A labour of moles

'Clinical' is a word that is part of the framework and the furniture of my job as a Speech and Language Therapist (SLT). It trips off the tongue of colleagues without question and populates documents, policies and procedures. Yet, I wonder, in all its commonplace and everyday presence, do people ever really stand back to think about what that word actually implies? Here are two definitions from the Cambridge English Online Dictionary clinical  adjective   used to refer to medical work or teaching that relates to the examination and treatment of ill people expressing no emotion or feelings; showing no character and warmt h In reading these definitions I feel like I want to scream loudly and break free from those words, that box that contains my working life. For all the talk of  care, closeness and individual support  by my professional body, the term  clinical  remains a gilded cage. A cage because these are the words and meanings that frame my day-to-...