How #SaLTbookGrp was planted and grew an orchard of thoughts out of
“Speech and LanguageTherapy and Professional Identity-Challenging Received Wisdom”
Eds Jane Stokes and Marion McCormick, Pub. J and R Press 2016
Earth
Hitting the ground literally on Christmas Night 2019, breaking my neck and back, a complicated recovery ensued. I released my PhD studies, all my forces needed, just to be. After some months, encouraged by the warm reaction to a vimeo I made during Lockdown 1 (Flying A Hug https://vimeo.com/405589052) , I branched out, made new friends on twitter. One such is SLT Wardah Farrah, we talk storytelling, SLT, children’s drawings and books.
Seed
Wardah quoted the end of a particular book to me that I already treasured and had begun, but abandoned when my focus failed me post cervical and thoracic fractures. Inscribed by Jane Stokes a few years before with her best wishes, and the hope that it would inspire ‘a yes or two’ in me, it now beckoned. I still had not enough concentration to manage it alone and turned to twitter and facebook. I sought two or three co-readers and suggested, we meet monthly. No pressure.
Bud
The online conversation I was suggesting needed a name, #SaLTBookGrp it became. It was March 2019, I added a pink tulip emoji to sign Spring, new growth, openness. About twelve joined as we began on zoom on March 1st 2021.Thrilling. I shared three guiding principles, learnt from eleven years of living and working in Camphill intentional communities, which I shared with each new member: 1) I’m wanting conversation not just opinions or debate 2) I’m inviting people to listen and reflect what the previous speaker says before adding another aspect. 3) I’m interested in creating something together by the end of the meeting. The form is simple: we say hello, divide into small breakout groups of 3 or 4, and re-group at the end with an agreed spokesperson from each conversation offering a summing up. When there’s really few of us, we all just chip in and support each other.
Blossom
By the next meeting, in April 2021, fifty had joined. Amazing. J and R press offered a generous %15 discount on the book. Over eighty joined. We split into two large groups to divide into smaller breakout groups. Many tho’ never turned up. That still feels a bit strange, but, as one wise member said: ‘life just takes over’. We are lately 12 to 25 a time – good to be able to take each other in. Once after sending everyone into breakout rooms, I almost immediately inadvertently called them all back and was met with rows of bemused faces.
SLT Izzie Shaw took on to chair with me which has been hugely appreciated. We have met very regularly on the first Tuesday of each month, except for Ramadan, after New Year and Shrove Tuesday. It was special when one of the authors joined us: Dr Sophie Mackenzie for her chapter on Spirituality. The other topics, in case you don’t know the book are: Reflective Practice (Marion McCormick); Supervision ( Jane Stoles), to Intervene or Not ( Aoife Gallagher) , Sociocultural perspectives on SLT and Education ( Deirdre Martin & Jane Stokes); Cultural & Linguistic Diversity (Stokes) , Gender ( Chris Markham & Catherine Neal), Use of Video in SLT ( Keena Cummins) & the Concept of Service ( Jane Stokes).
Members come from many parts of England and Wales and from Spain. As SLT2B Cerys tweeted: “I was worried about joining after missing the last 2 chapters but because the chapters are different it was like I’d never left.” Three main developments that I perceived are mentioned here, in note form:
1)Personal Impacts included:
- An hour of connection, challenge and a new, already a true community of colleagues ready to chart new waters. @deborahberzins
- Really enjoyed attending today, my group made me feel so welcomed despite some minor anxieties! Great discussions…one on vulnerability based trust. @FatimahBH
- Feeling really quite emotional after our first #SaLTBookGrp This group has come along at a time when a lot of the themes covered in the intro have frequently been on my mind as an SLT @Amber_M_SLT
- ok chapter 6 is just wow…Spirituality aspect is totally fascinating!In Islam, we believe Prophet Moses PBUH had a stammer @ShafaqHassanSLT
- 24 hours later and my mind is still whirring. Partnership, autonomy, transparency… the need to be a little bit braver @jenniwren_hall
- The experience most frequently expressed is that it feels ‘a safe place’ to express oneself, ‘for valuable professional conversations’ @JoWallinger
- Challenging, supportive, generative @SaLTbytheSea
- Interesting and particularly relevant to my experience – male SLT.
