TCS: Neurodiversity-Affirming Occupational and Speech Therapy

Empowering Neurodivergent and Medically Complex Clients in Central Pennsylvania

At TCS, we do therapy differently. Founded and led by an autistic occupational therapist, we are the only Harrisburg-area practice with lived-experience leadership at every level. Our mission is simple: to provide accessible, trauma-informed occupational, speech, and feeding therapy for children and adults, centered around neurodiversity-affirming care, autonomy, and genuine connection. We blend clinical expertise with personal experience, ensuring every client feels seen, respected, and empowered.

Why Families and Adults Choose TCS

Lived-Experience Leadership: Our founder and Clinical Director, Andrea, brings firsthand understanding of neurodivergence and disability, shaping every aspect of our care. Our diverse Board of Directors helps us stay deeply connected to the real needs and voices of our community.
Inclusive & Affirming: We prioritize consent, autonomy, and felt safety, creating a welcoming environment for clients of all ages and abilities.
Expertise in Complex Needs: Our team specializes in supporting clients with autism, ADHD, cerebral palsy, Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS), Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), chronic pain, and feeding challenges, among other conditions. Our speech therapists have extensive training and experience in gestalt language processing and a variety of AAC, including low tech and high tech options.
Accessible for All: We proudly accept Medical Assistance (Medicaid) and offer telehealth statewide in Pennsylvania, ensuring therapy is within reach for everyone. We also provide language and sign language interpretation services.
Community-Focused: As a nonprofit, every dollar goes back into our mission: expanding access, supporting families, and building a more inclusive community.

Our Facility

A completely accessible facility just off of Carlisle Pike in Camp Hill, our comfortable environment features numerous private treatment spaces to suit a variety of needs. Children and adults alike are put at ease by our welcoming environment, which feels like a home.

What Makes TCS Unique?

Therapy for the Whole Family: We offer pediatric and adult therapy, inclusive preschool, therapeutic groups, and parent coaching – all under one roof.
Trauma-Informed, Neurodiversity-Affirming Approach: Our care is never one-size-fits-all. We follow the latest research and best practices in trauma-informed and neuroaffirming therapy, ensuring every client feels safe, respected, and understood.
Community-minded: Everyone deserves access to high quality healthcare. In addition to making our therapy services as accessible as possible, we have free video resources on a variety of topics and we often provide free programs for our community.

Our Occupational Therapists

Andrea Gibson, MS, OTR/L Clinical Director

Andrea is passionate about helping people of all ages discover their strengths and reach their goals, on their own terms. As an autistic adult with lived experience of hEDS, POTS, and MCAS, she understands firsthand the challenges and joys of navigating neurodivergence and complex medical needs. This perspective deeply informs her work, shaping a practice that is both compassionate and practical.

Andrea specializes in supporting neurodivergent children and adults, particularly those with feeding challenges, hypermobility, and dysautonomia. She combines her personal insights with advanced clinical training, including EDS ECHO coursework, extensive training in responsive feeding approaches, and certification in Pain Neuroscience Education (PNE), to offer care that is both evidence-based and empathetic.

Her approach centers on nervous system regulation and creating a sense of safety, always prioritizing what is meaningful to each client. Andrea’s goal is to empower every person she works with to live a life of their own choosing through valuing autonomy, comfort, and possibility.

Andrea is a Pennsylvania-licensed, nationally certified occupational therapist. She holds an M.S. in Occupational Therapy from Misericordia University, an M.A. in International Development and Social Change from Clark University, and a B.S. in Biology from Houghton College. She is a member of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) and has presented at AOTA’s national conference. She is also a member of the Pennsylvania Occupational Therapy Association (POTA).

When she’s not working, Andrea enjoys playing piano or guitar and spending time with her horse—activities she treasures whenever her symptoms allow.

Emma Esteves, MS, OTR/L

Emma’s passion has always been working with children. She has worked across settings with children of all ages from infants to young adults. Her passion is helping kids to engage and participate in all areas of life. Throughout the treatment process Emma uses a child-led play centered approach, helping a child gain skills while having fun. She also believes that parent/caregiver education and coaching are essential to the therapy process to empower families to help their child grow and develop.

Emma is a Pennsylvania licensed occupational therapist and is certified nationally by NBCOT. Emma attended Elizabethtown College and received her undergraduate degree in Health and Occupation and a Master’s in Occupational Therapy.

Brenna Shields, MS, OTR/L

Brenna enjoys working with children of all ages. It’s her goal to help every child feel successful through her use of child-led play-based interventions. She believes parents and caregivers are an integral part of the therapy process and encourages their involvement in sessions so they can be empowered to help their children engage in everyday activities and meaningful activities. She is a Pennsylvania licensed occupational therapist and is certified nationally by NBCOT. Brenna attended Misericordia University where she received her undergraduate degree in Health Sciences and a Master’s in Occupational Therapy.

