Not Just For Kids: How Speech Therapy Helps Adults Thrive
Author: Kendra Wormald, Reg. CASLPO Speech Language Pathologist
Date: Wednesday, April 30, 2025
Table of Contents
Colleges
Skills and Experience
Environment
Psychology of Language (Psycholinguistics)
Nonverbal Communication
Professional Communication
Professional Voice Coaching
What Limits Services Offered?
When first meeting with clients, I repeatedly hear the phrase “I’m not sure if X is related or something you can help with … ". Eight out of ten times, SLPs can indeed help you with X challenge or refer you to another SLP or healthcare provider that could. However, there are parameters that do limit how a Speech Therapist can support you.
Colleges
SLPs are governed and regulated by a health College. These Colleges may differ depending on the area you live. For example, I live in Ontario, so because I wrote and passed the exam for an Ontario SLP license, I can only offer SLP services to those whose permanent address is in Ontario.
Our clinic also offers Communication Coaching and Consulting, so you may still be able to get support living outside of Ontario. However, you would not be able to claim these services under SLP for health insurance purposes.
As a result of being governed by a College, there are certain rules and regulations we must uphold, just as a Doctor or Lawyer would for their own respective professional Colleges.
Among various other regulations and rules, we as SLPs are upheld to Ethical Principles. Although your SLP is there to support you with education, modelling and feedback, you are in charge of your own session, at all times. No matter of the type of support you are receiving, your SLP must abide by the following:
(Taken directly from CASLPO (2025))
Patient Autonomy: respect and acknowledge the rights of patients/clients to make informed choices and decisions about their healthcare
Patient Benefit: protect and act in the BEST interest of the clients/patients using knowledge, skill and judgement to provide quality, competent care and treating all patients justly and fairly
Accountability: Take personal responsibility for behavior actions and decisions, including supervision. Act with integrity and be responsible for advancing public trust in the professions
Do No Harm: be diligent in efforts to assess risk of harm, and whenever possible, prevent harm from occurring
An example of something that would be outside the SLP’s scope of practice would be providing therapy between you and your partner who are in an argument, or even tell you how to deal with the issue. In this situation what an SLP could do, is provide support in development of skills such as: active listening, pausing to reflect and plan speech, how much information to share at a time, how to structure your speech clearly, using tone, volume, and nonverbal cues that align with your message.
Skills and Experience
Even if an SLP has the ability within the general scope of practice to provide a service, it may not be within their personal scope of practice. If an SLP isn’t comfortable, educated or competent in the service, they should decline. SLPs ethically have a ‘duty to refer’ if they are unable to provide the service.
Environment
Personally, I only provide services virtually. Although there are several competencies I have within the general and personal scope of practice, I am not able to provide these services virtually. For example, it would be unethical, inaccurate and incomprehensive, to provide any services in feeding and swallowing virtually.
The client’s environment may also shift what we focus on. For example, providing trans-affirming care in a household that is not supportive, it may be recommended to do the session within a different location. The client should feel safe, secure and comfortable to speak freely and practice skills throughout the entire session.
Unique SLP Services
Psychology of Language (Psycholinguistics): The study of how people understand, produce and acquire language, process language in real time, use memory, attention, and navigate communication across social contexts.
Speech Therapy Examples:
Understanding and supporting how the brain processes language differently for the ADHD structured brain. Recommend and practice strategies for remembering short term information such as what someone had just said, or staying focused while listening during a meeting.
You experience anticipatory anxiety around stuttering, fearing it to happen, which may actually increase the likelihood of you stuttering. An SLP can address your thoughts, emotions and behaviors around fluency - taking a cognitive behavioural therapy - informed approach.
One of your responsibilities for work is presentations, however whenever you present your heart races, your breaths become shorter and you start thinking about a previous unsuccessful presentation, you can’t remember what you wanted to say and speak too quickly with low volume. Communication anxiety can directly impact your communication behaviours. An SLP can help you challenge automatic negative thoughts, support breathing techniques while speaking and optimize pausing, pacing and tonality. Discussing the actual skill but also the impact these skills or the aforementioned behaviour may be interpreted by others
Nonverbal Communication: The way we convey messages, emotions and intentions without using spoken or written language. Including: Facial expressions, eye contact, body language, tone of voice, gestures, touch, space and silence. Your verbal and nonverbals are equally as important, and should send the same message.
