Co-authored by Sarah Van Auken and Amy Vigliotti.

Modern health care is organized around specialization. Each provider is trained in a specific domain, which can lead to deep expertise, but also tunnel vision. Without a team mindset, critical symptoms may be dismissed or misunderstood simply because they fall outside of a practitioner’s immediate focus.

While there are excellent clinicians working with adults, truly collaborative care remains the exception rather than the norm. This lack of integration doesn't reflect a lack of effort or expertise; it reflects the structure of our health care system itself. And it’s costing patients not just clarity, but outcomes. Adults benefit from a supportive multidisciplinary team.

Example:

When practitioners don’t routinely collaborate, it’s easy to miss the "connective tissue" between symptoms. Adult patients are then left to connect the dots on their own. Many come to feel lost, dysregulated, and increasingly unwell. This is not because they’re resistant, but because the treatment plan isn’t cohesive.

Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) often work with adults whose needs extend well beyond voice, speech, or language. That’s because communication is not just about talking: it’s about breath, nervous system regulation, cognition, self-expression, and social connection.

SLPs are trained in all of these areas. We address:

When communication begins to break........

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