Dena Bitterman grew up in Cleveland Ohio, but moved to the Twin Cities in 2009. She received her degree from California State University, Northridge.

Dena’s interest in speech language pathology was originally sparked because she had some relatives that needed speech therapy. She thought it looked like it would be a very interesting career. Dena had always enjoyed the concept of teaching as a profession, and speech language pathology gave her an opportunity to teach one-on-one and combine teaching with her interest in science.

Dena works out of the Life Medical office in St. Louis Park and she likes the practice’s full patient approach. She appreciates that the clinic provides all the services a patient needs to get total healthcare. She treats patients of all ages.

“I love to watch someone come in with some significant speech problem or a problem swallowing and see them work towards their goal and ultimately regain the function,” says Dena. “It is very fulfilling to ultimately watch them reach their goals in terms of speech or language.”

For the most part, Dena focuses on helping patients with articulation and language; for instance helping them pronounce s’s and r’s. She also helps patients who have trouble swallowing due to stroke or damage to throat muscles. Dena works with people whose language skills have been affected due to strokes as well.

In her spare time Dena enjoys spending time with her family and likes to reading do crafting.