A People Therapist

The moment when you realize things have come full circle.  When you realize this is where you are supposed to be and are thrilled to have made the decisions allowing it to happen.

For me, this moment is right now.  

Away from the mind is taking a different route, just as I have.  My clinical focus has diversified, shifted, and I am now working part time in an outpatient clinic and hospital.  The why behind this change was huge but now is not the time to get into it.  I still dabble with PRN work in long term care and skilled nursing, but this new job is really a dream come true.  My first job as an SLP was almost exactly like the one I have landed in now; mostly kids, a few adults, outpatients and inpatients. I am right back where I started and it feels great.   On the downside I have gone through many questions in my mind like how to change my focus?   Can I really go back and pick up where I left off?  Will I still serve kids as effectively as before?  Can I give up all the work I’ve done with these adults I so love?  Do I even have to give up the work with adults?   I still feel strongly about helping this fragile geriatric population that so many look over, but it didn’t feel like it was the place for me any longer. 

 The answers were not easy to come to but basically I know that it is not all or nothing.  

What a terrible limitation to place on myself “I am an adult therapist”  or “I am a pediatric therapist”.  I am choosing to define myself (if I have to do that) as a “people therapist”.  My strength is understanding people who think differently, learn differently, communicate differently, and this ability is limitless.   So now it’s time to get this blog back in check and here is what to expect…

The topics may be more diverse, there will be talk about populations beyond aging adults, the writings will ALWAYS be heartfelt.

So here I am, with a vastly different perspective than I ever experienced, and I can’t wait to see what happens next!!!

Don't Regret

This is a good read.

Top 5 Regrets of the Dying

Something to keep in mind as we converse with the ill and elderly.

Where are the Words?

Word finding is one of the most frustrating language symptoms of aphasia related to dementia. It comes about early in the process of the disease, and it exacerbates as the dementia progresses.

I could explain and describe, but I think this short video says it all. Link below.
"Forgetting words. I'm trying to think of it..."

So leave space for the person to think.

Provide time as the words may come slowly.

The video's example of a multi-sensory experience is ideal, the senses of touching, feeling, tasting, hearing, seeing, and smelling will work together and help elicit the verbal response.

Ask one question at a time and WAIT. Bombarding the system with information to comprehend without ample time to process and formulate a response will not be the most effective strategy.

Don't forget that words may not be the most important part. While losing language and memory is devastating it is not the only way in which people experience the world.

Language: An Expanded View

Off the wall, not your typical awayfromthemind post, maybe so, but I had to share. Listening to Deepak Chopra sparked a thought, then a series of ideas, hence the blog. Hope you will find his words as thought provoking as I do.

“Language is the maker of reality…material reality”

When you think of language, do you immediately go to words, images, verbalizations, writing? I would imagine this is the first concept most people have, words comprise language, but that is really a very narrow view. Verbal language is only a piece of whole picture. Preverbal language exists, and more importantly, serves as the basis for the more common concept of language, words, ideas, insights communicated with one another. All living things have preverbal language abilities, which consist of information, sound, energy, and vibration. So, wouldn’t it be true that with sharper sensory perception skills, preverbals may be sufficient for some interaction and exchange? In my experience the answer is yes. More is often said in the absence of words, the look in a person’s eyes, the movement of their body, a small sound, a sigh or a moan can say it all.

Now what I am wondering is how this can impact the people in our world who have lost their verbal language. How can we as caregivers, therapists, and family members of those aging reframe our idea of language and communication? Would it be beneficial to more astutely observe a person, watching, listening, and feeling to find preverbal communications? Would it be helpful for a daughter caring for her mother in the end stages of dementia to have someone tell her that yes language as she has always known it is gone, but in a broader sense there may be more to the dying parent’s interaction than meets the less-aware eye?

Preverbal together with verbal language create the experiences of our human reality. As the aged veer further and further away from words it is up to us to move into their reality and look towards the energy and information conveyed in so many other ways so that interaction continues and thrives as long as life does.