Who We Are

Julia Grover-Barrey OTR/L

My Story

When I was a little girl I was small and felt even smaller. I couldn’t always understand directions or visually focus. I thought I was stupid. I hated school and found ways to avoid going. I socially isolated myself and was a stressed out kid much of the time.

I discovered through trial-error and taking a nontraditional path what I needed to make my brain work better. I learned movement was my way out of the restrictions placed on my body, brain and spirit. If I moved in a certain way and with the right effort I could hear better, see better and feel better. I was able to learn more easily, I became more social and confident. My personal experience motivated me to help other people and I’ve had a long successful career doing just that.

I graduated from Dalhousie University School of Occupational Therapy in Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada in 1990. I have over 30 years of experience evaluating occupational performance and helping my students achieve better function. At this point in my career I have worked with thousands of students and I plan on working with thousands more, because I love what I do. I am a keen observer and a life long learner, currently finishing up a Masters in Applied Neuroscience at King’s College London. I bring the art and science of being a therapist together to facilitate unique, effective interventions for my students.

My family and I live in beautiful Tucson Arizona and the wild state of Maine. I enjoy a rural lifestyle with lots of animal friends.

Therapeutic Groups Co-Teachers

Nancy J. Aguinaga, Ph.D.

Dr. Nancy Aguinaga is currently the Student Services Coordinator at BASIS Oro Valley Primary. She is also the founder and administrator at a small private school for students with learning differences in Tucson. She has been a Professor at Southeast Missouri State University for 12 years prior to going back to K-12 education. She was the coordinator of the Graduate Program in Exceptional Child Education at Southeast. In addition, she developed the Autism Certificate Program for teachers and related service providers at Southeast. Prior to Southeast, she taught at the University of Southern Indiana and the University of Central Florida. She attended and worked at the Harvard Graduate School of Education on Universal Design for Learning (UDL) for three Summer Institutes, working with educators from around the world introducing UDL. She is a former teacher of high school students with varying exceptionalities, predominantly severe emotional challenges, and middle school students on the autism spectrum.

Jerry Frey

Jerry is originally from Pennsylvania where he was a career businessman before deciding to follow his passion for teaching. He has a Masters of Divinity from Princeton and a Masters in Education from the University of Arizona. Throughout his career, Jerry has been recognized for his leadership and commitment to excellence. While in business, Jerry was on several boards and was recognized as one of Pennsylvania’s 40 under 40 leaders. Recently he was recognized by the Arizona Bowl as a leading teacher. Jerry has two wonderful daughters and a beautiful granddaughter.  

Heidi Johnson

Heidi Johnson started the movement education program at the Tucson Waldorf School in 2000, where she currently teaches grades 1-8. She has trained in Spacial Dynamics and Bal-A-Vis-X, as well as holds a certification in Bothmer Gymnastics. Ms. Johnson has 10 years of expertise in Chinese Internal Martial Arts. She made the SENG Honor Roll for her outstanding educational service to gifted children. She continues to be passionate about movement and sharing her knowledge with others.

Chris Justesen

Chris Justesen attended Penn State University and earned her BA in Elementary Education, becoming certified as a K-6 teacher. After several years however, she found her true passion was in Early Childhood Education and founded an ECE school in 1996.  She has been an advocate for young children in her community ever since. Chris has always been fascinated with the concept of the mind-body connection and has intuitively created curricula that is both developmentally appropriate and utilizes best practices for brain growth and function.

Chris was awarded the ELEA National Director of the year award in 2017 and subsequently served on their Education Association’s Board for 5 years. During her years on the board, she was introduced to the concept of Universal Design for Learning, and has since transitioned her program to become a truly inclusive school where differently abled children are welcomed and given the tools they need to thrive.

Deanne Lialios

Deanne Lialios has worked in the field of education for 20 years. She holds a degree in elementary education, but has been privileged to work with children from KG through 12th grade as a classroom teacher, online teacher, student advisor and youth ministry director. She views all her roles as a wonderful opportunity to work with amazing young people. She says she doesn't have a favorite age of child, but "loves every age and stage". Deanne is married to Tom; they have four children ages 17-27 years and are excited to be expecting their first grandchild at the end of 2022. Deanne and Tom live on their urban farm with dogs, pigs and goats...all Deanne's idea, not Toms.

