How to Find a Speech-Language Pathologist

Written by: Julie Cohn / Treatment / August 2019

Within Well Said – Before You Begin

When you book an initial consultation with Well Said, you may choose a clinician based on several factors, or you may be assigned to a clinician.  Here are some factors to consider:

1)    Price point – The SLPs at Well Said have different rates, reflecting our different practices.  Some of our clinicians are newer, and are $159 per session.  Some of our clinicians have more experience, and thus are $169 per session.  Our clinic director’s rate is $190.

2)    Areas of focus – Several of our clinicians practice more often in various areas of the field, whereas in some areas of the field, we all provide service. If you are looking for accent modification, voice, or presentation skills, you can probably see any of the clinicians.  If, however, you are looking for more technical work, for example on areas such as transgender voice, swallowing, or voice for performance, you may choose or be assigned to a clinician who has the appropriate practice experience to address those areas with you.

3)    Scheduling – Our clinicians do not work all the same hours.  We have some clinicians who are only here one day per week, some who are here Mon-Thurs, and some clinicians who work Tues-Sat.  

Within Well Said – After You’ve Begun

It’s important to have a good working alliance with your clinician.  While it’s discouraged to jump from clinician to clinician “just to see”, we always advocate for finding a clinician with whom you feel you have a good rapport. If you meet your clinician and feel they may not be right for you, before you go looking for a new clinic, please feel free to ask to meet with a new clinician.  You may find a better fit!  

Please note, in order to provide organized and effective care, it’s best to pick one clinician and stick with them.  We really only advocate for changing clinicians if you feel you don’t have a good fit.  If you do change clinicians, please be prepared to stay with your new clinician for a while and let the relationship develop.  Jumping from clinician to clinician is disruptive to your service for you and the clinicians, and doesn’t allow for seamless improvement on your goals.

How will you know if you have the right clinician? You will feel heard, respected, and generally will feel you are making small improvements each week.  Speech therapy can be hard work, so you may not feel every session is a huge leap in the right direction; however, over a few sessions, you should start to see/hear noticeable changes toward your goals. 

Outside of Well Said

We hope Well Said is able to cover all of your speech-language pathology needs.  However, we recognize we might not always be the best clinic for you.   Perhaps you have come in and loved your service working on accent modification, but now you’re looking for an SLP for your 4 year old son.  Perhaps you know someone who’s had a stroke and requires in-home service.  Perhaps you have a friend in Sudbury who needs an SLP.

In these cases, it’s always helpful to know how to find an SLP who can meet your particular needs.  I’ve had lots of clients ask me how they can find an SLP who suits a need which our clinic does not cover.  As SLPs, we are college registered, which means we adhere to the rules of our college, the College of Audiologists and Speech-Language Pathologists of Ontario.  As such, we are not permitted to make any direct recommendations for a specific SLP; however, we can always share resources for finding SLPs, and from there, you can reach out to get a feel for who might be right for you.

There are two main resources for finding an SLP in Ontario.

1)    SAC - https://www.sac-oac.ca/find-speech-language-pathologist-or-audiologist-service

This is the site for Speech-Language and Audiology Canada.  You can use the “Find a Practitioner” form to search by location, age group, area of clinical practice, and language of service. 

2)    OSLA - https://www.osla.on.ca/en/childirectory

This is the site for the Ontario Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists. Again, you can use the “Find a Practitioner” form to search by area, age group, language, area of practice, and whether or not a practitioner will travel to you.

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Finding the right clinician is one important step toward achieving your speech and language goals!  Please ask us if you need any more assistance in choosing the clinician who is right for you. To speak with one of the speech-language pathologists at Well Said: Toronto Speech Therapy, schedule an initial consultation by clicking the link below or calling (647) 795-5277.

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