- Wonderful book club experience, meeting new people, hearing ideas, sharing knowledge.@SLTinSEND
2)A Few Professional Insights:
- Many have mentioned their appreciation of meeting with #SLT2Bs and the fresh ( sometimes painful) experiences they bring from trainings and placements.
- When it came to talking about Diversity, we got lots of support from @SLTtime @SLTscolour, but only one SLT of colour was able to come. We felt we still have much to learn from the : ‘lack of cultural & linguistic diversity in SLT…discussed for 25yrs in the UK. Small changes have occurred…still the majority of SLTs are white, female&monolingual.’ Jane Stokes p76
- Reflective practice: (Easter). So much to think about…How to be honest, truthful and unedited in reflective discussions with other people? How to make sure it changes practice? How to sit with the discomfort and let it change us.@susanthomsonslt
- Therapists as critical autonomous thinkers are imperative.@SLTTina
- “ The connected space between therapist and client is where spirituality can be found. ” siobhanray.co.uk
- Supervision is oxygen!@your_headspace
- Conclusion: a humbling and thought provoking chapter that leaves us questioning ‘helping’ and thinking critically about help. @Jenni Hall
3)Quotes tweeted by members:
Parts of them became like mantras! Apologies that some references are incomplete. Tweeters and/ or Chapters are included, where possible.
- “Story-telling is a human response to making sense of what is happening.”@bangerasai
- ’The quizzical problem with language disabilities is that language is both the tool for learning and the artefact that must be developed.’@leanneSLP
- “Silence is a strong form of stimulation….in the adult remaining silent … the child has time to think and do….We can reframe silence.…’ Ch 4
- ‘There is a tendency for supervision to focus on the doing of therapy rather than the being or becoming a therapist’ Ch 3
- ‘Are teaching & therapy the same thing? Ch 5
- From the paragraph that Wardah originally quoted to me: ‘Seeing yourself as a fixer may cause you to see brokenness everywhere…when we serve we see the unborn wholeness in others…’.- Rachel Naomi Remen Ch 9
- ‘…the development of professional identity, individually and collectively is a process….intimately linked with a collaborative ethos’. – In Conclusion by Jane Stokes and Marion McCormick
Fruit
As I write this in late March, birds are beginning to build their nests again. Blackbirds are fighting over territory and bombs are falling on Ukraine. Families are starving or about to in Somalia, Yemen, Madagascar, Afghanistan and elsewhere.…Civil War rages in Ethiopa, and numerous conflicts still storm while the global crisis deepens. Deprivation and cruelty are also going strong in the UK, as the spate of child murders in the last few years prove.
Adrienne Rich’s words, read during my twenties come to mind:
“My heart is moved by all I cannot save:
so much has been destroyed
I have to cast my lot with those
who age after age, perversely,
with no extraordinary power,
reconstitute the world.”
We found some empowerment in reading this book together. These meetings, I understand from members’ emails and tweets, have left us challenged and accepted. Communication in between is important I found: getting to know new members so as to welcome and acknowledge them on joining and replying to people’s aplos for not attending, whether it be because of an injured pet, child, surprise birthday outing, lack of childcare, feeling overwhelmed, sick or being stuck on a bus!
Thank you #SaLTBookGrp for practising with me this ancient, nourishing art of peacekeeping: conversation. Thank you JR Publishers. Thank you Jane and Marion for your epic editing and skilful writing and to all the contributors. We marvelled again and again at how deftly and succinctly you wrote and what you emitted from us. We were really grateful for all the research references.
Thanks RCSLT Bulletin for being curious about how we got on.
This book seems to have left us with more questions than answers. I think is exactly what it set out to do. It also gave 12 to 60 of us, who joined at various times, a place to offer ‘such a wide range of different and equally valid experiences’ (@Jan003).
Louise Coigley SLT www.lisntell.co.uk March 21st 2022
For more quotes, insights and experiences do vist #SaLTBookGrp on twitter.
We re-start online on Tuesday May 9th at 8pm-9.15pm and are reading Dr Kathryn Mannix’s new book. When the idea was mentioned by Susan, it was immediately taken up. Dr Mannix has graciously agreed to be with us in session 3, on 5th July 2022 to answer questions on: ‘Listen’.
Feel free to join by contacting @SusanThomson or @ginni_bb on twitter or email susan.thomson29@nhs.net Thanks for reading!