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Rebuilding after brain injury

By Bethany Bray May 31, 2022

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“I just want to feel useful again, like I have some purpose.”

“I just want to know is there anything I can do?”

“I just want to know I’m not going crazy.”

“I want to be happy again, have friends again and feel satisfied in relationships.”

These are among the heartbreaking responses Herman Lukow, a licensed professional counselor (LPC) and licensed marriage and family therapist, receives from clients who have experienced a traumatic brain injury (TBI) when he asks what they want and need from counseling.

Individuals who have experienced a TBI often find themselves facing change and challenge in nearly every aspect of life. Depending on the severity of the injury and their recovery trajectory, TBI survivors can experience memory loss, personality changes and difficulty with language, comprehension, impulsivity, anger and decision-making. This is in addition to physical issues such as having challenges with balance, coordination and mobility. Individuals with a TBI may no longer be able to work in the field or job they once had. They may lose the independence to do things such as drive a car, and their friends and loved ones may struggle — or even give up on — maintaining a relationship with this new, changed person.

These clients might come to counseling after experiencing a hospitalization and lengthy rehabilitation process involving countless appointments with a variety of medical specialists. Brain injury survivors “are so steeped in the medical environment,” Lukow says, that they’re used to practitioners telling them what to do. Professional counselors can be the first to flip that narrative and ask the client what they want and need.

Lukow, who spent three years as a postdoctoral fellow researching TBI at Virginia Commonwealth University’s (VCU’s) Traumatic Brain Injury Model System program, says he has had clients break down in tears because he was the first professional to ask them about their wants and needs since their injury.

A professional counselor can be the one to “honor what they want and empathize with them and help them understand this huge shift in their life that has occurred in a blink of an eye,” Lukow says. “This work takes a lot of patience, a lot of reframing. But some of my most appreciative clients have been TBI survivors.” In counseling, “they’ve finally found someone who doesn’t make them feel like a burden or judged.”

A difficult road

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that on any given day, roughly 176 people die and 611 people are hospitalized in the United States because of a TBI.

The Brain Injury Association of America (biausa.org) defines TBI as an “alteration in brain function, or other evidence of brain pathology, caused by an external force.” One of the most common causes is falls, but TBI can also result from motor vehicle accidents, sports/recreation or workplace injuries, child abuse or intimate partner violence, blast injuries during war or disaster, or acts of violence such as assault or gunshot wounds. Nontraumatic (or acquired) brain injury can occur from a stroke, seizure, meningitis, lack of oxygen, exposure to toxins, pressure from a tumor, drug overdose and other scenarios.

Research suggests that certain populations are more likely to be affected by TBI, including veterans and members of the military, racial and ethnic minorities, survivors of intimate partner violence, those who live in rural areas and people who have experienced incarceration or homelessness. According to a recent article published in JAMA Network Open, it’s estimated that between 9% and 28% of U.S. soldiers who served in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan experienced a TBI.

Not only do the causes and severity of brain injury vary, but each survivor will also have a different recovery trajectory and array of symptoms depending on which areas of the brain were affected, the person’s age, the support and treatment they received during recovery, and numerous other factors.

TBI “is anything but cookie-cutter,” stresses Michelle Bradham-Cousar, a licensed mental health counselor and certified rehabilitation counselor who recently completed a doctoral dissertation on counseling clients with TBI.

Not only will these clients’ needs and presenting concerns differ, but their therapeutic expectations, outcomes and what can be counted as “successes” will also vary, says Bradham-Cousar, who has a private counseling practice in Tampa, Florida. For one client, success may be returning to work full time; for another, it may be learning to calm down to keep from getting into fights with other residents of their group home (as was the case for one of Bradham-Cousar’s TBI clients).

“Success needs to be measured differently for each client — and it won’t look the same as your last client” with TBI, she emphasizes.

