Our Story

Oakland Myo and Wellness Institute was founded by Michelle Richards— a dedicated speech therapist and mother with over 22 years of experience treating speech and feeding disorders.

Michelle initially became passionate about myofunctional therapy when it answered her daughter’s 15 years of medical and dental challenges. Fueled by her own personal and professional experiences, she is determined to help her clients, other moms, and fellow clinicians through her multi-disciplinary private practice.

Following her graduate studies, Michelle worked with adults with brain injuries, then with children of all ages in the local school system. While working in the schools, she saw a disproportionate number of her students with articulation impairments struggling to learn, having behavior difficulties, and experiencing medical issues (namely asthma and allergies). Too many kids had “apraxia” diagnoses without the telltale symptom of difficulty making vowel sounds. Most puzzling: observing a 3rd grade gym class where 5 of the 6 slowest runners were students with articulation difficulties.

Nothing made sense until she became trained in orofacial myofunctional disorders (OMDs or myo). She found that all of these observations were explainable, and her clients started making incredible progress through the myo approach! Clients with over 10 years of speech-language therapy no longer needed services, and they were thriving!

Michelle’s myo training extends beyond traditional speech-language therapy to look at the function of the client’s anatomy and physiology on how they eat, breathe, speak, and sleep— and how all of that impacts their medical and dental health.

Michelle combines her passion for learning and teaching with her experience as a mom and clinician to help you truly get better. Her favorite clients are the ones who present as “complex” because she loves to show them the life-changing impact of myofunctional therapy.