Meet Bonnie Perry | Myofunctional Therapist & Speech Language Pathologist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Bonnie Perry and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Bonnie, what are you inspired by?
I always felt I had difficulty with my own speech. It felt like it was difficult to coordinate my thoughts from my brain, through my mouth, to form the words I needed. I pursued a Masters in Speech Language Pathology with both hope and fear that my own deficits might be exposed. It wasn’t until my last year of Graduate school, studying for my final exams, that it all clicked. I had a Myofunctional Disorder myself! I realized I had been breathing through my mouth my entire life, causing my facial development to grow laterally, making it difficult to close my lips at all by adulthood. After years in braces, I was discouraged when I watched my teeth rapidly grow a wide gap between them. This made my mouth look like it was open when it was shut, and I had to eat pizza, sandwiches and tacos with a fork, just because they would slip out of my teeth’s grasp! I had developed a “lisp”, or was allowing air out when I said the /s/ sound. It was not a good look as a new Speech Pathologist. That’s when I found my own Myofunctional Therapist, made the investment of time and money into therapy exercises, and tackled lifelong habits of misuse of my tongue. As a practiced Speech Pathologist today, I invested in becoming trained in the practice myself so I can transform lives with Myofunctional Therapy. Thus today, I have my own private practice – Perry Myofunctional Therapy PLLC.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Perry Myofunctional Therapy PLLC is formed with the intention to bring relief to individuals all over Texas, just as Myofunctional Therapy did for myself. I am a Speech Language Pathologist first and foremost. I love working with children from toddler to teen. I can help in so many ways in this career whether it be with them saying their first word, overcoming a stutter, feeding challenges, or turning a “w” to an “r”. I love adults as well! Whether it be a post-stroke inability to get words from the brain through the mouth cohesively, or difficulty in swallowing liquids. I still love working with all areas of Speech Pathology. Myofunctional Therapy combines all of my passions. I can work with individuals age 3 to age 100. Everyone can benefit from intervention in tongue misuse. I can access a much wider span of individuals with the ability to do virtual Teletherapy sessions instructing the exercises. Most of all, I can bring the relief that I found through retraining my own tongue, in hopes that others will experience the lifelong benefits of Myofunctional Therapy on their health. The exercises and retraining is not always easy. I am humbled each day as I find myself slacking in how I eat or breathe. But awareness and diligence are key in restoring the intended function of the tongue.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I feel like I know DFW well, but each week I feel like it completely transforms with new hot places or things to do. There’s so much to do! Dallas wise: It would revolve around food of course! Brunch at Hudson House, a Bike ride around White Rock Lake, coffee at LaLaLand, stroll around NorthPark, pick up a snack at Bird Bakery in Highland Park Village, Dinner at Rise no1, and maybe a drink over on Lower Greenville.
Suburbia: Take the TexRail or TRE to Grapevine and get some wine at a downtown winery, food in Harvest Hall, maybe go to Southlake for some retailing with dinner at Brio.
Fort Worth: Eats – Press Cafe, the Bearded Lady, or CoCo Shrimp. Sweets – Curly’s or Morgan’s ice cream, Dusty Biscuits. Coffee – Summer Moon, Fort Worth Coffee Co., Drinks – Blackland Distillery, the Holly Winery, Nickel City. Activities – Trinity River trail, University Village shopping, brews at Martin House.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My awareness of the world of Myofunctional Therapy all began by a Dentist in Tyler, Texas. He is a dear family friend and my Mother encouraged me to go see him for an evaluation based on all of my concerns. I had been recommended jaw surgery previously and that seemed to be a pretty drastic measure to take just because I had a gap in my teeth. Months of a liquid diet and facial reconstruction? No thanks! Dr. Tad Morgan evaluated and educated me in Myofunctional therapy. Everything lined up. My tongue was pushing forward against my teeth when I drank and ate, and throughout the day because of stress. I was breathing through my mouth because it was open at all times and my tongue was low, rather than at the roof of the mouth as it should be. Therefore, I was over breathing, and getting excess Nitrous Oxide. This caused increased anxiety, stimulation, ADHD like symptoms, poor sleep, earaches, tension of neck, shoulder, and facial muscles, and symptoms of TMJ. I could not swallow a sip of water without pushing my tongue forward or engaging all of the muscles in my neck. I never even realized the dangerous effects of mouth breathing or a lowered tongue until I looked at the research. Poor breathing and oral musculature tone impacts the body so much. I encourage everyone to look into the dangerous effects of high blood pressure, strokes, and health decline that poor airway health can bring. I began Myofunctional Therapy through one of his clinicians and after about 6 months, I saw an extreme difference in my life – and I avoided jaw surgery! He encouraged me from then on to be trained in the practice myself and get involved in the world of Myo. A few years later, I was able to do just that.

Instagram: @perrymyofunctionaltherapy

Other: email: bonnie.ann.perry@gmail.com