Tag Archives: London

Becoming Independent: Choosing where to work and finding a therapy room

A therapy room

I don’t have space to see clients at my flat. I needed to decide if I’d go and visit people, or rent a therapy room and have clients come to me. When I calculated how much time I’d spend travelling from family to family, I realised I’d only be able to see 4 or 5 clients in a day. It made more sense for me to rent a room, I’m able to book in between 6 and 8 clients a day.

There are of course advantages to seeing clients in their own home or educational setting. There are also advantages to seeing people in a distraction free, neutral space where both children and their parents can focus on the therapy session.

I work part time, so I looked for rooms I could rent by the hour or day. I’ve used 5 different therapy rooms and learnt what’s important to me, here are some things to consider. Continue reading →

Becoming Independent: ways for clients to contact me

Skype icon

Several therapists working in the NHS have emailed me to ask my advice about starting their own therapy business. I thought I’d share what I tell them here, in a series of posts. I started working independently about 18 months ago, I’m not claiming to have all the answers! I’ll write about what works (and doesn’t) for me, here in London; you can decide if it’s relevant to you and your situation. Continue reading →

Can I Shadow you? Pre-course clinical experience

Shadow photo

Since setting up in independent practice I’ve had almost weekly emails from people who want to train as speech and language therapists. They explain they need to gain relevant work experience and ask if they can come and shadow me during therapy sessions with my clients.  Continue reading →

Appreciating that therapy is about More Than Words

More-Than-WordsMore Than Words is a wonderful name for Hanen’s program for parents of children with autism or social communication difficulties; they’re right, it is about so much more than words. I find it tricky to answer the question: what is speech therapy? It’s so broad, and the name is a little misleading — during More Than Words I worked intensively with parents without ever targeting speech. Continue reading →