Testimonials
"I became aware of Sophie during lockdown when looking for some fine motor skill activities for my class and upon coming across Sophie and her services, I immediately felt that she may be able to help my son who had been struggling at school and had been diagnosed with a learning difficulty. My son has been under Sophies programmes for 6 months now and the change is incredible and has been noticed not just by myself and my husband but by other family members, friends and the teachers, SENCO and support staff at his school. His work ethic has improved massively, his handwriting has gone from strength to strength as has his maths, his reading, his level of independence, his can do attitude and most importantly his self esteem and happiness. I can't recommend Sophie enough, she is kind, understanding, approachable, helpful, informative and generally brilliant."
Rebecca
"Sophie was like an Angel who walked through the door and help my Son find his path. She unlocked potential that even we were not aware of. Thanks Sophie. I would highly recommend Sophie as an OT. She is someone who has the professional understanding and is compassionate about her work with children on the spectrum. She has a soft and gentle manner which puts you at ease at once."
Farah
"I would highly recommend working with Sophie if you need to try something radically different to improve your child’s school work. I have no idea why it works... it just does. I wish I had had the same programme as a child. Trying to teach my son to read was like pulling teeth every morning. Years and years of seemingly no progress until we met Sophie. The progress he has made in a year feels magical and now he enjoys reading fluently. Thank you."
Anna
"My 9 year old son has been working with Sophie for over a year now. Mason has autism and significant motor coordination difficulties and has made so much progress this year. In the first few sessions, Sophie very quickly established a positive, trusting relationship with Mason and created an individualised program tailored to his unique needs. She understood the importance of breaking down each movement for Mason to be able to master each exercise, which, in turn, improved his independence, confidence and self esteem. As Mason continued to practise his daily exercises at home, we noticed significant progress in many areas, including everyday skills like dressing himself, throwing, catching and scooting, as well as academically. Sophie has always shown great professionalism in following up each session with detailed notes about our session, advice on the exercises planned and even videos for reference when completing the exercises at home. She is always calm and supportive to both Mason and I and we both look forward to finding out which new exercises we will be practising after each session."
Faith
"We first approached Sophie in hope that she would be able to support our teenage son who has a neurological disability, as we wanted for him to have every chance of increasing the effectiveness of his neural pathways so that he can be as successful at life as possible. Upon our first meeting with Sophie it became apparent that her treatment would be invaluable not only to our son but also our 8 yr old neuro-typical daughter. Sophie worked patiently and consistently with us for a year, to the point where both our children had made marked improvements in many areas of their lives. For our son, his inattentiveness and challenges to integrate into the classroom setting had reduced significantly, he has gone from engaging on average in 5 mainstream lessons per week, to being able to engage in mainstream lessons full-time with only the occasional lesson out, something he has never been able to achieve throughout his whole education. He is much more able to express himself and is much less reactive. His sensory processing challenges have changed, he has an increased tolerance for unfamiliar sounds, an increased tolerance for textures of clothing that previously he could not tolerate and he also is more open to trying new foods. For both of our children their attention spans have increased and their distractibility has decreased. For our daughter, confidence was a significant issue, she went from not being able to be in a room with a few 'new' people, to being able to engage in Musical Theatre lessons and performing with a large group of unknown people in one day Musical Theatre events. She also really struggled with writing, her letter formation was beautiful, but as a result of such focused attention on her letter formation she was behind her peers in the speed at which she could write. By the end of her time with Sophie, her writing formation had improved (it was already beautiful) but for us the significance was that the writing became more effortless for her, so she could then focus her thoughts on what she wanted to write and her speed has excelled to that of her peers, if not slightly more advanced. Sophie was always so professional, knowledgeable and adaptable, often our son finds it hard to engage with people he does not know, or to engage in activities that are new and different, Sophie was always gracious and patient with us and with him which made working with her so easy, I would highly recommend Sophie to any parent no matter the area of needs of the child."
