Hi, this is Amanda
and Caryn and we are co-admins at the
SLPs of Color.
We are an inclusive and intersectional
community for SLPs, audiologists, and
students. Today, we're interviewing
Chelsie Eseka, a Nigerian-American
medical SLP based in Maryland and
Virginia. Listen as Chelsie shares her
experiences embracing her culture,
her time at a historically Black
university, and combining dance and
speech language pathology in her
clinical work.
So Chelsie, why don't you introduce
yourself how do you identify?
Sure. So howdy everyone!
My name is Chelsie Esek. I identify
myself as a Nigerian-American.
I come from two Nigerian born and raised
mother and father. They're immigrants so
they actually relocated to Houston
so I was born in Houston so I'm from the
H-town.
Southern gal um and currently
I went to the University of North
Texas and for my undergrad degree and that's
where I double majored in speech language
pathology and in dance
so from there, I wanted to go to graduate
school and have a different grad
experience in speech and I decided to apply to
Howard University, the illustrious, in Washington, D.C. and I got in so then I
went to Howard for my master's degree
and yeah so that's a little bit academia
and then as far as my personal life
currently I'm a
practicing SLP in an acute care setting
and a rehab
inpatient outpatient facility. I actually
just resigned from my position that I
was
I was with for about a year, a little, a
little over a year
and I just accepted this new position
hospital in Virginia so woot woot to that
um change is always good it is
unprecedented times right now during the
pandemic so it was just a perfect
opportunity for me to
switch over a new leaf and join a new
team so
yes I am now practicing in Virginia. I
still do have my Maryland license as
well as Texas
um so that is my SLP side um
I also am a dance teacher, choreographer,
a barre instructor so if anybody is in the
Rockville
Maryland area. I currently teach barre and
yoga and dance sculpt um at this
studio called Senze, s-e-n-z-e.
So come dance with me and I do private
um also so anything you need art or speech
language wise, swallow wise - I'm here to help!
A woman of many talents, wow.
Okay so speaking about your journey, tell
us about your childhood. You said that
you were born
in Houston correct? Right? Yeah that's
Tell us about your childhood,
where you grew up - kind of your
experience prior to
the academia. Sure, sure so um
me growing up. I grew up in a town um if
anybody listens to like
hip-hop music and knows the artist, Travis Scott - we actually went to the same
high school
um so we're from we're from this town
called Missouri City, Texas.
It's like about Sugarland and Houston. It's
like a little suburb area, but
that is where I was kind of grew up
Mainly
um I would say my experience
a lot of my friends were American so I
never really
submerged myself in the Nigerian
community besides with my family
um so we ate the Nigerian food so we ate
fufu. We liked this stew - my mom's still
cooking to this day
so um the food, the culture, the language
um of course you know if you guys don't
know um Nigeria has over
453 dialects at the moment so
um the tribe that my mom and dad are
from is called Edo
and it's kind of like a small town by
Delta State in Nigeria if you pull up a
map and you see like the main city, it's
maybe like
five miles out from there um so
we kind of because i know people know
the Nigerian um i guess
sub tribes. There's like Edo, Urhobo, Hausa
so there's many many other smaller ones
so uh my family's more
so from a smaller tribe but we grew up
with these instilled. My mom and my
parents both instilled you know
the Nigerian academics, which is a lot of
people
kind of cultivate Nigerians with like oh
you guys got smarts so
that was definitely um one thing that
was a priority in my household um
academics
so related to my how I got into being a
SLP is my parents both own a home health in
Houston. A home health company.
So I was always around nursing,
therapy, minutes, billing, that was kind of
I always used to
be in my mom's office and kind of be
hanging around her so
that's always been in my childhood as
well um one of my sisters i'm the
youngest of four
siblings literally the accidental child
youngest
um the sister above me is 10 years apart
so accidental child but um
uh so one of my sisters is a um
LVN nurse um my other sister's a
physical therapist
and then my parents are both RN nurses
so that's how
that kind of came in and cultivated my
journey to being an SLP because I didn't
want to - I didn't want to be
a nurse; however, I didn't want to be a
physical therapist to be
too physical but I can talk a lot as you
guys can see so I was like huh
I feel like so many people can resonate
with the things you just described even
if it's like
you know not interacting a lot with
African Americans or Black Americans and
then having the culture really be like
confined to your household
and then maybe you get to college and
then you get exposed to all these other
types of like
Exactly. 
Blacks and then you know the
whole push on academia and excellence
coming from you know immigrant
especially
you know African parents you know all
the minorities you have to be an
engineer or a nurse or a doctor or a
lawyer
alright you know that's why you have
to do something right
yeah something on that list or else like
what are you doing with your life?
Exactly, yeah. So you made up a good point
that
I identified myself as I guess African
when I was growing up, but I never really
really embraced the Nigerian specificity
of it until I did get to
undergrad and I was at a university
where diversity was
promoted, especially with ASO, which is
African American or African
Association. African-American Association
organization or sometimes they do ASA
and essentially a community for Africans
in general.
That's when I realized, oh, I can be
myself. I can be a Nigerian dancer.
I can be a Nigerian person and still be
accepted not called a quote-unquote
"African booty scratcher" or called like oh
you know
an insulting thing for being an African
coming from African immigrants
in you know in the states so definitely
a good point um I did emerge myself a
lot in the community of nigeria and just
really embrace my culture a whole bunch
more. Then, coming to Howard was a whole 'nother
doozy of it. Right?
Yeah, oh yeah I'll let Caryn talk.
Yeah so Chelsie you were just mentioning
how
you felt like you identified as being
Black American growing up but it wasn't
until you hit
undergrad that you felt like you
embraced more of that Nigerian side.
Can you share a little bit more about
how you embrace your cultural roots? I
feel like a lot of people might resonate
with your experience.
