Mental Health

In this episode of Brain Friends, we talk about mental health with counseling psychologist Dr. Lauren. Stroke survivors with aphasia often experience depression or grief related to loss of social roles and communication. Speech-language pathologists play a role in helping clients navigate emotion when it shows up during therapy. 

 Dr. Seles discusses the importance of Speech-Language Pathologists (SLP) taking a helping skills class to learn how to support mental health in rehabilitation. Helping skills include how to validate emotion, reflect back a feeling, and show empathy.   

Angie shares how emotional moments in aphasia recovery often presented during speech therapy sessions. She discusses her decision process around medication and asks Dr. Lauren for concrete steps survivors can take to navigate mental health.  

Dr. Lauren gives advice on how to navigate grief and dispels myths about mental health.  She shares tips health care providers can do to support their clients through emotional moments. 

Tips for the provider.

1. Don’t panic. "They don’t need you to fix them they need you to hear them." 

2.  Validate the emotion and expression of the emotion.

3.  Focus on listening and asking clarifying questions.

4. Reflect back the emotion. “I am hearing you say or “I am hearing that you feel”. "Did I get that right"?

6. Cultural humility - Affect matching with words. 

7. Take action or co-collaborate on the next action. “Do you have/want a mental health therapist"?

https://www.cognitiverecoverylab.com/seles

https://aphasia.org/stories/announcing-the-davetrina-seles-gadson-health-equity-grant-program/

Our beloved colleague, Dr. Davetrina Seles Gadson, passed away January 11, 2025. Dr. Gadson was an extraordinary speech-language pathologist and neuroscience researcher who devoted her energy to studying health disparities in aphasia recovery. She was a fierce advocate for improving services for individuals with aphasia, particularly Black Americans. Her research transformed our understanding of these health disparities and shed light on how we can address them. We were privileged to have Dr. Gadson as a cherished member of our lab community for four years, first as a postdoctoral fellow and then as an Instructor of Rehabilitation Medicine. She was still a close collaborator and friend to many of us at the time of her passing. Dr. Gadson was an incredible person—compassionate, inspiring, and full of life. Her dedication to advancing equity in aphasia recovery and her profound impact on our community will never be forgotten. We are committed to honoring her memory by continuing to push our field forward and fight for equitable services for all people with aphasia.