Ms. Murray Law,

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I am writing you today regarding the ASHA Leader’s most recent publication of the article, “What’s EQ Got to Do with It Anyway?” by Kari Knutson. As I am sure you have heard by now, the article did not land well with many of your readers. Specifically, the inclusion of a suggestion to “cry in the car” as a stress management technique alarmed and even offended many ASHA members.

I do not mean to insult Ms. Knutson, as the majority of her article did offer genuinely helpful tips for what is an increasingly stressful field. Nor do I mean to imply that crying is an inherently unhealthy way to manage stress. What I do wish to bring your attention to is that by publishing this article as written, ASHA as an organization continued to pit itself against, rather than with, its own constituents. We speech pathologists on the ground struggle immensely with burnout, pay incommensurate with our experience and training, and an overall feeling of disconnect from both our employers and representative organizations. By suggesting that we hide our feelings of frustration and growing resentment by crying alone in our cars, ASHA backed an article that removed agency from its members and advocated arguably harmful strategies for self-care.

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Furthermore, ASHA’s own reaction to the online backlash made the situation worse. After the article went viral, members soon found that it had been edited to remove the crying statement with only a temporary social media post recognizing the edit. Is it not generally standard practice to issue a permanent editor’s note to acknowledge such edits and redactions? Not doing so represented to many readers that their concerns were being swept under the rug.

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My own experience with ASHA’s outreach has been less than savory. After posting my own shocked reaction at the handling of the situation, a member of your social media team quipped,

 

"It was a dumb oversight for sure. Rather than draw more attention to something that was obviously a mistake, it's better to correct it. Unless correcting it isn't what you want."

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I was extremely disappointed to see such an immature, bitter response from a professional organization toward one of its own members.

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I strongly encourage you to publish a permanent note acknowledging the changes to the article. In addition, ideas for future articles focusing on healthy management of stress and frustration may include tips on self-advocacy, publication of ASHA’s measurable progress in changing the field for the better, or actual admission of the problems in our profession.

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Sincerely,

Marissa Rocheleau, M.A., CCC-SLP