Philippa Sawyer

Philippa completed her Master of Speech Pathology at La Trobe University in 2012. On graduating, she worked in private hospitals in the acute and rehabilitation settings. She has worked in community health since 2019.

Philippa has experience in managing clients with:

• Aphasia
• Dysphagia (including eating & drinking with acknowledged risk)
• Cognitive-communication disorders
• Progressive neurological disorders, particularly Parkinson’s Disease
• Traumatic Brain Injury
• Stroke
• Difficulties with social communication
• Dysarthria and apraxia 
• Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) goals
• Speech and Language difficulties 

Philippa was drawn to the community setting because her ability to support clients to meet ‘real world’ communication goals in their home environment with the support of family and friends is what drew Philippa to the community setting. 

Philippa has a special interest  in Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) systems. She has a great deal of experience in providing training and mentoring to people who use AAC devices, their therapists, families and carers.  Philippa enjoys supporting her clients to use speech generating devices, communication apps and paper-based AAC to develop their social interaction skills and increase their participation in events and activities that are important to them.  

Philippa is a member of the Australian Group Supporting Communication Inclusion (AGOSCI) and has training in working with people who have a psychosocial disability. In a previous Speech Pathology role, she consulted with local health services and sports centres to improve their communication accessibility at an organisational level. 

On any given weekend, you will find Philippa swimming in the bay, watching live music or teaching her two teenage sons to cook.