Meet the Team

Hannah Zimmerman, MA, CCC-SLP

Speech-Language Pathologist & Owner

Hannah is a licensed speech-language pathologist and the founder/owner of Just Once Language & Speech Therapy, Inc. Her clinical expertise focuses on serving individuals with complex communication needs and empowering their teams and families. Just Once practices strengths-based therapy approaches. Hannah is passionate about helping individuals with communication differences lead meaningful lives through promoting self-advocacy skills and autonomous multimodal communication.

Hannah holds both a Bachelor of Arts in Speech and Hearing Sciences and a Master of Arts in Speech Pathology and Audiology from the University of Iowa. Practicing as a SLP since 2015, she has experience in a variety of settings - including in pediatric outpatient hospitals, pediatric multidisciplinary specialty clinics, private practices, nonpublic schools, public schools, in-home sessions, community-based sessions, via telehealth, and even internationally as an NDIS (in-home and community-based) provider in Australia! 

Additional skills and trainings (just to name a few): proficient in American Sign Language, Advanced Course in Clinical Thinking and Management of CAS (Childhood Apraxia of Speech) using DTTC, PEERS® for Adolescents certification, Meaningful Speech (member of the NLA Trained Clinician Registry and the NLA SLP Registry), TalkYoga, DIR Floortime, SCERTs model, PROMPT, Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing (DTTC) for CAS (Childhood Apraxia of Speech), SOS Approach to Feeding, Social Thinking, Strategies for Teaching Based on Autism Research (STAR), Language Acquisition through Motor Planning (LAMP), Project ImPACT

Just Once? What does that mean?

“My brother has complex communication needs. “Just once” is something that he always says. Usually it is when we are trying to convince him to try something new like going to a sleep away camp for the first time, playing a new game with us as a family, trying kayaking, or starting a new job training experience. And usually he says it pretty grumpily. But he always tries the new something and usually enjoys it (even if it’s just a little bit). When he says “just once,” I’ve learned that he is saying “this new thing sounds hard and maybe even scary but I will try it in my own time and space.”

As parents and service providers, isn’t that what we want for our children at the end of the day? For them to be able to communicate exactly what they are thinking (even if that’s a no), to be understood completely, and to try new experiences that could fill their life with joy and meaning?”

— Hannah

Our Values

  • Teamwork

    The therapeutic process is a collaborative, team effort. Continuous open and honest communication from all parties is the key to long-lasting growth and progress. We want you to ask questions, share feedback, share your struggles, share your hopes, and collaborate with us every step of the way!

  • Respect

    We will always respect your child in how we speak to them, speak about them, and act towards them. We presume competence and have high expectations for your child!

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    Relationships first

    Rapport and relationship building are foundational to learning. We will spend time getting to know you, your child, and what is meaningful to your family so that we can best support you on your communication journey!

  • Lifelong Learning

    Even as a professional, we don’t know everything and we don’t pretend to. But we promise to use our knowledge base, clinical reasoning skills, problem solving skills, and love of learning and doing better to work with you to provide quality care for your child that is continually evolving, just as your child is!

As Featured in:

Award and Recognition:

  • San Diego Magazine -Woman of the Year Finalist in the Healers category (2022)

  • Autism Society of San Diego - Autism Hero Award Nominee (2023)