help for you to help yourself

About Me

My Name is John Ewens, I am an Occupational Therapist and state registered to practice within the UK and France. My professional life in the UK and now here in France is about enabling people to be as independent as possible. I adhere to the code of ethics and professional conduct at all times. Any contact between you and me will be entirely confidential

Occupational Therapy views individuals as people of worth and inherently different from each other. Each of us has our own core motivations which are central to our well-being, if these are interrupted our drive towards self actualisation (our ability 'to do') is negatively affected.

If you do have concerns please act on them swiftly, do not let them lead to dysfunction. Make sure you reach your potential within-france

Many of the people I work with within France are capable, purposeful people, who with minimal assistance and encouragement are able to meet the challenges facing them within france.

Example of these include;

• Parents of children with disabilities concerned that the support within school was not sufficient to meet their child’s needs. In most cases I was able to provide the contact details to request an assessment of need and the parents, with email guidance and advice were able to follow this through to obtain a one to one school support worker.

• Parents of children with disabilities who require specialist support outside of school, physio/speech therapy.etc. I have been able to refer to the local statutory/non-statutory providers to meet this need, with the costs being met by the Securite Sociale, and with the benefit of school/health/family liaising to ensure continuity of goals

Often there are further leisure, educational and social opportunities provided by the statutory/non-statutory sector for the disabled child and their siblings/families – including swimming, ‘circus skills’ holidays. etc.

• Individuals who require disability benefits. I have arranged appointments and followed these through to successful conclusions on their behalf

• Families who have used up their financial resources and had no income. I have been able to arrange appointments with the necessary bodies to obtain ‘income support’, reductions in property taxes and opportunities to take free French lessons, job training and business start-up advice/assistance

• Medical and social health professionals who required the recognition and validation of their diploma’s so that they could practice within-france. It is usually enough that I am able to put them in touch with the registering authorities, professional colleagues and translations of the qualifying criteria (including methods of approaching the registration to ensure immediate success, without a lengthy and costly appeals process or unnecessary delays)

• Advice on adaptaptations to property to ensure it is suitable for disabled people. Research into possible funding avenues to pay for the necessary work required.

• Parents to be. I have arranged the commencement of their registering within the French healthcare system, including all benefits, which are not inconsiderable within france. Assisted in their choice of hospital and doctor – and in some cases, attended ante-natal appointments with them

• Research for people who wish to find a medical specialist. Often I will carry out the necessary research and provide the details to the client to continue. At times they request that I make the initial contact and attend the first consultation with them

It is not unusual for people facing medical assessments and intervention to be unable to absorb the information given to them, or to ask the questions relevant to their condition. As I have training and experience in medical and social aspects of illness and disability I am able to do this on their behalf. Feeding back to them later when the stress in no longer as strong, and we can plan the best way to progress matters in the way that they wish to

People I have worked with have come back to me to assist them in other areas that concern them within france, ranging from legal issues (structural defects on their property) to installation of a swimming pool, broadband connection and power cuts.

Occupational Therapists in general, and me in particular, are by nature practical and pragmatic people. At once active and creative using all the available resources to obtain the concrete results that you most want.

My professional strength lies in my ability to relate well to people and work with them to help address functional (and often emotional) difficulties that affect their daily lives.

I will employ a range of assessment tools to work with You to discover what is important

I will work with you to identify your needs within france and then provide a range of strategies and recommendations, allowing you to make an informed choice about how to resolve issues you have highlighted as important. If you have already identified the issues that are important to you, we can still work together to identify likely solutions

You will then be able to choose if you wish to have me work with you to resolve the issues, or if you would prefer to undertake this work yourself. Many of my clients (usually those with moderate/good French language skills), will try to follow my recommendations themselves, using me as a telephone/email support for particular difficulties or matters requiring clarification.

Other clients prefer that I undertake the work on their behalf, with frequent updates until matters are resolved.

Before I undertake any work I will provide you with a clear idea of how much time will be required.

If you would like a free initial consultation, please fill in the contact form below. Together we can help you Reach Your Potential Within France