Capability Practice
Keep doing what matters
Specialist, home-based Occupational Therapy helping you maintain your independence, confidence and capability in everyday life.
Whether you're looking for support for yourself or someone you care about, we start with what matters to you and build from there.
HCPC Registered Occupational Therapist · Member of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists · Home-Based
THE PHILOSOPHY BEHIND CAPABILITY PRACTICE
Functional Longevity
Living longer matters. Being able to live matters too.
At Capability Practice, we specialise in Functional Longevity
Functional Longevity is about protecting something easy to take for granted until it begins to change:
your ability to participate in your own life.
Sometimes that means the things we associate with living well walking to the shops, tending to the garden, meeting a friend for coffee, playing with your grandchildren or getting out into your community.
And sometimes it's much more fundamental.
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Getting yourself out of bed in the morning.
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Getting to the toilet when you need to.
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Washing and dressing yourself.
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Making something to eat.
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Moving safely around your own home.
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Getting through your front door and out into the world.
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Going up and down the stairs.
These aren't small things.
They are part of your privacy, choice, identity and dignity.
And when something that has always been ordinary suddenly becomes difficult, it can feel as though your world is getting smaller or as though the only option is to accept that this is simply what happens as you get older.
We don't believe that's always the end of the conversation.
At Capability Practice, Functional Longevity means looking carefully at what matters to you, what has changed, what's getting in the way and what options are still available.
Sometimes we can build strength or physical capability.
Sometimes we can change the environment.
Sometimes the right equipment can make something safer or more manageable.
Sometimes we can find another way of doing an activity.
Sometimes the right support can help you continue doing more for yourself.
And sometimes maintaining what you can do now is an important outcome in itself.
The answer will not be the same for everyone. And we won't pretend that every difficulty can be reversed.
But where there are opportunities to preserve capability, increase choice or make everyday life work better, we want to find them.
Because independence doesn't have to mean doing everything without help.
It means having as much choice and control over your own life as possible.
Functional Longevity is about protecting that your capability, your choices, your participation and your dignity so that as life changes, you can continue to live as much of your life on your terms as possible.
WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE LIFE TO KEEP LOOKING LIKE?
There isn't one definition of independence and there isn't one version of a life well lived.
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For one person, independence might mean doing as much as possible for themselves.
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For another, it might mean accepting some help but still deciding how they spend their day, where they go, what they do and what remains theirs to choose. So rather than beginning with what you can't do, we begin somewhere different.
What matters to you?
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What parts of your life feel most important to hold on to?
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What would you like to continue doing for yourself?
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Is there something you've stopped doing that you would love to return to?
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Where would you like to feel more confident?
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What are you worried might become harder?
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And if things have already changed, what would you like to have more choice or control over again?
These aren't just questions about what you can physically do. They're questions about how you want to live. Because before we decide what needs to change, we need to understand what we're trying to protect, preserve or make possible. That's where we start.
YOU DON'T HAVE TO WAIT FOR A CRISIS
Often, changes in everyday life don't happen all at once.They begin quietly.
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You take a little longer to do something that used to feel automatic.
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You start avoiding something because it doesn't feel as easy or as safe as it once did.
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You find yourself relying on someone else a little more.
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You stop going somewhere, doing something, or moving in a certain way and gradually adjust your life around it.
Sometimes those changes are simply part of a new reality.But sometimes, there is something we can do.
The difficulty is that support is often sought only once something has become impossible, someone has fallen, confidence has been lost, or a family is already struggling to manage.
At Capability Practice, we believe there can be value in asking questions earlier.
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What's changing?
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Why might it be changing?
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What is it beginning to affect?
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And what options do we have now?
You don't need to be in crisis to deserve support.
EARLIER SUPPORT. MORE OPTIONS.
HOW WE CAN HELP
The answer might be building strength or balance.
It might be changing the environment, introducing equipment, adapting how something is done, rebuilding confidence through graded activity, or putting the right support in place. And sometimes the goal isn't to improve something at all. Sometimes preserving the capability you have is a meaningful outcome.
We can't promise that every difficulty can be prevented, reversed or improved.
But understanding what's happening can help us identify what may be possible, what could make a difference and where the right support could help.
Occupational Therapy for everyday life.
Capability Practice provides personalised, home-based Occupational Therapy for people experiencing changes in how they manage everyday life whether there is one particular difficulty to solve or several things beginning to change at once.
Functional Assessment
Sometimes the first thing you need is a clearer understanding of what's happening.
A Functional Assessment looks at how you're managing in everyday life, what has changed and the factors that may be contributing to the difficulty.
