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I lecture and
provide training about a wide range of topics about psychological effects of
hearing loss, self-care, psychotherapy and mental health. The presentations
can be specifically tailored for:
·deaf,
hard-of-hearing and hearing consumers
· parents,
family members, spouses, significant others
· counselors,
therapists, trainers, teachers
· residential
treatment, hospital staff
· hearing-care
professionals, audiologists, speech-language therapists
· medical
and allied medical staff
For a list of endorsements,
please click here.
Possible topics are:
The
Psychological Effects of Acquired Hearing Loss
Unlike many congenitally
deaf or hard-of-hearing persons whose level of hearing has become an integral
facet of their identity, persons who lose their hearing frequency experience
loss and trauma. That experience is strongly influenced by psychological,
social and spiritual factors. This workshop describes how these factors are
interwoven to shape the psyches and life-stories of persons with acquired
hearing loss. Issues related to helplessness,
anxiety, fear, anger/rage, feelings of
incompetence, reconciling one's group identity and finding meaning or purpose
from one's pain will be discussed.
A
Psychological Look at Resiliency
What
enables some people with hearing losses to successfully overcome adversity?
Recent psychological research on resiliency helps explain how and why
some people cope and benefit by their disability while others succumb to
it. Most importantly, this skill does not solely depend on innate talents or
dispositions. There are well-defined and teachable methods and attitudes which
foster positive psychological adaptation and growth. This training will
describe what factors lead to resiliency, specifically to the challenge of
acquired hearing loss and teach methods of increasing resiliency and decreasing
internalized handicaps.
Vicarious Hearing Loss: A
Spouse's Tale
When one part of a family system is
in pain, then every part is affected. In particular, when one spouse is
directly traumatized by the loss of hearing, the other spouse is vicariously
traumatized; in some ways, each person's experiences of hope and terror are
mirror images of each other. However, too often, both end up feeling abandoned
and betrayed.
This workshop will describe the relational dynamics
of couples, with particular attention to the so-called "shadow spouse" - the one
without the hearing loss. The non-disabled spouse often remains in the
shadows, feeling an almost inexplicable loneliness. One's needs for
comfort and validation are often tinged with guilt as though there is no reason
or justification to complain.
Bearing Witness
to Ordinary Evil: Self-care and Growth-enhancement Strategies
Many deaf and hard-of-hearing
persons report that the intolerance of others is the most difficult to tolerate,
even more than one's hearing loss per se. This intolerance is what I call
"ordinary evil": those actions which “feel” evil, but are not evil enough to be
newsworthy. Exclusion, discrimination and abuse of power, are commonplace
examples. The long-term effects of ordinary evil, left unrecognized by the
victim/survivor and without adequate coping tools, are insidious and
devastating. However, once recognized and managed properly, however, ordinary
evil can be a vehicle for one’s psychological and spiritual growth.
The Transformative Power
of Relationships: Beyond Communication Strategies
Hearing loss doesn’t affect just an individual,
but also affects significant others. But the needs of the non-hearing
impaired spouse are often left unexamined. Even while providing support,
so-called “shadow spouses” have rich opportunities to benefit themselves in
profound, often transformative ways. I will illustrate techniques for
maximizing psycho-social-spiritual growth for both partners. Pre-marital
dating, when one person is hard-of-hearing, will also be covered. The focus
is on growth enhancement possibilities beyond the logistics of setting up
communication strategies.
No longer Who I Was But Not Yet Who I Will Be
Some persons with hearing loss remain attached to
their former hearing identity and feel defective. The
easy-to-say-but-tough-to-do task is to disengage from the “hearing self” and
embrace the hard-of-hearing self. But this necessitates feeling no longer
who I was but not yet who I will be. It constitutes a hero’s journey, a
mythological construct. I will describe navigational tools, such as finding
threads of continuity and paradoxes of growth. This workshop was the
keynote speech at the 10/02 national ALDA conference in Orlando, Florida.