Lukow agrees, noting that benchmarks or signs that counselors may associate with improvement or growth in their other clients may not be apparent — or appropriate — with clients who have experienced a brain injury. Also, what might seem to be resistant behavior in this client population is often not intentional, he stresses. They may miss sessions or be hard to contact, but this is more likely to be caused by the memory and cognitive challenges they live with (e.g., confusing what day it is) rather than resistance.

Bounce forward

People who have experienced a brain injury will often hear well-meaning friends, family members, caregivers and even medical and other practitioners reference “bouncing back” when talking about their recovery. Lukow urges counselors to avoid using the phrase “bounce back” with these clients because there is no way for them to fully return to the life they had before their brain injury. Not only is such language unhelpful, but it can also give the recipient a sense of false hope.

Lukow instead uses the phrase “bounce forward” with his TBI clients. “In many cases, they can’t go back; they can only bounce forward,” says Lukow, who lives in Tennessee and works remotely as a staff counselor at a private practice in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Although these clients can’t go back to the way things were prior to their injury, they can work to move forward and make the most of their life with impairments through the support they receive and the skills they learn in counseling, Lukow says.

And these clients don’t always want or need encouragement, Lukow adds. At times, TBI clients may feel that the work they’re doing in counseling sessions only emphasizes what they have lost.

“Don’t always be a cheerleader,” Lukow urges. “Sometimes they don’t need to hear ‘that’s alright, you’ll get through it’ [from a counselor], but instead, ‘that really sucks.’”

Lukow specializes in counseling clients who have experienced TBI. He estimates that 10% to 20% of his current client caseload is recovering from a brain injury. During his time as a researcher at VCU, he developed resilience-based interventions for mental health practitioners to use with couples and individuals after a TBI.

It’s not uncommon for individuals recovering from a brain injury to be told by medical personnel, rehabilitation specialists and others that recovery ceases after a few years. An often-repeated message is that the only gains a person will make after a TBI are those made in the first two years, he says.

Although that may be true for some of the physical aspects of TBI recovery, growth and progress in other arenas — especially the emotional and psychological aspects — can continue for years and even decades, Lukow says. He has seen TBI clients make strides many years after their injury, especially in coming to accept that they may never get some of their abilities back and will need to rely on aids, such as memory reminders, for the rest of their life. Learning and growth can also happen years later for clients related to their social skills and in responding to awkward questions and assumptions made by others. (Lukow explains that these situations occur because TBI is often an “invisible” injury and people misjudge or misunderstand the actions or challenges of survivors because they don’t look disabled.)

Hillel Goldstein, an LPC with a private counseling practice embedded within the Brain Injury Foundation of St. Louis, agrees that recovery can occur long after the period of intensive treatment TBI survivors receive immediately after their injury. Goldstein once counseled a client who developed aphasia (language difficulty) after a TBI. This client, with the help of a speech therapist, was still relearning and mastering new words 10 years after his injury, Goldstein recalls.

“The good news is that brain plasticity is much better than we once thought it was,” Goldstein says. “But people are still told that they have a year to improve or a limited time.”

Asking the right questions

Individuals can experience an array of symptoms and difficulties after a brain injury that dovetail with mental health or the client’s presenting concern in a wide variety of ways. Because brain injury varies from person to person and there is no one concise set of symptoms, professional counselors must know some of the more common symptoms (e.g., memory loss) and — perhaps, more importantly — how to ascertain whether a client may have experienced a brain injury in the past.

Brain injury is nuanced and complicated, and there is a good deal of misunderstanding about it among the general population, Lukow asserts. Clients may come into counseling without realizing that their presenting concern (such as trouble maintaining relationships) could be tied to an unacknowledged brain injury or one that happened in the past.

Lukow points out that a person wouldn’t necessarily have needed to be hospitalized or even received a blow to the head for a brain injury to have serious consequences. A car accident, for example, can cause a person’s head to move so forcefully that the brain impacts against the skull without the head touching any part of the car.