Depending on what's relevant to you, this may include your movement and physical ability, cognition, confidence, routines, environment and the way you're managing everyday activities.
The aim is to give you a clearer picture of what's affecting your capability and what options may be available.
Equipment & Home Solutions
Sometimes a relatively small change can make a meaningful difference.
We can look at how your home environment is affecting the way you manage and explore practical solutions that may make everyday activities safer, easier or more manageable while preserving as much independence as possible.
That may include equipment, adaptations, changes to the environment or finding a different way to approach an activity.
Where equipment is appropriate, we can recommend suitable options based on you, your home and how you actually live.
There may be more than one way forward.
Care, Family & Support Guidance
Needing support doesn't mean giving up independence.
Sometimes the challenge is understanding what help is actually needed, where it would make the greatest difference and how to support someone without unnecessarily taking over what they can still do for themselves.
We can help you and the people around you better understand your abilities, difficulties and support needs, with practical guidance for family members or carers where appropriate.
The goal is to find a balance between support, safety, participation and choice.
OUR SIGNATURE 12-WEEK SERVICE
Functional Longevity
When one solution isn't enough
Sometimes the difficulty isn't one thing.
Strength may have changed. Confidence may have reduced. Everyday activities may have become harder. The home environment may be creating additional barriers.
And addressing only one part of the picture may not be enough.
Functional Longevity is our comprehensive 12-week intervention for people who would benefit from ongoing support to build, preserve or adapt their capability.
It brings together Occupational Therapy with personalised therapeutic exercise where appropriate, allowing us to work on both how you need and want to function in everyday life and the physical capability that can help make that possible.
Your intervention is built around what matters to you and may include work on strength, balance, mobility, everyday activities, confidence, your environment, practical strategies, equipment and family or carer guidance.
All within the place where that capability actually needs to work:
your life, your routines and your home.
A DISTINCTIVE APPROACH
Build capability. Adapt where needed.
At Capability Practice, we don't only ask:
“How can we make this activity easier?”
We also ask:
“Can we increase your capability to do it?”
As an Occupational Therapist, I assess how you function in everyday life not in theory, but in the movements and activities your day actually requires.
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Perhaps getting into the shower has become difficult because the step now challenges your balance.
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Perhaps you're delaying going to the toilet because the stairs have become harder.
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Perhaps carrying things feels less secure.
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Or getting out of bed now takes considerably more effort because one side has become weaker.
These everyday difficulties give us information.
They help us understand where function is breaking down and what may be contributing to it.
And that's where my additional qualification as a Personal Trainer becomes particularly valuable.
Strength is an intervention.
Where reduced strength or physical capacity is contributing to the difficulty, we can target it with personalised, progressive strength training working on the physical capability required for the activities that matter to you.
Not strength for the sake of exercise.
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Strength for standing.
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Strength for climbing.
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Strength for carrying.
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Strength for getting out of bed.
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Strength for life.
At the same time, we can adapt the activity, recommend equipment, change the environment or introduce support where that is the right thing to do.
We meet you where you are while exploring what we can build from there.
Because sometimes we need to make life fit your current capability.
And sometimes, we have an opportunity to build more capability.
Adapt where needed. Build where possible.
WHAT TO EXPECT
01-Let's Talk
A complimentary initial conversation
We'll have a brief conversation about what's happening, what you are hoping for and whether Capability Practice is the right service for you.
There is no obligation to continue.
Support built around your life.
02- Your Assessment
Understanding you in your own environment
If we decide to move forward, you will get a home visit.
Your assessment is shaped around your individual situation looking at how you're managing everyday life, what matters to you, what's becoming difficult and the factors that may be contributing.
03 -Your Recommendations
Making sense of what we've found
We'll explain what we've identified and discuss the options available to you.
That may include practical strategies, equipment or environmental changes, personalised strength or exercise intervention, further Occupational Therapy, family or carer guidance, or a combination.
You'll understand what we recommend, why we recommend it and what happens next.
04 - We Work Together
If ongoing intervention would be beneficial
Not everyone needs ongoing support.
If they do, we'll agree a personalised plan based on your goals and needs. This may be focused Occupational Therapy intervention or, where appropriate, our comprehensive Functional Longevity programme.
We'll review progress as we go and adapt the plan when needed.
You're part of the process.
Nothing should feel as though it's simply being done to you.
We explain. We listen. We make decisions with you.
Because this is your home, your life and your capability.
Our Services & Cost
Initial Occupational Therapy Assessment £325.
A comprehensive home assessment lasting up to 90 minutes
We take time to understand your current capabilities, everyday routines, home environment and the activities that matter most to you.
