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24Aug

How to Survive Your First Year as an SLP

Posted by: Jessi Andricks Categories: Career Advice New SLP Reduce Stress
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First Year as an SLP Pinterest

There is nothing like finally finishing with graduate school, passing all of your exams (including the Praxis), getting your license and starting our very first job as an SLP. Your first year as an SLP is one full of firsts and thrills and wins, and can also be one that is surprisingly more challenging than graduate school ever was.

Here is the truth – starting your first year as an SLP is incredibly exciting and can be incredibly overwhelming.

  • You are finally out of your own, but still under supervision for your CFY.
  • You get to make the therapy and diagnostic calls.
  • You can make the schedule and see your students and clients when you want to (mostly).
  • You are an SLP (CF or CCC).

This is all incredibly powerful and can be liberating, but at times it can also leave you feeling like  you’ve been left alone in the wilderness with limited tools for survival. It can be hard to figure out how to survive our first year as an SLP. You may feel like you are a bit isolated, without your cohort of future SLPs by your side each day. It can also make you feel like you are inadequate or need to spend all of your time researching, prepping and planning. This alone can make that first year seem like sink or swim, and can set you up towards the road of chronic stress and burn out.

If you feel this way, in your first year or your 30th year, it is ok. We have ALL felt that way at some point in our SLP career. Luckily, there are a few things you can do in your first year, or starting where you are now, to help you survive and THRIVE from here on out as an SLP.

  • Remember that you know more than you think, and you can always find the answers
    • One of the biggest things when you first start out is gaining and keeping confidence in yourself and your ability to do the work. You may have a supervisor that seems like they are able to know everything, but chances are they have either been around for a long time and have learned a lot along the way, or they know where to go to find the answers.
    • It is ok to not know everything. In grad school, you had to have all the answers for the exams. In the real world, if something is unfamiliar or you want to know more, you can go and research more about it. Look the latest news or articles, head to the ASHA Leader Live, rifle through your textbooks, ask another SLP (FB groups are great for this), take a CEU course, or even listen to a podcast.
  • Set up a schedule that works for YOU
    • You don’t have to follow the schedule you are taking over, or the one that is “typical” for everyone. Just like every standard therapy practice may not work for every patient/student, you may have different scheduling needs than the other SLP you work with.
    • Look at start times and end times, figure out when you need breaks, and take note of when you might need some downtime for paperwork (or to recharge after being “on” with your patients). Having clear times to start and end your day will help keep you from coming in early and staying late regularly, which often lead to much more stress. Breaks will help you to recharge, clear your head and feel more connected to your work in the long run, as well as help keep your efficiency and energy levels up.
  • Don’t be afraid to ask for help
    • This can be so hard to do, but is essential. If you aren’t sure of something, whether it is a treatment or therapy idea or you don;t know ow to figure out your caseload, it is ok to ask for help.
    • Reach out to your mangers or admin as needed, especially with scheduling and caseload management. Look to your CF supervisor for guidance in any and all aspects of the job. You can even reach out to your fellow CF’s and see how they are doing.
  • Keep it Simple
    • One of the biggest things that happens for people trying to survive the first year as an SLP is over-planning. This can be really fun, but can also be a HUGE time-sucker.  The truth is, your patients/clients/students don’t need a TON of complex activities. They will benefit from routine, from familiarity and from simplicity.
    • For planning, have a few go-to resources that you can use with a wide-range of students or clients, and can easily grab and use. Then, if there is time, you can plan more elaborate activities and build up from there.
    • Have a few seasonal themes you can use if you want to add in some fun, but keep it simple and reuse them.
  • Invest in Yourself
    • You have invested so much in your education. Remember to invest in yourself.
    • Take time each day, or most days, to do something good for you in the form of self-care.
    • Try a morning or evening routine to help you set your intentions for the day or to unwind after a long day.
    • Leave work at work and plan a “transition” at the end of the work day to help you switch your mindset from work to home.
  • Build Community
    • Isolation is one of the things that can make it really difficult to survive your first year as an SLP, and can set you up for years of feeling isolated. After being in grad school, with many other peers, not having anyone you know or even any other SLPs at your work can be difficult.
    • Try joining online groups, such as FB groups or follow SLPs on IG, to help feel like part of a community.
    • Plan meetings/outings with your grad school friends or new SLP friends.
    • Make friends and build rapport with other professionals at your work, such as OT, PT, teachers, etc.
    • All of these people will likely be going through similar struggles or will have been through them before. It helps to have people who really “get” what your day is like and can help you work through the stress.