Hannah
"Sophie has been working with my daughter, who has Global Developmental Delay and other associated issues, including anxiety and sensory processing disorder. Sophie has a caring, patient and sensitive approach and she quickly built up rapport and trust in the therapeutic relationship. Sophie manages to get our daughter to focus and stay motivated for the entire hour and the exercises are fun so it doesn’t feel like ‘work’, she always really enjoys and looks forward to her sessions with Sophie and is keen to carry on the exercises at home. The exercises are very carefully selected and prioritised for our daughter’s specific needs in order to move her forwards and develop essential skills. Our daughter has consequently made rapid progress since starting her sessions in terms of her development but also, her attention, ability to follow instructions, confidence and body awareness. Sophie has a wealth of knowledge and if I have any concerns about certain behaviours, she is happy to discuss and explain the possible underlying causes of it and she will often make suggestions and strategies which help us to manage and support her better. The work that Sophie has done with our daughter has been invaluable and I have written this testimonial in the hope that it will inspire other parents to get in touch with her so that more children can benefit from her expertise."
Leona
"Sophie has been amazing with my 11yo. He is dyslexic and she worked with him for nearly a year. The change in him is amazing. Sophie is so patient and kind, putting him at ease even during moments when his anxiety sky rocketed. Can't thank her enough."
Romy
"My son and I have been working with Sophie for around a year on the retained reflexes programme. Sophie assessed our son and developed a programme for us over a year that we followed every day, and in between we would visit Sophie to measure progress and integrate further exercises as needed. Sophie has been extremely professional, knowledgeable, and importantly, easy to work with. She is very cheerful and my son has really enjoyed the time he spent with Sophie - and she has been very good at explaining the exercises and motivating him to do them regularly. My son was experiencing a number of difficulties in school, and Sophie assessed he had many retained reflexes, and provided us with a baseline score for each one. After a few weeks into the programme we began to notice gradual but definite changes. Over time my son’s handwriting improved (the change in ‘neatness’ was quite dramatic). He had also never been able or shown any interest in riding bikes or scooters. Within a few months he suddenly became interested in scootering and loved it with a passion – I believe this was due to the exercises improving his balance and co-ordination. My son himself reported that he felt more able to focus in school. I would not hesitate to recommend Sophie and would be happy to provide feedback as required."
Ellen
"Sophie has helped me a lot. She is a great person."
Seff (10)
"My daughter has shown a dramatic improvement in her balance and coordination and has really loved the fun and varied sessions. She has become more confident climbing and cycling and is much more secure and happy in her movements. I would highly recommend the Movement Programme to others and want to thank Sophie for all her help."
Sarah
“Although we had some indication that our daughter was struggling in school, it wasn’t until lockdown started that we had a very clear view of what the issues were: focus, clarity of thought and confidence. We started an important and ultimately very fulfilling journey getting her the help she needed, of which Sophie was a massive part. Throughout our roughly 12 months working remotely with Sophie, it was remarkable day to day how much our daughter benefitted from the exercises she was doing: not only did we notice it, but her tutor would even comment week to week that she could tell when our daughter had been keeping up with the program and when she/we had let it slide for one reason or another. She would fidget less, be more engaged, focus better and, ultimately, learn more. We are very grateful to Sophie for her hard work and perseverance working with our daughter in unconventional circumstances."
Adelaide
"Sophie has helped me with a lot of things, including movement, circus skills and my DCD (developmental coordination disorder). She has also made me believe in myself and persevere more."
Jack (9)
"I came across Sophie at a time I wasn't looking for an OT, but a lot of what she said about making his body strong resonated with me, so I booked in for a 10 week programme. My son has high anxiety especially in new situations but Sophie was very good at putting him at ease and he soon settled in, and looked forward to his "Sophie sessions". Sophie took time to get to know him, by reviewing historical reports and talking with him in order to create the right programme. The sessions were fun, and often my son was learning through play, without even realising it. In particular there was one task which tested both his gross motor skills and executive functioning, and for me it was interesting to see how he had his own strategies for coping, for instance by pre sorting bean bags by colour or picking up the right colours in his hand, so that he only had to remember the order he threw them in. My son particularly enjoyed the yoga (even though he would never admit it), and we have continued with this at home. I would say that these sessions have helped my son with his learning behaviours, in that he is now more focussed and persists with completing a task. Sophie uses a lovely studio in central Brighton, and has a calm yet focussed style for her programme. I would have no hesitation in recommending her to any parent/carer looking for this type of support."
Nosh