Sure um so again um me being an
artist too especially a teaching artist
and a growing
artist in undergrad um specifically we
had this dance class
called African American Studies where we
had to study the forms
of Djembe, in the forms of Kenya, and
the forms of just
the different African styles of movement
so
my professor one day said, "Hey, Chels! I'm
gonna be out for a week"
"So um you're the only person of color in
the course"
"and you're the only person I know comes
from this background so would you take"
"the lead and would you feel honored to
teach"
"the only one week of this course?" 
So that shook my bones to the core because
I
It was like a twilight moment when it's
like "OKAY Dance Chelsie!" and
I guess, growing up, Black Chelsie is now
having to accept and rise to the
occasion of being a Nigerian person
so I had to very much
say, "Why are you afraid? Like what girl?"
What?
Do you! Your Nigerian middle name is
Ejeme
which means coming from a good place or
a good home.
So why don't you embrace that and come
and teach others what you know?
So then after that moment, I taught the
class. I taught the
the one week course um for my for my
classmates
and after that I was like, "Yeah I'm
Nigerian-American from here
now so that was one of my experiences I
would say it was very much
like it's it's in your blood and you
can't run away from it. It's in your
color and your skin tone. It's in the
foods that you eat. It's in your native
tongue. It's in your name!
So why continuously still try to hide
away from it when you can build off of
it and be supportive with others who are
coming from the same type of
you know shy moment of themselves so
yeah.
So was that early on or was that
like later on in your undergraduate
career 
I would say that was freshman
year
that was freshman year yep that was
freshman year and the class
i had
um it was with a professor and he was
from Kenya and he was actually a chief
in Kenya so he would always go back and
forth to Kenya
and um come back and teach and then go
back and forth to teach so
it was it was a nice experience that he
because we could do our own thing in
class but he would you know appoint
people to teach the class if you so if
you felt so so I was one of those
appointees but
changed my life forever for sure great
yeah that's amazing um I feel like
it's such a common theme for
children of immigrants to depending on
where they live whether the environment
that they grow up in
embraces their ethnic background and
their roots
I feel like oftentimes people growing up
in a predominantly white area
not speaking on my behalf, but I've had
friends growing up in the suburbs
um with in predominantly white areas
they almost reject
their ethnic roots right yeah the food
they don't bring it to lunch because
all the kids are gonna mock or bully
whatever they're eating
right right it looks and then it's like
why do I wanna introduce you to
how I grew up? How my parents are? Are you gonna mock their accent too
or so it comes down to like the attire,
your food, everything that makes up that
culture it's
so interesting and I'm I'm really happy
to hear that you actually had that
experience starting your freshman year
instead of later on in your
college experience because I'm sure that
probably helped define
your background too 
It did. It helped
define me as
a as a person as as an artist as just a
being
as like what do I identify with you know
how do I identify and lo and behold
from that moment of acceptance that I
have with myself I
I allow my my I guess my realm of
knowing to be spread out so now I know
so many Nigerians from UNT
so many Nigerians from from Howard and I
and I don't think I would have
I would have had that same experience if
I still would have been like, "Oh I'm
Black from those cities."
No girl. You're Nigerian from Missouri
City, Texas so that's that's a big
difference
Yeah, do you feel that
that experience kind of um
influenced your decision to apply to
Howard? I don't know if you applied to
a lot of HBCUs in particular for a
specific reason
or if you know you cast a wider net but
kind of what was your
decision-making process when it came to
applying to grad school?
Well as far as my application
to Howard, I think what I'm just trying
to put myself in the mindset at the time
I know that I didn't want I didn't want
to apply to just a regular
"PWI" (predominantly white institution) for graduate school so
Howard was one of the many
HBCUs that I did apply to um
however yes
definitely me that experience of me like
coming into myself freshman year was the
driving force for me trying to be the
minority in the room
purposely yes for sure um I definitely
always try to make it known that I am
African. I am black. I am a minority. I am
here.
Um but it's more so I would say
the application process in itself
allowed me for
the more um how do I say, for instance,
my letter of interest was all about my
grandmother and how she named me
Ejeme
so I would say that experience was more
so
my catalyst to - okay girl, apply to
everywhere and show them who you are as
a minority moreso
not just Howard especially Howard was
one of the places that I did apply to
but the application process itself
I knew the perspective I want to go and
wanted to go into with the application
to show who I was as a candidate like
this is me as a full-blown Nigerian
um double major uh
graduating in four years when when the
supervisor
told me that I was graduating in six so it
was me coming into my full
self as like acceptance like okay I'm
gonna apply to all these schools and
show them me
that's how my mindset was at that point
for sure
For sure. 
So rolling back to, you spoke a little bit about um how you
came to choose Howard.
Going back into your undergrad I know
that you talked about combining dance
and speech
pathology. Did you come into your
undergrad
double majoring or did you start in
dance and then you found speech and like
how did you - so two questions: how did you come upon the field
and how was your undergraduate career?
So it's funny because in high school I
danced. I've been dancing since I was
about 6
so I knew I would always keep it in the
realm whether it be academia rather it
would be
personal or however teaching I knew I
wanted to keep that so
going into college my main two. Firstly, I
think my first decision was making sure
they had a good dance program
and then having speech pathology was.
second. So good
good question. I've never had anyone ask
me that question so definitely dance was
a priority
but I always kept speech in the back
burner for. Again, what Amanda was talking about how your parents want you to be an
engineer
or a doctor or something so I wanted to
keep that to make
money and not be a starving artist, but
it catalysts and turned into what it is
today so
um I definitely wanted to come in
freshman year
being a double major off the top off the
risk and
I remember like it was yesterday I went
into that advisor's office and she
looked at me and
was like, "You will not graduate in four"
"years. You will graduate in like six
maybe seven um, but there's no way you"
"could do it."
So as soon as she told me that I was
like no
no absolutely not and I did
and I and that's all I remember saying I
was like nah like that's that's it so
from that point
again motivating factor being a
challenge
and every semester I took 24 credit
hours. Every semester I did every mini-mester I did every
yeah I did every
I did every mini-mester every semester
every summer
every you know winter-mester whatever
you want to call it. I was in all of them
because I wanted to get out in four
years because of that one moment again
an adversity
that I had and someone told me I
couldn't and I did it
so yeah
Yeah seriously that is an achievement.
