Could you be our next team member?
Could you be our next team member?
Speak, Learn and Grow is a place for therapists to grow and to reach their potential. Whether you are a new graduate looking for the right support and wanting to build a strong foundation or an experienced therapist looking to advance your career, Speak Learn & Grow provides a nurturing, fun and supportive environment for you to take your next step.
From the director Kerry Els “One of my personal passions is to build into the next generation of speech therapists. I love that this is what I get to do every day. Learning is one of our core values and that is why we dedicate a lot of time in our schedules to this, including internal PD, external courses, supervision sessions, in-session supervision sessions, peer mentoring, hands-on teaching in combined sessions and personal study time. If you have a growth mindset and love learning, then consider joining our team”.
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Graduation Program
Speak, Learn & Grow has a 20 week graduation program to help you build essential foundational knowledge and skills in your first year of working. This program focuses on building knowledge around the profession and how to navigate being a Speech Pathologist in private practice, as well as building foundational clinical skills. Click here to find out more about the graduation program.
All new graduates build their case load gradually over time. They are initially given time to simply observe other therapists in sessions and then to start treating their own clients. They steadily build up to seeing 3 clients a day, then 4 and finally 5 clients in a day at around 3 – 4 months after starting. This is done at each person’s pace when they feel ready, and they are given individual support and guidance in reaching this goal.
Our graduation program also involves direct, hands on help with clients that a therapist may feel less confident handling on her own. Each term, new graduates select clients that they would like more direct help with. The senior clinician attends the sessions with the new graduate for about 10 weeks. At this stage the graduate can decide if she wants this support to continue or to have this support with a different client.
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Supervision
Each clinician is given individual supervision to focus on her specific needs and questions. Supervision is weekly for at least the first year of working. Thereafter, the clinician decides if she would like to continue with weekly supervision or reduce it to fortnightly.
Kerry Els, the Director and Clinical Supervisor, has attended a number of professional supervision training courses, including Michelle Bihary’s Professional Supervision and Advanced Professional Supervision.
At Speak, Learn and Grow, we embrace the following key principles of Professional supervision, as outlined by Michelle Bihary:
- Professional supervision is uniquely tailored to the learning needs, style and stages of the supervisee
- It is co-created by a supervisee and supervisor
- The primary goal is to best support the professional development and support needs of the supervisee (e.g. this may involve focusing on self-care and prevention of burnout)
- The supervisee is in the driving seat and she determines the direction and focus of the supervision session
- It encourages ‘self-directed learning’ and promotes a culture of life-long learning
- It is a forum for reflection
- It is a space to step back from the day-to-day activity and reflect on how you do your work and how your work is impacting you
We strive to provide a Psychology Safe environment so that supervision can be all that it is meant to be.
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Peer Mentoring
Learning and support come in a variety of forms at Speak, Learn & Grow. Peer Mentoring is part of the learning process and each individual has a part to play in the team’s growth and development. Coming together as peers and sharing your insights, experiences and ideas is a powerful learning tool. This is what our team have had to say about peer mentoring:
“Peer mentoring sessions are a great opportunity to share therapy resources, brainstorm clinical decisions and come together as a team. I have found the sessions very useful this year, particularly for sharing a range of therapy resources and ideas (e.g. online games, books, toys etc.) over a range of clinical practice areas. It has also been a great opportunity to consolidate knowledge, share recent research and reaffirm my clinical learning!” Tiffany
“I have learnt so much from our peer mentoring sessions. I love the ideas that others share that I hadn’t thought of. Some of the therapists are super creative and this helps me think of new ways to target the same goal that I have been working on for a while. I also love the opportunity to share my ideas with others and be of value to my team mates”. Bec
“Peer mentoring is one of my favourite times in my schedule. It allows me to feel connected to the team and learn from them. I have received so many resources that the other therapists put on our shared google drive and this saves me hours of work having to make or find these resources myself. I learn a lot, not only from the team members answering my questions, but also from the questions that other people ask. I’m so grateful that we have these meetings and I know that I have grown a lot In my clinical understanding as a result of them”. Lexi
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Career Development
At Speak, Learn & Grow we don’t simply offer a job, but an opportunity to build your career. You are presented with leadership opportunities and the involvement in projects. We provide clear guidelines in what you need to do to step up to the next level and support you in reaching each of the specific performance indicators.
Growing as a Speech Pathologist can involve so much more than simply growing in your clinical skills and knowledge. It can involve building leaderships skills, training parents and teachers, promoting the profession and getting involved in the community.
“Create the highest, grandest vision possible for your life because you become what you believe” Oprah Winfrey
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Flexible Work Hours
Work life balance is essential in order to have a fulfilling career as a Speech pathologist. At Speak, Learn and Grow, we care about your wellbeing as an individual, not just as a clinician. Consequently, we offer opportunities for flexible work hours. Once therapists are consistently meet expectations, they are able to schedule their sessions around what is important to them, whether it’s leaving early on a Wednesday to go to sports training, starting later in the mornings to get a longer sleep in or having a half day off every week.
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What our team says about working here
“The team at Speak, Learn and Grow is extremely welcoming, fun and friendly. Speak, Learn and Grow offers lots of opportunities to learn, develop and grow as a speech pathologist through joint sessions, peer mentoring, supervision sessions, internal and external professional development. You will feel supported to reach your full potential as a clinician at Speak, Learn and Grow”
– Elaria
“Speak Learn and Grow has offered me great learning opportunities to grow and build myself as a Speech Pathologist. Supervision sessions, peer mentoring and professional development have supported my learning. We also get to participate in team building days and social events throughout the year which I have really enjoyed. The team at Speak Learn Grow have been welcoming and supportive.”
– Fatima
“Speak, Learn and Grow has been a great place to learn and grow as a speech pathologist. There have been lots of opportunities for professional development and I have felt greatly supported by Kerry, the other speech pathologists and the administration staff. I have enjoyed working with this friendly and fun team and enjoy our termly social events, which has included games nights, breakfasts and escape rooms.”
– Alexis
“As a new graduate, Speak Learn and Grow was the perfect place to start off my career as a speechie due to the incredibly warm and supportive environment. My skills as a therapist continue to develop every single day and I owe a lot of that to other therapists for guiding me. The New Graduate program was a helpful tool and the mentoring and supervision meetings have allowed me to guide my own learning in the directions I choose. The team building days are a fun way to develop friendships with all the team members. I never thought I would love coming to work as much as I do here!”
– Nicole
“Working at Speak, Learn and Grow has allowed me to continually build my professional development with supervision and exceptional mentoring by Kerry and the staff. The clinic provides great resources to support the entire team, which is very friendly and encouraging. As a growing clinician you will see a wide range of clients and be a part of a supportive environment. I would highly recommend Speak, Learn and Grow to speech pathologists looking to join a fun team and grow their skills!”
– Tiffany
“Speak, Learn and Grow has provided me with the opportunity to expand upon what I am learning at university and how it applies into practice. Kerry and the team have been so supportive and provide endless resources to help me provide the best care and treatment to my clients, while also improving my professional development. Speak, Learn and Grow provides a fun, friendly environment and all the clinicians make sure that all therapy assistants, like me, are supported in their clinical practice and university studies.”