Your first year as an SLP can be incredibly challenging, but can also set you up for an amazing, long, fulfilling career. Give these a try and see how they work for you, especially if you are already feeling overwhelmed. For even more on managing your stress as an SLP, make sure to check out these CEU/CMH webinars, and sign up for FREE stress management resources for SLPs in the SLP Toolbox below.

Much Love,

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4Jun

Do SLPs Suffer from Chronic Stress?

Posted by: Jessi Andricks Categories: Burn Out New SLP Reduce Stress
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SLP Chronic Stress Pinterest (1)If you are an SLP and starting to feel like you are constantly stressed, and that it just seems to keep building, you might be suffering from chronic stress.

While it would be great to say that SLPs do not suffer from chronic stress, that would be far from the truth for many SLPs, practicing and non. Being an SLP is a wonderful profession and career choice, but it also carries with it a lot of responsibilities each day; ever-changing paperwork, caseloads, and protocols; and requires you to give more of yourself than you might expect to give.

What are the causes of Chronic Stress for an SLP?

Chronic stress is what happens when the daily stressors you face, whether big or small, are left unmanaged over time. They begin to build, until your body and brain are stuck in a “cycle of stress” that has you feeling the constant pulls of stress, as an SLP and outside of work as well. When left unchecked, this chronic stress can grow and eventually turn into full-blown burn out.

It happened to me.

In undergrad, I was absolutely obsessed with what I was learning in my CSD program. Life was good, I had little outside stress and I thoroughly enjoyed my course work. When I went to graduate school, there was a very different vibe – it was much more competitive, while undergrad had a vibe of sharing knowledge. I was also living in a new city, my fiance was preparing to leave the country on a deployment for 8 months, and I was working 5 nights/days a week. I lived alone and was responsible for all of my own household “duties” and errands. I had little to no time for “fun” or going out with friends, or just enjoying the beautiful city I lived in.

Stress started to sink in, rapidly. I felt really disconnected, had little to no passion for my work, and never quite felt like I was achieving or doing anything, especially after years of pushing to get my degree. In the years to come, I never got out of the stress cycle, even when I had more freedom to decide how I ran my days,  and eventually became completely burned out in my third year as an SLP.

I really thought I had chosen the wrong career. No one else I knew seemed to feel this way. Around me, SLPs seemed to be thriving and really “into” their work – staying late and coming in early. I felt alone and isolated, which only fueled my stress more. If I had been able to recognize that I was becoming chronically stressed, I might have been able to prevent burn out and reduce my overall stress levels, breaking out of the cycle of stress.

The thing is, it is really hard to recognize chronic stress for what it is when you are in it, and it can be even harder to explain it to non-SLPs close to you (friends, family, partners, etc), because you feel like they just won’t “get it”. This makes it difficult to work through and to reduce, but once you do recognize it, you can work through it, manage it, and feel that you are finally in control of the stress.

What does chronic stress for an SLP look like?

