Episode 139: Behavioral Activation with Deena Schwen Blackett

Show Notes: Episode #139 Behavioral Activation with Deena Schwen Blackett

Interviewer info Lyssa Rome is a speech-language pathologist in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is on staff at the Aphasia Center of California, where she facilitates groups for people with aphasia and their care partners. She owns an LPAA-focused private practice and specializes in working with people with neurogenic communication disorders. She has worked in acute hospital, skilled nursing, and continuum of care settings. Prior to becoming an SLP, Lyssa was a public radio journalist, editor, and podcast producer. In this episode, Lyssa Rome interviews Deena Schwen Blackett about group treatment for aphasia.

Guest info Dr. Deena Schwen Blackett is an Assistant Professor in the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Central Florida and director of the Communication, Aphasia Recovery, and Emotion (CARE) Lab. Dr. Schwen Blackett's research focuses on understanding the relationship between emotion and language in aphasia, developing methods for improving psychosocial well-being in aphasia, and improving aphasia rehabilitation outcomes.

Listener Take-aways

Describe why behavioral activation's reduced linguistic demands and focus on functional life areas make it particularly well suited to use with people with aphasia. Locate behavioral activation as psychosocial intervention within ASHA's counseling domain of service delivery and SLPs' scope of practice. Connect behavioral activation principles to the Life Participation Approach to Aphasia and the Aphasia Framework for Outcome Measurement (AFROM). Transcript:

Lyssa Rome Welcome to the Aphasia Access Aphasia Conversations Podcast. I'm Lyssa Rome. I'm a speech language pathologist on staff at the Aphasia Center of California, and I see clients with aphasia and other neurogenic communication disorders in my LPAA-focused private practice. I'm also a member of the Aphasia Access Podcast Working Group. Aphasia Access strives to provide members with information, inspiration, and ideas that support their aphasia care through a variety of educational materials and resources.

I'm today's host for an episode that will feature Dr. Deena Schwen Blackett, an assistant professor in the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Central Florida, and director of the Communication, Aphasia Recovery, and Emotion (CARE) Lab. Dr. Schwen Blackett's research focuses on understanding the relationship between emotion and language in aphasia, developing methods for improving psychosocial well being in aphasia, and improving aphasia rehabilitation outcomes. Deena Schwen Blackett, thank you so much for being here. I'm really glad to be talking with you today.

Deena Shwen Blackett Thank you so much for having me. I'm very honored to be here as a longtime fan of Aphasia Access.

Lyssa Rome Often on this podcast, we get started by asking people about whether they've had an aha moment, or if there's another anecdote that they want to share. What made you want to study emotions and psychosocial interventions and aphasia?

Deena Shwen Blackett Yeah. So as an undergraduate at Purdue University, I started out in chemical engineering, which is quite different. But about midway in my sophomore year, I decided that's not the career for me, and I was exploring other options. I was really drawn to psychology, actually, and I decided to switch my major to psychology. I was really considering a career in psychiatry or clinical psychology, but I wanted to double major in something, to kind of set myself a little bit apart from the massive amounts of psych majors.

I hadn't actually heard about speech language pathology until my aunt brought it up to me and the you know, I decided, oh, this could be a great compliment to psychology, and I decided to double major. And the more I learned about our field, and especially aphasia, I became just so hooked. And I reflected