Meg Scaling, Chief Executive Officer, OTR L

I absolutely love every day I get to spend working with my Galaxy Brain and Therapy Center team and our awesome family of clients. My passion for helping people developed early in life and led me to the field of occupational therapy. I also love the fact that my occupational therapy degree from Eastern Michigan University allows me to use my creativity to help people physically, cognitively, and mentally.

My early interest in pediatrics motivated me to obtain my SIPT certification to administer the Sensory Integration Praxis Test through USC/WPS. When I began to work more in the field of brain injury, I became certified in Concussion and Vestibular Rehabilitation through the American Institute of Balance. As a lifelong learner, I enjoy all types of continuing education.

Prior to establishing Galaxy Brain and Therapy Center, I worked in multiple settings including a nursing home, acute care hospital, and an outpatient therapy clinic where I specialized in drivers retraining, pediatrics, and neurological rehabilitation. While I valued the experience gained in all of those settings, I didn't enjoy working within rigid hospital parameters because so many of my clients needed real-world experiences. It wasn't long into my career before I began private practice (nearly 20 years ago) in order to treat clients in a way that would best help them. This included community-reintegration therapy that involved taking clients who suffered from PTSD, anxiety, and brain injuries back into challenging settings. When I established a therapeutic trusting relationship with clients, they would allow me to give them a “just right challenge” that would help them move forward so that they could live their best life more independently.

I learned very quickly that the world can be a very cruel and overwhelming place for people with brain injuries. That is when I decided to be a part of changing the way rehabilitation was managed. My sole proprietorship was established in 2001, followed by the LLC in 2007, when the first OT was hired to work alongside me. Ten years later, we rebranded our LLC as Galaxy Brain and Therapy Center. In 2017, we opened our comprehensive 9,600 sq. ft. clinic and expanded our services to include occupational therapy, speech therapy, and physical therapy.

My leadership roles have included building a team of amazing people that works TOGETHER to move our company forward. It takes a group of dedicated and mission-driven people to open and grow a clinic of excellence while expanding our community-based programs. I believe good people come together in their quest to help others, and we have certainly built one of the best teams in the business!

My theory is that we all should move forward and give back. That is why I serve as a board member for the nonprofit Michigan Brain Injury Provider Council (MBIPC) and take joy in helping clients and other practitioners live their best life while navigating the changes in the legislature. I currently serve on the Public Relations Committee for MBIPC and welcome any discussions and ideas you may have. I also serve on a committee called “Parents Against No-fault Insurance Chaos” (PANIC) for the Coalition Protecting Auto No-Fault (CPAN) organization. In the past, I served on the CPAN Communications Committee and helped plan the 2019 State Capitol Rally in Lansing.

As CEO of Galaxy Brain and Therapy Center, it is important that our team of employees has the necessary tools to live out our company values in all that we do. Our motto is to help everyone (employees and clients alike) live their best life. We do this by making sure we adhere to the values that matter most to Galaxy. Those values are:

• Build Trusting Relationships

• Empower Positive Change

• Move Forward/Give Back

I work hard, along with my incredible team, to use these values to make decisions on everything from what to purchase for our clinic to what programs to develop. I’m very proud to be part of such a mission-focused and value-driven company.

When I'm not at Galaxy, my interests and hobbies outside of work include spending time at the beach whenever possible. I enjoy being with friends and family, laughing a lot, and am guilty as charged for laughing at my own jokes -- typically making fun of myself! I also love to garden, landscape, hike, camp, kayak, go to church, and do just about anything outdoors. If I wasn't an OT, I would have liked being an art teacher. Children’s art is my favorite, and I have it displayed throughout my office and home.

Working at Galaxy allows me to live my best life because I’m able to surround myself with people of similar values. It makes such a difference to wake up every morning knowing that the team of people I work with and the clients we serve are extraordinary people with incredible potential to help people move forward and give back. People are the most important part of my life, and I am blessed to surround myself with the very best of them every day.