Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of self-affirmation practices on feelings of imposter phenomenon (IP) in second year SLP graduate students. Methods: Six second-year SLP graduate students participated in tihs A-B-A-B withdrawal design investigation to examine the impact of 5-minute, 3 times a week guided self-compassion sessions on confidence and levels of IP. The guided sessions, included broad affirmations, such as “I am capable.” A 5-question Likert scale was administered to quantify the particpants’ confidence levels in their own abilities as a student and clinician. The Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale was administered as a pre- and post-test measure, to assess an increase or decrease in feelings of IP. Results: While five of six participants showed an increase in their self-confidence scores across the research study, there were also decreases during intervention phases of all but one participants. Five of the six participants had a decrease in their CIPS score, indicating an improvement in their feelings of IP. Conclusion: While no true trend allowed conclusions to be drawn about the impact the self-affirmations had on self-confidence scores, self-affirmations were shown to be a useful tool in addressing feelings of IP as well as to better understand IP in this population.
