Additional Clinical Approaches
COGNITIVE REHABILITATION THERAPY (CRT)
Within the delivery of your Speech therapy it is essential to treat ‘Metacognitive strategies; to help increase self awareness regarding problem solving skills, how to monitor the effectiveness of these skills and to self correct with necessary. Cognitive rehabilitation builds strategies to improve memory, attention, sequential task reasoning and mental processing.
To succeed in new learning opportunities I treat Dysexecutive Syndrome, most notably associated with damage to the frontal lobe of the brain often co-occuring with loss of speech. This involves identifying and supporting emotional, motivational and behavioural difficulties associated with Stroke as well as cognitive deficits.
NEUROLOGICAL MUSIC THERAPY (NMT)
(NMT) is a specialist service and clinical approach within music therapy. Where standard music therapy can be free-flowing, NMT is made up of standardised, research based clinical techniques, which create neurological change for clients. Consequently, as a clinical and precise approach, NMT can track measurable change in all neurological conditions. In short, it can support:
Speech and Communication
Emotional Well-being and Expression
Motor Skills
Cognition and Learning
NMT is a research-based system of 20 standardised clinical techniques for use in sensorimotor training, speech and language training and cognitive training. In my experience using NMT can offer success where other traditional methods of speech and language therapy are minimally successful. In particular, in treating oral and verbal dyspraxia, I have seen considerably greater outcomes using NMT.
NEURO LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMING (NLP)
NLP offers techniques which enable you to change things about yourself and improve your communication and relationships with others. This is a very individualised treatment. NLP can be really effective in overcoming negative thought cycles and un-resourceful feelings/thought patterns that tend to occur as a direct result of an adult acquired communication deficit. It can also be used to set goals effectively and plan what you want to achieve and how you will achieve it. It can help to improve your response to problematic situations, especially those of communication breakdown. NLP can also work to improve communicative confidence.
MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING (MI)
MI is a counselling method which seeks to engage you in talking about problematic issues, concerns, hopes and aspirations. You are then encouraged to focus on habits and patterns that would require change in order to overcome your identified set of concerns. Evoking your intrinsic motivation for change and planning practical steps to implement positive change on a specific set of goals is the outcome of using the Motivational Interviewing technique.
SOLUTION FOCUSSED THERAPY (SFT)
SFT is a brief intervention tool, used repeatedly throughout the extended therapy relationship. This method of counselling around goal setting helps to identify goals by utilising your own internal competencies, skills and resources, as well as immediate support systems and supportive networks, therefore finding and utilising your set of resources. This is very important as you the individual transition to a new sense of independence following a period of significant impairment.
EMOTIONAL LITERACY (E.Lit)
E.Lit is the ability to express our emotions and feelings using speech and other forms of communication. It is an important skill to re-visit following stroke to re-establish a stable relationship with our own emotions and to be assisted in labelling them when struggling with putting labels on emotions. People with Aphasia quite literally lose the words to express themselves. The term was coined by Claude Steiner in 1997, who believed that emotional literacy was the key to helping humans handle their own emotions in an empowering way, that would also improve their quality of life.