Embracing Wholeheartedness in Your Clinical Practice and Leadership
Connection and building relationships is our stock in trade as speech and language therapists. Everything we do requires us to be able to build rapport and trust quickly with our clients, our colleagues and other professions. It’s core to our professional skills. In more normal times, our therapeutic use of self is replenished easily, not least by the support and rapport we have with our colleagues.
These are, of course, profoundly not normal times. More is demanded of us as therapists, whether we are working face to face in PPE or from behind a screen, than ever before. It’s easy to feel isolated, overwhelmed and wrung out. We need our teams and our network of support, and in turn to have the capacity to give support to others.
Wholeheartedness is a concept which comes from world-reknowned researcher Brene Brown’s groundbreaking work around vulnerability, empathy and courage. It is an approach which encourages professionals to think differently about rapport and engagement and how we choose what parts of ourselves we share with others. It has been adopted widely by some of the largest global corporations, and in the US military. It has resonance which could be useful for your clinical practice and in how you engage with and support the other members of your team.
In this month’s Magpies CPD Webinar, Angharad Welch from Find The Key SLT talks about Brown’s “Dare to Lead” work, and thinks about how this can apply to the SLT context. She discusses strategies you can try out in your clinical practice, with clients, colleagues and other professionals. And she reflects on the advantages that adopting aspects of this work has brought to her own clinical practice.
Charity donations
It is our pleasure to offer you access to this great CPD free of charge - but we are also taking the opportunity to raise money for a charity close to the speaker's heart, and we invite you to make a small donation in recognition of Angharad's time and generosity. Angharad has nominated the Hereford and Worcester Animal Rescue Centre, which is her local dog rescue charity. Like many small charities, the HWARC has not been able to hold many of the fund-raising activities which it would normally rely on because of the lockdown restrictions, and has more limited access to volunteers. They are excited to receive any donations we can raise from this event, which will have an immediate benefit to the dogs in their care. You can find out more about the charity here.
The link to make a donation is: https://www.gofundme.com/f/magpies-webinar-wholeheartedness
Angharad is a Speech and Language Therapist who specialises in working with children with complex medical conditions, learning and physical disability. She hosts online training courses for teachers and others, as part of her thriving independent SLT practice Find the Key SLT in the Herefordshire area.
Angharad is passionate about empowering parents and families to understand and navigate the world of special educational needs.
Notes and resources from the live workshop session
We will continue to add to these resources - please let us know if you know of something that would be a useful addition here.
Dr Brené Brown's website: https://brenebrown.com/
Dare to Lead Hub resources: https://daretolead.brenebrown.com/
Why Won't You Apologise? by Harriet Lerner: Book website
Dr Carol Bruess - Love Languages: Short article
Simon Sinek - Circles of Safety: TED talk video