My partner has taken the kids out for a walk, so I have time to sit down and write this blog post. I’m reflecting on time. What do I want to use my time for? How can I use my time in a way that serves my purpose?

I haven’t written anything here on the blog for 4 months. I enjoy using writing as a tool for reflection, and ‘blog regularly’ features on my Goals for 2017 list. I meant to write earlier in the year about my intentions for my practice in 2017, but I didn’t make the time. I have two children, the youngest just 6 months old: quiet time to concentrate is rare. But I don’t want to think about time with a scarcity mindset, and I don’t want to live my life that way, rushing from one thing to another, frantically trying to do everything. That’s not connecting with my power.

I’m gradually returning to work, soon I’ll be working one day a week. I choose to schedule my day so that I have a long lunch break, which gives me time to go home and feed the baby. I can fit in 6 children for therapy. Writing this, I realise even my language implies scarcity: ‘fit in’ – squeeze. I want to try flipping this into a positive. How about: I get to help make a positive change in the life of 6 children and their families, what a privilege.

I read an interesting book over the holidays, which fed directly into my intentions for my work this year. Movement Matters by Katy Bowman really intrigued me. I feel like I need to read it through several times, as there is so much in there to think about. After reading it twice, I’m determined to stop asking the children (my clients and my own!) to sit down. I work with pre-schoolers, they have a whole lifetime ahead of them sitting down. All those hours, days, weeks – doing something their bodies didn’t evolve doing. And something some of my little clients find so tricky! So from now on in my sessions we’ll squat, and crawl and jump while we do therapy. And if we’re concentrating while lying on the floor, well that’s okay.

Secondly, I need to get out more. Humans are nature, yet today we perceive ourselves as separate from it. I’ve been reading about Forest School (lots of lovely child-led principles) and thinking about how to incorporate the ideas into my work. There is a huge, beautiful garden where I work, and I’m going to use it more. I bought this book about things to make or do with sticks and this one with ideas for outside activities, and I’m going to have a go. Spending time outside, being part of nature while I work and support children – now that’s serves my purpose.

A discussion with a therapist friend prompted me to think about how we measure the success of our independent therapy practices. There seems to be a tacit assumption, here in the UK, that as independent therapists we’re aiming to grow our practices, hire a team of therapists, and that more (employees and clients) is best.

My five year (and ten year!) plan doesn’t involve employing other therapists, working lots more hours or making lots more money. So what other metrics do we have for measuring progress with our businesses?

When I try and visualise a successful outcome for my business, I’m interested to notice that my mind is drawn first to how I will be feeling, when I’ve reached my business goals. I will be calm, not frazzled, I will enjoy my client work which will be challenging and rewarding, not frustrating and overwelming. I will be supported by, and support, a group of like minded colleagues.

So if someone were to record a documentary film, a day in the life of my therapy business when I’d reached my goals, what would the camera show? Me smiling and relaxed – my shoulders would be low. I’d have breakfast, and coffee, with my family, before I left for work. High energy sessions with happy children, and me feeding back to parents the progress their child was making. On my computer screen my caseload would show throughput, there would be no waiting list, as soon as I finished up with one child, a new family (who I was excited to work with) would enquire. I’d eat a healthy lunch, while reading a relevant research paper, and get home with energy to spare to play with my son before bed time.

Not quite what you tend to see written in a business plan! (Although I also have financial targets that I need to meet.) I’m interested in other ways (besides money) that we measure success, and other goals that we strive for.

Let me know how you measure your own success, what does it look like for you?

I’m organising the Therapy Ideas Live Conference on 2 November 2015 in London. Speech and language therapists will practise person-centred techniques that help clients to meet their needs.

When I started working independently I looked for ways to continue developing my skills. I hoped attending conferences would allow me to learn new skills and meet other therapists, but I couldn’t find any that seemed to meet my needs.

I was looking for something that I’d be able to apply to my work immediately. I didn’t want to focus on a particular therapy technique or listen to lots of research presentations (although these things are valuable).  I briefly considered attending the ASHA convention, but I was overwhelmed at the idea of 12,000 attendees!

Announcing my new conference!

I couldn’t find the conference I wanted, so I’m starting my own!

