About Us
We celebrate collaboration.
Laura Worthen and Julie Burgess-Dennis (Founders of Under The Umbrella) are speech language pathologists with extensive backgrounds working with kids and their families to address delays in speech sound disorders, language processing skills, fluency, social cognition, voice disorders, and feeding challenges, A developmental model of treatment in the context of play and social learning is the foundation for the work at Under the Umbrella. The most effective communication-based treatment is engaging, encourages the imagination, and follows the interests of the child/client, in the context of play. Learning to communicate at each developmental level is the ultimate goal for achieving independence, confidence, and emotional regulation.
OUR
STORY
Creating a space friendly to communication was the driving force of this collaboration. Both Julie and Laura hankered to work in a lively, energetic therapy space, grounded in play and family, open to incidental social interactions between kids and their grown-ups. Not seeing it around, Julie and Laura decided to build it. Over the summer of 2014, the therapists, along with their families and friends renovated a unique space in the Ravenna/Bryant Park neighborhood.
The intention of the space was to create a welcoming environment that frames communication in the context of play and shared social problem solving throughout the day. The space offered the opportunity for Julie and Laura to evolve an innovative approach focused on competencies across relationships as opposed to the more traditional skills-based mastery approach. It is our belief that all meaningful interactions follow the lead of the clients, and here at Under the Umbrella we are committed to having fun, all the while doing the deep work of rigorous communication therapy.
Meet Laura & Julie
Laura Worthen
Website: lauraworthen.com
Email: worthenumbrella@gmail.com
Laura holds a BA from Brown University and earned a Masters in Speech and Hearing Sciences with a Medical Emphasis at the University of Washington. Prior to becoming a speech therapist, she had a long career in the performing arts, acting and directing across the country.
Play is at the center of what Laura does as a developmental speech and language therapist. She is committed to encouraging families to advocate for their kids and engage actively in all aspects of therapy. Laura’s areas of specialty include motor speech and articulation concerns, feeding issues, stuttering, social communication and emotional regulation, voice disorders (including PVFM and other breathing challenges) and language processing and expressive language difficulties.
Julie Burgess-Dennis
Website: julieburgessdennis.com
Email: julieundertheumbrella@gmail.com
Julie graduated the University of Washington with a master’s in speech and language sciences. She has been working in the Seattle area since 1996 at several different private clinics. After the birth of her second child, Julie opened her private practice, servicing clients and families in the home and school settings. Her services shifted to a developmental model, collaborating with the whole family and therapy team, focusing on support specific to social communication and emotional regulation.
In 2014 Julie cofounded, with Laura Worthen, Under the Umbrella, a therapy and learning collective. Our shared approach created the pathway for building a treatment space allowing for social competencies to emerge and strengthen across relationships and settings.
Julie’s areas of speciality include social communication disorders and social competency, emotion regulation challenges, language processing and language based learning disorders, expressive language disorders and motor speech disorders. Treatment is relationship based and individualized, child and student lead and in the context of play and functional.
Julie lives in Lake Forest Park with her family. Her husband is an actor by trade and teaches drama at the high school level. She has one daughter in high school and her oldest is in college. Her favorite thing to do is ride her ebike all over town!
