Ester Marcellin, M.S., OTR/L

Who you will actually be working with

Ester is the therapist your child sees. Not an aide, not whoever was free that afternoon. On a small, family owned practice that is not a marketing line, it is just how the schedule works.

She has spent over eighteen years doing pediatric occupational therapy, and she opened Planet Sensory in November 2024 to build the room she kept wishing she had access to: 2,100 square feet with slides, monkey bars, climbing walls, and a zipline running through the middle of it.

“My goal is to create a safe and engaging environment for kids to explore, improve their sensory and motor skills, and feel empowered to try hard things.”

Her training, and why it matters to you

Credentials are easy to list and hard to read. Here is what each one actually changes about your child’s sessions.

• M.S., OTR/L. A master’s degree, and a registered and licensed occupational therapist in New York. This is the license that lets her evaluate and treat your child without a referral for up to 30 days, for non-restorative services, when your child is not in acute care.
• Advanced Mentored Clinician, STAR Institute for Sensory Processing. The STAR Institute is the reference center for sensory processing work in the United States. The mentored track is supervised clinical training, not a weekend course. It is the reason the plan for a sensory-avoidant child looks nothing like the plan for a sensory-seeking one.
• Certified in Primitive Reflex Integration. Some early reflexes are supposed to switch off in infancy. When they linger, they quietly interfere with balance, handwriting, and sitting still. This certification is why the evaluation looks underneath the behaviour instead of just drilling the skill.
• Mother of two. Not a credential. It is the reason she talks to you the way she does.

If a district already told you no

Plenty of the families here arrived after a school evaluation decided their child did not qualify. That decision answers a narrow question about eligibility for school services. It is not a finding that your child is fine, and it never was.

What another therapist said

“I highly recommend Planet Sensory. My son made amazing progress working with Ms. Esther through CPSE. As a pediatric therapist myself, I appreciated her child-led approach, targeting goals through play. My only regret is not finding Planet Sensory sooner!”

Jillian B.

Come meet her

You have been the one holding all of this together, and you were right to wait until you found somewhere worth going. The first visit is a comprehensive evaluation, and you watch the whole thing on the live feed in the waiting room.

Book below, or call (516) 744-7550 and ask for Ester.