Psychotherapy After Brain Injury

This book presents hands-on tools for addressing the multiple ways that brain injury can affect psychological functioning and well-being. The author is a leader in the field who translates her extensive clinical experience into clear-cut yet flexible guidelines that therapists can adapt for different challenges and settings. With a focus on facilitating awareness, coping, competence, adjustment, and community reintegration, the book features helpful case examples and reproducible handouts and forms. It shows how to weave together individual psychotherapy, cognitive retraining, group and family work, psychoeducation, and life skills training, and how to build and maintain a collaborative therapeutic relationship.

Presenting hands-on tools for addressing the multiple ways that brain injury can affect psychological functioning and well-being, this book features helpful case examples and reproducible handouts and forms.

While there are many excellent texts addressing cognitive impairment and behavioural difficulties and on rehabilitation associated with traumatic brain injury, few textbooks specifically address the most common emotional problems that can have such an adverse effect on rehabilitation and outcome. Uniquely this book deals exclusively with the identification and psychotherapeutic management of mood and anxiety disorders after traumatic brain injury. Furthermore, a systematic approach to identifying and diagnosing anxiety and mood disorders is followed throughout the text. As well as providing an introduction to anxiety and mood disorders after traumatic brain injury, it provides a psychological perspective on their evolution and management. It is aimed at a range of professionals in training (or those responsible for providing training in psychopathology, neuropsychology and psychotherapy), as well as those who may have an interest in working with the type of patients with anxiety or depression, commonly seen in post-acute brain injury rehabilitation settings. Case studies, summaries and suggested references for further reading are used throughout to facilitate understanding and teaching where relevant.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Brain Injury discusses how acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) can be integrated into existing approaches to neuropsychological rehabilitation and therapy used with people who have experienced a brain injury. Written by practicing clinical psychologists and clinical neuropsychologists, this text is the first to integrate available research with innovative clinical practice. The book discusses how ACT principles can be adapted to meet the broad and varying physical, cognitive, emotional and behavioural needs of people who have experienced brain injury, including supporting families of people who have experienced brain injury and healthcare professionals working in brain injury services. It offers considerations for direct and indirect, systemic and multi-disciplinary working through discussion of ACT concepts alongside examples taken from clinical practice and consideration of real-world brain injury cases, across a range of clinical settings and contexts. The book will be relevant to a range of psychologists and related professionals, including those working in neuropsychology settings and those working in more general physical or mental health contexts.

It deals not only with traditional aspects of therapy with these challenging patients, but also with special problems that may arise, including aggression and impulsivity, alcohol and drug abuse, chronic pain, sex and relationships, and vocational and forensic issues.

Addressing the critical issues in community re-entry in a very practical manner, this book is suitable for all members of a community re-entry or brain-injury rehabilitation team. Traumatic Brain Injury Rehabilitation: Practical Vocational, Neuropsychological, and Psychotherapy Interventions provides innovative guidelines for allied health members of the traumatic brain injury rehabilitation team with information to help achieve more successful vocational and psychosocial outcomes. The book provides a very clear overview of critical components of neuropsychological information and the use of this information in vocational planning; examples of functional areas of cognition and neuropsychological assessment; the linkages between cognitive and behavioral impairments; the different categories of assistive technology; psychotherapy and behavioral interventions as well as successful vocational interventions; and, models of work access, including methods of supported employment, the development of a tailored job coaching program, and the specifics of utilizing natural supports. This book is useful to anyone involved in neurorehabilitation, vocational rehabilitation, rehab psychology, neuropsychology, and students in counseling programs or studying medical aspects of disability.

An injury to the brain can affect virtually any aspect of functioning and, at the deepest level, can alter sense of self or the essential qualities that define who we are. In recent years, there has been a growing body of research investigating changes to self in the context of brain injury. Developments in the cognitive and social neurosciences, psychotherapy and neurorehabilitation have together provided a rich perspective on self and identity reformation after brain injury. This book draws upon these theoretical perspectives and research findings to provide a comprehensive account of the impact of brain injury on self-identity. The second half of this book provides an in-depth review of clinical strategies for assessing changes in self-identity after brain injury, and of rehabilitation approaches for supporting individuals to maintain or re-establish a positive post-injury identity. The book emphasizes a shift in clinical orientation, from a traditional focus on alleviating impairments, to a focus on working collaboratively with people to support them to re-engage in valued activities and find meaning in their lives after brain injury. Self-Identity after Brain Injury is the first book dedicated to self-identity issues after brain injury which integrates theory and research, and also assessment and intervention strategies. It will be a key resource to support clinicians and researchers working in brain injury rehabilitation, and will be of great interest to researchers and students in clinical psychology, neuropsychology, and allied health disciplines.

Persisting neurobehavioural disability follows many forms of serious brain injury and acts as a major constraint on social independence. Rehabilitation services are often not organised in a way which addresses the needs of people with such disability, and relatively few professionals have experience in the clinical management of complex disability patterns which comprise the neurobehavioural syndrome. This book is a compilation of chapters, written by a group of clinicians with experience of post acute brain injury rehabilitation to ameliorate the social handicap experienced by a growing number of people who survive serious brain injury. The aim of the book is to describe the nature of neurobehavioural disability, how it translates into social handicap, and what can be done to address the problems generated by such handicap, through social and behavioural rehabilitation, vocational training, and family education. Consideration is also given to evaluating post-acute rehabilitation methods and selecting the most appropriate form of rehabilitation, both in terms of clinical and cost effectiveness. The book is aimed at clinical psychologists, psychiatrists and neurologists working in brain injury rehabilitation, plus all the rehabilitation disciplines, and social workers. The book will also be of interest to relatives of brain injured people who are seeking a better knowledge base in order to understand neurobehavioural disability. Additionally, the book should be helpful to the growing number of therapy care assistants, case managers, and support workers, responsible for the day to day care of brain injured people in the community.