Empathy, Aphasia, and Phineas Gage

During observation sessions, I was always drawn towards clients who suffered a stroke and as a result developed some type of aphasia. Seeing their frustrations with not being able to come up with the right words or express their needs tugged at my heart. I think this stems from seeing similar frustrations arise from my grandmother when she was suffering from dementia. Today's class session has challenged me to one day come up with easy and practical ways for practitioners to help ease their clients' frustration and allow them to address their needs. The pre-reading assignment and podcast assigned to today's class has shown me that there are just so many stories out there of people suffering and what we, as future therapists, can do to help.