Cultivate your strengths and become rooted to grow.
About
About Jessie
I am a native, Southern Californian, currently residing in the South Bay of Los Angeles. I am a doctoral candidate at New York University, and I continue to practice Occupational Therapy (OT) in a private pediatric clinic, with a specialty in Ayres Sensory Integration (ASI) at playSense Kids inc.
I graduated with a Bachelor’s of Arts in Psychology from USC in 2015. While attending the University of Southern California, I was a division I diver, though later retired due to injury. Despite surgery and many months of physical therapy and rehab, I decided my career representing USC was far from over, and I was privileged to make the spirit leader team to perform nationally with the Spirit of Troy (USC Marching Band).
- I moved to New York City in 2015 to pursue my Masters of Science in OT at New York University.
- I lived in Manhattan for 2 years, and fell in love with the city.
- I had a diverse set of clinicals, and my fieldwork placements included mental health in the Bronx, stroke rehabilitation at NYU Rusk Hospital, and school based OT on the Lower East Side.
- My level II fieldwork included skilled nursing in Staten Island, followed by pediatric OT in Los Angeles.
- Following my fieldwork, I worked for 2 years at a pediatric clinic in Orange County, where I received my advanced competency in ASI through the Certification of Leadership in Ayres Sensory Integration.
Jessie Warren
Founder
I have always been passionate about children, especially children with varying abilities and learning styles. I have a heart for the marginalized communities that so often fly under the radar. I have been able to continue my OT journey at play Sense Kids inc in Redondo Beach, CA. It is an absolute dream to use science disguised as play to help children have fun, experience success, and build on their skills to have more ease in their daily lives. I believe that every child is unique and their uniqueness should foster their growth, not hinder it.
I am a fighter with a heart for justice, equity, and voices for the children I work with and their families. In my free time I enjoy staying active, gardening, and getting outside. I’m obsessed with my dog Huckleberry and love going on adventures with him. I am fond of hiking, surfing, spinning, dancing, reading, and taking photographs on my polaroid. I will jump at any opportunity to be outside and in the ocean. I love to spend quality time with my friends and family, especially with Huck by my side.
In 2019, I completed my advanced certification; Certification in Leadership in Ayres Sensory Integration (CLASI). As of the summer of 2023, I am actively pursuing the new training in the administration of the EASI (Evaluation in Ayres Sensory Integration).
In 2020, I was accepted to several doctoral programs, but decided to remain true to my Alma Mater at NYU. I successfully defended my doctoral competence project in May of 2023.
Beginning in 2018, I experienced my own serious health challenges, and I was not heard or taken seriously by western practitioners for quite some time. Due to my background in competitive athletics and my occupational therapy education, I knew my own body better than anyone else and saw an opportunity to advocate for myself against traditional,western medicine practices. It was during this time that I realized how important the mind-bodyconnection is for self-regulation, advocacy and identification of the need for help.
Concurrently, I was working with many children who could not identify their feelings or needs, and their families were at a loss to support them. It became clear that the path to support these young, neurodiverse children was to help their parents understand the underlying sensory processing, interoceptive, and developmental processes at the root of their external challenges. This doctoral project has given me a platform to create an educational and collaborative tool to support parents in order to better meet their child’s unique needs.