Or clients may not realize that brain injury can be cumulative (e.g., “I had a few concussions back when I played lacrosse …”) and affect them later in life, Lukow says. He advises counselors to ask clients not only if they have had any brain injuries but also whether they have experienced any related issues such as a loss of consciousness, cognitive difficulty, a head or sports injury, or a fall.

Bradham-Cousar, a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Counseling, Recreation and School Psychology at Florida International University, urges counselors to listen for client language that may indicate they have had head trauma, including phrases such as “concussion,” “woke up a little while later,” “unconscious,” “got stitches,” “car accident” and “slipped and fell.”

Past brain injury can cause behavior and other deficiencies that are hard to pinpoint or connect to a diagnosis or for which psychiatric medicine doesn’t seem to help. Bradham-Cousar  provides examples such as a person who has trouble understanding social cues but does not have autism spectrum disorder, someone who has reading difficulties but does not have a learning disorder, and someone who struggles with attention span and focus but does not have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. In other examples, an individual may struggle with anger, self-control, problem-solving, object recognition or articulating what they’re trying to say and not realize that a past brain injury could be the root cause, she adds.

Goldstein advises counselors not to overlook issues that the client feels are “minor,” such as a concussion, because these could be contributing to their mental health challenges. Counselors should also be aware that in some cases, TBI can cause violent behavior or the urge to self-medicate with alcohol or other substances. So, Goldstein says, practitioners need to be comfortable screening for substance use and be familiar with the reporting protocol for their state in case a client discloses violent behavior (including when the client is a spouse or a family member of a TBI survivor).

TBI survivors sometimes turn to alcohol or other substances to temporarily escape or “slow down” from impulsivity and other challenges, Goldstein notes. However, “one drink for someone with TBI is not the same as it is for someone without [a brain injury]. Their symptoms will be amplified by any substance use, including alcohol,” he explains. “Brain injury and substance use don’t mix. It’s one of the worst things they can do to themselves, but it’s commonly seen among those with TBI.”

Complicating factors

The counselors interviewed for this article note that TBI can co-occur with common challenges that bring clients into counseling, most notably depression, anxiety and issues that correspond with loss and relationship problems. And sometimes there can be a chicken-and-egg debate about which of these issues came first, which adds a layer of complication for practitioners trying to assess and plan treatment for a TBI survivor in counseling.

For example, isolation, loneliness, and a loss of meaning and purpose — the classic markers for depression — are common after TBI and the related challenges that come with it, Lukow says. 

In these situations, Bradham-Cousar notes that depression is often a secondary diagnosis to a client’s TBI that becomes co-occurring.

At the same time, it’s not uncommon for TBI survivors to be misdiagnosed with a mental illness because some post-injury symptoms can mimic those associated with other disorders, Goldstein adds. Brain injury can cause people to experience hallucinations, hear voices or have severe personality changes, impulse control problems and erratic moods that can resemble mania. This can lead to diagnoses such as personality disorders, psychosis, bipolar disorder or even antisocial personality disorder, Goldstein says.

“I call it [TBI] the great imposter,” Goldstein says. “Mental health [symptoms] are only part of the story. Sometimes it’s the tip of the iceberg, and sometimes it’s not at all what’s going on.”

Because of this, Goldstein recommends that counselors begin work with each client by first ruling out brain injury as the root cause of their mental health challenges. He stresses not to automatically assume that a client’s symptoms are psychiatric in origin. When it comes to mental health diagnoses and TBI clients, false negatives and false positives are very common, he says.

This challenge can be compounded when a client doesn’t recognize or disclose that they’ve had a brain injury (e.g., a concussion that they weren’t hospitalized for), Goldstein says. It’s also likely that the practitioner who referred a client to counseling — whether a medical or mental health professional — hasn’t ruled out TBI as the root of the individual’s symptoms because the connection between brain injury and mental health is simply not on the radar of most professionals.

