In February, I wrote about wanting to spend more time outside in nature, two weeks later my family and I went on holiday to Wales, and 2 months after that we moved here! We’re now based in beautiful Llanelli, and feeling grateful, particularly for our daily walks along the coast.

I’m still seeing a small number of clients in London, on a fortnightly basis. I’m in the process of finding a therapy room in West Wales and excited about seeing clients here, too.

It’s all a big change. I frequently remind myself of the quote: “the only thing constant is change” and try to embrace all the newness. I’ve been reflecting on transitions and how long change takes to feel ‘normal.’

Our baby is now 10 months old and has been completely chilled throughout the whole move, he is a great conversation starter, making friends wherever we go. Obviously it’s been more challenging for our 3 year old.

I reminded myself how supportive visuals can be for little people (and big ones!) We showed him photos of the new house, the removals van, and the train he’d be taking to Wales. He loves the beach and all the new parks. And during the difficult times I’m trying to implement the advice from a book I’m still reading: How To Talk So Little Kids Will Listen: A Survival Guide to Life with Children Ages 2-7 I don’t want to use power over my son, the book has ideas for finding courses of action that work for everyone in the family.

People ask if we’re settling in. Yes, I think so. We’re happy to be here, although it still feels a bit like being on holiday. I wonder how long it will take to develop friendships, grow my first vegetable garden and feel comfortable saying: “ta ra.” Who knows?!

When parents ask about how long the therapy process might take, “who knows?” is not what they want to hear! I try to reassure them by showing them all the changes their child is making, support them to keep practising, and encourage them to believe in the process, their child and their own skills.

I’m hoping a benefit of life in Wales will be more time to write, watch this space. And if you’re a Speech Therapist anywhere nearby, and fancy getting together, please send me an email, I’d love to hear from you.

The Dare conference is an exciting new event about learning how to make change, and I’m part of the team behind it. The presentations cover a range of themes that will help attendees learn skills and techniques for getting better outcomes. It’s aimed at digital professionals, I’m going to explain why the ideas are also valuable for people who work in health care (or social care, or charities, or anywhere with other people!)

At the conference people will be talking about:

• learning from mistakes,
• dealing with uncertainty,
• redefining success,
• responding to negative feedback,
• being honest,
• and failing to launch new projects.

When I think back to my time in the NHS, these were all huge issues for my team. Let me give you an example.

When a friend returned to work after her year off on maternity leave, she asked where we were up to in terms of the projects she’d been working on before she left. I was horrified to realise that in a year we hadn’t launched a single project. We’d got stuck – our bosses told us not to tell families about upcoming changes, we were making the same mistakes again and again, and judging our service by meaningless metrics, like number of client contacts. I’d spent my time in unproductive meetings where people responded: “no, but…” to other people’s ideas. No one was taking responsibility for change, including me.

There was also a blame culture. We didn’t respond to individual pieces of negative feedback in a thoughtful or sensitive way, so these escalated into formal complaints. Which led to everyone looking for someone else to blame instead of trying to figure out what we could learn from the situation.

If you’re facing these challenges today come to the Dare conference and learn how to get unstuck. The speakers at the Dare conference aren’t superheroes who have all the answers; they’re going to share their struggles and what they learnt along the way. I think these lessons don’t only apply to folk working in the digital community. We all need to learn how to really listen, to build on each other’s ideas and make changes, in order for our teams to be successful.

The Dare conference is taking place at the South Bank Centre in London on the 23 – 25 September. Check out who’ll be speaking and all the details here.

Are you trying to make a difference in people’s lives but experiencing barriers to making changes? This conference is for you. If you’re a health professional use the discount code ‘therapyideas’ to buy a ticket for £299 +VAT.

Help us spread the word about this event; send the conference details to everyone you think might benefit from support to make change. Tweet about it, or post a message on Facebook or LinkedIn. I hope to see you there!

I’m in a transition phase; I’ve left my NHS role and started work as an independent therapist. I find change tricky. I had an interesting conversation with Abi Roper and Tom Starr-Marshall that made me think — why is change in the NHS so difficult? And in a solution-focused kind of way, what makes particular projects successful?

Looking back, there was a pattern to my attempts at service development (try and follow along with the diagram!):

• I’d have an idea, then it felt like people were blocking me, I’d hear: “sounds great, but….” followed by a long list of why it wouldn’t work, or we couldn’t try it.
• I’d feel angry, frustrated and disappointed.
• I’d either: ignore the objectors and try the idea out, maverick style.
• Or start asking questions. This takes time and requires persistence.
• I’d try for quick wins to show the team that the idea was worth piloting.
• Then cycle through the process again, asking more questions and making more small changes, to try and show value.

Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t! So what helped?

• The 5 Whys is a useful exercise for identifying barriers and understanding what was really getting in the way,
• using “yes, and….” (rather than “no, but…”) helped me stay open to other people’s ideas and viewpoints,
• working with allies, and
• focussing on both the end goal and the details, kept me on track.

Have you managed to push new ideas through and make changes? What helped? I’d love to hear your ideas.

We’ll be exploring this issue at the Therapy Ideas Workshop on 17 May. Join us! If you’d like to discuss whether the workshop would be a good fit for you, email me.

When I remember the therapy package I offered “Freddy”, I wince. Over 18 months, I gave him four six-week blocks of therapy: 24 sessions in all. When I eventually discharged Freddy, he still couldn’t consistently produce velars—and worse, he still didn’t care. Even though his parents realised that I didn’t have a magic wand, they didn’t practise with him at home. So I didn’t achieve my objective and I wasted several precious days—days I could’ve used working with other clients. I had clients on a waiting list who were ready to engage with therapy and work towards realistic targets. What a waste.

What can I learn from this failure story? Instead of managing my caseload, monitoring my progress, and focusing on outcomes, I kept on repeating the same activity, hoping for a different outcome. That’s one way to define insanity—and yet, that’s how most of us still operate today. We need to change the way we approach therapy.

Modern SLT teams need new skills

I asked SLT managers what they’re looking for in their staff team. They told me that they need therapists who manage their own caseloads, balance a range of demands, and achieve outcomes for clients. Managers need therapists who know how to collaborate, can deal with conflict, and have a flexible mindset.

Here’s the problem: managers need staff with these skills and therapists need to learn them, but traditional training courses don’t teach them. I developed the Therapy Ideas Workshop to tackle this problem. It’s a day of practical learning, through exercises, discussions, and case studies. After attending the workshop you’ll get noticed at work—for all the right reasons!—and life as a therapist will be more satisfying.

The commissioning landscape is changing and we don’t have a map to follow, so teams need therapists who can make their own map, take personal responsibility, and challenge the old working practices. Think of this workshop as an investment in yourself. Whether you’re looking for a promotion, your first job, or more satisfaction from your current role, this workshop is for you.

The workshop is on Friday 12 October at Sadler’s Wells, London. You have a week to snap up a ticket at the early bird price of £139. Book online today. Spread the word by emailing these details to colleagues, posting about it on your Facebook wall or Tweeting. Come with a friend, and you’ll be a force to be reckoned with when you take your new ideas back to work!

Photo by KWDesigns