Not only to do it in one semester but to
do that for every semester yeah how did
you
how did you manage that?
I definitely would say
I was in my books and I was I was either
in rehearsal for dance or I was either
in a class for for speech it was one of
the two
for instance it was the point that I had
a class that ended at 4:50pm
and then my dance class started at 4:45pm
so I would cross
literally run from the science
department and like be in my leotard in
the hot sun trying to
be ready at the bar ready for first
position
so it was it was a lot. It was a lot. I'm
not even gonna
lie to anybody who isn't mentally strong
enough and mentally disciplined
who has phenomenal time management
skills. You have to make sure you're on
all these different projects especially
during the last few years of college you
know your junior and senior years like
all these tests you have to take if you
wanted to do a graduate degree. You have
to think about that
application process for that so it was
more so like.
Okay she told you you couldn't do it so
you have to make sure you can.
That's the mindset that I had.
Do you feel like having
your parents um did they go to school
here in America to
to become nurses or were they
um already like qualified that wherever
they were from?
Yeah so it was um my mom and dad
both did
um I would say in Nigeria. They have
something called like secondary school
primary school that's how they kind of
quantify
educational levels um so they both
finished
basically their freshman year of college
in Nigeria but they came to America
and finished the rest of their um
degrees here so my dad actually has
I think my dad has a play a good factor
for me trying to be an over tweeter
because he's also an engineer
and a nurse so yeah
so he to him too I didn't even realize
that until I got older
um but that he also played a factor
in instilling that but I would say my
family
really how do I say
it's almost like an unspeaking standard
in the Nigerian community in households
that
school you know that it's the only
priority for you
so it's like my parents didn't have to
really scold me about school or really
check up on school because they know
that that was again an unspoken standard
that
you put you through school you're in
school at least that's what you can give
your parents back for what we've done for you. 
Yeah so did
you feel prepared going into undergrad... I
know that like personally me
like my parents didn't navigate academia
here and I still feel like
I can't navigate academia as well as
other people but did you feel like
having your parents
and your older sisters having gone
through that process like
did that help you feel more prepared in
getting to the grind when you did go
into school?
Definitely. You brought up - you hit the
nail on the head with my older siblings
so
having siblings that are so older
so much older and experienced everything
that you haven't experienced yet
I always tell my friends that I felt
like I had
six parents because my sisters when I
was in high
school -  my sisters' friends would be like
the coaches or like the teachers so I
was never
again too far away from my family's eyes
basically
because everyone in the neighborhood
knew each other. My last name is what I go by a lot - Esek
um so @esekhealth especially whatever
so a lot of people
know us back home so that was always
like another pair of eyes so my siblings
kind of navigating that college
experience already
especially my older sister. She went to
Texas State
um in San Marcos so she definitely - and
that's the physical therapist so she
kind of took the reign and was like
you're gonna do everything I did not
do, right? You did it right. So she was
mainly also there
kind of guiding me through the process
but you know I was the young. I am the
youngest so I like to do my own thing
because I'm hard-headed so
that too yeah for sure
Awesome so then I guess
more into kind of going back to what
Caryn was asking in terms of
coming upon the field of speech you
touched upon it a little earlier
that you were like I don't want to be do
PT. I don't necessarily want to be a
nurse
like how did you even find the speech
field
coming like having those experiences and
coming into college?
So um back it takes me back to my mom's
home health
um I would kind of help her go through
charts sometimes and it would always be
um
like my mama write like PT and then OT
and she would write ST. I  never knew what
ST standed for
for a while growing up so I was like
okay
and then I just kind of researched it on
my own this was maybe about
and being of high school when I found
out about the field really
um so my senior year of high school and
I was like oh a speech
therapist and then I just researched
like every kind of
how everyone else does when you softly
hear about something or a new career
path.
You google it, see what comes up um but
then I was connected with my sister's new
speech therapist in Houston
and I got to shadow her. It's funny
because she works with peds (pediatrics)
and that is not where I am now
at all but just the passion that she had
with writing a plan, figuring out a plan, and
after giving an assessment - 
a piece of paper on someone's deficit
and then creating a plan
to help this person get to where they
need to be - 
that whole intervention process is what
I fell in love with
so um from that moment I was like oh
okay I see what she does. It's not just a
therapist, but you're a pathologist
right? You find what we do what what what
someone is doing
wrong or bad or can't do and we help
rehab to that point so I was like okay.
Researched it. Then again, took me to my: "what has a dance degree, what"
"has a good dance department and what has a speech department?"
So that's how it brought me to making
sure those ideals were still prevalent
for both
um and then kind of attacking those two
at the same time.
Could you share a little bit about your
experience at Howard?
Going through the grad program - your
positives
um just going through clinicals
practicums
and what did that your cohort look like?
Did it
you feel like it reflected Howard's
values and mission? How did it go? 
Good question, so
um a lot of of
my cohort members now are -
you guys probably know a few of them um
me and jrc_theslp
are currently roommates like we're
roommates so we're really close and she
was in the class with me
um Diamond theslpway
also was in the same class as the same
cohort um
so we we were very close
um and and you know of course when you
during these experiences when you get
into the job we realized that
oh we needed a year to figure it out for
real like everything that we learned in
grad school was so book 
book work and so paperwork
that the application of us being into
the field during our CF year, everyone
kind of like took a little hiatus from
each other which is which is natural
from a cohort class. You know you get together
when whenever you guys
you have time right? So um but they're
all doing well. They're all doing well as
far as our
my my experience and how with me
personally
um a lot of people like to say culture
shock for me.
It was just culture acceptance. It just
was very
liberating to see a celebration
of Black minority people in one
setting. Everyday at Howard was another
celebration for something you know?
Howard homecoming was a really big thing. It was still a big thing um so just
finding my ground my basis as a Black
clinician in
D.C. at Howard was a phenomenal experience and I would say
anyone who's interested in going to HBCU
please do it because it changes you
completely.