Depending on your needs, your assessment may explore:
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Everyday activities such as washing, dressing, toileting and meal preparation
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Mobility, transfers, balance and relevant aspects of physical capability
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Your home environment and any practical barriers affecting daily life
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Existing equipment and opportunities for appropriate equipment recommendations
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Your personal priorities, goals and available support
Following your assessment, you'll receive a written summary of our findings, practical recommendations and suggested next steps.
These may include strategies to make everyday activities easier, suitable equipment recommendations, further Occupational Therapy intervention or consideration of our Functional Longevity programme.
Home Visits & Travel
Capability Practice provides home-based Occupational Therapy services in Banbury and surrounding areas.
Travel within 10 miles of Banbury is included in our published fees.
We may be able to support clients further afield, generally within approximately one hour of Banbury. Additional travel charges apply beyond our core 10-mile area and will be explained and agreed before booking.
Follow-Up Occupational Therapy Intervention £120.
Some people benefit from targeted Occupational Therapy support without needing a longer programme.
Follow-up appointments are personalised to your needs and may include:
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Practising everyday activities and developing practical strategies
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Working on mobility, transfers and functional movement
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Reviewing equipment recommendations and how they are working for you
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Supporting confidence and independence in daily routines
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Reviewing progress and adapting recommendations as your needs change
Your Occupational Therapist will recommend the most appropriate frequency and duration of intervention based on your goals and clinical needs.
Complimentary Initial Consultation
Not sure where to begin?
Our complimentary initial consultation is an opportunity to discuss your circumstances, ask questions and explore whether Capability Practice may be the right service for you or your family member.
We'll explain how we work, discuss the available options and help you understand the most appropriate next step.
Functional Longevity £3000.
Our comprehensive 12-week programme
Functional Longevity is designed for people who would benefit from consistent, structured support to maintain or build their physical capability and independence.
Combining Occupational Therapy with personalised, progressive strength and functional exercise where clinically appropriate, the programme focuses on the abilities that help you continue doing the things that matter to you.
What's included
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An initial comprehensive Occupational Therapy assessment
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Two 60-minute therapist-led home visits each week for 12 weeks 24 intervention visits in total
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A personalised programme informed by your capabilities, priorities and goals
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Progressive strength, balance and functional activity practice where appropriate
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Ongoing clinical review and adjustments throughout the programme
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A final reassessment and recommendations for maintaining your progress
We work at a pace appropriate to your needs, adapting activities and allowing rest as required.
The aim is not to promise a particular result. It is to provide consistent, individualised intervention that gives you the opportunity to work towards greater capability, confidence and independence.
Assessment fee credit
If you've already completed an Initial Occupational Therapy Assessment with Capability Practice, the £325 fee will be credited towards your £3,000 programme investment, provided the assessment remains clinically relevant.
MEET YOUR OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST
Hi I'm Gabby
I’m an HCPC-registered Occupational Therapist, member of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists and qualified Personal Trainer, with over 11 years’ experience supporting people to live as independently and meaningfully as possible.
Capability Practice grew from a belief that became stronger the longer I worked as an Occupational Therapist:
We shouldn't only respond to what someone has lost. We should also explore what can still be built.
Over the years, I met people whose worlds were beginning to get smaller. Not always because of one dramatic event, but because everyday things were gradually becoming harder. And it made me think deeply about what meaningful intervention could look like when there was time to understand what was really happening, continuity to work on it, enough repetition to give change a chance and the opportunity to begin before difficulties had progressed unnecessarily. I wanted to create a service where I could spend that time with someone.
To see them in the environment where life actually happens. To understand not only what has become difficult, but why.
To recognise what needs to be adapted or supported while also asking:
What could still be strengthened?
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What could be rebuilt?
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What could be maintained?
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And what might still be possible?
Because often, what people want isn't extraordinary. They want to get out of their chair more easily. Manage their stairs. Get into their shower. Carry a cup of tea without feeling unsteady. Walk far enough to get somewhere that matters to them. They want to keep doing more for themselves. And sometimes, what is needed isn't a more complicated solution. It's the right intervention, enough repetition and enough time to give change a chance. That's what led me to create Capability Practice.
I also wanted strength to have a bigger place in the conversation.
As an Occupational Therapist, I'm trained to understand everyday function the person, the activities that matter to them and the environment in which those activities happen. My Personal Training qualification gives me another tool.
Where reduced strength or physical capacity is contributing to someone's difficulty, I can not only understand how that is affecting everyday life I can incorporate personalised, progressive exercise to work on that capacity where appropriate.
At the same time, we can adapt the environment, introduce equipment, change how an activity is approached or identify the right support.
