Speaking on The Leaders Council Podcast, occupational therapist Nerys Hughes, founder of children’s therapy clinic Whole Child Therapy, shares the compelling story of how she overcame her limitations to lead her own social enterprise and of her mission today to encourage the next generation to believe that they too can fulfil their aspirations and dreams in spite of setbacks that they cannot control.
Nerys Hughes’ journey to becoming an advanced practitioner paediatric occupational therapist with her own clinic is anything but conventional. Being dyslexic and dyspraxic from an early age, her conditions took their toll during her years in education. She faced expulsion from mainstream school and although able to read, she could not write. Being told, therefore, that she would not be able to accomplish certain things in life - including her childhood dream of becoming a doctor - was something to which she became accustomed. After managing to see through her secondary education through theatre teaching, Nerys found herself working in the insurance industry. It was here that Nerys’ life would begin to turn around when her employer at the time, Churchill Insurance, recognised her potential and opted to invest in her personal and professional development by teaching her to read.
“I think my journey was a wibbly, wobbly one!” Nerys recalled candidly. “I worked in quite a lot of industries before the Whole Child Therapy days. Originally, I actually trained as an actress and singer and worked in theatre, and I did all of my secondary education through theatre because my dyslexia really affected me at school. I wanted to go into medicine and be a doctor when I was a little girl, but I just didn’t believe I could be an academic.
“After that, I kind of just landed in the insurance sector because it paid the bills, and I could speak on the phone really well and I was good at selling. I was really lucky working at Churchill Insurance because at the time they put quite a lot of focus on professional development as an employer. So, I worked my way up the sales line of command and then they offered to help me become an underwriter. As I started the training, I realised I was doing a lot of heavy law and mathematics content as well as having learnt to read, which made me realise I didn’t want to work in that industry anymore and instead go and work in medicine like I’d always dreamed of.”
Even now, Nerys does not take for granted how having an employer that supported her, showed belief in her and was willing to support her personal and professional development played a critical role in helping her on the road to working in her industry of choice and leading her own clinic.
“The confidence I gained from my company supporting me and pushing me forward educationally meant that I was able to pull myself back into healthcare and fulfil my childhood ambition,” she explained.
“A lot of the jobs I had before becoming a therapist were really just places where I landed because I needed to have a job and pay the bills. Healthcare is a love and a passion and a drive, however, and I think that’s why I decided to run my own business, because I had that drive to run and perform and give back to my community and therapy is borne from that desire to serve.”
A fully qualified advanced practitioner paediatric occupational therapist today, Nerys established her own clinic, Whole Child Therapy, in 2013 and balanced her newfound responsibilities with looking after her then nine-month-old daughter. Founded to bridge the gap between statutory and private services, over the previous nine years Nerys has grown her social enterprise into a thriving multi-disciplinary children's therapy clinic taking a holistic approach to fulfilling the needs of those it cares for and their families.
Nerys said: “Today we run a multidisciplinary children's therapy service nationally and before Covid, we even did this internationally. We also run an accredited training arm for education and healthcare professionals and for parents, and people working with children and young people.”
In her day-to-day working life, Nerys draws inspiration and learnings from the people she keeps close, building trust and a culture of supporting one another and genuinely championing one another providing sounding boards and guidance. The atypicality of the journey she has been on to get to this stage is something she is acutely aware of, but she believes that it can especially help children and young people by teaching them that they can achieve their aspirations and dreams despite the limitations they may have.
“When I underwent my dyslexia assessment at university, the assessor said that I was tenacity in its raw form. I was also told that I didn't have the sort of the neuro capacity to learn to read and write or to do the things that I was actually doing at university at that time. That tenacity, grit, drive and will are probably the qualities that mean that I can be a business owner and a CEO.
“People tell me my story is inspiring for achieving what I was told I never could achieve, but for me I’ve just been in it and lived it and done the best I can. It’s just me. I know that I am very lucky to have been continually inspired and continually supported by others, to get to where I am. And I think that is the driving force of Whole Child Therapy: we really do believe that every child can succeed and that if every child has the right advocacy, the right person behind them, they can be whatever they want to be and get to where they want to be.
“I lived through a perpetual cycle of not believing I could do things or being told that I couldn’t, and then I listened to the voices that told me I could be what I wanted to be and those helping hands got me there. I think in that sense Whole Child Therapy has grown into being a helping hand for other children and young people to help them be able to realise their own aspirations and dreams.”
Photo by Jonathan Farber on Unsplash