Your scope of practice is now even wider
because
you not only are focusing on the you
know the application of the clinical
work
but you're looking at again health
disparities. You're looking at again
um populations that aren't represented.
You're looking at again
just the large scope of people of color
in general
so that's that's my HBU soapbox.
Um but my how I kind of got into
um my acute love and my cute setting was
actually at Howard Hospital University
Hospital
um my supervisor was Annette Heinz
and I did a post about her about one of
the people who inspired me
um on Instagram and she
just kind of introduced
reintroduced for me I guess -  since I had
some experience with home health
and back in Houston - she reintroduced the
um the importance of
acuity and understanding how to treat
so she was very very smart. I would say
my pivotal moment in my
my career by introducing me back into
the acute setting.
Great. How many clinical experiences did
you have
at Howard? 
Uhm so at Howard we had - every semester we have - it's two years um
and you have three rotations
per semester so you have a spring, you
have a summer, you have a fall,
and then you have a spring so that way
um so I had
I first started at Howard University
Hospital
um and then they of course have to
switch you around so then I was at a
private practice and then it was like a
private practice /
kind of like an intellectual disability
center
with middle age to
teenage kind of sort of um and so then I
went back to
so after that was our senior year and
you can or last year I
I'm in the department and you can pick
whatever setting you want. So
Howard was definitely good at giving
different tracks.
We had a bilingualism track. We had a
medical track school track and AAC track.
So depending on those tracks, you could
just kind of choose
which placement you want. You'll have
like a top three placement and then
our clinical director or supervisor will
pick places.
So I have Howard and then I had the
school and then I went back to
um a hospital in D.C. called Medstar
Washington Hospital Center
that is where I would say I - you know
when everyone has they're like
when you get your nails done or
something and then they put on that last
coat of polish
that is how I felt you know like when
they put on like the last clear coat and
it's like okay
put your hand underneath it and you're
ready right? You're ready.
That is what um that's our Washington
Hospital Center was for me it was a 952
bed trauma hospital.
Um so I saw an array of everything
possible to gsw which is
gunshot wounds to malignant melanomas to
metastasize
everything possible strike and vince
which is my love everything
um is what i saw there and then that's
when i jump started into my
now evolving career yeah
since you were able to choose
or go down the path of medical how was
your
cf experience where was that so my cf
experience
i wanted to take a hiatus from the acute
setting
and try kind of like a rehab hospital
um inpatient setting so a lot of people
don't really kind of know the difference
between what's a hospital an
inch or a rehab hospital so a hospital
course is
you can go in call 9-1-1 you have kind
of any in an injury or any clinical
presentation you can walk into any
hospital. A rehab hospital - you have to
kind of get a referral from a doctor
from a
hospital and kind of see a need for
rehab services so for instance
let's say I had a surgery on my leg and
my hospital stay time my acute hospital
like
the main hospital I'm at you know. The
doctor's like, "Hey you know your time is"
"pretty much
up here you know you can't go home"
"because your leg is still
swollen or your leg is still bleeding"
"but we want to send you to this other
place"
"where you can get acute treatment." So
this is kind of
that's how I kind of got into that
setting so I did that for it was a
place in Silver Spring, Maryland. Um I was
there
for of course the nine month period and
it was it was it was nice. My supervisor
was not really
present a lot. She was remote so a lot of
people have that experience when their
supervisor is always on site with them
and you have you know one to one but
mine was very much
tele and virtual so I was the only SLP
there was a 116 bed
unit so I was the only one there which I
was
actually happy about because I got to
learn
fall on my face, make protocols, be in in
meetings with DOR directors, talk about
levels, talk about minutes, billing, talk about frequency. All
of that on my own.
I learned a lot by you know during your
CF year
and that's one one advice I always like
to give people is
this is your last year you can make
mistakes.
Let this be the year you make a lot of
mistakes because after that there's no
one
there to help you and um I I know you
know how ASHA puts people on blast and
you don't want to be put on blast
so yeah
How did you - I don't know - are you the
type of person that's like
okay with being thrown into the fire? I
feel like one of my like anxieties about
finally starting in the work field is
like
being tossed into like a full caseload
that's like the only SLP with a 116 bed
unit
like how did you even handle that you
know?
So right so I I think and and this is - it's all funny and all
connects now that I'm even talking about
and having the time to reflect with you
guys on it
um is it all goes full back full circle
to
the the mentorship and the guidance that
you have when you first start off in
this field.
I think it's so important for people to
connect with others who are real
in the field and who can tell you what
not to do
that is where I was like, "Please tell me
where the phobias are." One of my favorite
interview questions I like to ask
the companies or ask whoever I'm being
interviewed for
is what is one mistake that um a
clinician or
a therapist has done that you wouldn't
want to do again.
That right there is the biggest feedback
for me like do what
not to do so you can learn how to do it
correctly.
Um so taking me back to Mrs. Hines um
at Howard Hospital
like you said, Amanda, she's the type I
used to have things planned out for
therapy sessions to the T and she used
to say tell me,
"Drop that put that binder down and me"
"and you were gonna walk up to the third
floor"
"and I'm gonna just stand right here." And
she used to stand literally stand
and watch me just - I wouldn't know what
the heck I was doing
but she would literally just say, "Chelsie
like no like the patient did this. What"
"are you gonna do?"
And that's how I learned. I used to grind
my gears. It used to just
not stand it but as I was done
as each day like each day I would feel
more and more confident on the floor
like I don't know
like, "I got this eval - you don't have to
go with me." That from that very moment
that's how she
she kind of instilled that like just
drop it and go
because that's acute that's acute care
that's inpatient outpatient care
anything can happen on the drop of a
dime
you have to be comfortable with just
click on your feet.
If those notes aren't there, what can you
do? And I'm glad that she
kind of she kind of taught me that way
because I'm a writer
like our SLPs are we like the right plan
do all those things
but if you don't have your paper or your
clipboard and your patient is
coughing on that then you just gave what
will you do.
