A book for SLPs who are ready to connect with their vision, their courage, and their voice.
Melissa Page weaves together her skills as a life coach and her experience as a speech-language pathologist (SLP) as she explores the question of how to thrive in the midst of change across the professional lifespan—whether you’re a newly-minted SLP learning the ropes during your clinical fellowship year, a mid-career practitioner facing a personal or professional challenge, or a department head planning retirement and asking yourself, “What now?”
The manuscript for this book was completed just as a global pandemic, COVID-19, began to turn our lives upside-down. With all the change around us, you may find This SLP Life to be both timely and helpful. But, even when times are not so uncertain, this book was written specifically to help you discover your inner resource and to help you find new purpose and vision for your life.
This SLP Life follows the journeys of 13 different SLPs who are facing change and want to make empowered choices in alignment with their core values. The book is filled with coaching tools and exercises that will allow you to do all of the following:
- Take a deep dive into what truly matters to you
- Name your fears and manage your inner critic in the middle of a big transition
- Handle conflict in a healthy way
- Listen to your internal wisdom
- Find and use your internal and external voice
Many of the exercises successfully transfer to the therapy room—use what you’ve learned to help your students/patients/clients.
Chapter by chapter, This SLP Life explores some of the unique challenges faced by clinicians, researchers, academicians, and administrators who want to navigate their unique path to professional fulfillment with personal integrity.
With many interactive exercises that will take you on your journey, this book will become a resource to which you can return time and time again.
304 pages, paperback
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Reviews
"As a veteran speech-language pathologist, with experience in a variety of pediatric settings, I found This SLP Life to be both insightful and refreshing. Melissa’s love and command for both of her professions (speech-language pathology and life coaching) is deeply obvious as she provides real and practical ways for SLPs to examine ourselves as professionals and as individuals . . . . The vignettes in this book illustrate the author’s exceptional gift of helping others to nurture their own values and truths. While reading, I had the welcome feeling that Melissa was already on my side, coaching and rooting for me each step of the way, as she has done so clearly for other SLPs. I could feel [her] with me, directly but gently probing with insightful questions, then encouraging me as I recognized the new insights that I gained. This SLP Life will help you to find your strengths and gifts as you stay true to yourself and continue your professional and personal growth.
Backed by research and confirmed by clients’ successes, I envision This SLP Life as a manual to help me maintain a healthy work/family/life balance—one that I will refer to periodically throughout my career.
I highly recommend This SLP Life to any SLP who would like a safe environment to explore their passion, purpose and gifts in a goal-driven, challenging, and meaningful way."
—Corinne Cofer, MS, CCC-SLP
"This book is so full of love! Personal, tender, fun, and practical, Melissa Page guides speech-language pathologists along a most rewarding path toward a more meaningful and joyful career and life. Full of stories and examples from the full spectrum of SLP settings, she writes directly to SLPs and the unique challenges and opportunities within our field. This is not a “self-improvement” book. Grounded in the message that we’re already enough, each chapter shows us how to listen deeply to ourselves, to trust what we hear, and to turn that wisdom into action. I am adding this book to my essential SLP bookshelf—a guide to turn to regularly when I’m feeling stuck, burned out, or inspired to tackle a new project. It is a little treasure chest of wisdom and inspiration!"
— Kate Cox, MS, CCC-SLP
"This SLP Life is a great resource for any SLP considering a significant career/life change or challenge. Melissa offers many tools and strategies to help us ask important questions of ourselves, and she gently guides us to understanding how the answers to those questions can inform our decisions and success. She shares her personal experiences as well as those of her clients, providing great examples of how to put coaching tools and strategies into practice as we make new discoveries about ourselves and our goals. I will definitely keep this book on my shelf!"
— Ashley Blevins, MS, CCC-SLP
