The Best Holiday Gifts

As an SLP, one of my greatest joys is to witness the success of the clients and patients I serve. Each of these individuals have left their mark on me, and I often tell them I am learning just as much from them as they are learning through me. I think of many of these strong and inspiring individuals after they complete their time under my care.

The holiday season is a popular time for communication (I write this as I count the greeting cards on display in my home, covered in bright images of wintery scenes and children smiling). And so, at the turn of the yearly calendar, I sometimes hear from a former client reaching out to keep me posted on their progress and express gratitude. What a gift!

This year I got three amazing gifts from former clients, all of whom suffered devastating accidents, and all of whom made incredible inspiring recoveries. All three were individuals with brain injury and all three have returned to their life activities from before the injury (work and/or school). This is a particularly noteworthy feat because the effects of brain injury can be life altering and often permanent. According to Velzen et al 2009, Only "about 40% of the people with traumatic or non-traumatic ABI are able to return to work after 1 or 2 years. Among those with acquired traumatic brain injury a substantial proportion of the subjects were either not able to return to their former work or unable to return permanently." But these three were shining stars!


1. First, I received an email from a young woman who I worked with over three years ago. She was in a cheerleading accident which resulted in a brain injury that severely affected her balance, coordination, and memory. All these years later, she had kept the "Good Luck" card I wrote her when she left the hospital and emailed me to share her progress. She has returned to college and is now completing her senior year! She writes about her story here [http://braininjuryma.wordpress.com/?s=ryan+farrell] and here [http://sharedstory.org/RyRyStory]. 

2. Then I received a Holiday Card from a patient who was injured while riding a scooter on vacation visiting family. The front of the card showed was a photo of the whole family, smiling, and all wearing bike helmets.   And the text expressed gratitude for their blessings and wishes for a safe and healthy year. I'm so impressed at the loving and creative way they shared the message to "stay safe with a helmet!"

3. The third gift: Today, I received an email from a former client who was injured at work. His career is in engineering and needs to be very thorough, organized, and creative on the job. He wrote today with a happy new year message and shared that he has been recognized and given a bonus for an excellent job done at work. 

I treasure these messages from my former clients. Their hard work and tenacity inspires me that anything is possible! 

What can you achieve in 2014?

Citation: 
Velzen, M.(2009) How many people return to work after acquired brain injury?: a systematic review. Brain Injury. Jun;23 (6):473-88. 

Laundry Folding Yoga

Woah! That's a lotta laundry!

"It's hard to fit it all in" is a common phrase for the busy modern individual, myself included. But I believe that is related to the fact that we treat everything in such a compartmentalized way. We go to the gym to exercise, we go to a place of worship to be "spiritual," and our work and play is often so separate that many dread Sunday afternoon because they soon have to "go back to the grind". Our healthcare system is exactly the same way. We have bucketloads of doctors and clinicians who take care of only their own domain. The otolaryngologist for the ear nose and throat, the gastro guys for the belly, the pulmonologist for the lungs and respiration. In some ways this really works, because an individual clinician becomes so expert at his one body system, and it's pretty much impossible to know everything about every system. But sometimes it does NOT work. Like when the problem to be addressed is more systemic, or when there is a lack of communication between the specialists. I advocate for a holistic approach to healthcare, where there is communication and crossover between the disciplines. And I'll also advocate for that same holistic approach to LIFE.

When the components of your life are integrated, everything fits!

Picture it. It's a day off from work. It's rainy and cold, you know you need some exercise, some meditation and mind-body connection, but you also have about a boatload of laundry to fold. Here's how I integrate yoga and breathwork into my usually mundane chore.

Laundry Folding Yoga

First, a few centering breaths. And then try to keep the breath flowing throughout your "practice"

Forward fold and Padangusthasana to prep for sock folding.

Ardha Uttanasana ("halfway lift") for sock pairing.

Standing Back Bend while folding a towel

Virabhadrasana II folding another towel.

Malasana folding napkins and dishrags
(blurry I know, but I ad to use it because Simon the turtle was photobombing! Can you spot him?)

Dancers pose to reach for a T-shirt from the basket

Pigeon Pose folding tank tops.

