"I urge you to be teachers so that you can join with the children as co-collaborators in a plot to build a little place of ecstasy and  poetry and gentle joy."

                                                Jonathan Kozol

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I call myself a communication therapist even though the official term for the profession is a speech pathologist. The word “pathologist” doesn’t resonate with me as it suggests seeing people through the lens of disease rather than as neurodiverse individuals, some of whom have speech/language/communication/literacy challenges that accompany their unique strengths. For that reason, I prefer the term "communication therapist"( as oral speech is not the only modality through which people can communicate). I also resonate with Phuong Palafox's term "speech-language advocate" and am comfortable with being called a speech therapist, as it is a commonly known, non-pathologizing term, even though it does not reflect the entirety of what people in our profession do.  My mission is to help de-pathologize the field of speech pathology, and my vision is to transform it into the field of liberation communication therapy.

 

Traditionally, this field has been based on a medical model. I believe it’s time for a paradigm shift and choose to base my services on a more holistic model that includes the social model of disability/social justice model, which involves meeting people's needs based upon equity rather than tethering my availability to serve them upon necessitating that they be labeled or “qualify for services” based upon insurance or school policy qualification guidelines. These days, my involvement with the field is primarily as a professor at San Francisco State University.

 

I see unconditional love/ acceptance and active listening as the ideal starting points for mentoring people and envision our profession expanding, as psychological therapy has done, to meet the needs of a broad, diverse range of people.  Taking brain-based education, the impact of positive emotions, and somatic self-regulation into account, I also believe in the integration of work and play. As much as possible, I want the people I mentor to enjoy learning and to foster the love of life-long learning. I coined the word “plurk”( play + work = plurk) to reflect this and created a character named Plurk too.