Testimonials – Speech Therapy Services

I cannot recommend Helen Rust highly enough. From the very beginning, she was very professional, incredibly knowledgeable and supportive throughout the entire process. Her expertise and insight gave me confidence that I was in good hands.

She took the time to fully understand my voice issues, carried out a thorough assessment and tailored the therapy specifically to my needs. I would highly recommend her to anyone experiencing voice difficulties and would not hesitate to use her services again in the future.

Ms B

“I first approached Helen for speech therapy following a mild stroke I suffered at the age of 49 which left me with speech difficulties (dysarthria) and quite an emotional toll. My job is heavily reliant on verbal communication and the issues I was having, whilst technically mild, were causing me significant problems at work, I had to limit my duties and was in the process of considering more drastic career options which would have left me having to leave a job that I really enjoyed. Also whilst in hospital following all the scans and diagnosis I was told that I had very little chance of seeing a speech therapist on the NHS any time soon.

Helen’s details were passed on to me by my health insurer AXA and she responded to my enquiry promptly and arranged to have a brief conversation on the phone. Helen put me at ease straight away on our initial chat and we agreed a plan to work together to overcome the speech problems I had that were affecting my work.

Eight sessions were covered by my insurer to work with Helen and it became clear quickly that as well and spending time on practical excersises and techniques to cope in my every day life with the speech issues I was having she also took in to account the huge amount of emotion around the stroke and my return to work and offered emotional as well as practical support to get me back to a state where I felt well enough to return to full duties at work.

Following our sessions I have now gradually returned to my previous level of work and have more confidence and the techniques to help me in my day-to-day role which is all thanks to the work Helen and I did together.

If you unfortunately find yourself in similar circumstances I highly recommend getting in touch with Helen to see if she can help.”

Mr CB

“I’m very happy to have worked with Helen on my speech problems, she gave me tailored exercises and was very encouraging while practicing the exercise. She helped me realize my tongue tie problem which we only discovered at the assessment. I appreciated her way of working, she was very empathetic and kept checking on me even outside of the sessions. As someone whose first language is Arabic, I have noticed that my speech did not only improve in English but also in my native language. ”

Miss ZM

We were warmly welcomed on our first visit by all staff. On meeting Helen things were calm and within minutes we felt Helen was totally in control and totally understood my husband’s condition and concerns.
After a few visits to Helen she confirmed there was nothing medically for my husband to worry about and we were both so glad we had gone to see Helen who is clearly extremely knowledgeable in her field of speech and language therapy : we could not have been in better hands and cannot thank her enough.

Mr and Mrs M

Our sincerest thanks will always be attributed to Helen. I trawled the internet for a SALT that specialised in the swallow following my husband’s modified neck dissection with tracheal resection. It was so difficult to find the right specialist, so when Helen said “look no further” that’s when his recovery began. Within the first session with Helen’s unwavering help and encouragement, he swallowed for the first time in 6 months! The following sessions he was encouraged and taught how to swallow safely and now five sessions on , we have a life again. I cannot recommend Helen’s expertise more highly, she really is a safe pair of hands, we will forever be grateful
D & K
From my perspective as Philip’s wife, Helen gave Philip confidence by training him to use the small amount of voice that he had. She made his sessions interesting by using different props and a little humour.
She is an excellent communicator and helped us to understand the complex medical terminology. Helen is definitely someone you would want on your side.
Philip B’s Wife
Helen was a breath of fresh air when she started to help me with speech training and swallowing exercises, when nobody else was around to help me. If anyone wishes to use her again, she’s very encouraging
Philip B
This experience is set against the background of a lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which severely restricted access to health services and therefore being able to ask questions that the NHS simply didn’t have the resource to deal with. Upon diagnosis but before surgery, I engaged Helen to both fully explain the workings of the vocal cords and also to baseline my voice and swallow. Based on this Helen taught me techniques to practice both pre and post op that were of immeasurable benefit. Post operatively, Helen introduced me to further techniques that aided the recovery of my voice, capacity to swallow and also mobility. Her calm and methodical approach gave me the confidence to stretch myself, whilst all the time emphasising the bigger picture. It is fair to say that without the professional support that Helen provided; I do not think that my vocal and swallow functions would have recovered to the degree that they have. This is all the more remarkable given that all of our sessions had to be conducted via Zoom. I would heartily recommend Helen.
Mr MW