So yeah do you see yourself
going into any other niches in the
fields I feel like you're like
from what I'm gauging you're like med
SLP all the way like trachs and vents
like
but if you had like the opportunity to
go into another
area do you think you would what would
it be?
Good question um
I think if anything I would just try to
kind of hone in on um
or connect more with a lot of arts
therapy and um mindfulness therapy and
music therapy. That's the only other
niche that I think I can I could see
myself doing
um besides that I love um being a
um what is it adolescence population
when I was working
or when I interned at that facility was
great I loved
high school kids. They're cool um but
besides me
having another niche I would say I would
just want to grow
um more and teach others and you know be
a stamp post for others
in the medical and in the you know
medical SLP world
especially those minorities of color
because it's hard for us out here.
Understandable.
So since you were sharing a little bit
about
dance and speech pathology
um how tell us how you've combined your
two passions because I know that you
just mentioned about art and
therapy. Can you expand on what that is
exactly?
Sure um so music therapy or art therapy
is basically using
any form of artistic expression to
enlighten
or to um have someone just be
rehab from again where they're feeling
if you are
let's say art is also using an
expression
for either verbal communication or
totality communication or however
music a lot of people love mindfulness
and music therapy because it helps with
mood and motivation.
I use that a lot in my therapy for
instance that's how I build rapport with
a lot of my patients.
Um let's say they see you know most of
the time, an
African-American person walk in the room
they're almost a little hesitant already
especially if you're waking up from coma
or whatever you're waking up from so
sometimes I like to say
one simple question. What's your favorite
song? That one question alone can just
kind of
oh we're in the doctor's room or I'm in
the hospital bed and she's asking me my
favorite
favorite song? Is my song going to play?
And some most of the time it does so for
me I used to I like to
take my iPad and just introduce people
to the idea of mindfulness and
music meditation so it's mainly playing
music
mainly being mindful of what you're
hearing mainly using art
and sounds and music visualization to
just improve mood and overall quality of
life during the time
of acuity so art therapy can be a lot of
people I mean SLPs use our therapy every
day
when we tell a patient to, "Hey, draw a
spot." That is
our therapy right? Using the MOCA? Um so
just having someone being
and having an existential feeling or
existential
emotion based off of art itself so
that's what
mindfulness and art therapy at least how
I try to bring in my practice
the ones who are and also an amputee or
an OT
using dance of course crossing across
the midlines of the hemisphere of the
brain
can help a lot with mobility on the
weaker side or on the
whatever the you know paresis side is
so um dance can help with again mood
muscle strength of course. Dance history
is another thing I like to bring with my
aphasia people because some people do
know who Martha Graham
is or Alvin Ailey so just throwing those
little artistic terms because you never
know what some people
post mobile of course excuse me post
morbid or or who don't know
so a lot of people like to just talk
about art because it makes it
it makes it feel good makes therapy feel
better.
Yeah so you mentioned that you're
transitioning or have you already
trained you just you just resigned from
your last position correct and you're
going to start up at a new facility
can you tell us a little bit more about
what you're going to be doing if it's
that much different? I know you've
mentioned a little bit about it but
if you pick exactly. 
yeah so um this place is pretty much the same
but it's a this place is um 307 beds
so the place I just came from was I
believe 250 so
a little bit bigger it's the same thing
same type of inpatient rehabilitation
hospital
so this place has designed a specific
pcu unit which is a trick
and ventilation unit so I'll be working
a little bit more
um with my favorite population there
which I would say is
always a good thing um always a good
thing my next thing I'm going to
try to start investigating is using the
humming method
so I know humming is also phenomenal for
voice and working with tricks and
ventilators
of course you have dysphagia and then
you have vocal abduction
deficits so using the humming technique
to their favorite song
would also be one of my um my next
things I want to investigate with
with that population of course building
onto the movement therapy mindfulness
therapy
um doing as much art as I can as well
cool that'll be fun you get to work with
your favorite population
don't get to do that like in a specific
unit I was at
an acute rehab for one of my placements
and I was just like on the brain injury
unit so
and I like brain injury a little bit
more than like the aphasia stroke so I
was like oh this is a thing like I could
be in this specific
unit you know yeah yeah
yeah that if that's new for me too um of
course when you get
a couple of orders or referrals that
come down from doctors or whoever and
it's
and it's like oh passing they're about
that that's fine
um of course I always will take those
but just being in a specific unit again
just adds more spark I'm excited I'm
excited.
So on the topic of now transitioning
into
into a new job following the similar
tracks that you were already doing
but still with a little bit of a focus
on trade events which is what you're
interested in
how has your experience been during the
pandemic so you talked about how you
gotten off work early today because it
was on a low census
how's that impacted? 
So
the pandemic has been the scariest
blessing
let me just say it has been the scariest
blessing
so I'm gonna speak on um
kind of the not so good part of the
pandemic that I that I experienced so I
was at a facility and
unfortunately they did have a covet
outbreak um
and the facility was not equipped to
handle it so for instance
it was I believe 120 bed facility
and the census dropped to 87
and most of those were from fatalities
due to COVID
so um and just putting in context
some of those patients I worked with who
who died
um I mean we work together maybe
for four months just so they can be on a
mechanical soft diet and
you see this rage of a virus that come
in that just came into a facility
literally took lives of
of people who you he worked with and
unless was nothing so definitely to
speak on the pandemic
in facilities and healthcare facilities
it is a real thing
it is a very sad thing and I once again
myself a healthcare worker the
healthcare workers
thank you for doing for doing what we're
doing because it was very much
a real life real life scary movie that I
live I lived
through for instance just put it in a
little bit more context
I had a patient she was I believe
87 and she her
presenting diagnosis was pneumonia um
UTI and COVID um and I went in to
of course do a swallow eval for her
because the family just wanted to
you know end of life here to see if she
can have some water at least
and her pulse was 32 and the average
pulse
for humans is between 90 to 100
so she was at 32. Um
so just putting in context that type of
drastic changes
with patients who you saw last week who
are doing phenomenal
that was not that that that's something
that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy
so just speaking on the pandemic itself
um I pray that the universe, that God,
that something just
pulls America and the world out of this
because people
are losing their lives um due to this
so that's just on the pandemic as far as
work
and caseload and ppe. It's hard you have
to stay protected
every day I'm drinking a gallon of water
full of ginger
just so I can make sure my immune system
is
maintained optimally um you know since
this again is up and down
some places are in moving into phases
some facilities are moving into phases
so right now I believe most of them are
in phase one to two
in Maryland, in Virginia, and D.C., which is
now families can have only one visitor
per um patient which still you have to
have both have masks on
both six feet away but now patients and
their families could
see each other after three months of no
contact um
so that that's where it is now the
census is kind of up and down
people are still getting sick. COVID is
still here so we do see COVID patients still
um we do have to get tested weakly
nasally which is annoying
so nasal pharyngeally basically this
is getting FEES every week
basically that's how it feels um
and um yeah just of course
ppe 60 the whole shebang
is still alive and well in the settings
that I work in
um it was just very a pivotal point in
my career that I've I've
never seen as many fatalities as I did
in two months in my whole entire career.
