8 Lifestyle Benefits of Working as a Speech Pathologist
Working as a Speech Pathologist is a highly rewarding career. The work you do will have an impact on the lives of the clients, families, and communities you work with for a lifetime.
If you’re considering a career in Speech Pathology but want to get a better idea of the lifestyle on offer in the profession, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve rounded up eight of the best lifestyle benefits of working as a Speech Pathologist. Give them a read and find out if Speech Pathology is the career for you.
1. Flexible Work Hours
One of the (many) benefits of working as a Speech Pathologist is the flexible work hours available to you. Some Speech Pathologists choose to work part-time, some full-time, and others customise their work hours to suit their lifestyle preferences.
When you find a workplace that supports you in creating your ideal work week, you know that you’ve found an incredible lifestyle opportunity as a Speech Pathologist.
2. Being Creative Everyday
If creativity is important to you, you’ll be pleased to know that your creative talents will be called on every day that you’re working as a Speech Pathologist.
One day your creativity may show through in the development and design of new resources for a therapy activity. On other days, you may find your creativity coming in handy when you’re scaffolding up or scaffolding down a therapy activity in-the-moment with a client.
The creative energy and ideas you bring to your career as a Speech Pathologist will serve you well and will allow you to enjoy an incredible work lifestyle that values creative thinking.
3. Working in a Variety of Settings
The ability to work in a variety of settings as a Speech Pathologist may have been the thing that originally piqued your interest in the field. It’s rare that you’re able to find a profession with this much opportunity for flexibility and variety!
You may choose to start your career working in one area, and then throughout the course of your career you may move into completely different areas or work with different populations. This is one of the best lifestyle benefits of working as a Speech Pathologist in our view.
Here’s a quick guide to some of the settings you can work in as a qualified Speech Language Pathologist:
- Early Intervention Programs
- Public Schools
- Private Schools
- Private Practice (that’s us!)
- Hospital Inpatient
- Hospital Outpatient
- Community Centres
- Rehab Centres
- Home Health Agencies (mobile work)
- Non-Profit Agencies
- Skilled Nursing Facilities
4. Ongoing Educational Opportunities
If you love learning and see growth and development being an important factor in your long-term job satisfaction, you’ll be a great fit for a career as a Speech Pathologist.
In Australia, you’ll need to meet set requirements for annual professional development to maintain your status as a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist with Speech Pathology Australia. Regardless of your chosen workplace setting, your employer will need to support you in pursuing these Continuing Professional Development opportunities.
According to Speech Pathology Australia’s requirements, you’ll need to accrue a minimum of 20 Continuing Professional Development (CPD) points per membership year. For more information on this, visit Speech Pathology Australia.
As an example, for ongoing educational opportunities at SpeechEase we offer our team members paid registration at the following courses:
- Introduction to PODD & Alternate Access
- SOS Approach to Feeding
- Hanen More Than Words
- Introduction to Auslan
- Introduction to Prompt
- Sounds Write
For more information on how we support and develop our team members at SpeechEase, visit our Careers page.
5. Time to Look After Family
Whether you have a young family or hope to have a family of your own one day, being a Speech Pathologist can provide you with the flexibility you desire.
On top of setting flexible working hours with your workplace, there is now more opportunity than ever before to provide highly engaging teletherapy services. Some workplaces may also allow their Speech Pathologists to complete report writing and other administrative tasks from home, further opening up the opportunity to be available for your family when you need to be.
6. Opportunity to Explore Your Interests
After you find your feet in the Speech Pathology world you may find that there’s an area that draws you in so much so that you’d like to build up your skillset in it. To create the lifestyle of your dreams while working as a Speech Pathologist, you might find that focusing your skills in a certain area incredibly useful.
For example, you may choose to explore supporting people with the following concerns:
- Swallowing
- Stroke
- Early Language Intervention
- Stuttering
- Motor Speech Disorders
- Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)
This is only a snapshot of the different areas you can explore in more depth as a Speech Pathologist. Keep researching and pay attention to what piques your interest throughout your career to guide you towards an area you could develop your skills in.
7. Collaborating with Multi-Disciplinary Teams
As a Speech Pathologist you’ll benefit from collaborating with other Allied Health Professionals where required. You may have the pleasure of collaborating and learning from Occupational Therapists, Physios, Psychologists, and Dieticians as part of your role as a Speech Pathologist.
If you love learning from others and are fascinated by the different ways in which multi-disciplinary teams can work together to deliver client outcomes, you’ll love this benefit of working as a Speech Pathologist.
8. You Can Work For Yourself
Last but certainly not least on our list of lifestyle benefits is the opportunity to work for yourself. If business ownership is something that appeals to you, Speech Pathology is an ideal profession for it.
Of course, we’d always recommend building your skillset and experience in the field before opening your own practice, but it’s an exciting pathway to consider when planning for your ideal career.
At SpeechEase, one of the career pathways that we offer our team, aside from being High Income Earners, is the option to partner with us in the development and running of a new SpeechEase Speech Therapy clinic.
Find out more about the different career pathways we offer team members on our Careers page.
We hope you’ve found this guide to the lifestyle benefits of working as a Speech Pathologist helpful. Whether you’re still contemplating a career in Speech Pathology or are studying hard at University, we think you’ll find our list of traits that all good Speech Therapists have interesting. Make sure to check it out!
Disclaimer
All information is general in nature.