  • Lack of passion: If you were once really passionate and interested in learning about your career (or future career), but now feel like you don’t want much to do with it, you might be suffering from chronic stress. Chronic stress for an SLP, especially when it is starting to lead to burn out, can make you feel a bit apathetic or disconnected from your work, and often appears as boredom. This can be one of the telling signs that something is off in your work or day, and that stress may be to blame. If you are feeling this lack of passion, try 2 things. First, find some outside hobbies to help you feel engaged in something during your week. This will help some of the stress fade and help you feel more balanced. Once it does, then you can look at your work itself. Second, sign up for some new courses or ask to take on a project that you are interested in at work, in order to start to feel more connected and passionate again. 
  • Pushing through: Chronic stress for an SLP can often time make you have frantic, nervous, hyper energy that keeps you feeling like you need to push through to finish your work. This might look like working up until the point of exhaustion or beyond to get an IEP done or taking on every last patient you can in one day (even if it’s 100% ok to wait until tomorrow). This energy pushed you, but it is not in a sustainable way, and leaves you feeling drained and depleted once you do finish your day. It could also look like showing up early or staying late to finish work, which could lead to feelings of resentment towards your work, or that you’ll “never get it finished”, or just really throw your life out of balance.  If you are feeling this way, make sure to set timers to give you breaks when you are working on projects. Also, set a firm time to leave work (not too late or too long after the end of the day), so you are leaving on time and leaving work at work. 
  • Feelings of isolation: Sometimes, when you know you are feeling stressed, it can make it seem like you are alone. Even though it seems this way, the majority of SLPs, sadly enough, are feeling stressed by their work and the imbalance in their lives. This is true for most other Helping Professionals as well, whether in the education or medical setting. So even though you feel alone and isolated, you most likely are not. To help feel less isolated when you are stressed, reach out to a fellow SLP friend or another colleague and set up a break or coffee date or some kind to talk about your stress. use this as more than just a venting sessions (although that can be helpful to start) and come up with some ways to help each other or to be accountable for each other. Just having someone who understands can be incredibly helpful. And if you are the ONLY SLP at your work, and this leaves you isolated, set up some dinner dates or weekend self-care dates with other SLP friends or people in your area. 
  • Lack of competence and confidence: There are times when you won’t know exactly what to do with a client or student, but those times are rare. Most likely, you’ll need a refresher or to go research something quickly, and be able to treat the patient or refer them to someone else. And if you are the only person they can see, chances are, you do know more than you realize, or you can find the info, to help treat them. SLPs are resourceful. However, chronic stress for an SLP can make it feel like you don’t know what you are doing when faced with a case you are less familiar with, and this stress can continue to grow until it makes you feel like you mist not be a very good SLP. Chronic stress for an SLP can also make it harder to problem solve ad figure out a solution, because stress hijacks some of the problem solving parts of the brain, making it more difficult to work though problems. If you are feeling this way, there are a few thing to do. First, remind yourself that you know more than you think and you are capable of learning even more. Find mantra or have a motto to help you through times like this. Then, you can reach out to a colleague, look through references, or even sign up for some courses to help you learn even more and continue to grow as a clinician. 
  • Changes in your mood: One of the biggest ways chronic stress for an SLP shows up is in your overall mood. When you are stressed, you might notice you feel more annoyed or irritated, you have less patience and you overall have a more cynical attitude or approach to work – or home. Or it might feel like anger, uncertainty or even nervousness, or really any type of change. This is usually one of the first things that people notice when they are starting to wonder about stress. It is also one of the biggest things that seeps out of your work zone and into your family and daily life. If you are noticing that you feel irritated, less patient, annoyed, etc, the best things for you to do are to bring more balance into your life through self-care. Things like meditation, journaling, mindful movement, and reflecting will give you time to take a break from work, shift your focus, and turn your attention inward to work through the feelings and stress that is there. 

Chronic stress for an SLP is something that most SLPs are facing, but it doesn’t have to be something that sticks with you, or that you have to experience as an SLP. Below you can sign up for (FREE) resources designed specifically to help SLPs work through their stress:

For even more insights in to chronic stress for an SLP and what you can do to help manage it, check out these online CEU/CMH courses available now: 

Much Love,

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21May

How to Prevent Mental Fatigue as an SLP

Posted by: Jessi Andricks Categories: Burn Out Career Advice New SLP Reduce Stress Self Care
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Mental Fatigue as an SLP Pinterest

Mental fatigue as an SLP is for real. When it kicks in, it feels like the only thing you can do is stare off into space, binge on a TV show or just take a nap, but instead you are trying to run sessions, see groups of students, and be “on” and happy until the work day ends.

Mental fatigue happens to everyone at some point, when you are trying to juggle a lot of different tasks, when you have something weighing on your mind, when you are feeling anxious, when you are incredibly focused and working on a project for a long time, or even when you just haven;t slept very well. It is the feeling of being totally wiped out and exhausted, even if you haven’t done anything physically exhausting that day and when you have gotten plenty of sleep. It makes it difficult to focus, process and think clearly, and it can be incredibly draining.

Having this happen once in awhile is no fun, but having it happen constantly can make it difficult to get through the week. When this mental fatigue comes from your work, it can make you start to question your career choice or if you are “cut out” to be an SLP.

Being an SLP can be incredibly challenging on a daily basis. Mental fatigue as an SLP can make it difficult to focus on your sessions, make planning them take longer, make it hard to complete your paperwork, and even leave you redoing work or spending hours trying to finish it. All of which leads to even more mental fatigue. It’s no wonder the “self-care” of choice for many is a bottle of wine and a Netflix binge each night.

This mental fatigue can come from a few different places in any job. Mental fatigue as an SLP often comes from the way you set up your day, in order to get the MOST work done in the shortest amount of time, because you are bombarded with a LOT of work each day.

If you are setting up your daily schedule with little breaks, lots of switching from task to task, and constantly combing though emails and reports on your few minutes between sessions, your brain is bound to be overloaded and you are bound to be exhausted. With a few tweaks, you can actually increase your efficiency, improve your focus, and reduce your mental fatigue as an SLP. It takes reworking the way you were often taught to go about your daily work.