That is a lot.
You said shout out to you because you
and everybody else who's working even
you Caryn like everybody who's working
and going out right now it's
you guys are like superheroes honestly
and it's like
I just wish you guys all the best and
all the health that you can have
I hope that the ginger is working optimally for you in your
water every day.
I have it right here oh
yeah that sounds really anxiety-inducing
even like my mom she is she works in
the medical field and she's been like
the other day she's like she ha I had an
anxiety attack she couldn't even like
get up out of bed it was
so difficult for her I can't even
imagine
having to go through that every day
wondering who you're gonna see
what's gonna be their you know position
or their predicament and how it's going
to affect you
and having to try to do therapy with all
these precautions in mind it's tough
and for me and for me too it it was more
so
you know a lot of a lot of facilities
had a outbreak
um unfortunately the facility that I was
I was kind of hard time working at
they weren't eclipsed so meaning once a
census dropped
in a facility um so just a little bit of
background about Smith and
Rehab Hospital um I guess numbers and
administrative
so every facility has has a certain
amount of number of beds
right so each bed has to have at least
70% occupancy so if they're 70%
full you're in good standing if you're
below 70%
that's when the big bosses kind of look
at and say hey what's going on
so the facility that I was working at um
dropped below 70
and with that that means there's no
money
for no staffing adequate staffing so
when there's no adequate staffing
meaning there's no nursing
there's no CNAs there's no respiratory
who gets affected the patient so the
patients can't be
moved when they need to be so there's
bed source that
the bed sort count is accelerating um
you know
the UTI count is accelerating um
dietitian isn't there so it was just a
spiral of
of negativity that started to happen
which affected
my patients just affected their
motivation for therapy
um so it was it was just more so uh
I wish that it didn't happen here
because they couldn't handle it
but it you know how would how would they
avoid it so that's just a little
a little background on the pandemic
nightmares.
Yeah and since you were mentioning about
getting swabbed every week I know that
it varies
state by state um at my facility we have
to get
every week but the turnaround is we
don't
we don't get to hear our results until
Thursday or Friday um
and they're testing all the employees
and all
of the residents that live in the
facility um then that's specifically in
my facility
in Illinois uh what is that what did
that look like
for where you're working and then my
follow-up question with that
is we were talking a little bit about
ppe and not having the
uh adequate equipment did that affect
your decision with where you found your
next job
since you just resigned from your other
um
So yes so it was more so um so the
part-time facility I was working at
um they had PPE it was more so for me
just the patient care
so when I'm such a sucker for the work
that I do and I just love making sure
that
you know therapy is hard especially for
these for our patients
it's hard I want my patient just to be
focused on
getting better with therapy not getting
better with nursing so for me it was
more so that nursing staff
and the hospital was not staff enough to
make sure the patients were okay
legitimately so like I said it would be
one nurse to 25 patients one CNA to 15
patients that's not safe
that's not healthy um that's not okay
for my patient so that's
was one of the reasons why I decided to
officially
kind of resign from that company because
it was you know in the state
of the department or when the state of
um you know health board of health
starts to
investigate what's going on with that
facility that's when I think you should
you know say, "Hey, my license is in"
"jeopardy. I don't feel comfortable
working here anymore my morals and my"
"morale is not aligned with the company's
values anymore." So that was when
it was time for me to that's for me to
resign from
from there um so here at my new place
yes there's probably testing every week
there are no COVID patients
um currently at this new hospital I'm at
as well as they did have an outbreak but
of course that building the new building
I'm at is
they were equipped to contain it so even
when they did have a code without break
unlike the previous
they couldn't they couldn't handle my
new place was
is well equipped to handle which they
did but now they have zero cases so
um just something to think about for
therapists and a lot of therapists don't
really talk about the journey of
changing jobs a lot
that's going to happen a plethora of
times in your experience it'll be
a place where you thought it was okay or
school that you
thought the values met yours and then
long down the line
administration makes you feel
uncomfortable or the pay
or the hours or something do not be
afraid to protect your license
at all um and I got this advice from my
mentor
and it was the best decision because now
I feel like a door opened up for me
that's something
better and safer so definitely remember
that if you feel
you know the director of rehab is making
you do things that aren't
unethical it's okay for you to resign
and protect your license it's fine
trust me the SLP world is small but it's
also big at the same time
so you will find work we all we always
need it
um just pick the pick and choose what's
right for your morals and your values
for sure yeah so
Switching gears a little bit back to
kind of your identity and
how you navigate the field how what are
some things that have impacted you
as a Nigerian-American SLP
in this field whether they be positive
or negative?
