good book, an afternoon nap, and caffeine--in the early morning and late in the afternoon. Given a choice, I’d go straight from flip flops in warm weather to Uggs in cold weather.

During our summers my family loves to travel and camp in our old Airstream that we refurbished. So far, our big trips have been to Maine and out west to Yellowstone National Park. They are both such beautiful places that I have pictures from both trips hanging around the clinic. We also went to Tennessee’s Smokey Mountains and saw the Synchronous Fireflies, a species that flashes synchronously during their 2-week mating period. It was the quietest experience I’ve had with so many people in the woods. It was a captivating sight!

I started my OT career in Milwaukee WI at Sacred Heart Rehabilitation Hospital where I became a specialist in coma recovery, traumatic brain injury and CVA/stroke recovery. There I was given my foundation in NDT (neurodevelopmental treatment), along with cognitive and visual perceptual therapies. It was a wonderful in-depth education that I learned from the many OTs and PTs at that facility and I am grateful for it.

Following that, I did some traveling therapy. This was a chance not only to travel, but to meet other therapists. I signed up with an agency and off I went! I was assigned various 3-month placements and had a great time. During one of these placements I saw the ocean for the first time and I loved it. Now I go back to the ocean any chance I get!

I eventually made my way back to Milwaukee once again. I worked in the traumatic brain injury program at St Luke’s Hospital. There I found myself being a mentor for the younger therapists. Again, a wonderful staff and a valuable experience for me.

A few years later I returned to the Fox Valley and took a position at the Menasha Joint School District. The excellent therapists in my new department helped me to become a school therapist for the first time. I learned about pediatrics! I love pediatrics. My background in traumatic brain injury had given me an exceptional foundation for working with children with developmental delays, cerebral palsy, autism and cognitive delays. The great value of this position was being able to see my students for several years and learn which therapy interventions made a difference to a child’s school performance and which others did not.

I have over 25 years of experience as an occupational therapist. I established my business, Moving Parts Therapy LLC in November 2017 with a goal to bring an easily accessible community based option for OT service. We put in a custom-built swing set along with other equipment. We have room to grow at this location as the needs of the community grow. My family has been invaluable in getting the clinic set up. My thanks in particular to my husband, my son and my parents.

So that’s my story and I’m excited to begin this chapter!