To help you reduce your mental fatigue as an SLP, there are a few things you can do:

Reduce Multi-tasking:

Multi-tasking has been shown to be incredibly ineffective. Many studies show that it not only decreases your productivity, but it actually take up MORE time for you to complete tasks and leaves you feeling mentally drained. This happens because multi-tasking is like doing mental jumping jacks. If you are switching from task to task, even after 10-20 minutes, your brain has to start firing in a totally different way to work on that task. If you do this throughout your day, you are likely to feel mentally fatigued and exhausted at the end of the work day. And most of us switch back and forth a lot more frequently than 10-20 minutes at a time. It also takes time, mentally and physically, to switch between tasks (think loading a new webpage, opening your email, finding your materials, etc).

This is why multi-tasking is often referred to as task switching and has been shown to take up nearly 40% of your productivity time each day.

Instead of multi-tasking, map out specific task you can work on, and do this for a set amount of time. Set a timer if needed, so you know when to stop working on the task. You can also limit distractions by turning off phone notifications, blocking social media, not checking email, and even puttying a sign on your door not to disturb.

When you are finished, take a break and then move on to the next task.  It ups your productivity and decreases your mental fatigue.

Take breaks – 90 minutes (not for paperwork or email):

Speaking of breaks, make sure you take them throughout your day. I know it can be really easy to just keep pushing through to the end of the day, or sometimes to the end of the school year, so you feel like you are getting the work finished, so then you can take a break. But breaks actually help you to be more efficient, because they allow your brain to focus more easily and to work more efficiently, so you are more efficient and effective in return. Not taking breaks has been shown to lead to slower processing time and more errors, which end up leading to more work in the long run.

Breaks also give you a shift mentally, so you are not wearing yourself out, leading to exhaustion.

Try aiming for a short break every 90 minutes. Take a 10 minutes stretch or walk, grab a glass of water or a cup of coffee, go chat with a colleague, or get a snack. Do something – not checking emails or social media or switching to a new task – that gives you a true break, so you feel mentally refreshed and ready to work again.

Batch your day:

Batching your day goes right along with reducing multi-tasking. Batching refers to grouping like things together, so you aren’t mentally switching from task to task, but also so you have set times to get things accomplished, and then move on.

Batching looks like this:

  • Checking emails at specific times during the day and responding right away (maybe first thing, midday and end of day…or even less), instead of checking them every time you have a free moment throughout the day (which leads to task-switching and more exhaustion).
  • Setting up times to work on reports and other “writing” tasks, instead of squeezing them in between therapy sessions
  • Planning sessions at a set time each day (end of day always works great to prepare for the next day), instead of planning throughout the day.
  • Scheduling therapy sessions for a certain part of the day, maybe all in the morning or all in the afternoon, or for specific chunks of each time block, so you are able to be in a therapy mindset and not thinking about the other work you were wanting to finish before the session started.

Transition at end of work day:

One of the best things you can do to help fight mental fatigue as an SLP and be more present at work and at home, is to create some kind of transition at the end of your day. This will help you shift out of work mode and into being at home, rather than still feeling like you should be doing work or thinking about the day and the work you still need to do.

A transition can help you to mentally leave work at work and instead be more present at home, which leads you to being more well-rested, and really feel like you get a break form your work day.

You can create a transition by doing some sort of routine or ritual at the end of the day that mentally lets you know it is time to be finished with work. It could be big or small. Here are some examples:

  • Stretch or take a walk at the end of the day
  • Stop for coffee or tea on the way home
  • Head to the gym or a yoga class
  • Go for a hike
  • Call a friend
  • Listen to your favorite song or podcast
  • Read a book, blog, or magazine

The transition helps you to mentally prepare for work to end, leaving you to feel more relaxed and present at home, so you can really soak up that time off.

If you are looking for ways to improve mental fatigue as an SLP, give these a try. For even more, make sure to check out my Professional Development Courses (CEUs available) that dive even deeper into managing your overall stress and reducing fatigue and burn out.

Plus, if you are ready to finally be DONE with the constant battle of stress as an SLP, check out the SLP Stress Management Online Course, an 8-week online course designed to help you manage stress, reduce burnout and find more balance in your life, no matter what gets thrown at you (teletherapy, pandemic, paperwork x 1000, you name it).

You can also get some free resources by signing up for the #SLPToolbox, that will help you start implementing some of these practices today, Sign up below for access:

Much Love,

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22Feb

4 Sneaky Signs of SLP Burn Out

Posted by: Jessi Andricks Categories: Burn Out Reduce Stress
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Sneaky Signs SLP Burn Out PinterestAs an SLP, you are probably no stranger to stress at work. In fact, you might just come to think of it as part of the job, something that you have been working through and with since graduate school. Stress is definitely a part of life, and a necessity at times, but Chronic, lasting stress on a daily basis is not something we need, and is not something we know how to manage or reduce.

