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.

I believe that wonderful things happen when we step outside our comfort zone and do things that scare us, when we’re brave and allow ourselves to be vulnerable.

There was recently a discussion on twitter about SLTs presenting a calm exterior even when we’re panicking or out of control on the inside. We all know this feeling! It got me thinking, we need to present ourselves in a way that inspires confidence in the people we work with. We also need to bring our vulnerability to work – and not worry about people seeing our uncertainty. It’s hard and something I continue to struggle with.

When I assess, diagnose and carry out therapy it’s detective work, it’s uncertain, I don’t know what I’ll find or how clients will respond — it’s one reason why I love it! I need to be honest with my clients and colleagues; I set hypotheses based on my clinical experience and the research evidence, then I test them. If I don’t get the results I want, I tweak, pivot, or try something else completely, it’s all part of the process.

I can’t answer questions like: how long will therapy take? (Although I wish I could!) I don’t know. And that’s okay. By modelling vulnerability I can support families. I’m asking them to try new things, it’ll be hard and there’ll be challenges. To support people through the therapy process I need to connect with them, I can’t connect with them if at the same time I’m trying to hide from them. I need to model taking off my armour (Brené Brown explores this in her wonderful book Daring Greatly) and being fully myself.

Karen McGrane wrote an amazing piece on this theme for the online magazine A List Apart. She’s  a Content Strategy Consultant so writes from a different perspective and yet it really resonates with me. She’s an inspiration. Check it out. Warning: Karen uses strong language in the article, it works. For her explanation of why, see comment 29.

I’ve been thinking about how parents see speech and language therapy because at the end of the month I’ll leave my NHS role and move into independent practice. I’m scared, and way outside of my comfort zone (with the business side of things!) I know I need to demonstrate to parents that they can trust me, I hope by being vulnerable I can also show them that we’ll be learning from each other.

For more on vulnerability check out  Brené Brown’s TEDx talk: The power of vulnerability.