Updates from our Fall 2019 PD Day

Written by: Megan Smith / Treatment / November 2019

If you are a regular Tuesday client at the clinic, you will have noticed that we closed our office on October 22nd of this year.

At Well Said, we do this once per season. Closing our clinic to client appointments allows us to take some time to meet as a group of S-LPs

and administrators and learn about recent developments in speech and communication research, or be trained in special topics by staff members who have more experience.

New ways for clients to reach their clinicians

Liana, our administrator, presented to the team about Intercom, a new client communication tool embedded in our website. Intercom is the system used by the clinic to manage the chat boxes that pop up while current or potential clients browse our website. As clients interact with the system, administrators at the clinic are alerted to their concerns. One new feature that was explained during this presentation was the ability for clients or administrators to “assign” a conversation to a specific clinician – providing a quick and easy way for clients to reach out in between sessions!

Our favourite moment from this presentation was our opportunity to watch Melissa and Liana try the app live! Their crash course in how to use each of its features was very helpful.

Visualizing social connections – healthy and unhealthy

Melissa, the clinic’s director, presented the Friendship Pyramid, with an anonymized case study to demonstrate how the tool could be applied in assessment and treatment. She outlined different things to look for during the assessment phase, and how each would relate to the client’s overall social wellbeing. From there, she discussed how she uses the pyramid to structure future discussions about the application of the social skills discussed in her therapy.

The team’s favourite moment of this presentation was the discussion of the “enemy” pyramid – a reverse version of the friendship pyramid that discusses increasingly more intense negative relationships with others. This tool will be helpful in conceptualizing ways to help clients manage their most difficult relationships.

Why is finding the time to practice so hard?!

Megan, our Level 2 speech-language pathologist, presented about motivation and different ways to conceptualize the difficulty of integrating the skills learned in-clinic to people’s daily lives. For many clients, they are motivated to come into each appointment and put it the work, but bringing that work home to practice feels disproportionately difficult for them.

The team’s favourite moment from this presentation was the discussion of the rider and elephant model, which helps people think through all of the obstacles to habit change in their lives. Many of her clients have reported this to be successful! For more information on this model, check out the book “Switch – How to Change Things When Change is Hard” by Dan and Chip Heath.

All about the voice

Dain, a level 1 speech-language pathologist, presented on the different body systems that go into voicing, and various strategies that she uses to tackle a variety of vocal problems. She brought the team together into discussions about important topics such as treating volume effectively without getting loud enough to disturb the neighbours, and how to take advantage of the tendency of pitch and volume to rise together.

Our favourite moment from this presentation was an interactive discussion of various phone and tablet apps that we use in therapy, and the pros and cons of each one! If using apps at home to track your progress appeals to you, chat with your therapist about different options available to you.

Overall, our PD day experience was both fun and enlightening. We are each looking forward to applying this new information in our future work with our clients!

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If you are interested in being placed on the caseload of any of our clinicians, simply call the clinic to book an initial consultation, ask the website’s chat box, or use this link:

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