Instead, stress can keep progressing and turn into full blown Burn Out – a syndrome that happens when you aren’t able to find balance in your life for a lengthy part of time, and you start to disengage form your work, losing passion, drive and motivation, and often feeling a sense of dread about going to work.

Burn Out is a real thing and can manifest in a few different ways, often very different than its predecessor, Chronic Stress. Here are a few ways SLP Burn Out might be showing up in your SLP work:

4 Sneaky Signs of SLP Burn Out:

  1. You start fantasizing about other jobs, any job, as long as it doesn’t require billing and face-time. At times, it just feels like too much and anything else seems like a better job than your current situation. 
  2. You don’t feel like speech therapy actually does anything – because of lack of evidence based practice or too mush reliance on evidence based practice. This is often a hallmark sign of Burn Out – cynicism. You start to question the effectiveness and feel disconnected from your work. 
  3. You feel like every other discipline you work with (teachers, nurse, OT, PT) has it better than you. This is sometimes true. But often, there are things in each of these that are stressful, in different ways, and Helping Professionals in general tend to have tendencies towards Burn Out. 
  4. You keep bouncing around from setting to setting, but there is always some problem that makes you move on. The problem is that stress is everywhere. It is sometimes the job, but sometimes it is learning how to manage that stress, so it doesn’t keep happening without being able to work through it. 

If you are starting to relate to these things, it could be burn out creeping in. SLP Burn out is what your Chronic Stress as an SLP becomes when it is unmanaged, and it looks a lot different than stress. While stress is often hyper, frazzled and anxious, Burn Out is more of an unnaturally calm (possibly depressed or deflated), hopeless and given up attitude. When you start to notice your stress shift into this, it is time to take action (if not before!), so you are able to reduce your burn out, love your career again, and find some ease and balance in your life.

To help reduce your Burn Out and manage your stress, try these tips:

  • Connect with a co-worker: Isolation is common for SLPs and the lack of connection can make it easy to feel stressed, disconnected and, eventually, burnt out. Try reaching out to an SLP friend to talk, share and get some help with your SLP struggles.
  • Take time for YOU: Self-care is not selfish, and this alone, downtime can be key in helping you to prevent, reduce and manage your stress and burn out. Take time on most days to do something reflective and restorative (such as yoga, meditation, journaling, walking) to help you clear your head, and find a new perspective or connect to what you are needing.
  • Reach out for help: Connection and Self-Care are key, but sometimes it takes even more. Reach out to a mentor, therapist/counselor, coach or someone who can help you work through it. You can also try checking out some CEU courses to learn more about Burn Out, Stress and how to work through them both.

For more resources on SLP Burn Out, make sure to check out the SLP Toolbox (free planners, checklists, journals, meditations and more). You can sign up below (it’s free to subscribe):


Much Love,

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19Jan

How to Set Better Professional Goals as an SLP

Posted by: Jessi Andricks Categories: Goal Setting
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Set Better Professional GoalsGoals and dreaming big can become overwhelming and can make you feel as if you are stuck and they are impossible to achieve or reach. This can lead to more anxiety, stress and burn out, usually the exact opposite of why you created the goals in the first place, because they seem like so much work, or it feels as if they will never happen.

When you are stressed or looking to create a change, it often feels like it needs to happen quickly, and with a HUGE shift in our daily life, in order to make it happen and stick. You probably really want that goal to part of you life, sooner rather than later, so you push, feel frustrated when it take more time, and eventually feel as though it is not worth the effort.

The good news is, goals are more achievable when you take smaller steps (or smaller goals) in order to reach the bigger ones with time. This means – they don’t have to happen all at once and they can happen (and should happen) with smaller increments .

Take creating healthier eating habits aka dieting, for example. With dieting, people tend to want to make huge, drastic changes and overhaul their diet, and in return receive results immediately. However, it is often the people who make small changes that build over time who reach their goals and keep results for the long-term, more than the people who make big, sweeping changes at once (like New Years resolutions). This is because the huge, drastic changes are often harder to do in the short-term and even more difficult to keep up in the long-term. It’s where yo-yo dieting comes from. Smaller goals, that may not yield as big of results immediately but instead build up overtime, are easier to start and to maintain, because you are incorporating them into your current life and learning new habits along the way. It cuts through the overwhelm and give you something more sustainable. This is true for any goals that you are trying to reach or changes you are wishing to make.

Here is another example: Let’s say you are looking to reduce stress and overwhelm with some mindfulness practices. You have a friend who reduced their stress through daily meditation and you’d like to give it a try too. They are on Day 25, and are able to sit in a 20 minute meditation each day, without any issues with sitting, their mind wandering too much, or difficulty finding time to make it happen. You think this sounds like something you would enjoy, but the idea of sitting with your mind “blank” for 20 minutes seems overwhelming – you don’t have the time or stamina – so you decide it is too hard to do and not something that would fit your schedule. You share this with your friend, feeling upset that this goal won’t work for you.  Your friend let’s you know they didn’t start this way either. They started small and built up, until it became a regular part of their day, even though at first it seemed like it would be impossible.

