Her Story
About Jennifer
Jennifer Urich is an occupational therapist and owner of a private practice in Tempe, Arizona. With 13 to 14 years in the field, she specializes in pediatric feeding therapy, including teaching children to eat, tube weaning, working with selective eaters, and supporting infants with bottle feeding challenges. After working as a stay-at-home mom, Urich pursued her master's degree at A.T. Still University following encouragement from a friend and completed clinical rotations that sparked her interest in pediatrics and feeding therapy. She previously worked at Phoenix Children's Hospital in their intensive feeding therapy program as a clinician and coordinator before transitioning to the NICU at a Banner hospital two days a week, where she focuses on motor development, while dedicating the other three days to providing in-home individualized care through her private practice. Urich is a member of the American Occupational Therapy Association, the Arizona Occupational Therapy Association, the National Association of Neonatal Therapists, and Feeding Matters, where she volunteers. She attributes her success to her passion for the work, treating every patient as the only patient, and her commitment to identifying causes of feeding difficulties with compassion and attention to detail. Urich values honesty, hard work, commitment, professionalism, compassion, caring, community, and connection in both her professional and personal life.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Jennifer
01What do you attribute your success to?
I really do think it's my passion for what I do. I really treat every patient as the only patient, and am trying always to figure out what is causing the feeding difficulties, and just really caring and paying attention to all of the details through that passion, and wanting to help people.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
You have to choose whether you're going to try and help everybody and in doing so shut down because you can't afford it and help no one, or look at things from a financial perspective and decide what's the best way to do this so that you can help the most amount of people. If you close or can't stay afloat, you're not going to be able to help anybody.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Find a mentor, and don't try and do this without one. Because there's plenty of us that do it that would are happy to share information, but it's not something you want to try and learn on your own.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Biggest challenges are insurance and reimbursement rates. That's kind of true of all of healthcare right now. So many opportunities as an occupational therapist, and so many different niches that you can go into. There's just always going to be a need for what we do, whether it's in pediatrics or adults, but the opportunities are endless in this field.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Honesty, hard work, commitment, professionalism, compassion, caring, community and connection.
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