Our Speech-Language Pathologists

Valerie Chapman-Jones, MS, CCC-SLP

In her 20+ year career as a speech-language pathologist, Valerie has primarily worked in school-based settings but also has experience in early intervention. Her passion is Augmentative-Alternative Communication (AAC). Valerie has extensive experience with exploring, trialing, and implenting no-, light-, and high-tech AAC supports with children with a range of disabilities including cerebral palsy, genetic syndromes, autism, and apraxia of speech. Valerie’s goal is to help children with complex communication needs explore and find an AAC system that helps them become functional, independent communicators. Valerie believes that learning an AAC language system should be fun, not forced, and that speech therapy to teach AAC should focus on encouraging communication through novel, active language experiences. She also recognizes the critical role families play in trialing and implementing AAC to support their children.

Valerie is a Pennsylvania-licensed speech-language pathologist, has an Instructional Level II teaching certificate in speech and language, and maintains a Certificate of Clinical Competence from the American Speech-Language Hearing Association. Valerie graduated summa cum laude from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor’s of Science in Education majoring in speech-language pathology. She received her Master’s degree in speech-language pathology from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. Valerie recently earned a Master’s level Assistive Technology certificate from Bowling Green State University. She is currently pursuing a second Master’s degree, a Master’s degree in Special Education with a focus in assistive technology, also from Bowling Green State University.

Elizabeth Harding, MS, CCC-SLP

Elizabeth has been working with toddlers through college age students for over 3 decades. She has provided therapy in a variety of settings in Alaska and Pennsylvania. Her goal is to discover your family’s interests and strengths in order to provide a creative, fun, responsive environment for everyone involved in your child’s therapy.

Areas of specialization and special interest include play therapy for children with autism, genetic disorders, and developmental delays and disorders. She has extensive experience in treating articulation, phonological processing disorders, apraxia, language, and stuttering.

Elizabeth is a Pennsylvania licensed speech-language pathologist and holds a Certificate of Clinical Competence from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. She earned her BS in Communication Disorders and her MS in Speech-Language Pathology from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania.

Emily Harvey, MS, CCC-SLP

Emily enjoys working with children and uses strengths-based approach in her speech/language therapy. She employs child-led play-based therapy methods and also incorporates her client’s interests. She believes speech/language therapy should be functional and focus on improving the child’s quality of life, through all stages – from giving them a form of communication for the first time through helping them be self-determined and work on goals to improve their self-confidence related to their communication. As an autistic adult herself, her treatment approaches are informed by her perspective as a member of the autistic community, the neurodiversity movement, and positive autistic identity.

She is strong advocate for neurodiversity-affirming speech/language therapy, and as such is well-informed in the use of neurodiversity-aligned practices with autistic clients, including presuming competence, valuing all forms of communication, empowering clients, and encouraging self-advocacy and self-determination. She is a level 3 Natural Language Acquisition Practitioner, meaning she is highly knowledgeable about gestalt language processing. She is trained in and serves as an advisory board member for the online training of the Neuro-Strengths Based Supports for Autism (NSBSA) Framework. She is also trained in Collaborative & Proactive Solutions, Story Grammar Marker, play-based speech therapy, and Dynamic Temporal & Tactile Cueing (DTTC).

Emily is a Pennsylvania licensed speech/language pathologist and holds a Certificate of Clinical Competence from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. She earned a B.S. in Communication Disorders along with a minor in Spanish from California University of Pennsylvania and a M.S. in Communication Sciences and Disorders from Pennsylvania State University. She also holds a graduate certificate of advanced study in Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Our Thrive Preschool Teacher

Amanda Welty

Amanda is a Pennsylvania Level II certified teacher with experience teaching ages 0-16 in public school, cyber, and childcare settings. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from Penn State and a Masters of Science in Education from Wilkes University. She has over 15 years of experience working with neurodivergent and disabled children, including her own son.

Amanda believes in a whole-child, play-based, and child-centered approach to education where all types of play and all forms of communication are valued. She enjoys incorporating children’s special interests into their learning experiences, along with music, movement, and sensory play. She also believes in the importance of partnering with parents/caregivers as a team to best support each child’s individual development and well-being. She is dedicated to ongoing professional development, and her professional interests include autism and ADHD, universal design, AAC, and trauma-informed teaching practices.

Amanda lives in Mechanicsburg with her husband, 6-year-old son, and rescue dog. In her free time she enjoys arts and crafts, thrift shopping, baking, birdwatching, yoga, the beach, and spending time with her family.