Speech Therapy Examples:
Ensuring your facial expressions match your tone and intentions. If you frown while expressing how happy you are - it will confuse the listening which could break down communication.
Someone is telling you a personal story on a date, you cross your arms and divert your eyes quickly - this communicates disinterest or defensiveness. But maybe you were just getting comfortable and something caught your attention briefly.
Your tone may be flat, which you think makes you sound relaxed, cool even - however this can communicate disinterest or a low mood
Professional Communication: How and why you communicate at work can play an integral role in establishing and building respect and relations with colleagues, clients and stakeholders. Consider the kinds of interactions you have at work and which are hardest for you: collaboration, negotiations, speaking to executives, assertive communication, problem solving, presentations, leading a team, virtual v.s. in-person communication?
You know a lot about the topic everyone has been trying to problem solve around for a few days. In each conversation you continue to interrupt others but you do it to provide what you feel is important information that needs to be shared at that time. Others may see this as rude, inconsiderate or selfish. Work with an SLP to practice how to pause between the impulse and communicating, take a breath, acknowledge what the other person just said, and relate it to what you wanted to share. This way you have time to think through what and how you want to say something, doesn’t disrupt the flow of conversation, and demonstrates active listening and respect to others.
You want to send an email to your colleague, the type of email you CC HR on. Something happened that made you angry and upset so you started typing away. Your sentences are long, run on, ungrammatical and fueled with emotion. An SLP can provide frameworks, encourage reflection of email intention and develop problem-solving and perspective-taking skills.
You are preparing for an interview for the first time in 10 years. You don’t know how much information to share so you tend to overshare, go on tangents and then forget what the question was. You can’t think of personal examples on the spot or know how to address a curveball kind of question. An SLP can not only help you in your voice confidence such as tone, pacing, volume and emphasis, but also how to structure your interview response.
Professional Voice Coaching: Enhancing voice use for occupational, performance or personal communication.
You’re a teacher having to ask for attention over the noise of students talking. By midday your throat feels tight, dry and tired, and it gets harder and harder to speak louder. Sometimes you completely lose your voice by the end of the day. An SLP can provide you specific warm-ups and suggest ways to support vocal hygiene such as water intake, avoiding irritants such as smoking or reflux, avoiding throat clearing and considering your posture when speaking especially when increasing volume.
You’re a lawyer about to go to court for one of the most important cases of your career. In the past, during your closing arguments you unintentionally speak quickly, get quieter at the end of sentences, and don’t know what to do with your hands. An SLP can support you through methodical pausing, consistency of pacing over time, assertive nonverbal communication, and how to use breath quality and quantity to support volume and confidence in voice.
You’re a transgender woman going back into work after working from home and some time off. You want your voice to align with your gender identity and personal expression but feel your voice is too low and you get tired when speaking higher. An SLP can support you in ensuring that your voice, no matter the goals, feels supported, comfortable, and sustainable. Different aspects of voice feminization can be addressed such as pitch, resonance, how to use emphasis, intonation and melody, articulation, nonverbal communication, vocal quality such as breathiness or avoiding glottal fry. You may also seek support in your thoughts and emotions around your voice use within the workplace.
Conclusion
Speech Therapists have a niche yet incredibly broad scope of practice, these are only a few. SLPs are highly trained professionals, equipped to support your communication challenges across all areas of life. If you’re ever unsure whether an SLP is right for you and your goals, send our clinic a call or email.
References
College of Audiologists and Speech-Language Pathologists of Ontario. (2017). Code of ethics. https://caslpo.com/sites/default/uploads/files/PUB_EN_Code_of_Ethics.pdf
Traxler, M. J. (2012). Introduction to psycholinguistics: Understanding language science. Wiley-Blackwell.
To speak with a psychotherapist or one of the speech-language pathologists at Well Said: Toronto Speech Therapy, schedule an initial consultation by clicking the link below or calling (647) 795-5277.
