May is Speech-Language-Hearing Month. I’ve been a speech-language pathologist (SLP) for ten years and always believed that my patients are my greatest teachers. Recently, though, I learned how much this work has changed my life for the better.
I was working with one of my adult patients, who came to me about a month after she had a stroke. One frequent challenge people have post-stroke can be memory difficulties, particularly with their short-term memory. Depending on the patient’s difficulties, I may structure language activities differently, but I like to be creative and use the same topic for each lesson. We were watching a TED Talk about the plane crash into the Hudson. This was a short five-minute talk, and afterward, I planned on asking her some comprehension questions (yes/no and open-ended).
My sessions don’t always go as planned, which is a consistent theme across the board, no matter the patient’s age or diagnosis. At the end of the video, my patient had grabbed a tissue from the table and was wiping her eyes. She was crying. When I asked her what was wrong, she said the video clip had struck a nerve.
It wasn’t for the reason you might think. She was able to draw parallels between the speaker’s renewed outlook on life and her own since she had her stroke.
She told me that she now looks at life as an opportunity for growth, to leave the harmful behind, to find people who share her values and dreams and who don’t judge her for the person she is.
She teared up, not because she missed the person she was, but because she was beginning to embrace the person she had become.
We all have trauma in our lives. We all have hurdles we need to jump over. When I was at my darkest place almost two years ago, being watched like a hawk so I didn’t hurt myself, I couldn’t see any way out of the darkness. Being on the other side has completely changed my perspective on how I want to live my life.
I feel honored to be an SLP and work with people who understand that life is short, who embrace change, and who face their difficulties with strength and grace. Without this particular patient and so many people like her, I’m not sure I would truly understand how much this work can impact a person’s life.
I want to thank all of my patients over the past ten years for the people they are and who they will become. I learn from every single person I work with, whether they are four months or 84 years old.
 for 10 years and I have always believed that my patients are my greatest teachers. Here are the lessons learned that changed my life for the better.){kind=link}