Stress Center Peer Support

I just finished my first year working at an extraordinarily stressful school (I'm a speech therapist). It just gets more and more difficult and I feel like I know even less how to do my job as the children I've gotten this year are more impaired. The school is an "open" school, which means parents can observe through one-way mirrors the whole time if they want--and half of my students' parents do

This stresses me out like crazy because not only am I a new clinician but some of the parents are extremely critical, hostile and angry. I know they're upset and feel out of control because of their children's diagnoses on the autism spectrum, but I feel like I can't take this constant stress and working in a fishbowl anymore.

I've been trying to do relaxation CDs, meditation...nothing is working lately. I've been seeing a therapist for anxiety--social, specifically--and I feel like I've gotten worse in the last month. I just can't relax, much less enjoy my life. I constantly feel inadequate and it's making me sick--emotionally and physically.

I want so badly to escape. I could look for another job but my husband and I are thinking of starting a family in the next couple of years. If I found a great job elsewhere I'd just have to leave when the baby came. I'm still on the fence about the baby thing too--the idea of a person growing inside me is terrifying and I feel like I'd also be a prime candidate for Post Partum Depression.

Help?!?

Leda,

I searched in my Favorites. I knew I had a link. Here it is. I hope it helps.

<A HREF="http://health.yahoo.com/experts/healthi ... e-minutes/" TARGET=_blank>http://health.yahoo.com/experts/healthi ... inutes/</A>

Hi Leda. You are really in high gear here. Everything that is going on wrong, you have the steering wheel, and you are the one who is doing what's upsetting you. As an occupational therapist, I know exactly what you are talking about. Who cares what the people watching are thinking? You cannot control them, anyway. If you know your job, and I know you do , then do it. You are not there to impress parents, or teachers, or other therapists. You are there to help those children. I've been a therapist for 30+ years, and I only worked once in a school (in Palm Springs, California). So, I do have that little bit of experience to know this: Children who need speech therapy, or occupational therapy, NEED THE THERAPIST'S FULL ATTENTION. Don't worry about anything else. You help those children. You teach them to do all the things they need to learn and practice. Your intervention right now is what will help their lives be better, will help them be better equipped to have a better life. When parents can see a therapist is dedicated, they will back off (most of the time). My specialty area is upper extremity rehabilitation. I have spent most of my OT career in that area. Orthopedic surgeons have often watched me while I worked. Didn't bother me. I know how to do what I do. They know how to do surgery. We aren't trying to impress each other. We are trying to fix someone's upper extremity injury. You take the parts of this program that most help you understand that concept, and you mark them in your journal. One of these years you will be telling a new speech pathologist what I've just told you. Focus on the children's disabilities. That is your objective.
As for whether you and your husband have a child, that's a new issue. Why don't you let that one go for awhile and focus on working through this program, and being the best speech therapist you can be. Best of luck.