Creative Approaches to Delivering Skilled, Person-Centered
Rehabilitation (Recorded Webinar)
Presented by Lauren Schwabish
12-Month Subscription
Unlimited access to:
- Thousands of CE Courses
- Patient Education
- Home Exercise Program
- And more
Nonfinancial: Lauren Schwabish is an advisory board member of the Dementia Society of America, on the professional advisory council for the Stroke Comeback Center, is a board member of A Purposeful Day, an affiliate with the National Aphasia Association, and is a member of ASHA, ANCDS, and Aphasia Access.
This course is a recording of a previously hosted live webinar event. Polling and question submission features are not available for this recording. Format and structure may differ from those of standard MedBridge courses.
Taking a functional approach to neurorehabilitation therapy can be both appealing and a mystery to any clinician. As emerging trends in rehabilitation move away from the traditional medical model of out-of-context, impairment-based activities using generic therapy tasks, it can appear as if person-centered care simply requires providers to arrive at a session with no plan. In reality, there are specialized and effective skills necessary to making the therapeutic moment a success.
This webinar provides a guide on how to make the most of interactions between provider and client, rooted in skilled communication techniques that promote partnership, collaboration, and empowerment. We will define the “soft skills” critical to a provider’s successful navigation of clinical interactions, including the roles of observation and perception, active listening, collaborative goal setting, and innovative creativity, to develop enriched opportunities for person-centered rehabilitative care. A variety of real-life clinical examples will help therapists learn to integrate evidence-based strategies into meaningful experiences in any rehabilitation setting.
Meet your instructor
Lauren Schwabish
Lauren Schwabish is the owner of Neuro Speech Services, a private practice based in Northern Virginia specializing in person-centered assessment and treatment of cognitive-communicative disorders related to stroke, brain injury, mild cognitive impairment, ADHD, and other neurologic and neurodegenerative conditions. Lauren…
Chapters & learning objectives
1. Understanding Soft Skills as Necessary for Clinical Success
This chapter reviews the concept of person-centered care versus the traditional medical model and defines soft skills as key to service delivery. Included in soft skills are personal management and interpersonal communication. Personal management refers to skills such as flexibility, attention to detail, self-confidence, and teamwork. Interpersonal communication refers to the vital skills of listening and conveying appropriate and necessary information.
2. Priority Soft Skill for a Great Therapist: Active Listening
Therapists are often excited to share their knowledge and provide education, but they can be lured into the belief that communication is taking place when, in fact, they may be the ones doing most of the talking. This chapter defines active listening and its essential components of nonverbal affirmation, paraphrasing, summarizing, and deferring judgment. Active listening as a means to establish trust and understanding will be underscored as an element to include throughout a therapeutic encounter.
3. “How Are You Feeling?”
This chapter shares practical tools to help the clinician establish how a client is feeling, including visual tools to elicit expression of emotions, symptoms, and priorities for life participation. For each tool, a short example will be provided to highlight functional contexts where these can be utilized (including for clients with aphasia and cognitive impairments).
4. Making the Most of the Moment
This chapter will share stories of actual clinical interactions where a goal, priority, or upcoming event was shared by the client and developed into an opportunity for therapeutic intervention. Examples will include brief client history, soft skills utilized, shared goal setting, and outcomes, reflecting a person-centered approach. Emphasis is on the personal management the soft skills of creativity, flexibility, and attention to detail.
5. Words Matter: Writing to Reflect Soft Skills
Following the mantra “If it wasn’t documented, it didn’t happen,” we identify language to demonstrate skilled interventions effectively as a means to reflect the use of soft skills in person-centered care delivery. We will discuss effective written communication as another aspect of clinical soft skills at work. Examples will be provided.
6. Question and Answer Session
This chapter is a viewer-submitted question and answer session facilitated by Lauren Schwabish.