If you wish to start a regular meditation practice, you have to start small and build, so that is becomes a regular habit that grows and helps you meet your overall goal. Start meditating for 5 minutes a day (or most days) and then build up to 10 minutes, then 20 minutes, as you start to make room for it and experience benefits from it. When doing it this way, you build up slowly, so the changes are easier to make and last longer than if you had started all at once.

With goals setting, it is not always about completing your goal quickly or overnight, but instead having an action plan to help you reach that goal as you grow. This will not only help you to reach your goal more effectively, but help you to keep going and evolve more once you reach your goal.

Let’s look at the common types of goal setting together:

  • SMART Goals:
    • These are the traditional type of goal setting, and are similar to the types of goals used for Speech Therapy clients.
    • SMART stands for: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely.
    • These goals are made to be well-defined, measurable goals that are realistic and are able to complete in a certain amount of time.
    • They focus on the smaller details.
    • The good: They give you a guide to follow and a time-frame to get there.
    • The bad: They can be limiting, without a lot of flexibility, and often don’t give you anywhere to grow once you reach your goal
    • Example: “I want to get certified in _ therapy technique within the next 2 years”.
  • Goals with “Soul” or Purpose:
    • These are more non-traditional, holistic ways to set your goals
    • A shift in how you look at your goals and the reasons behind setting them.
    • They focus on the bigger picture of your life, instead of the smaller details
    • They often work with how you want to feel, rather than focusing on what you should do or what you want
    • The good: They offer a lot of growth for creating your daily life and after you reach your goal.They are ever evolving.
    • The bad: They can be difficult to follow, without set steps or actions to take. They don;y always have a timeline or trajectory for how to incorporate them
    • Example: “I want to feel more freedom and passion within my work day”.

Both of these are great ways to set your goals, but they both also have faults that will make it difficult to pursue your goals, or to feel fully satisfied once you achieve them. In order to make better goals, you need to combine the two types to create a bigger picture and have an action plan. When you put the two together, you get to look at the bigger goals of how you want your work and life to feel – how you want to experience it – by setting smaller goals that can take you there and continue to evolve once you reach them.

Let’s set some goals: Start with the bigger picture and work you way down to create a step-by-step process of reaching your goals, and growing with them.

  • Start with the bigger picture – What is your overall goal?
    • What do you want to feel?
    • Find your core values/feelings/words that will help bring that to you
    • Examples: abundance, freedom, grounded/security, thriving, flourishing
  • Set a time-frame:
    • When do you see this happening (reasonably)? 5 years, 1 year, etc.
  • Plan it out: Decide how to make it happen in small steps
    • If your goal is 5 years – What do you wish to achieve by then?
      • What can you do this year, and each continuing year, to bring you closer to it
    • At 1 year – What piece of your 5 year goal do you want to reach by this time?
      • How can you start to move forward from your 6 months?
    • At 6 months – How will this help you reach your 1 year goal?
      • What more can you do to start to get to your year mark?
    • At 90 days  – How does this continue the month goals you have set?
      • How can you expand upon what you have done, to create more?
    • At 30 days: Where does this take the weekly goals you have made?
      • What can you do this month, and each month, to reach this goal?
    • At 1 week: How does this build upon each day?
      • What can you do each week to reach your monthly goal?
    • Today: How can you begin?
      • Where can you start today to get you there?

Example: You want to have more freedom in your life, through less financial struggle. You decide pay off your student loans in 5 years, through a side hustle. In the first year, you need to make _ amount to help you pay for that, growing it by X each year through various streams of revenue. In the first 6 months, you need to be making X amount through a few of the revenue streams, so you market them to new sources. In the first 90 days, you have 2 steady streams of income, that will grow over time. In the first 30 days, you start selling your first product. In the first week, you start creating your first product. In the first day (today!), you decide what type of products you are going to create. 

*This is just an example and not a fool-proof plan. Your real plan will have more details and factors, most likely. 

Now go to your calendar or planner: If it’s not written down, it is more likely to NOT happen. You need to write it down and put it into your calendar/planner BEFORE you begin.  This way, you can see what to do each day or week to help you reach your goals. It also helps you to reduce some of the stress and anxiety that can come with setting goals, because you are taking it out of your head and putting it somewhere else. This allows you to examine it a little better, and also takes some of the responsibility of remembering it off of you.

