Semester's End

The semester is winding down.  I have three therapy sessions, one family conference, one take home final, one presentation, a final exam, and two weeks of weekly paperwork left between me and my Christmas break.  I probably shouldn't even be writing. 

Here's what I've learned this semester:

1. Therapy is hard.  Experienced SLPs make it look so easy!  But when you combine collecting an accurate amount of trials and data, maximizing the client response, responding with feedback, and scaffolding up in the session to work at the correct level of difficulty, I forget where I am sometimes!  Multitasking has always been difficult for me, so I've learned to take a deep breath, pause if I need to, and to keep practicing. 

2. Actually taking a few minutes to write out a priority list and plan my day/week saves time in the long run.  I feel more organized this semester than any other, because I had to be. 

3. Humility is endless. Every person I meet can teach me something. My classmates are brilliant resources, and my clinical educator is resiliently patient with me while I learn.  Even if I don't like something, it's still an opportunity to learn that I don't like that thing. 

4. There's no "finish line" in speech-language pathology.  I will never know everything.  But that's what's great about the science of language.

5. Data is important. 

6. The world goes on outside of my clinical practicum, and it's important to poke my head out regularly to maintain a healthy perspective.  This is one of the areas that my classmates with children don't need much help with.  They go home to real life every day.  But I can get glued to my chair in the study room of the clinic all day if I'm not careful. 

This is not nearly representative of everything I've learned this semester, but it's what I'm able to articulate right now.  I'm very grateful for this experience, and can't wait to get into Clinic 2 with everything I know now.  

Much has happened since my last post.  I established my goals for my client and have been working the very best I can each session to pick the best stimuli, collect accurate data, and get the maximal response from my client.  I am so grateful that I've made it this far, and that I've been able to learn so much.  I think back to my semester of student teaching (which you can read about if you like, in my 2008 archives).  I did not have the maturity back then that I have now, and I wasn't willing and able to change myself to accomplish what I needed to accomplish.

This time around, I'm able.  Thank goodness for life experience and lessons so valuable that led me to where I am today.  I'm not so hard on myself anymore.  I am now able to look at a situation for what it can teach me.  Turns out this is an important skill to have in my chosen profession.

Other recent happenings:

I visited Steve in Mississippi:

My new baby cousin is growing fast!

Kelly and Chris got married!

I cut my hair!  

Holy clinic!

My first semester of clinical practicum as a SLP student has been underway for about a month now.  I would have posted sooner, but I haven't been able to make the time!  My brain has been working in overdrive; my Clinical Educator, at the end of our clinic class, likes to ask, "Are your brains saturated?".  What an accurate summary of the past month.

This has by far been the hardest semester of my educational experience thus far.  (I can't actually be sure because I like to block out my memories of student teaching).  But it's been a huge period of growth.  I'm trying very hard to keep my stress to a minimum, which can be tricky at times because, as a cohort, my classmates and I have varying instances of difficulty with our clients, and we all individually handle stress in different ways.  Top that off with a heaping truckload of paperwork.  Deep breaths have been my saving grace.  

Today, instead of hanging out in the clinic, I decided to pack up and so the rest of my work at home.  It gives me a chance to do a couple loads of laundry and be able to work with some daylight streaming onto my work area.  

Now, back to work on SOAP notes...

Diet Woes

This article about glycemic index got me thinking about about my life long battle of the bulge and how it sometimes seems like a battle not worth fighting.  Maintaining weight loss has been hard for me.  I have watched the scale slowly creep back up by tenths of a pound.  I tell myself every day that I will plan my meals the next day and stick to it!  But alas, it's so much more fun to eat boneless fried chicken chunks slathered in buffalo sauce.

I met a young guy this weekend from Italy.  I mentioned that I had done a spinning class that morning, and he asked how many times a week I go to the gym.  I told him I aim for 5, and he seemed surprised.  "Why do you go so much?"  "Because I love to eat," I said.  "Why don't you just eat less?"  Exactly.

I think part of my issue is that I eat when I'm overwhelmed.  I don't know how to start my to-do list, so I just eat instead.  I also hoard calories--as if I don't know where my next meal is going to happen, so I am pre-programmed to eat until I'm full.  Sounds nuts, right?

I don't want to examine how or why I developed an abusive relationship with food.  All I know is that I want to change it.  Tomorrow's meals are planned; let's see if I can stick to it just for tomorrow.  When tomorrow is over, I can worry about Wednesday.  I need to start taking one bite at a time, living in the present and having faith that I will get the nourishment I need when I need it.

Time Management for the Student Clinician

Hello again, my long lost blog!  What have I been doing?  I've been working, exercising, enjoying the last of the warm weather, nourishing my long-distance relationship, and preparing for my first semester of Clinical Practicum.

I'm anxious and excited to meet my client.  I'm also interested in seeing how my time management skills hold up with this new kind of schedule.  Perhaps I should dust off my copy of Time Management for the Creative Person to refresh and reevaluate some of my priorities.  I've already started keeping a to-do list on the front of my binder to keep everything I need to do in one place.  

Saying no has historically been the hardest part of time management for me, but I've been getting better.  I worry a lot about what I'll be missing out on if I say no to a last-minute dinner with friends or to a family gathering.  I also worry that people will hear "No" once and think I don't want to hang out ever again.  Then I remind myself that, frankly, I'm not that important.  My loved ones will not give up on me after one "no".  And trusting that choosing to follow through on something I committed to doing, such as homework or exercise, will result in good things.  I won't be missing out on life when I'm making a mature, responsible choice.  Rather, I'll be investing in my own livelihood.  I still have to make time for myself and for my loved ones, but it doesn't have to get in the way of my goals. 

I love the start of a new semester.  It's a new beginning.  

You know what else I love?  Flower deliveries!