“Even if a client has a big fat DSM diagnosis, don’t assume, and keep an open mind,” Goldstein says. “I implore [counselors] to rule out brain injury, and even if you think you’ve ruled it out, revisit it. Don’t assume the person that you’re seeing, no matter how they were referred, has a mental health diagnosis.”

Goldstein recommends that in addition to conducting a thorough intake process, counselors screen clients for brain injury by asking for access to their medical records and the ability to confer with the other professionals they are being treated by, such as a neurologist.

“Keep your mind open, and consult, consult, consult with people who are experts in areas that can help you tease apart where these symptoms are coming from,” Goldstein says. “Don’t assume that what you’re seeing is due to a mental health disorder. Your default should be that their brain has been injured.”

Helping clients adjust to loss and change

The crux of what many clients who have experienced a brain injury need in counseling is help adjusting to change and processing loss. Most professional counselors already have an array of tools that can help in this realm, from coping mechanisms and goal setting to the therapeutic relationship itself. 

“Often, they need [empathic] listening from a counselor and a large amount of time just to talk about their situation, what they need and what they’re struggling with,” Lukow says.

Any counseling technique or method that builds coping skills or helps clients deal with life changes and loss would be appropriate and helpful to use with clients who have experienced TBI, Lukow notes. This population may also need grief counseling and help with managing emotions and improving communication and social skills. Seemingly small skills, such as being able to politely ask someone to slow down or repeat themselves when they are outpacing the client’s cognition abilities in a conversation, can go a long way to boost the person’s self-esteem, rebuild their relationships and, in turn, reduce isolation, Lukow says.

Stress recognition and management are also important skills for brain injury clients to learn, Lukow adds. Techniques such as diaphragmatic breathing, muscle relaxation, guided imagery and mindfulness, as well as activities such as walking or exercising, painting, coloring, and listening to white noise or ambient sounds, can help these clients learn to calm themselves.

“[Brain injury] survivors are ‘allergic’ to stress,” Lukow says. “When their stress gets worse, their impairments get worse.”

Occasionally involving a client’s spouse, partner or loved ones in individual counseling sessions can also be beneficial for both parties. They provide comfort and moral support to the client in session, Bradham-Cousar explains, and in turn are better able to understand the client’s needs and therapeutic goals. For TBI clients who struggle with memory challenges, having another person in session can also serve to provide them with reminders of what was said and what was assigned as homework.

TBI clients’ loved ones can also benefit from group counseling. The counselors interviewed for this article agree that the supportive environment that group counseling provides can be extremely helpful for this client population and their family/caregivers. (For more on this topic, read the article “Life after traumatic brain injury: Lessons from a support group.”)

Bradham-Cousar specializes in counseling clients who live with disabilities, including cognitive difficulties from a brain injury, stroke or dementia. A large part of what these clients need, she says, is therapeutic work to move them toward acceptance of the change in their lives, including the things they can no longer do. She often uses cognitive behavior therapy and a working

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alliance approach to foster trust with clients who are brain injury survivors and adjust their thought patterns and perspective. Counselors can also help the client see the opportunity to gain new skills; they’re not just losing things but gaining them as well, she says.

Grief counseling and psychoeducation about grief can also help this client population process the many losses they have experienced, including the loss of a part of themselves, Bradham-Cousar adds.

“Counselors can help these [clients] to grow and understand their regenerated self and look at it [through] the eyes of a new opportunity, a new chance. They still have a life to live,” says Bradham-Cousar, a past president of the Florida Counseling Association and the American Rehabilitation Counseling Association. “It’s a transformational process. … They need to move forward to accept that they’re not as they used to be.”

Similarly, Lukow finds that using a solution-focused approach, as well as equipping clients with coping mechanisms and skills that can boost their self-esteem and resiliency, is helpful for clients who have experienced brain injury. For instance, a counselor might suggest that a client who struggles with memory issues set up a “launch pad” — a spot in a visible area of the home, such as a kitchen counter, to keep their keys, wallet and other essential items they need when going out so that they’re less likely to forget or lose them.