Finished! Savasana

How can you get creative and integrated in your life? Can you combine cooking time with social time? Chores with exercise? Bring more spirituality into your career? Leave comments below with your ideas!

WEBINAR: Simple Ways to Incorporate Holistic Approaches Into Your SLP Practice

Led by Brenda Lovette MS CCC/SLP RYT
Owner of Healthy Expression:
Holistic Speech Pathology and Health Coachin

This Program Aired on:
Thursday, December 5, 2013 7-8pm EST

Missed it? Sign up anyway and you will receive the recording and materials packet by email.

Cost: $18

This program will give you practical and powerful techniques to move your practice in a holistic direction. 

Who is this for?

This program is designed specifically for Speech Language Pathologists, but may be interesting to clinicians and providers of all kinds

What will I get?

• A new understanding of the benefits of holistic approaches
• Confidence to follow your intuition to maximize your services
• Greater state of health for your patients/clients, and for yourself!

The program includes:

• A 50-minute course, accessible live and available to view after recording
• Techniques and tools to use immediately
• Reference documents including definitions of various terms and resources
• Research articles and other publications to support your movement toward a holistic practice

Are you ready to expand the scope of your practice?

All materials will be sent to the email address connected with your paypal payment, so be sure you check it before December 5.

Hash Browns Supreme!

It was a weekend morning. We wanted something fancy. But eating out is pricey and often disappointing (since we've been perfecting our culinary skills and consistently choosing high quality ingredients to use in our dishes). Pancakes wouldn't do. Oatmeal gets old. We needed something SUPREME!

Ingredients
- 2 sweet potatoes, diced
- 2 small onions, diced
- 10 crimini mushrooms, sliced
- half a bunch of Kale, chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic
- oil of your choice (I use reserved bacon fat, yep you heard that right!)
- 2 tsp each of thyme and tarragon
- salt and pepper to taste

Method
Toss sweet potatoes, onions, and garlic in oil in your favorite pan (mine was cast iron). Cover and let cook, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are nearly tender when pierced with a fork.
Add mushrooms, kale, and spices. Toss, stir, till cooked to your liking. Serve with bacon and eggs, or all on it's own. Yum!

Aphasia on Screen: Ram Dass in Fierce Grace

"Aphasia is a loss of language, not a loss of intelligence." That is the National Aphasia Association's motto and tag line. It's an empowering nod to all the individuals who are living with this disorder of communication. Maybe it helps. But it doesn't cure all of the frustration and hard work that comes with having aphasia and surviving a stroke. I must say however, as someone who has sat across from so many individuals with aphasia and other communication issues, these "barriers" don't eliminate their ability to deliver some truly powerful and moving lessons.

Ram Dass is a famous contemporary spiritual leader who was at the height of his popularity in the 60's and 70's. He was(is) well loved by the "hippie" movement and spiritual seekers for his book Be Here Now and for helping to make Yoga and Hindu spirituality more accessible to Americans. In February 1997, Ram Dass had a left hemisphere stroke which left him with right sided weakness and expressive aphasia.

In 2001 he "starred" in a documentary which included his perspective on aging and his aphasia in addition to his life story. I watched the documentary recently and was on the edge of my seat! It was a beautiful illustration of  how Speech and Communication and Spirituality can be so interconnected (one of my favorite things to muse about).

The documentary opens with a clip of Ram Dass in 1969 speaking eloquently and esoterically about the discipline of the yogi to stay present through both physical/external and internal distractions. Then cuts to a more recent interview with him, gray haired and communicating with aphasia. From my perspective as an SLP, Ram Dass's aphasia is on the mild side (mild anomic aphasia to be exact), but his language skills are markedly different from pre-stroke, and immensely frustrating for such a high level communicator, no doubt. The movie was full of these juxtapositions: clips of Ram Dass pre-aphasia or people reading from his eloquent books and letters, followed by clips of current interviews or   speaking engagements. All equally moving and insightful.

Watching this film made me think about my own experiences talking with people with aphasia and the unconventional but effective way ideas are often shared. I have experienced that sometimes "odd" metaphors and word finding pauses, transparent facial expressions, and unspoken parts of an interaction can be even more powerful communication than fancy words and sentences.  Often these messages need little extra explanation. They stand alone. This is good news! It helps me to recognize that we can all be powerful communicators, no matter our real or perceived barriers to being fully expressed and to using our voice.