Remember, goals that are worth doing, and that are most achievable, are ones that look at the smaller details to help you get to the bigger picture of your life.

What are your goals for your SLP life and what steps are you taking to create them?

You can download this entire post, as well as a free workbook for Goal Setting in the SLP Toolbox. If you are a member, look for the “Goal Setting Guide” in the SLP Toolbox. Not a member? You can sign up (it’s always free!) below.

Much Love,

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16Dec

Meditation for SLP Holiday Stress

Posted by: Jessi Andricks Categories: Meditation Self Care
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Meditation for SLP Holiday Stress PinterestFeeling stressed about your break or the Holidays in general? Give this meditation a try to melt away the stress and bring some calm and peace back into your holiday season.

 

Want more meditations? Make sure to check out the Meditation and Audio library, and subscribe to the monthly newsletter for a free meditation practice straight to your inbox, as well as access to the SLP Toolbox, where you’ll find more meditation audios, journal templates and more.

Much Love,

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10Oct

How SLPs Can Combat the Sunday Blues

Posted by: Jessi Andricks Categories: Burn Out Reduce Stress Self Care
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Sunday Blues Pinterest
The “Sunday Blues”. It’s a phrase that floats around many of the SLP fb groups, forums and pages. It is something we talk about with each other, but only if we are sure it is a “safe” place and others are probably feeling it to – otherwise we might be judged, seen as not good enough, or perhaps even told we aren’t cut out for the gig.

The “Sunday Blues” is a feeling that many SLPs get at the end of the weekend, right as they start to wind down and get into work mode again. Some feel it lurking throughout their weekend, ready to creep out at any moment. While others send their weekend feeling completely disconnected form the stress of work, only to have it hit them hard when they start to wind down the fun and turn their focus onto getting ready for the week ahead.

The Sunday Blues can hit any SLP, any day of the week, and it is usually a feeling, in the pit of your stomach, that starts to grow and grow until you get to bed, sometimes keeping you from sleeping at night and leaving you feeling exhausted come Monday morning. Just in time for a new week.

These feelings are a form of anxiety, that can build from a gnawing feeling in your belly to a full blown panic and anxiety attack. The first time you feel this, it can be alarming, because you may not know where or why it is happening. There are many SLPs you have started to feel this Sunday Blues feeling when they have seemed perfectly happy and content with their work.

The feeling usually starts to happen because there is an imbalance in your work and home life. It might not be something you are aware of, or it might seem like you aren’t doing anything different than the other professionals you know – taking work home for the evenings or weekend, prepping on the weekends, running errands all weekend, spending time with your family and friends, sleeping in late or staying up late, etc. All of these things can start to build, and can throw your life out of balance before you realize it.

The further anxiety and panic can come from something called “future-tripping”, where you keep looking ahead, to the impending week and all there is to do, which builds the stress around the week. These Sunday Blues can make the week ahead and the tasks that are involved seem much more stressful and time-consuming than they really will be. By looking too far ahead and thinking about “what could happen”, you start to create a build up of anxiety and stress that might not be needed.

To help combat the Sunday Blues, in both forms, there are a few things you can do:

  1. Make sure your weekends are replenishing you, and not depleting you more.
    1. If you are running errands, paying bills, chauffeuring kids around, etc, you are just doing more work (or a different kind) at home. Give yourself time to do something for you that isn’t a task or errand.
    2. Don’t bring work home. There will be times that you have to, but it should not be the norm. Leave work at work, and find time there to do paperwork, and consider, as hard as it is, to plan less so you have more time at work for other things.
  2. Create a Must-Do list for your weekend Self-Care (you can find one in the SLP Toolbox).
    1. 3 things that you will do (they can be small) to make sure you take time for yourself.
    2. Think of things like a cup of tea, read a book, go to yoga, take a walk, wake up 15 minute earlier than everyone else, etc.
  3. Prepare for the week, but only in small doses.
    1. Make sure you have clean clothes, food, etc, but you don’t have to spend your entire weekend doing chores and meal prepping.
    2. Have the basics ready, but also give yourself time to enjoy the weekend.
  4. If you start future-tripping, try a breathing and meditation practice to bring you back to the present moment.
    1. This will help you to bring yourself out of your head and into your body, in this moment, so you can take action (or rest) where needed.
    2. Try this video for more tips or this meditation.

If you are feeling the pressure of the week ahead, it doesn’t have to continue each week or get worse each day. Take some time to bring yourself out of the moment of stress, so you can take action, find more time for self-care, balance your work and weekend, and maybe take the next steps in your career life as needed.

If you are looking for more ways to reduce stress, here are a few other things to try:

You can also subscribe to the free “SLPToolbox” for even more resources and meditation practices.

