Dumped

My adult client left me. She’s an older African American woman who has an amazing life story, but somehow things didn’t work out between us.

It all started in January when I gave her a standardized language test as part of a diagnostic evaluation. She felt it was an intelligence test and she said she was insulted despite my many assurances that it was not in any way an intelligence test. She continued to come to therapy and things were okay for awhile. However, other issues came up, such as her bringing her schoolwork for me to edit rather than doing actual therapy for her articulation disorder. And one day she was confrontational, going back to the language test and then she also suggested that I was racist. I was pretty much in tears, lips quivering and everything. Last week we had a conference that included my supervisor and we resolved everything. We revealed the results of the standardized testing and she also agreed to do therapy activities instead of her homework. She apologized for being “harsh” about the testing. Everything was great.

Then this week, she didn’t show up for our Monday session and when my supervisor called her she said she wanted a new therapist. ??? She had a long conversation with my supervisor and apparently she feels that I look down on her because she doesn’t have a college degree. She also feels that there’s a power struggle between us and that she’s going to lose so she wants a new clinician. ????? My supervisor is fully supporting me and is hoping that the client will be switched to a different day of the week so that she doesn’t have to deal with her.

I am a student clinician. My clinical skills are still developing, but I haven’t done anything to justify her accusations. Honestly, I think she is just very sensitive to issues of race and is hyperaware that her speech isn’t perfect. She is paranoid that people think she isn’t intelligent because she speaks African American English and because she has articulation issues.

Anyway, now I only have two clients to think about.

And this weekend is the start of Spring Break (yay!), although I’ll be at the annual conference held by the Michigan Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

Friday seminars I’m attending:

- Outcomes That Count in Aphasia Intervention: Ideas and Applications
The speaker is Aura Kagan, from the Aphasia Institute in Toronto!

- Differential Diagnosis of Speech and Language Disorder vs. Linguistic Difference

Saturday seminars:

- Medical Speech-Language Pathology Forum

- Self-Rehabilitation Following a Supra-Cricoid Laryngectomy: A Case Study

- Developing the Role of Speech-Language Pathology Services in Palliative Care

The best part is going for free as a student volunteer. And of course, free stuff from the booths : D