For me, these things don't compete with each other. They work together.
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Meet the person where they are.
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Understand what matters.
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Adapt what needs adapting.
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And build what can be built.
That's the thinking at the heart of Capability Practice.
And as my own parents get older, this work has become personal in a different way too.
I see ageing not only through the eyes of a healthcare professional, but as a daughter watching the people I love move into a stage of life where maintaining capability begins to matter in new ways. It has reinforced something I've learned throughout my career:
The ordinary things are rarely just ordinary.
Being able to get up, go out, make choices, contribute, participate and do things for yourself can be deeply connected to your identity, confidence and dignity.
That's what I created Capability Practice to support.
To help people preserve and build as much capability as possible, so they can continue living as much of life on their own terms as possible.
Gabriella Ndebele
Functional Longevity Specialist
Occupational Therapist
Personal Trainer
FAQ'S
A few things you may be wondering.
Occupational Therapy helps people participate in the everyday activities that matter to them. This may include getting dressed, preparing meals, moving safely around the home, managing daily routines and continuing to enjoy meaningful activities. At Capability Practice, we look at the whole person, their environment and the activities they want or need to do. Our aim is to help people maintain or improve their independence, confidence and quality of life.
Capability Practice primarily supports older adults who want to maintain their independence, rebuild confidence or manage changes in their physical abilities. This may include people experiencing reduced strength, balance difficulties, mobility changes or challenges with everyday activities. We also support families who want professional guidance about how best to help a loved one. All services are subject to an initial discussion and assessment of clinical suitability.
Functional Longevity is our structured 12-week Occupational Therapy and physical capability programme. It combines Occupational Therapy principles with appropriately tailored strength, balance and functional movement interventions. The programme includes an initial assessment, 24 therapist-led home visits and a final reassessment. Its purpose is to help people develop or preserve the physical capabilities that support everyday independence.
Functional Longevity combines Occupational Therapy with appropriate physical training principles. Rather than focusing only on exercise performance, we connect movement and physical capability to everyday activities such as standing from a chair, using stairs, carrying shopping or moving around the home. It is not a replacement for physiotherapy, medical treatment or other specialist services where these are clinically indicated.
Yes. Capability Practice provides home-based Occupational Therapy services. Working in your own environment allows us to understand how you manage everyday activities and identify practical opportunities to support your independence. Travel within 10 miles of Banbury is included in our published fees. Visits beyond this distance may be available, subject to location and an additional travel charge agreed in advance.
Our current fees are: Complimentary Initial Consultation: Free Initial Occupational Therapy Assessment: £325 Follow-Up Occupational Therapy Intervention: £120 per 60-minute home visit Functional Longevity: £3,000 for the complete 12-week programme If you have already paid for an eligible £325 Initial Occupational Therapy Assessment, that amount is credited towards the Functional Longevity programme fee. Any additional travel charges will be explained before booking.
The complimentary initial consultation is an opportunity to discuss your circumstances, the difficulties you may be experiencing and what you would like to achieve. We will explain the services available and discuss whether Capability Practice may be suitable for your needs. The consultation is not a comprehensive Occupational Therapy assessment, and no formal clinical recommendations are provided at this stage.
The assessment is a home visit lasting up to 90 minutes. We discuss your daily activities, current abilities, physical challenges, home environment and personal goals. Depending on your needs and consent, the assessment may include observing everyday tasks, mobility or transfers. Afterward, you receive a concise written summary of findings and recommendations. The assessment can be booked as a standalone service. You are not required to enrol in Functional Longevity.
No. Our Initial Occupational Therapy Assessment is a standalone service. Following the assessment, we may recommend individual follow-up sessions, Functional Longevity, another service or no further intervention, depending on your needs. You remain in control of whether to proceed.
Yes. With the client's consent, family members or carers are welcome to participate in relevant discussions and appointments. We recognise that families often play an important role in supporting independence at home. Our priority remains the client's preferences, dignity and involvement in decisions about their care.
We can assess how your home environment affects your ability to manage everyday activities and recommend practical strategies or suitable equipment where appropriate. However, Capability Practice does not directly supply or install equipment, undertake building work or provide specialist design and project management services for major home adaptations. Where more specialist input is needed, we can recommend seeking support from an appropriate provider.
Start by contacting Capability Practice for a complimentary initial consultation. You can telephone us or send a WhatsApp message to arrange a conversation. We will discuss your needs, explain the available options and agree the most appropriate next step. Telephone: 07424 497995 Email: contact@capabilitypractice.co.uk Please avoid sharing detailed medical information through WhatsApp. Any necessary clinical information will be discussed through our assessment process.