Rachel Galvez, Willow Tree Therapy Services

02/06/2025

🌿 Welcome to the Team! 🌿

I’m so excited to share that Willow Tree Therapy Services is growing! Megan will be joining me in September as a Speech and Language Therapist who brings passion, expertise and fresh energy to the team.
Here’s a little bit about her in her own words:

"Hi, I’m Megan, a Speech and Language Therapist with a strong interest in supporting children with communication challenges to express themselves in ways that work for them.
Before qualifying, I worked for several years in supported living, where I gained hands-on experience with individuals with complex communication and learning needs. Here I began to love supporting people with additional needs and saw first-hand the value of personalised, effective approaches to communication.
During my SLT training, I gained experience working with children in a variety of settings, including special schools, where I supported a range of speech, language, and communication needs. Since qualifying, I’ve been working with individuals who have learning disabilities and/or autism across community settings. I've supported individuals who are non - or minimally-speaking, use low or high tech AAC devices, and those who need extra support with understanding language, transitions and managing change. This role has deepened my interest in neurodiversity and expanded my experience with alternative and inclusive approaches to communication.
I take a calm, person-centred approach to therapy, and I’m passionate about working collaboratively with families to create supportive environments where children can thrive and be themselves.
Outside of work, I enjoy travelling, going on hikes, doing Pilates, and spending time with family and friends—ideally somewhere cosy with good food and conversation!"

I feel incredibly lucky to have Megan on board and can’t wait for the children and families we support to meet her. Welcome to Willow Tree, Megan! 💚

29/10/2024

Congratulations Scarlett and team!! This looks like such a beautiful, calm, safe space . I’m sure everyone who visits will absolutely love it . Can’t wait to come and play myself 🌈🥰🦄

04/04/2024

Another great resource from Neurowild for parents/adults to use when talking to their non-autistic kids about their autistic sibling(s) 💕 Happy Autism Acceptance Month ☺️

26/03/2024

I love this 🥰

Kids with non preferred behaviors are NOT bad kids. We are responsible for taking the time to ask “WHY” the behaviors are occurring. This resource from neurowild is a brilliant and quick way to reframe an entire situation and support these kids appropriately in the way they need and deserve xx

Heyyyy.

I put this resource together today.

I’m hoping it will be useful in helping adults identify and appreciate all the things that may be contributing to overwhelm and diminished mental capacity in our ND kids.

Because the first thoughts when a neurodivergent kid is having a hard time should not be ‘uncooperative’, ‘non compliant’, ‘disruptive’, or ‘disobedient’.

There are so many other factors at play.
And kids do well when they can (Dr Ross Greene).
In other words, this kid is doing as well as they can with the resources that they have.

I would love for adults to assume that there is a really good reason for all behaviour. And when our kids are properly supported, their ‘challenging behaviour’ happens waaaay less frequently.

I’m hoping this resource helps.
Because we are all doing our very best.

This is free on TPT.
If you search Neurowild and filter by free, you’ll find all my free stuff. And you can set up a free, non-teacher account.

What do you think?

Em 🌈

02/02/2024

🍃Are you a professional looking for a calm, relaxed environment to work in?

🍃 Based just outside of Skirlaugh, approximately 9 miles from Hull city centre, Willow Tree Therapy Services has rooms available for hire.

🍃 The building is set within just under 5 acres of land, where staff and clients can have access to both indoor and outdoor spaces, if wanted.

🍃 There are two rooms available to hire at different days and times. There is plenty of on-site car parking, for staff and clients, a small waiting area, toilet facilities and access to a small kitchen with tea and coffee making facilities.

🍃 There is also a sensory room available to hire separately.

🍃 For long term hire, room rates are negotiable.

🍃 For more information and booking details please visit https://www.willowtreetherapyservices.co.uk/

01/02/2024

The sensory room at Willow Tree Therapy Services is open to everyone ❤️

🐾 Over half term there is more availability on booking times than usual.

🐾 Each booking costs just £10 and you get exclusive use of the room for 1 hour for you and your child/children.

🐾 In addition, on 13th, and 15th February anyone who books a session in the sensory room will also get the chance to say hello to the animals we have here and give them a treat or two.

🐾 To book your time slot please visit https://www.willowtreetherapyservices.co.uk/

06/08/2023

My best day as a speech and language therapist

As a neurodiversity affirming therapist I always presume competence as the least dangerous option for the children and young people that I see in school and in clinic. This means that I assume that the person I see in front of me has the capacity to think, learn, and understand. I will never think they are inherently incapable; rather they just need the right supports and systems put in place in order to help them succeed. Presuming competence is about giving someone a chance—and helping them to take that chance in any way you can.

Many of the children I see in clinic are non speaking or minimally speaking autistic - a client group whose intelligence and capabilities are very often underestimated. 'We' all too often link an inability to speak with an inability to think. This is wrong......and potentially very harmful.

Every week the children that visit, allow me to see some massively momentous moments for them, for me and for their families. Often these moments, these steps are so small, but nonetheless, always significant in their own journeys. Last week however, I was blessed not only to witness but to play a part in one of the best moments in my (very) long career, with a non speaking child I have been seeing for about a year now.

Every week they come into clinic and play, most of it alone, with some shared moments of connection, but not many. They babble and jargon to themselves and sometimes say a single word in isolation, but never really to communicate with me. They even sometimes say numbers whilst 'counting bears'. or buses, or bricks......counting is a favourite activity, as is posting, fixing things, exploring, climbing.

Last week was very different, as well as pointing very appropriately to the rain on the window and the car outside and saying very clearly, 'rain' and 'car', they then went on to point to the clock on my wall and say, '1, 2, 3'. I took it off the wall expecting them to possibly point to the numbers and count them, not because they knew them but because I knew they liked to count 'things'.

What they actually did was so much better. They physically took my hand and guided it through the numbers, sometimes in order, sometimes not, and they labelled them - all 10 (they never count past 10). They then matched some numbers to picture cards and then took all the numbers and put them in order on the floor, even manipulating and experimenting with the numbers 6 and 9, turning them to 'read' correctly to fit their own preferred pattern.

This may not all sound much to some, but to them, to their mum and to me, the speech therapist, this was such a mind blowing, significant occasion, that reduced the two adults in the room to happy tears. This child who barely uses words, signs or gestures, doesn't often engage, and when they do, it is for very short periods of time, was interacting with me, looking at me, engaging, connecting, showing joy in social interaction. AND they were demonstrating to me and to mum that they could recognise and label every number from one to ten AND they loved it! Showing off their talent proudly.

This is why presuming competence matters. This is why access to numbers, to letters, to pictures, to objects, to symbols, to signs and gestures - visuals of all shapes and sizes, is so vitally important for these kids. They need us to focus on their potential, acknowledge and respect all communication styles, and put appropriate strategies in place for them. They need us to believe they can shine, and they will

16/05/2023

When we moved to our smallholding nearly two years ago now, we did it so I could realise my dream of working with children AND animals together. I have always known the special power that animals have, the mutual wellbeing and benefits that both the humans and animals involved in therapy together can receive, and even though the animals we have so far are not officially working alongside me yet in therapy sessions, I have already seen the amazing effects they can have on some of my children and young people by just being involved in a walk to see them, to feed them or stroke them.
Today we welcomed two new arrivals that I have been waiting for for so long……these animals were the ones I knew I wanted way before we even moved in. I first contacted The Donkey Sanctuary over two and a half years ago and today I became the official guardian of Linda and Archie, two very special, very cuddly donkeys who I think will benefit from all the beautiful humans who come to visit my clinic just as much as they will help them in so so many ways ❤️💙