A bit of this, a bit of that

Over the past 18 months, as well as my course placements, I have been able to attend a number of additional placements in different settings. The hours I spend at these also contribute to my clinical hours, but more importantly give me even more perspective on different settings and exposure to different styles of therapists. 

One of the main things that attracted me to this career was the variety and the scope for creativity, to use your own individuality inform your intervention. It's therefore been reassuring that over the past couple of months in particular that's exactly what I've seen! But what I hadn't fully appreciated was how useful it is to pick up tips from everyone else - from extremely experienced clinicians, to your peers and other non-SLT professionals. 

One of my additional placements was at an independent practice, carrying out a nursery screen at a school. It was my first experience of independent working, and I have to admit I was wooed by the obvious flexibility and luxury of resources often lacking in NHS departments. Strict evidence based practice was the norm, with all therapy being measured quantitatively and qualitatively (while I have seen in the NHS everyone strives for this, limited time and other pressures often mean it is not as robust as would be desired). I admired the precision of the working in the practice and the minute attention to detail.

Another placement was a couple of days on a stammering management course at City Lit. This was pretty different from the paediatric language groups I was used to! Managing a group of adults requires more skills than the knowledge of stammering and management techniques. The facilitation of the group, balancing the dynamic and responding appropriately to all of the diverse personalities is a skill that must take years to fully develop. The course also introduced me to Mindfulness in SLT for the first time. Previously this was something I've only met through my own yoga classes, but it showed me the potential for its use in this setting to help with acceptance, awareness and relaxation when managing stammering. (and potentially managing PGDip deadline stress!). Definitely something I want to learn more about in the future.

Two completely different placements and two completely different views of SLT - but with new knowledge and insight that can transfer almost directly back to my ongoing, and also completely different, language unit setting.