I had so many favorite moments in this film. Ram Dass working with his Speech Pathologist (of course I loved that). Ram Dass talking about wishing to be free from the aphasia, the paralysis, but also welcoming it as an "experiment of consciousness." A clip of Ram Dass ecstatically experiencing chanting and music. And Ram Dass delivering intensely moving guidance to a young woman who was seeking his counsel after a terrible tragedy in her life. He has aphasia in all of these moments, yes. But he was just as alive, loving, and powerful as ever. Beautiful.

You can watch Fierce Grace on NetFlix or on YouTube (here)

How to Respond to Overstimulation

I recently spent the weekend in NYC, attending a conference on voice therapy and visiting my Speechie Friend Erika. Erika and I met in 2008 when I completed my clinical fellowship year in Detroit and she has been a valuable friend and colleague since the get-go. It was her dream to move to New York, and she loves that city! I grew up in the distant suburbs of New York and I visited a lot in my youth, so the city has a special place in my heart too. But I haven't been back to visit in years. I was really struck by how BUSY it is there! After all, it is "the city that never sleeps"

SLPs (speech language pathologists) and other clinicians often think about how overstimulation and extra sensory information affect our patients with autism, learning differences, and brain injury. We know that it can lead to agitation or anxiety. We understand that it negatively affects new learning, performance, and accuracy. We even create goals for people to try to improve their performance in the presence of extra sensory input like background noise or distractions. But we don't always think about how typically developing or non brain injured individuals respond to these same situations and environments. 

My NYC weekend helped me become acutely aware of how I respond to them! My work with yoga and other spiritual practices has made me more aware of the energy of different people and places. And my intentional lifestyle, which includes early bedtime, lots of fresh clean food, and rest was definitely in contrast to my weekend on the go. I ate out almost every meal, I stayed up late to reconnect with my friend (and to match that notoriously night owl-y NYC clock), and I did a lot of hurrying around to arrive on time to busses, my course, social dates, etc. On monday, by the time I boarded the T at South Station for the last leg of my journey home, I was SPENT! I wouldn't have changed a thing. I had a blast and learned so much but I could tell the weekend had taken a toll. I was extremely fatigued and I felt like every nerve in my body was about to short circuit. I hobbled down my street suitcases in tow and got to work on damage control.

Here's how I took care of my body and mind after all that overstimulation:

1. I drank a tall glass of water. Not coffee. Not juice. Just water, to hydrate and start my intentional mini-cleanse. 

2. I played some soothing music. My favorite is the Putumayo "Yoga" album. 

3. I ate a home cooked meal. Luckily my partner had cooked the day before and there were delicious leftovers for the win!

4. I took a cool shower, with lavender essential oils sprinkled in the tub at my feet for calming.

5. I dried off and applied a soothing face mask. 

6. I finished off with the neti pot to clean out germs that had hitched a ride on my travels. 

7. The rest of the evening was all about resting and connecting. No work, no electronics. I needed to hit the reset button to be ready for the next day!

Post your comments below! What are some ways you have found to reset after being overstimulated?

Cherry Chocolate Yogurt Pops

I can't take credit for this idea but I've been scouring the web and I can't find the website/blog where I got the inspiration. If you're out there Cherry Garcia Pop Maker, I want to say "Sorry I can't link to you and THANK YOU for the amazing idea!"
This is a delicious snack, dessert, or even breakfast food. I love the tart flavor, sweetened only by the fruit. Next I think I'll try peaches, or blueberry/strawberry/banana!

Supplies:
A popsicle mold, purchase at most kitchen supply stores. It's a seasonal item so go scoop one up before the summer is over!
8oz of Greek Yogurt. I used 2%
1 cup of sweet cherries, pitted and chopped
A palmful of semisweet chocolate chips, chopped
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Method:
Mix all ingredients together and spoon into your mold. Freeze for a few hours. Run hot water over the outside of the mold to loosen the pops and slide 'em out. Enjoy!