London feels different at 6.15am. There’s a sense of opportunity: a new day stretching out ahead. The streets and trains are less crowded, the city feels calmer. Now I’m self employed I bounce out of bed each morning with the sunrise… just kidding! I am doing two early starts a week though, so I can offer therapy sessions before school. Surprisingly, I’ve enjoyed being up earlier than normal. I’m using the change to try out new ways of organising my day.

Managing our time

Now that I work for myself I’ve suddenly got much more time to manage. Therapy Ideas has several components: community events, workshops, private therapy, with more to come—fitting them into the week is a puzzle.

I think some of the families I see for therapy might feel the same way about their lives. While speech and language therapy is a priority for them—they’re aware that simply coming to therapy sessions once a week isn’t going to cut it—it’s still tricky to fit daily practice into their lives.

I help families figure out what works for them

I start conversations with families about practising at home: parents (and children!) have wonderful, creative ideas about how to practise regularly, they need the opportunity to explore them and test out what works. I can pass on tips and tricks (if you need picture cards don’t try to practise in the bath) and hold them accountable, by checking each week how it’s going. I try to make sure parents feel comfortable enough to tell me if there’s a problem and I remind them that as routines change and their child matures they may need to find new ways of practising, at different times of the day.

Right, so in terms of organising my week, I think I need someone to hold me accountable, any volunteers?