By Stephanie Zalich, M.S. CF-SLP, Speech & Language Pathologist
This week we say goodbye to one of our sweet friends. One would think that seeing a client move away or get discharged would be a pretty non-emotional step in every-day business life. However, for the therapists at AASL, we sometimes find that we are quite emotional over these departures. These children we serve, we see them 1,2 and even 3 times every week for months and sometimes years. We pour care and concern into our sessions and strive to help them in every way possible. Our hearts hurt when they have a rough day or session; leaving us to contemplate how we could’ve set up the session differently and how we could’ve helped them be more successful. Our hearts flutter with excitement when we get to report to mom or dad that they had an amazing session. We love nothing more than seeing a child flourish and carry over their skills into their everyday life.
So today, we say goodbye with tears in our eyes and try to remember that we are sending a completely different child to his new home from the one who walked in our door 10 months ago. We remind each other that he’s accomplished so many great things during his time with us and we pray for his continued success and happiness wherever life takes him. We will keep in our hearts that sweet smiling face, the hard work, the progress, the trials and the laughter and keep moving forward with love for all of our families that we are honored to work with.
