How you talk to your clients and talk about your service can make a huge impact on your administrators, parents and payer sources.
Do you say “time to go ride Goldie”?
Do the parents of your clients’ tell their children they are coming to “horseback riding”?
Do your administrators call your therapy sessions “lessons”?
All of these words impact our ability as therapists to get paid for the services we are providing!
I did it too- I told my young clients that we were going to “ride” their favorite horse. I told myself I was being age appropriate, but after closer inspection I realized I was being lazy. Clearly I wasn’t going to say “it’s time to go do therapy”, but I could certainly come up with something more accurate. And I did. I now say the following:
- time to go see Goldie
- time to play with Rex
- let’s go see Boots
- Molly is waiting for you
- get on Prince
During therapy sessions, I do not use riding terminology. I use terms/words that children will use with their friends. I use go for walk, run or fast for trot, and stand up for jumping position. I do this both for the child and for those who may be observing our session- I am working on concepts that will transfer off the horse and away from our facility. I want the language I use to be useful for the child throughout the rest of his/her day. Have you considered this when working with your own clients?
I ensure that all my emails are titled Occupational Therapy. If a child asks I tell them that I and an occupational therapist. I remind my families from day one- evaluation day- that this is not horseback riding; it is therapy, and so should you.