Quick Summary: Discover how one veteran therapist transitioned to a literacy-based approach, utilizing a reliable speech therapy planning system to prep an entire month of sessions in just one sitting.
I still remember watching it happen.
It was my master’s program. My roommate’s supervisor was running a full therapy session built around one picture book. Everything (the vocabulary, the grammar targets, the comprehension work) came from one book.
I stood there thinking… How does she do that?
Nobody had taught me a framework like that. I didn’t know where to start. And honestly, I walked away from that experience thinking narrative-based therapy for SLPs was something other therapists did. Not me.
Sound familiar?
Why Narrative-Based Therapy Feels So Hard to Start
There’s a reason so many SLPs avoid this approach, even when they know it works.
Grad school trains us to think in trials and data points. Trial, data, trial, data. That’s the model we learn. And it works, but it’s not the whole picture. What’s often missing is the teaching part: the framework, the visuals, and the intentional sequence of moving a student from exposure to a concept, through guided practice, toward independence.
Narrative therapy gives you all of that. But if no one ever modeled it for you, it can feel completely out of reach. That’s not a personal failure. That’s a gap in training. And it’s one a lot of SLPs are quietly carrying.
Finding a Speech Therapy Planning System That Clicked
When I joined SLP Now, I wasn’t looking for a quick fix. I was looking for the framework I never got.
I went through the Academy training. I read the guides. I watched a few videos. And slowly, the whole approach started to make sense. Not in a “now I know the theory” way, but in a “now I know how to actually do this on a Tuesday morning with a group of four kids and 25 minutes” way.
That’s the kind of learning that sticks.
The first time I tried it, I started small. One group. One book. One month. I told myself I’d just pilot this speech therapy planning system and see what happened. At the end of that month, I thought: why would I ever go back?
My Workflow for Monthly Therapy Planning (SLP Edition)
Here is what my monthly therapy planning SLP routine actually looks like now. It all happens in one sitting:
- Select the Books: At the start of each month, I sit down with my schedule and pick one book per group tier. One book for my younger students, one for my older ones. That’s it.
- Batch the Materials: I look at what I’ll need for the month—graphic organizers, vocabulary activities, comprehension questions, and book guides.
- Print and Prep: I count my students, set the copies on the printer, and hit print. All at once. Done.
I don’t have to think about planning again until next month. No digging through folders. No searching for that one worksheet I swore I saved. No Sunday night scramble. Just one sitting at the start of the month, and I’m ready. If you’re spending multiple hours every week on planning, this is the shift that makes the difference.
SLP Therapy Planning Tips: Getting Started Without the Overwhelm
If this approach is new to you, here are the best SLP therapy planning tips I can offer to help you ease in:
- Start with one group: Pick the group you feel most comfortable with.
- Commit to one book: Try it for a month—start to finish—and go through the whole framework.
- Give yourself grace: You don’t have to do it perfectly. The first time through, it’s going to feel a little awkward because you’re learning a new way of thinking about therapy.
By the second month, it starts to feel more natural. By the third, you’re anticipating the moves. You know what questions to ask, which steps to linger on, and when to be flexible.
Getting some training before you jump in helps too. If you can watch someone walk through a full unit with a book—explaining what they’re doing at each stage and why—that context makes everything easier. If you’re on SLP Now, the Academy training is right there. It’s not a six-hour course you’ll never finish. It’s clear, practical, and built around what actually happens in real school therapy rooms.
Becoming a Literacy-Based Therapy School SLP
My therapy looks different now. And not just because the materials are better. The biggest shift in becoming a literacy-based therapy school SLP is that I actually have a teaching phase.
Before, I was jumping straight into practice and data collection. But students need explicit instruction first. They need to see the skill demonstrated, hear the language modeled, and understand what you’re asking them to do. Now, I pull out the visual at the start of a session. We talk through the concept. We practice together. I may not even take data that day.
And I know—because I’ve read the research summaries in SLP Now—that the strategies I’m using are backed by evidence. That knowing changes things.
When my administrator walks in unannounced, I’m not worried. I’m not scrambling to explain what I’m doing or why. I’m already doing what good therapy looks like. Confidence like that doesn’t come from having the most materials. It comes from having a framework you trust.
One More Thing Worth Mentioning
A few years ago, I started taking undergrad and CF interns to supervise. One of the first things I do with every single one of them? I have them go through the same SLP Now training I used to learn narrative therapy.
Because I don’t want them to be standing at a whiteboard years from now, watching someone else do something they’ve never been taught, wondering how. I want them to walk in already knowing.
That’s what a good framework does. It doesn’t just change your practice. It changes what you pass on.
Ready to Try It?
If therapy planning is taking up evenings and weekends you’d rather have back, literacy-based therapy might be the shift you’re looking for. You don’t have to figure out the framework from scratch.
SLP Now’s Academy training, therapy plans, and full unit library are all there when you’re ready. Try it free for 14 days! No credit card required.
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