Profile

Rosmarie Ziesler

My internship as a speech therapist at an independent practice.

 

Key data

Job description: Speech therapist
Company: An independent practice – Ms Helga Kares
Place: Vienna, Austria
I did my internship from May to June 2014.

What I did:

Treatment of voice disorders: or more specifically, the treatment of organisational and functional voice disorders, for example nodules on the vocal folds, oedema of the vocal folds, neurogenic diseases which frequently occur after operations or idiopathic voice disorders – as well as providing voice training support for transsexuals.

Why I enjoyed my internship:

  • Holistic approach to work
  • Openness which enables fruitful and educational discussions about speech therapy, philosophy and psychology, among other things
  • I was able to provide instruction in many exercises and received excellent supervision

What I learned:

  • Accuracy of exercise instructions
  • Wide range of voice disorders
  • Relationship between therapists and patients

My biggest success / My greatest experience:

I returned from the internship feeling very enriched. Not just because I was able to get to know Ms Kares and her respectful, holistic and humorous approach to patients, but also because I was fascinated by the patients themselves. Each person has their own individual requirements – from a teacher to a construction worker to a professional singer. I was also able to gather lots of experience with male-to-female trans voices and gain a taster of the complexity of this work. The focus on singing appealed to my interest in music in particular.

How I secured the internship:

I was looking for a speech therapist who specialises in voice issues and also works with singers. Ms Kares was recommended to me by a lecturer and the head of degree programme submitted the request. It was a real pleasure for me to undertake this internship.

What I want to do in the future:

The speech therapy fields of children’s language and voice disorders as well as voice disorders in general are of great interest to me. At present, I would like to find work in this field. My goal for the more long-term future is to work as a freelance speech therapist, like Ms Kares.