Episode 136: Treating Discourse with Jessica Obermeyer

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 Jessica Obermeyer about group treatment for aphasia.

Guest info

Jessica Obermeyer, PhD, CCC-SLP, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her area of specialization is acquired adult neurogenic language disorders. Dr. Obermeyer's research interests include discourse production in aphasia, treatment efficacy, and the cognitive requirements of language production. Prior to earning her doctorate, she worked in a variety of clinical settings where she specialized in assessment and treatment of adult neurogenic populations.

Listener Take-aways In today's episode you will: ● Recognize the role of written communication in clients' daily activities, including texting, email, and online tasks. ● Adapt ARCS-W treatment components to match each client's preferred writing modality (handwriting vs. typing). ● Identify candidates with aphasia who are well-suited for discourse-level writing treatment.

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. Jessica Obermeyer, who was selected as a 2024 Tavistock Trust for Aphasia, Distinguished Scholar, USA and Canada. Dr. Obermeyer is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her area of specialization is acquired adult neurogenic language disorders. Dr Obermeyer's research interests include discourse production and aphasia treatment efficacy and the cognitive requirements of language production. Prior to earning her doctorate, she worked in a variety of clinical settings, where she specialized in assessment and treatment of adult neurogenic populations. Jessica Obermeyer, welcome to the podcast, and thanks for being here.

Jessica Obermeyer Thank you. It's a pleasure.

Lyssa Rome So I wanted to get started with a question we often ask, which is: How did you get into this? Was there an aha moment for you and what led you to research aphasia?

Jessica Obermeyer That's a great question. I think it was more of a slow awakening and journey to realizing that this is how I wanted to spend my days. When I started studying speech language pathology, I knew I wanted to work in adult rehab with people with traumatic brain injury, stroke, and aphasia. But as an undergraduate and a masters student, I worked on a lot of research related to traumatic brain injury and cognition. But then I had some exposure to aphasia research, and as a clinician, I just loved working with people that had aphasia. I loved running aphasia groups. I started aphasia groups, and when I decided to go back for my PhD, that is what I wanted to focus on. I also had the opportunity to work in adult outpatient, so I got to see a lot of people that had aphasia and were at different points in their rehabilitation journey. And those experiences ju