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Holiday Gratitude from an SLP

During the holidays, many of us took the time to send more personal messages of gratitude to one another. One of these messages, however, is just too good not to share, not only for its sentiment, but also because it so perfectly articulates the journey so many of the SLPs we work with have taken in their careers with PresenceLearning. Lis Viehweg sent the following to Melissa Jakubowitz, VP of Clinical Services.

Thank you, Lis, for letting me share your words and for all your hard work.

Dear Melissa,
 
Thank you for your very generous words — they arrived at the end of a particularly long day (and week) and provided me with a boost I hadn’t even recognized I needed! I am just passing my one-year anniversary of my original hiring with PL and had been thinking about what a different position I find myself in now than I did then. Back then, I remember my skepticism about whether I would be a good fit for teletherapy. I was intrigued by the concept, but unsure about my own ability to adapt to its structure. I was coming back to practice after taking time off to raise a daughter, go to culinary school, and pursue training in diversity/cultural competency work. So not only did I need to re-calibrate to a different model of service delivery, I was simultaneously in a “re-entry phase” of my career. When I was assigned my first caseload this fall, I accepted it eagerly, but also with some trepidation. After these almost-three months, I can tell you that my fears have evaporated and I am hooked not only with the teletherapy model, but more specifically with PresenceLearning itself. While I was waiting for an assignment from the company, I worked over the summer doing early intervention with a local private practice that also does school-age teletherapy. They offered an opportunity to provide teletherapy services during the school year, and so I looked into their infrastructure for service delivery and compared it to the PresenceLearning platform. Of course, there was no comparison. Needless to say, it reinforced my decision to put all of my eggs in the PresenceLearning basket.
 
During my first SLP career (of 19 years), I was highly specialized and I was very fortunate to work on several elite teams with highly trained professionals:  SLPs, OTs, PTs, Educators, Social Workers, just to name a few. Our areas of expertise were relatively unusual and uncharted at that time, including EI, pediatric oral-motor/feeding/swallowing, and AAC. That was my additional apprehension when I crossed the PresenceLearning threshold: would I have the opportunity to work alongside colleagues who would push my thinking and practice? Let me tell you, I have been onboarded with PresenceLearning by the best — Teri Becker, Gila Cohen-Shaw, Kristin Martinez — and I even received a magical mentor, Cathy Moore. How lucky could I get, I wondered… I have again landed within a team of extremely well-trained and supremely professional colleagues! They are the reason that I feel successful and always well-supported. They are unfailingly patient — and believe me, I’ve tested it! Last, but not least, I have also received patient tutoring from Tech Support and because of it, I feel so much more confident navigating the platform and problem-solving independently when a tech issue arises. It helps so much to know they are always within “chat distance.”

So- I am thanking you, Melissa, and your cohorts for creating this PresenceLearning World for clinicians like me who want to continue to work at an elite level with cutting-edge technology.

Enjoy the holiday season and thank you again for taking the time to send kind words to me.

Say It Well and With Laughter,

Lis
Lis Viehweg M.A./CCC-SLP

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