When new SLPs or SLP graduate students enter the field, they likely feel conflicted between providing “ideal” therapy versus how much time they realistically have during the workday. I certainly felt that way coming into my first job out of graduate school. As a new speech therapist fresh out of graduate school with a bucket full of knowledge, I entered my clinical fellowship ready to provide all of this ideal therapy I had been learning about, but the realities of the workplace splashed me in the face. A few examples of those realities included learning insurance regulations and limitations, navigating challenging family members, and completing other job requirements such as participation in weekly staff meetings. While these realities are inevitable and important, I encourage SLPs to prioritize person-centered patient care while also prioritizing time for their own self-care outside of work in order to prevent burnout.

There are a few pieces of advice I have shared with new SLPs or SLP graduate students to ensure speech therapy is consistently person-centered and functional:

1. Ensure clients have at least one key takeaway from each SLP session to apply in their daily lives (whether this is a compensatory strategy to implement, deeper insight into their strengths and weaknesses, or a home exercise). A technique to implement this is to use the “teach-back method” or at the end of each session ask open-ended questions to the client about what their key takeaways are from the session (this is also a great way to target memory recall and comprehension!). 
2. Develop an organized system and plan ahead for client sessions to maximize time during and between sessions. Communicate your session plans to clients to provide an understanding of what is being targeted in each session and how it relates to a client’s everyday life. Even if you only have 20 minutes for a session, make every minute count! 
3. Practice the pause– instead of feeling pressured to fill in the gaps in conversation, allow clients a moment to pause. Often clients will offer up even more insight or nuggets of wisdom if given a few extra moments to reflect. 
4. Be aware of a client’s overall demeanor and body language coming into a session and be flexible to change the course of the session as needed to meet the client’s needs in that moment.

As helping professionals, we love working with clients, but it is critical to have our own avenues of self-care that we engage in regularly. A few ways that I like to practice self-care include activities such as going for a walk with a friend, doing a yoga class, or listening to a podcast that I enjoy.