Clinical Skills Confidence: Am I Doing Therapy Right?
I haven’t done a Clinical Skills Confidence post in awhile. Life got in the way!
I’m bringing you this post from a personal standpoint. Have you ever wondered if you’re doing therapy right? Now, just to be clear – I don’t necessarily think there is any ONE right way. We all have different styles and personalities, so of course, there will be variations as to how we all do it.
I have been in the field for 5 years now. Do I feel like I know everything? Definitely not. Do I feel like I know more than I did during my CF? Absolutely. Is there still room to learn and grow? Always. Most days, I’m pretty confident in my ability to target goals, speak with colleagues, comment on language/articulation/voice/fluency/social skills. Then there are the days that I’m not so confident. The days when I come home and think “am I doing therapy right?”
I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and working with several awesome SLPs. I also get to connect with tons of SLPs through this blog and I love seeing how different people approach different skills, problems, etc. I definitely have had those moments where I think, “wow, I wish I could be like him/her!!”
When I think of my therapy style, I tend to be more drill-based. I don’t mean sitting at the table and just drilling skills one after the other. If I have a group, I’m constantly thinking, I need to get as many trials as I can because more trials mean more opportunities to learn. While I’m doing this, I’m giving feedback and cues as necessary. This is probably why I struggle more with “play based” therapy with young, young kids. That doesn’t mean I don’t play during therapy. It just means that I know I have to work harder in those situations to think about my targets and how to naturally get them to occur. I think that’s probably why I gravitate more towards upper elementary kids. So is my approach wrong? Some of my drive to get lots of trials probably comes from the ever present monkey on my shoulder that is screaming “DATA! YOU NEED LOTS OF DATA!”
How have I worked to pull myself away from the drill?
1. I take data for the first 15-20 minutes of a session so that I can have hard data and then I put the data sheets away and we have conversations or continue with the activity.
2. I took some CEU courses on speechpathology.com about play based therapy so I can learn more about it.
3. If I have an idea during the middle of a session, I resist my Type A tendency to go with my original plan and just go with the idea. 9 times out of 10, it works well.
4. If I start to doubt myself, I look back at my data and make sure my students are still making progress. If they are, I tell myself I must be doing something right!
5. Continue to learn from other awesome SLPs! Sharing ideas is what this field is all about.
Do you ever doubt yourself? What do you do when that happens?
After more than 25 years in the field, I have seen my caseload change from mainly articulation, to mainly language based learning disabled kids, to AUTISM. It has definitely required a reinvention of my view of myself as a SLP. I loved literacy based therapy and really struggled with the change in therapy required to serve a primary caseload of kids with Autism. It took me on a professional development journey of reading books, watching youtube videos, reading articles, and blogs. Because parents of my students are looking for answers and immediate progress in a way that the parents of my articulation/SLD parents don’t, I have to be aware of the good/bad clinical practices being promoted for my students. Some years, it has meant working all day on Saturday and half days on Sunday to write relevant goals/objectives, creating materials, etc. Now I have transitioned from preschool to high school. So, I am continuing to do the same things on the weekends. I want feel good about the therapy I provide, but I do ask my self if I am a good clinician.
Thank you for comment jccspeaks! I love that you were able to reinvent yourself! It’s nice to know I’m not the only one that struggles with this!
[…] back to play based therapy. And how it’s not something that always comes naturally to me. I’m working on it though! Just last week, I was working on prepositions with a […]
Thank you for writing this post! I am currently in my CFY and – despite the fact that I did very well in grad school, aced my practicum positions and the praxis, and regularly work evenings and weekends to complete paperwork & prep for therapy – I frequently doubt my therapy skills. It’s helpful to know that other, more experienced SLPs have the same self-reflections, questions, and doubts, and makes me feel a bit less doubtful about my own abilities. Thank you for sharing!!!
Kate – thank you for your comments! And I do still absolutely question my abilities all the time! You will be awesome!
Thanks for this! I’m definitely more geared towards drill and data taking, so it’s a challenge working with the younger kids who can’t do structured tasks. Also hard to be flexible and let go of my best laid plans!