Resilience for SLPs

Resilience is defined as “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties.”

The concept of resilience is something that I’ve been thinking a lot about this year. What makes some more resilient than others? What other things impact it? I think it’s safe to say that we’ve all had our resiliency tested and tested HARD this year.

I found this article on Psychology Today (click here to read) that listed Seven Skills of Resilience. Of these skills, I identify most with “talk about what you’re going through” and “stay connected with sources of support.” I have been going to therapy on and off for a few years now, and I restart anytime I feel like I’m having a lot of trouble coping with things. It helps me to just talk about things and get an objective third person’s thoughts. I also have friends who I text/call when I need support, which has been really important through this pandemic.

According to the Bounce Back Project™, resilience is made up of 5 pillars: self-care, self-awareness, purpose, mindfulness, and relationships.

I feel like my self-care routine could use some improvement, but I do make it a point to exercise every day, take naps on weekends, and go to bed early at least during the week. I think as SLPs, we struggle with self-care because we spend the majority of our work lives worrying and taking care of others.

As for self-awareness, I feel like I’ve gotten better about knowing my personality and strengths and weaknesses as I’ve gotten older. I think I will always need to work on my thoughts with regards to others’ opinions of me, as I sometimes spend too much time dwelling on this.

I have gained purpose this year. I know that I want to work at being anti-racist and I want to be an ally to LGBTQIA+ people. I’ve been taking different trainings on that and reading as much as I can about the issues that different people face on a daily basis.

Mindfulness has been a buzz word in recent years. I will admit I’m not that great at this. I feel like I have a constant to-do list in my head and often am just trying to check things off and not really reminding myself to be present.

Building positive relationships has never been more important than this year. One thing I’ve really learned over the last couple years is that I want to put time into relationships that are mutually beneficial. I love to do things for other people, but sometimes you have to let go of relationships that are one sided because they just aren’t healthy. That may mean that your circle of relationships gets smaller and that is ok!

So back to resilience. How does it impact us as SLPs? The ability to recover quickly from difficulties. I think we’ve all had to do that in ways we never imagined this year. We’ve had to suddenly become teletherapists! We started using Boom Cards, Google Slides, document cameras, second monitors, and more. All the while trying to juggle virtual therapy schedules and sessions, holding and attending virtual IEP and other meetings, connecting with parents, and maintaining positive relationships with our students. WHEW! Give yourself a pat on the back because doing all that means we ARE resilient!