For four years I’ve organised Therapy Ideas Live: after work events featuring 5-minute lightning talks about speech and language therapy. During that time I’ve also helped my partner Jonathan run conferences in a different industry. Now he’s helping me put on the first Therapy Ideas Live Conference on 2 November in London.

The conference will be a positive and inspiring experience. I hope people will leave excited to try out what they’ve learnt. All speech and language therapists are welcome! There’ll be a mix of speaker presentations, interviews and workshop sessions, with time to meet new people and discuss what you’ve learnt.

Person-centred techniques help clients meet their own needs

By making our therapy more person-centred we can position communication within broader life goals and help clients to motivate themselves to make progress. We’ll see goals met faster, without relying on “one size fits all” care pathways or increased workloads. We’ll see increased autonomy in clients as they work towards their goals independently, outside the therapy room.

Come to the conference to learn how to:

• set goals together with the client that are ambitious and motivating
• build empathy with clients (and their carers) to encourage them to make choices about therapy
• take risks during therapy to encourage learning together

 Join us for an upbeat day of learning and networking

If you come to this conference you’ll be part of a small, pioneering group. Everyone will participate in the same sessions which makes it easier to chat over coffee. Our 3 speakers show joy and enthusiasm for their work; it’s going to be an upbeat day, focussing on what we can achieve with the resources we have by working together.

Register by 31 July to save £50

Register by 31 July to save £50 with our early bird rate of £150. Check out the schedule and let me know if you have any questions. I hope you can make it!

Gina Davies—who is presenting at the conference—presenting a lightning talk at one of my events.

To finish this series on Becoming Independent I’m going to write about two challenges I have: resisting doing things the way I always did them in the NHS and scheduling clients.

When I started working independently I kept asking myself: am I doing this because it meets my client’s needs or because this is the way I’ve always done it? One of the things I appreciate most about working independently is the freedom and flexibility I have to offer clients what they need.

Length of therapy blocks

Here’s an example. I started out booking clients in for 6 weeks blocks of therapy, like we used to in the NHS. Then I realised I didn’t need to be constrained by this timeframe if it wasn’t working for me. Although when I reflected on it, I realised it was working. 6 weeks is long enough to make measurable progress towards goals and allows me and the family to continuously review how we’re getting on. Parents can commit to blocks of 6 weeks; it doesn’t seem like speech therapy is something they’ll be doing forever.

In most cases, I have dropped the “consolidation period” between blocks of therapy, which we used in the NHS. Although I still use it for Parent Child Interaction Therapy because I see families benefitting from it. With direct therapy I see clients on a weekly basis for as long as they’re making progress towards their goals.

I’ve cut down on paperwork. I see parents each week and we discuss targets and progress, I don’t tend to write review reports or formal programmes, they’re not normally necessary.

Scheduling

I don’t have much advice to offer about how to arrange your therapy schedule, I wanted to flag this as one of my challenges. Parents enquiring about private therapy assume they can request an appointment time that works for them, which of course they can! However, as I only work two days a week it feels like more often than not our diaries don’t match up. Some parents are able to juggle things around; move the swimming lessons or switch the day of the week they work from home. Others aren’t, and ask me to recommend a different therapist.

I’ve learnt a few things that might be useful:

• The 8.30am slot is popular, but doesn’t suit families who have other school aged children to drop off.
• The 3.30pm and 4.30pm slots are also popular but don’t tend to be productive with nursery or reception aged children who’ve spent the day at school.
• Many parents are surprised when I suggest they could drop their child to nursery/school later or pick them up earlier to accommodate therapy sessions. Nurseries/schools respond to this in different ways, some are happy to release the child for therapy and others are not. It seems to be worth a try.
• When I had more free appointments, I tried to be strategic, e.g. offering mid morning (and sometimes hard to fill) appointments to children who did the afternoon session at nursery.

In some ways things are more straightforward now I’m close to capacity: either parents can make it work, or they can’t, and that’s okay with me. I bring up my availability early in the conversation, because if Tuesday at 2.30pm is impossible for a family, I don’t want them to feel they’ve wasted their time giving me a lot of background information.

That’s it for the Becoming Independent series! Did I miss something you’ve been wondering about? Let me know.

Photo by Cygnoir.