ASHA

How cool is it that my best friend from HS happens to be a speech path, too?!? I guess I kinda just copied her professional path, five years after she lead the way, but it's worked out pretty nicely for us so far. And it means we got to take a "work trip" together to Denver the annual ASHA convention last weekend.

Rach + Jo, PDX -> DEN

ASHA 2015, Colorado Convention Center

The conference was every bit as over-stimulating as I worried. I heard there were just over 14,000 people in attendance. It was hosted at the Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver and also included sessions at a few of the neighboring hotels. I earned all remaining 21 hours of continuing education credits I need to renew my license before next month. And my brain hurt.

I learned about the role of early trauma on the development of executive functions, about the challenges of military culture on assessing and treating mTBI (duh), the role of resilience in rehabilitation (I have ZERO of the major qualities associated with resilience and positive prognostics, so here's hoping I never have a TBI or stroke), differential diagnosis for aphasia versus "confused speech" in TBI, Goal Attainment Scaling and a proposed app to assist with streamlining this approach to creating treatment goals. I was impressed by two Masters level SLPs who presented meditation as the missing link in neurorehab.

And concussion, concussion, and more concussion. Truth is, I could have presented many of those sessions, and I nary learned a new thing from those. Which I suppose is a good thing of sorts, meaning I actually know what I'm doing and am mostly up to speed on the latest and greatest clinical research.

I was somewhat disappointed with myself, and the lack of fire lit under my ass. I was hoping to leave exhausted, but inspired. Instead I left overwhelmed and eager to lay on my couch and watch the new-old huge TV that my in-laws installed while I was gone.

My only major take-away is that I am (finally) going to pursue developing group education for the OIF/OEF/OND veterans returning to school, and also look into piloting a modified-MBSR program for the veterans with mTBI/PTSD and subjective cognitive difficulties.

I did get to see a few familiar faces and former instructors, but mostly I attended sessions, texted with Rachel, and then hid out in dark and dusty corners of the massive conference center to recover between auditory assaults.

Rachel learned she needs to wear glasses. And the most interesting thing she saw was a black man. This isn't racist, let me explain. Everyone familiar with the profession knows that nearly 95% of SLPs are women. Of the 25 or so people in my graduate program, there was one dude, and he failed out. And while most of the SLPs in the NW certainly don't boast a broad spectrum of color, I did assume that the rest of the US provided for more diversity in the profession. Needless to say, I saw only a handful of black women, I was told there was a subgroup of Latina women (bilinguality is an attribute in this business), and maybe a few guys here and there. So when Rach told me she saw a black man, we were both like, "wow, what's he doing here!?"

The other major perk of my weekend in Denver was a stay with Stac and her family. I got to see and hang out with her kids without the constant chattering of my own kiddo, and was so impressed at how stable and happy the Shine Family seems in the chaos that is their life with 2 littles, demanding jobs, and a huge dog/house to take care of.

Selfie with Everett, 12 months.

Vivi, 2.5 years old, has got her Mama's fashion sense, with a bit less modesty.