Cyd Ponce

Cynthia “Cyd” Ponce is an educational support teacher at Tucson Waldorf School. Her work centralizes around developmental movement and removing bodily hindrances as a means to help her students find ease and efficiency in learning. Cyd has always had an interest in working with children. In her teens and early twenties she nannied and worked as an ABA practitioner with children on the autism spectrum.  When she had her daughter at age 24 she was introduced to Waldorf Education and knew the modality of education was right for her family.  Around the same time, Cyd began a more conscious effort to be more in touch with her own physical body; and noticed how her quality of life dramatically changed. She now finds joy helping improve the quality of learning and life for her students through body integration. She works with children of all ages. 

 Erik Pool

Erik graduated from Pima Medical Institute Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA) program in 2011 then began his career working with Julia Grover in her outpatient hand therapy and neurodevelopmental practice where he became the lead pediatric interventionist. Erik loves working with pediatric populations and has worked side by side with Julia in outpatient and school-based settings. Erik has been using In-Tuned® intervention strategies in his home health practice as well working with children who have moderate to severe autism, ADHD and oppositional defiant disorder. Erik has learned that every child is able to maximize their potential and grow in confidence. Erik is a well respected instructor in the Pima Medical Institute OTA program and teaches pediatrics, human growth and development, as well as physical and neurological dysfunction. He passes down strategies he's learned to his students and enjoys watching their love and knowledge for the profession of occupational therapy grow. Erik is an avid outdoorsman, and welcomes any opportunity to hunt, fish and camp. He enjoys music and plays bass guitar in a worship team at church, and a honkey tonk blues band on the weekends. Most of all Erik enjoys a quiet day at home with his lovely family.

About In-Tuned  

Michael John Wiley

Although piano was his first musical instrument, by the time he was nine years old, he had taken to the acoustic guitar as his personal favorite and continued this passion into his college years and beyond.  After graduating with honors in 1996 from the University Of Arizona with a Bachelor of Arts in Music Composition, he became employed with the TUSD through an experimental “Imaginarium” program, designed to bring local working artists to elementary schools.  During this four-year period of service, he began work on two major personal projects: transcribing the Mayan Calendar into music and writing a comprehensive and interactive music theory manual based on his color-coded guitar, which he had developed while composing during his studies at the U of A in 1991.

Shortly after releasing his 2000 debut album OXLAHUN, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra honored Michael with a world premier performance of his composition Tzolkin in C Major (based on the sacred 260-day calendar), which took Third Prize at the prestigious Toru Takemistu Orchestral Competition in Japan, 2002.  Two years later, Michael embarked on a one-year international head-teacher position coordinated by local Tucsonan educators, at a brand new and exciting English speaking kindergarten school in Northern China.  As a head teacher, he further developed his color-coded music curriculum and upon returning home, channeled his creative efforts into Musical Colors, an educational company dedicated to music pedagogy and musical instrument appreciation using color-coded musical instrument stickers.

In 2007, Michael released his first edition Tzolkin DVD, which showcases his award winning music, presents his audio-visual calendar experience “Tzolkin Cultural Meditation”, and details his musical theories and projects to date.  It was by now that he had received a five year commission to write a requiem which has since then been produced for full orchestra, mariachi, grand choir and voice soloists and is titled Lamento De La Frontera.  Michael lives in Tucson, Arizona with his lovely wife and two young boys, and spearheaded International Premium Coffee Corporation, which worked directly with farmers to bring specialty coffee from Mexico to the US.  Michael continues to play and compose music and to inspire others to do the same for themselves in order to transform our world.

Serena Gabriel

Serena Gabriel is a multi-instrumentalist, performer, acupuncturist and sound therapist who weaves sound and movement into her sessions and creative projects to make use of their profound inspirational and healing potential.

For over 30 years, movement and sound have been and still are crucial components of Serena’s personal growth process. From an early age, she has found balance and a sense of universal connection through her dedication to various dance forms and therapeutic musical explorations, resulting in her work being richly influenced by her years of firsthand experience.

Ms. Gabriel’s work is an opportunity to journey along enchanting and rejuvenating sonic pathways guided by a combination of exotic world instruments and modern technologies. 

Sabrina Vincent

Sabrina Vincent is an illustrator animator.  She lives in Tucson, Arizona with her family. Sabrina's talent and empathy for children with sensory impairment is evident in the emotion she brings to her illustrations and animation.  Her work has strengthened the fabric of many In-Tuned(TM) projects.

Other works can be viewed at slovly.com