Hello
Hi, My name is Michelle O'Brien, and I am the founder of Owl Mentoring.
If you are interested, you are welcome to read my speech pathology journey and how it lead to my passion for mentoring and supporting others (see below).
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My experience is paediatric (18 months to 12 years), mainly speech, language, literacy and social communication. I also have many years of mentoring speech pathologists both clinically and in relation to establishing their businesses.
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I look forward to working with you!
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Michelle.
My Story
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I started my speech pathology journey at La Trobe University (formerly Lincoln Institute of Health Sciences) a long time ago!! My working life began at Shannon Park (SCOPE) in Geelong, where I received amazing mentoring, and access to a range of senior speech pathologists who were very generous with their time. This was my first experience of mentoring, and I felt completely supported in my journey as an early career speech pathologist.
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Since then I have worked in the Victorian Education Department, briefly in adult rehabilitation, and often found myself back working with people who have disabilities ranging from mild to severe.
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Life as a speech pathologist has not always been rosy, and like so many other speech pathologists, I became jaded, frustrated and wondered if I was in the right place. At that time I decided to pivot and trained as a computer analyst and programmer (that's right - can you believe it!!). After several years in that industry, I soon realised that corporate life was not for me, and so I transitioned back to speech pathology, realising that working with people was more fulfilling for me than working on computer programs related to freight rail!
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The journey then took me into the research world, where health and technology combined. After completing my PhD which combined the disciplines of medical, sociology and information technology, the next step what 'where to from here'.
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The next step was to work as a lecturer and researcher at La Trobe University for several years, and then finally back to my roots where I started my speech pathology practice, The Little Bookworm Speech Pathology.
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I continue to work at The Little Bookworm 3 days/week, and part of that role is to mentor the staff and new business owner. Having sold The Little Bookworm to a colleague and friend in Dec 2022, I am embarking on my next challenge.
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All throughout my career, regardless of which stage I was in, I always had one or more mentors. As such, I am very aware of the importance of having that person to bounce ideas off, assist me in identifying what I need to solve problems as they appear, and someone who I can call on when I have wins, and when everything just feels tough.
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I look forward to offering that same guidance and support to others, through this new venture, Owl Mentoring.
Contact
I'm looking forward to hearing all about your speech pathology journey. Contact me for more information.