Vicarious trauma and stress
reduction
Helping professionals
often find themselves in situations in which hearing persons or agencies oppress
a Deaf client. Inasmuch as the Deaf person is traumatized by sustaining
oppression, the witness may be vicariously traumatized. In the words of
Carl Jung, “trauma is contagious.” Specifically, one may unwittingly become a
victim, oppressor or complacent bystander (compassion fatigue). This session
will describe the cognitive, emotional and behavioral fallout from vicarious
trauma; delineate coping strategies; discuss methods of stress reduction; and
outline growth enhancement, transformation strategies.
The advantages of
exchanging a Pentium IV for a 286: A psychological look at welcoming old age and
hearing aids
If patients with presbycusis resist
impending old age and expect hearing aids to transform their experience of
aging, then the stage is set for unmet expectations, betrayal and for returning
those "damn aids."
The hearing-care
professional should "sell" the concept that
hearing aids can help one age gracefully but that they cannot perform magic.
Stated differently, geriatric patience compliance for audiologic recommendations
is inextricably related to positive adjustment to aging. This workshop will
delineate psychological techniques that the audiologist can use to increase
patient compliance among older persons.
The Transformative Power of an Audiology
Visit
A visit with
a hearing-care professional or audiologist can result in a profound
psychological transformation for a patient. The unique context of a visit
promotes the necessary mix of self-disclosure and trust for emotional
healing. A patient's resiliency is directly attributable to later recalling
positive impressions of the hearing-care professional. The context of the
visit also fulfills a vital human need for a significant other to bear
witness to our story; it serves as an "emotionally corrective" experience;
and it provides an invaluable window of opportunity for patients to further
their existential growth. The psychological benefits of patient contact for
hearing-care professionals and audiologists themselves will also be
addressed.
When a patient requests hearing aids but
doesn’t want them
“What you need in trying to
help people are the qualities of a good bartender – sympathy, willingness
to listen, and intuition.” The goal of this training is to teach those
qualities: so-called motivational interviewing techniques which are
applicable for hearing-impaired persons. Participants will learn how to
elicit self-motivational statements from their patients; use psychological
strategies of managing patient ambivalence; use specific modes of
questioning and dialogue; avoid common provider traps; and react
appropriately to common patient avoidant behaviors; and methods of
structuring a collaborative dialogue. This workshop is relevant for
hearing care professionals to increase adherence to recommendations, such
as hearing aids.
Post Traumatic Reactions and
Deaf Persons: validation of a Common Experience or Just Another Pathological
Label?
Psychological trauma has been
defined as an experience which is unexpected or non-normative; which exceeds the
individual's copying ability; and which disrupts the individual's frame of
reference and other central psychological needs. But what about many Deaf
persons' frequent if not omnipresent experiences of sustaining oppression from
the hearing culture? What about many Deaf persons who grow up conversationally
isolated in their families of origin?
Understanding that many Deaf persons
may be recovering from Post Trauma Reactions helps to validate one’s
experiences. This framework helps make sense out of certain so-called
"post-trauma" behaviors, such as a deaf individual becoming immobilized in
situations which are reminiscent of prior experiences. This workshop provides
specific guidelines for non-traditional and traditional psychotherapeutic
interventions, specifically those which have been extensively described in the
trauma literature.
Family therapy with deaf-member
families
This
presentation describes the theory and practice of formulating systemic diagnoses
and implementing interventions with deaf-member families, including deaf
children of hearing parents and deaf parents with hearing children. Systemic
considerations of working with interpreters are covered.
Therapeutic approaches with inflexible-explosive children
The pragmatic techniques of psychologist Ross Green are extremely useful
in treating children and adolescents who are inflexible and explosive.
This training covers specific cognitive-behavioral methods of teaching
flexibility and frustration tolerance, distinguishing when a child “can’t
behave” from “won’t behave,” interrupting explosive behavioral sequences,
designing appropriate milieu, and conducting situational analyses of
antecedent events. The format is via didactic presentation, role playing
and experiential exercises and can be specifically tailored for staff in
residential treatment settings, outpatient therapists, or parents.
Psychological Services
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Individual, Marital and Family
Counseling and psychotherapy.
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Psycho diagnostic evaluations.
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Support and educational groups on
various topics, e.g., vicarious trauma, hearing loss, tinnitus.
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email me......mharvey2000@comcast.net
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