Helen put me at ease straight away. She took into account the huge amount of emotion around the stroke and offered emotional as well as practical support.

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 as spending time on practical exercises and techniques to cope in my every day life with the speech issues I was having, she also took into 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.