Cognitive Rehabilitation: Therapy … Therapy … Therapy!!! – Jane Yakel

Salepage link: At HERE. Archive:

Cognition is the mental process of knowing, and/or that which comes to be known through awareness, perception, knowledge and reasoning. Loss of cognitive abilities is on the rise in the United States, with approximately 6.5 million people diagnosed with an intellectual disability. Therefore, Cognitive Rehabilitation is, and should be, the heart of any and all intervention programs.

This informative and interactive seminar presents over 100 evidence-based techniques, strategies, interventions and approaches and includes discussion on how to modify the techniques to highly individualize therapy plans for the patient. Active case studies are examined and participants are encouraged to design a patient profile with therapy interventions and goal documentation. The course equips therapist and/or caregiver to take home and implement evidence-based interventions that are successful immediately.

Jane Yakel brings years of diversified clinical and educational experience to her presentations and is known for her ability to bridge the gap between theory and practice effectively. If you are in the field of helping people learn, re-learn or are responsible for patient care, this course is for you!

1. Discuss how to bridge the gap from philosophy to practice, and from paper-pencil therapeutic task to daily functioning activity, by identifying the underpinnings of the different systems and processes of cognition.
2. Discuss specific “Art of Memory” techniques and strategies (utilized by World Memory Championship competitors) to design specific therapeutic tasks that can create a structural change in memory.
3. Identify the critical role that awareness deficits play in contributing to rehabilitation outcomes and discuss the interventions and techniques that facilitate awareness and guide the patient to independent functioning.
4. Summarize the components of executive functions and discuss how these components are contingent upon other cognitive processes that manifest cognitive and behavioral disorders.
5. Define step-by-step therapeutic intervention techniques specifically designed for progressive neurological diseases and low-level cognitive patients.
6. Identify the components of a defendable skilled goal and discuss what medically defines a skilled from a non-skilled intervention.
7. Evaluate the role of self-efficacy and ownership and the principles needed to have the patient ultimately responsible for the treatment program.
8. Discuss caregiver training techniques, communication strategies and guidelines for patient intervention ultimately affecting therapeutic outcomes.
9. Recall specific therapeutic approaches for cognitive intervention with respect to specific medical diagnosis.
10. List the latest research on how depression/mood, drugs, stress/anxiety, sleep, diet and exercise affect cognition, and acquire specific intervention strategies to maximize brain function.

1. Therapy: The “First” Half
   1. Self-Awareness: Levels of Awareness and Interventions
   2. Self-Efficacy: Sources and Interventions
   3. Ownership: Increasing Patient Participation
2. Models of Care/Approaches to Therapy
3. Direct Therapy/Indirect Therapy
4. Therapy via Medical Diagnosis: High-Level Cognition
5. High-Level Cognition Intervention: Structural Change
   1. Attention Systems
      1. Selective Attention
      2. Focused Attention
      3. Sustained Attention
      4. Divided Attention
      5. Directed Attention
      6. Shifting Attention
   2. Visual Processing Systems
      1. Visual Cognition
      2. Visual Memory
      3. Pattern Recognition
      4. Scanning
      5. Visual Attention
      6. Oculomotor Skills
      7. Visual Fields
      8. Visual Acuity
   3. Information Processing Systems
      1. Processing Speed
      2. Processing Control
      3. Processing Capacity
   4. Memory: Declarative Memory System
      1. Method of Loci
      2. Visual Imagery
      3. Chunking
      4. Association
      5. Mental Organization
      6. Linking
      7. Elaboration
      8. Acronyms, Acrostics
      9. Rhymes, Rhythms, Rote
      10. Rehearsal and the Curve of Forgetting
6. Executive Functions
   1. Self-Regulation: Behavioral & Verbal
   2. Initiation/Inhibiting
   3. Time Management
   4. Planning/Organization
   5. Problem Solving
7. Therapy via Medical Diagnosis: Low-Level Cognition
8. Low-Level Cognition Intervention: Guidelines for Intervention
   1. Errorless Learning
   2. Cognitive Loss and Abilities
9. Low-Level Cognition Intervention: Skilled Enhancement
   1. Non-declarative Memory System
      1. Spaced Retrieval Therapy
      2. Montessori-Based Therapy
      3. Ability-Based Approaches / Therapy
      4. Validation Therapy
      5. Redirecting Therapy
      6. Reminiscence Therapy
10. Caregiver Training
    1. FOCUSED: Communication Enhancement Program
    2. Allen’s Cognitive Disability Theory / Therapy
11. Documentation: Goals and Skilled Intervention
    1. Components of a Defendable Skilled Goal
    2. Skilled Terminology / Skilled Intervention
12. The “Other” Half of THERAPY
    1. Stress and Anxiety: Strain on the Brain
    2. Drugs: Pharmaceutical/Poly-pharmaceutical/ Adverse Drug Reactions
    3. Depression: Different Shades of Blue
    4. Diet and Exercise
    5. Sleep and Cognition
13. Bridging the Gap: Interactive Case Studies