What about being a Nigerian-American SLP
have made you see things and
decide that you want to make a change
for the better
or what would you like to see changed
after
navigating this field as and academia I
guess too
as a Nigerian-American I know that's
like
and so if you need me to repeat it no no
no no no I'm just no no no you're fine
I'm just trying to find
the angle I want to answer this question
um
So okay so I'm going to speak in it
twofold the first fold is I'm going to
speak on just
healthcare and representation within our
field
for Black SLPs and then I'm going to
speak on our patients who are the same
color
as us who are going through a different
type of diversity so the first thing
is I would love love love love love love
to see
more minorities of color more people of
color
in the field of speech pathology so
that's just in general that little 8%
4% whatever the number
is now
needs to be up there at 80-85 because
that will
help in general with this conversation
here it wouldn't be so foreign
for people to have this conversation
about inclusivity so that's just number
One I would love
love love for that to be um
just a new revolution in the field that
yes we have way way way more people of
color than we did before
that's number one um for me what I've
experienced as a Black
Nigerian-American speech-language pathologist
in the United States
is when I walk in a room
full of residents or
MDs or nurses
and they look at me and call me either
sweetie call me baby
or just kind of dismiss my whole
existence because number one I'm Black
and number two - oh are you a nurse or are
you a CNA?
So for me I just want people
you know experiencing that as many as
many times as I have already working on
a plethora of medical settings
what I've noticed that that helps and
eases it
is putting patient first so let's say I
do walk up to
a resident who's just like oh like who
are you or what do you want to what do
you want to talk about or
just being very dismissive in his
overall aura.
Speaking the jargon that you need to
speak or saying what you need to say
or being good at your work - doing good
work, being a good
a star star speech therapist
making sure your documentation is on
point - They can't have anything to say
about anything you do so for me what was
always pushed me
is like okay so they they're playing the
Black card or they're playing oh okay
they're playing like I'm
the Black girl in the room, I would make
sure that the talk
that I'm saying like, "Hey, did you know if
this patient is on x y and z or this or..."
"Oh, I didn't know that. Thank you for
letting me know."
or "Did you know that I'm a speech
language pathologist who can tell you
that your patient can swallow or not?"
"Oh, I didn't know who you are." Just
introducing yourself and having that
conversation about
what you do and explaining how you do
your work well that's always been
my saving grace. Although my color may
not be the same as yours,
I bet my work is better than yours so
that's just my my thing um
and and being as a Black woman you have
to make sure
yeah we're already Black yeah we're
already minorities or
yeah I'm already Asian-American and yeah
I'm already Mexican-American
either way we have to put an extra step
forward regardless so if
work starts at eight o'clock, I'm always
at work between the hours of 7 and 7:30.
Why? Because I just want to be. I want to
be there. I want to be
you know prepared for work. I want to
show you that I'm not just
here being the Black SLP and you know
just
not doing anything at work. No, my work
shows perceive me
basically your work has to precede you
so yes she's always there on time,
she comes to work early. Her notation is
always done.
She's you know she's she always knows
what's best for the patient. She
communicates with the family. She deals
before with the patient.
Then your color of your skin doesn't
matter if the work ethic is not the same.
That's my experience that I've pretty
much always experienced even till this
day
it's just I have to always wear the
badge of armor.
Okay I'm just going to go in and do what
I need to do for my patient
and you'll see my documentation and
you'll see my note and you'll finally
know oh I do need a speech therapist to
help me
tell me if this person can swallow or
talk so
just just making your work your worth um
be valuable in your work. 
Yeah, I feel like
we hear that a lot from people that you
kind of have to wear that and
like they say you have to be twice as
good you know and you
have to put that best before like before
they even know your name you have to
like make sure
all your T's are crossed and your eyes
are dotted just so that
nothing nobody has anything to say on
you or your work.
Yeah exactly because the worst thing
that we can do
as minorities is do lazy a lazy job
and prove everything they're saying about us right? 
Yeah. Does that make sense?
We don't we don't ever want to have
exactly we don't ever want to have
that stigma when we already have that
stigma alone that we're trying to fight
every day you know so... 
I'm trying to hold on to
what you just said that was that was a
lot to try to
listen and you know what I feel
yeah but it's real it's and
especially being a Black SLP
in the field not just being in the field
but in a medical setting
so and I feel like it's so often that
I've um
seen people talk about their experience
about being in the medical field and
like you were saying being called
sweetie or dear
it's it's so belittling to your work and
how hard
you strive to get where you are today
and what you
assume that you are a CNA
and you know what CNAs are hard workers
they yeah
they deserve it about CNAs but
right nothing bad about CNA recognizing
that
it's you think that they can only
achieve so much
right right right yeah even sweetie baby
honey sometimes you don't even speak or
it's not even making eye contact with
you I was just gonna say
well I constantly when you're talking
you're looking on your phone or paging
someone
again doing your work just doing good
work
at all times that's been my saving grace
that's how I feel like I've been
strong in this field is you don't have
to like me personally
as a person you don't have to like my
skin color but I know what's best for my
patient in my scope of practice and I
know I'm doing good work for my patients so
Yeah, I appreciate hearing that. I hope
that all of our listeners
really resonate with what you said it's
just you put in the work
and it it'll show it'll show right it'll
show
right regardless it'll show.
So given how
saturated the field is uh with SLPs and
being in the medical setting how how do
you personally stay passionate about
this field
what fills your cup when times are rough?
What fills my cup is
I think um definitely being a dualist or
multifaceted
minded person with the artistic
the artistic mind um for me
I'm always when I feel like I'm hitting
my plateau, I'm thinking okay
I'm either going to play this patient's
favorite movie. We're going to talk about
his favorite song or her favorite song.
I'm going to do a dance move. We're going
to do something.
That's how I always fill my cup by
reaching over to the right side of my
brain which is the art and the
and the fluffy and the flowers and the
colors.
I'm looking on that side and I'm saying
okay what can I do to make it more
interesting right? What can I do
to add a different layer? What can I do
to make it more functional and fun?
That's the word I like to use functional
and fun
so maybe we can instead of Mr. Jones
likes to smoke his cigarette
um you know at two o'clock every day.
Okay, Mr. Jones, we can go outside
and you can smoke your cigarette but
after that how about we meet for speech
therapy
and we listen to your favorite Marvin
Gaye song? Something like that to just
kind of
improve the engagement of your plan of
care or improve the motivation of the
patient because for us we can get so
focused on
our goals if they're not meeting their
goals why are they not meeting their
goals
is it the goal or is it the patient?
