Rita Gessford



Rita Gessford
I am a Certified Occupational Therapist and a Certified Lymphedema Therapist. I have 23+ years experience working with the pediatric and adult populations. I have worked in various settings (skilled care unit, acute care, NICU Level III, in patient pediatrics, and outpatient) at a local hospital in Ohio. I was the sole therapist in the NICU setting, creating a standardized level of care for nursing and occupational therapy. I developed an initial competency seminar and performed random competency assessments for the nursing staff throughout the year. I was a principal of a Vermont Oxford study where I completed the Bailey’s Standardized Test for Very Low Birth Weight (VLBW) infants. In 2005, I became a nationally certified Lymphedema therapist through LANA. I created an outpatient Lymphedema clinic for the hospital I worked at in Ohio. I also became the therapy representative on the Cancer Committee Board and worked closely with the leading physician in the sentinel node biopsy studies. In 2010, I moved to Nashville where I worked within St. Thomas Hospital. Pursuing my passion to help children, I returned to providing pediatric therapy in 2015. I became a RMTi Consultant April 7, 2020. I am also a Therapeutic Listening Therapist as of spring of 2021. I feel my growing expertise in primitive reflex integration and therapeutic listening have been an asset for all my clients for their overall well-being, growth, development.
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