Much Love,

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6Sep

Posted by: Jessi Andricks Categories: Reduce Stress
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SLP Stress and Overwhelm Pinterest (1)

For awhile now, I’ve been trying to figure out where exactly I fit in within my “chosen” career path. I have a degree and am certified as an Speech Language Pathologist, but my passions also sit with yoga, holistic health and nutrition. I also have a deep love of learning and teaching ways to reduce stress, decrease overwhelm and move through, or prevent, burn out, because I have been through it all. Needless to say, this is not the way I had planned for this blog to happen.

My visions of a career at first were of working in a hospital, doing big and amazing things with my patients. I imagined drastically changing lives and improving health, The reality of it was not quite the same.

I was constantly feeling stressed and moving through different phases of being burnt out, lost and a little overwhelmed with my life. No other SLPs seemed to be feeling this, at least to me. I felt very alone, like I was the only one interested in more than just my work as an SLP. After feeling really overwhelmed, I decided to quit for awhile and focus on building a career as a yoga teach, health coach and writer.

These few years “off” were full of hustle, working for not much money and learning a ton about wellness, stress and myself.

After taking 4 years off, I decided to get back into the Speech Therapy field. I soon realized my whole perspective had changed. I could see how even small things can really make a difference in patients/clients/students lives. I understood that having balance between work and daily life was everything to me. And I finally realized that I was not alone in feeling overwhelmed and burn out. It seemed like every SLP I met or spoke with was feeling that way and ready to breakdown or quit.

So I decided to share my experience of working through burn out, put all of my different training together and create this site and blog as a resource. I wanted to share with you how I had finally figured it out and had balance in my life again.

I wanted to share with you how you could move away from these things, like I did, and become a much more balanced, less stressed, overwhelm-free Speech Therapist/Pathologist/Teacher. I wanted to show you how it could all be “perfect”.

But then life happened and I realized, that’s not possible.

Why? Because we are human, life is full of ups and downs, and I will never, ever be free from overwhelm and stress. And that’s ok.

Recently, my life has been full, but a bit chaotic. My husband and I moved to a new state, into a beautiful but outdated home. He started a new job that sent him to Europe for 2 weeks, while I was at our new home with visiting family and friends, trying to unpack, repair and remodel the new house, all with a toddler in the mix. And when August rolled around, I started back to work as well.

It has been beautiful at times and worth every moment, but it has also  been absolutely overwhelming.  I found myself feeling those old feelings of overwhelm, doubt and anxiety creeping in.

I felt a bit defeated. Here I was, trying to start a blog and resource for other people and SLP’s who were feeling this way, showing them that they could live this super amazing life, while I was feeling less than amazing myself. I questioned myself, thinking “Who am I to teach anyone anything about stress, when I am so stressed and anxious at the moment?” And that’s when it hit me. I was back in my former way of thinking (the way that made me quit being an SLP for 4+ years, swearing off the profession forever). I had spent years treating myself better, learning about my own needs and, finally, getting back into the field with a renewed passion for it. It didn’t mean that I was completely free of stress, overwhelm, anxiety or really tough days forever – that wouldn’t really be living or human of me – but it did mean that I could use tools that I had learned over the years to make it a little better and move through it. It meant I didn’t have to stay stuck.

So here is what I did:

  • I allowed myself to throw a fit. Then I got over it.
  • I took a few deep breaths and reminded myself “This too shall pass”.
  • I made a cup of tea.
  • I promised myself to go for a walk in the woods as soon as I could.
  • I made an effort to get more sleep that night.

The next day wasn’t perfect, but I could feel things were already turning back around. Instead of resenting the less than stellar evening I had, I looked at what I had learned from it. These simple, everyday experiences seemed like a set back at first, but then I realized, they were universal, not something I was going through alone. We all have days that feel like everything is falling apart. Sometimes it does and sometimes it gets better. The thing we need is to remember that it will pass, if we allow ourselves to move through it, and that we are not alone in it. There are thousands of other people in our field who feel absolutely lost and unsure, about their job or home life, each and every day.

Now, instead of bringing you a perfect blog, reflecting an “I’ve Made It!” lifestyle, I get to keep it real. I get to share with you how hard it was for me when I started out as an SLP and how I finally made it through (and how you might be able to make it through a little easier). I can share with you the struggles and triumphs of working in the field and balancing daily life. And I can share with you some things that help me, and that might help you in return.

I promise to never be perfect, but instead, be real, and be human.

If you are ready to start your journey towards learning from your stress and overwhelm, make sure to sign up for the SLP Toolbox for free resources.

 

Much Love,

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