One Word? Only One?!

What is one word that describes you? One word to describe me? That’s a toughie. How can you use one word to describe a person, after brain injury, which makes your future unrecognizable and changes you and changes you again and again and again? Does the core you vanish under the onslaught of damage? Or…

My Brain Needs a Challenge

What bores you? I think my mother got real fed up with my, “I’m booooorrrrred,” growing up. Decades later, my brain trainer discovered the problem with me and boredom. Normally, as I understand it, they set the neurofeedback parameters to challenge the brain but not too much. When it’s too challenging, the client can’t do…

Watch to SmartWatch

I wore a watch since my 8th birthday until a few years after my brain injury when my skin and tolerance to skin irritation made me take it off. I figured I’d use TTC clocks (OK, hard to see after they upgraded to those screens), city clocks (where are they‽), or my Palm, later my…

Psychologists Have Rules For Client Care, Doctors Don’t When Illness Strikes

Why do health care providers not have automatically triggered plans to inform patients when they suddenly sicken or die? I wrote a piece for Psychology Today on this topic after my neurodoc had a personal medical emergency. I tried to find out what happened, what College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario mandates (hint: nothing)…

Is Mental Work the Same as Exercise?

This entry is part 5 of 4 in the series Psychology Today - Fatigue and Brain Injury

Increasing mental work while not decreasing physical exercise commensurately was a really bad idea after brain injury. This lesson no one taught me. NaNoWriMo—National Novel Writing Month—is a month of writing every single day in November to create a 50,000-word novel. This writing community and event includes anyone, no matter your ability; it releases your…

What Makes Reading Enjoyable?

This entry is part 4 of 3 in the series Psychology Today - Reading and Brain Injury

I believed in reading strategies because I believed in my therapist—until I finally had to admit they were an illusion. I sat opposite my therapist, focusing effortfully on her lesson. She was teaching me how to read post-concussion using strategies: highlighters to highlight words I needed to remember; pens to write notes in the margins…

Cognitive Empathy For Reading Loss After Brain Injury

This entry is part 2 of 3 in the series Psychology Today - Reading and Brain Injury

Cognitive empathy lets you imagine a client’s experience, puts yourself in their shoes, and act accordingly. How you can use it to help restore reading post concussion. Dr. Brian Goldman, a Toronto ER doctor and host of White Coat Black Art on CBC Radio, was on CBC Radio’s Ontario Today at noon, Friday, May 4,…