Loneliness. It seems to fit this profession, speech - language pathology. At its core, SLP requires one person to engage with one other person in an isolated space, a metaphorical 'diving bell', and then - the engagement is done. You meet and make a contract, outside of real life, with a person in need; you help that person improve the quality of her life; then the person returns to real life, while saying goodbye to the deep - diving SLP. When does the next dive commence? "Come dive with me", Sinatra might have sung. The SLP helps bring the consumer out of her loneliness, borne of an impairment. The SLP lives her loneliness, part of her mission.
Thanks to the artists cited below, whose thoughts on loneliness turn it about like a newly cut gem, with facets that reflect back the truths of the issue. Is there a popular, or even an obscure song about loneliness that you feel tells a lonely tale the best? If you are an SLP doing clinical work in one or more settings, does the notion of SLP being a lonely job, resonate with your experience? Let's explore further, after the musical interludes.
https://youtu.be/eFvenjll1Bk
https://youtu.be/65PcmJRfgl0
https://youtu.be/E3MNG11oynA
https://youtu.be/ojdbDYahiCQ
https://youtu.be/djU4Lq_5EaM
https://youtu.be/kjq4wYuwgxs
https://youtu.be/6EEW-9NDM5k
https://youtu.be/Tdw7kxD8eUc
https://youtu.be/RLM0tiZ5Kf8
https://youtu.be/FXmbIRUP7k8
After all, we are the experts in what we do. Everyone thinks they can do speech therapy, but we are here because we know why - why what we do works. We go to classes with peers and friends, and we socialize with peers, partners, and friends. Still, as our skill sets are nurtured and grow, we develop the power and the confidence to effectively work alone. Each new referral to an SLP takes us on a solo voyage, but the solo voyager is the person we serve.
It's as if we are invisible; that is, we are solely a conduit for the change that the consumer seeks. That might seem a totally magical, fantastic concept, but the more you work with consumers, the more you may notice that the consumer should get all the attention. As the aspiring SLP evolves from student, to clinical fellow and then to certified clinician, the clinician celebrates becoming an autonomous, solo professional who is happy to let her consumer be ' the star of the show.'
With all that has been said in this blog, about the power and value of the therapeutic alliance, - it is equally important that the alliance be ended as easily as it is initiated, firmly. The alliance is forged at the evaluation, and the SLP initiates the plan of care, by thinking about how it might end.
I found myself back in the position of Charlie Brown at Christmas, asking if anyone can tell me what SLP is all about! I realized that the loneliness I had been feeling, was in part missing myself; missing the fullest expression of who I am, and why I do what I do. I hadn't been able to put into words in a focused manner, what I have been attempting to do in the blog for almost ten years. Yet with staying peaceful, the thoughts and feelings about what the last 38 years have included, flowed. The words finally came:
* keeping communication natural is best, and especially in the clinical setting;
* making the deepest connection during the therapeutic alliance, is ideally attainable in 'real life'.
* what the consumer and her supports may want during the alliance, should drive the plan of care;
* though addressing changes in function at the impairment level is the bedrock of our skill sets, this aspect of clinical practice isolates the consumer and the SLP from what communication does - bring people together;
* SLP intervention not only puts the consumer 'up on the greaserack' to mediate the impairments, but also to take the consumer 'out for a spin', where real life exists for the consumer;
* The SLP that is embedded in real life serves a community, as well as those who consent to the therapeutic alliance;
* the community gains an advocate for staying well, through the SLP helping everyone limit or eliminate risk factors for impairment;
* SLP's are prepared for and invested in the power of the therapeutic alliance; it is our portal to what we do;
* a healthy therapeutic alliance will, nevertheless, end in most cases, leaving the CSD professional momentarily 'lonely'
* the SLP will be in the community and for it, and for the persons who discover their needs;
Like Raymond Chandler's perspective on the private detective, the SLP is a lonely person. That person will still celebrate her community. The community is much better for that.
https://youtu.be/E3n9HtxzuBI