Which one is it?
So um a lot of times I like to just kind
of just be like okay step out of the box
with SLP for a little bit like just get
out of it just get out of the mindset of
the goal
get out of the 80, 8 out of 10. Let's get
out of
it and let's look at the patient real
quick. What does Mr. Jones like to do?
He likes to smoke. He likes to listen to
music. He likes to eat oranges.
Okay, how can we use that functionally
and fun
to make therapy a little bit more better?
Yeah so that's how I feel my cup I guess
when it's when it's half full
um I think a lot of people like to say
like CEUs and things like that that's
always fun
um and that's always of course you can
feed your academic mind but
you know your left brain can only be so
much filled and if the right brain isn't
either
so how do you combat you know you can be
a learner you can
talk about language, we can read, we can
write, we can do type, a but everyone
needs that balance of fun.
Everyone needs that balance of fun so
you know use both
both sides of the brain right and left.
Yeah
so if you could take
a time machine and travel back to speak
to young
Chelsie - young Esek uh
what advice would you have or
encouragement
or anything - what would you tell her?
I would say, "Esek -
Okay sure. I would say um, 
"Esek, start small."
"Start small. It'll be done because you're
just
a go-getter person, but start small.
You don't have to attack the world in
one day."
I do have a favorite quote that I would
love
for little Esek to hear now from big
Esek
um and it's and it's by an author named
John Maxwell.
My favorite quote ever. It says, "You'll
never change your life
until you change something you do daily."
"The secret of your success
is found in your daily routine."
That has - I'm going to read it again just
read it one more time
Author, John Maxwell. "You'll never change
your life
until you change something you do daily.
The secret of your
success is found in your daily routine."
That is what I would tell a little Esek
that you know
changing something that you do daily
will help you in the long run.
If you look at the neck anatomy at least
once a day now,
Chelsie, that'll help you out along down the road, right?
If you look at just knowing the tongue
or looking the mouth or looking at just
how many
words of language in the lexicon a day
Chelsie, that'll help you out later on
or if you may stretch stretch a little
bit longer
and dance fast today. It'll help you out
later on.
Trust me to help you out later on so
that's how that's what I would tell um
little effort just start small just
start with something small if you want
to be a better reader, if you want to you
know
learn more about medical abbreviations.
Start small by reading just one word a day.
I think that's great
and I feel like people like especially
the undergrad
or the you know are coming from a
different field into speech for grad
school
like how do I learn all these things?
Like how do I learn phonetics? You get
all those questions they're like how do
I study for anatomy
but then they can be applied to so many
other things like you said like even if
it's like
a day after five minutes to do the
documentation today or
Exactly. 
It's like it connects so many
other things
literally
One small thing I've done that's helped
me along the way
so for sure kudos to you for the running cause I can't
So on that note do you have any advice
to
share with those interested in combining
their passions with speech language
pathology
because I know that for you it was dance
art
movement therapy
I would say if you could do it then
do it that make you a more marketable
be a more holistic and well-rounded
person
and see you again your
left and right side of your brain there
are people all who wake up
from different type of pathologies and
can't use that right side of the brain
so they can't literally
see colors use that artistic.
Everybody is an artist, everybody can
sing, dance, draw, sew.
You can yodel, you can tap, whatever you
can do,
make sure you bring it into not only
your passions but your therapy because
patients want to see a person who's
well-rounded. Patients that just don't
want to see a white coat
or a scrub or or a top and a book
come in every day and talk to you. They
want to see people
what else can you bring to the table so
I would say
yes do it. Start somewhere. Let's say you
like to cut grass and you like to be a
speech therapist
Do it, do it. Be a gardener and be a
speech therapist and maybe you can
you know touch a patient who likes to
garden who knows
Great and then I guess our rounding out
for this is what do you see in your
future as of right now? 
Oh wow
um in my future I do see myself
moving back to Texas. I don't know when
um but I will be moving back home.
I don't know if it's soon whatever the
universe decides for me
um and and yeah that's a new journey
to reconnect with all my you know Texas
SLPs I know there's a few on Instagram
who I've connected with
um but yeah that's that's what I see in
my future
um I know it's kind of ironic that I
started I started this new position
and I'm probably gonna move but I don't
know
maybe I don't know that's just
a question mark. We'll see. We'll see
where esekhealth goes next
no more - hopefully is.
Right, somewhere in Texas because I do
want to be back home with family
um you know my nieces and nephews.
They're growing up
fast and I feel like I'm missing out a
little bit. My partner
of 10 years is in Texas so I'm like hey
maybe after this year um
maybe after next year I'll that's what I
see in my future being uh
and you know possibly being on the
picture board also um
there are no minorities of color right
now on the TSHA board.
Proud to say so hopefully that will be a
plan of mine as well to kind of
diversify
Texas as me and jrc_theslp did in
D.C. area!
We're trying. 
Yeah that's great. Well thank you so much for being here do
you have anything else that you wanted
to say
or add before we start recording or sign
off?
Um yeah just thank you both, Amanda
and Caryn for this opportunity. The SLPs
of color is one of my favorite favorite
pages
um esekhealth, e-s-e-k
health um is my Instagram. You can shoot
me an email if you have any questions
about
anything dance or speech related at
esektherapy@email.com
esektherapy@email.com and also kind of shoot me on my website too. My website talks a
little bit about how I
can join half and half my half world um
it's the eseklove.com
so um again thank you guys for this
opportunity.
I'm excited for this podcast to happen
and I hope we work together again
sometimes. Thank you so much for being
here
all right y'all talk to you guys soon.
We would like to thank Chelsie for
joining us on the SLPs of Color podcast.
If you don't already follow us you can
find us on Instagram,
YouTube, and wherever you listen to
podcasts @slpsofcolor
Make sure to follow, subscribe, give us a
rating, and leave a review so others can
find us.
You can also leave us a voice message
with feedback for this episode at
(510)-255-5620
Thank you. Bye!
