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,…

Reading Loss: The Genesis of Grief, The Seed of PTSD

This entry is part 1 of 3 in the series Psychology Today - Reading and Brain Injury

You don’t know the grief of brain injury until you hear a gentle, compassionate voice drop the devastating news that you can’t read while you’re holding your usual paperback. You never know how brain injury will play out over time. What you think at first is mild becomes worse and worse. Biochemical changes wreak hidden…

Time for Another Book

April means Camp NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). This year, I’m trying it again because a self-help book for people with brain injury sprouted in my brain and demanded being written. I obeyed. I set my Camp goal as 25,000 words. I don’t usually manage to last the month, and I thought halving the November…