Much of this work, Lukow says, is supporting clients as they navigate the learning curve of trying new skills, abandoning things that aren’t working for them and finding solutions and workarounds to live life.

For example, a TBI survivor who is unable to drive may struggle with this loss of independence and feel like a burden for having to ask for rides from others. A counselor can help the client process these feelings so that it’s easier for them to ask for help and find solutions that boost their self-worth.

One such solution could be supporting the client as they learn how to take the bus, Lukow suggests. “Help them find a [bus] schedule and look together, asking, ‘Which stop is closest to your house?’ ‘How much does it cost?’ etc. Something as little as looking up a bus schedule can be a success. And with it, a shift in thinking: ‘Yeah, I can’t drive anymore, but it doesn’t mean I can’t get around.’”

Goldstein notes that motivational interviewing can be useful in helping TBI clients to focus on adjusting to change. Influenced by Irvin Yalom and Viktor Frankl, Goldstein also uses an existential approach to guide clients to make meaning of their new circumstances.

This client population “is searching for new meaning in a hugely altered life. They need to construct new meaning, and it’s sometimes not the meaning that they were hoping to construct,” Goldstein says. “These folks need to adjust to ‘the new me.’ They’re forever changed. As with big changes in our lives that are negative, there’s grief, and if we don’t work through the grief, it metastasizes.”

Language workarounds 

Brain injury often affects a person’s ability to speak. Counselors who work with this population must be knowledgeable of and comfortable using adaptive technology or creative workarounds to communicate with clients who may not be able to respond verbally.

Bradham-Cousar sometimes uses a speech-generating app such as UbiDuo 3 with clients because it allows them to type responses to counseling prompts on a smartphone or other device. She also has an extra keyboard linked to a computer monitor in her counseling office for clients to use to type and display their thoughts during sessions.

Bradham-Cousar suggests that counselors use a collaborative approach by asking clients (during the intake process) to identify adaptive tools or supports they are comfortable using. Counselors can also find information on meeting these clients’ adaptive needs by searching for “brain injury” on the Job Accommodation Network’s website at askjan.org.

In addition to specializing in psychotherapy for brain injury, Goldstein’s subspecialty is helping clients with aphasia. He says that counselors need to be comfortable not only with using different modalities and tools to communicate with TBI clients who struggle with speech but also with long periods of silence in counseling sessions. This can be hard for some practitioners.

Goldstein urges counselors to become sensitive to the wealth of information communicated through a client’s body language and leverage what skills a client does possess. Remember, he says, that these clients have the same range of needs and emotions that verbal clients have; they know what they want to say, but it just won’t come out.

Goldstein sometimes uses a method he calls “facilitated therapy.” He invites another professional who is working with the client (such as a speech and language pathologist) to consult or co-treat with him or come to counseling sessions to serve as a mediator/facilitator until he has forged a bond with the client and learned to “speak their language,” even if it’s nonverbal.

This was the case for one client whose speech was severely limited after his brain injury. However, the client was a gifted artist and would draw pictures during sessions to communicate. When Goldstein began working with this client, he involved the client’s vocational rehabilitation counselor in sessions because she had been working with him for a while and understood the nuances in the way he expressed himself.

“He had his own language,” Goldstein recalls. “He communicated wonderfully; it was just not via speech.”

Once Goldstein established a relationship with this client, they were able to communicate and do one-on-one sessions without the other professional. In addition to drawing and art, the client would play songs he had saved in an extensive library on his phone to express how he was feeling.

“Counselors may have to get creative because these clients [can] have speech limitations and cannot do traditional talk therapy,” Goldstein says. “Look for the gifts they have and use it, use it, use it.”

Team approach

Counselors working with clients who have experienced TBI also need to be comfortable reaching out to, consulting with and co-treating with a number of professionals in different fields. Depending on the severity of their injury, TBI survivors may be treated by surgeons, neurologists, speech and language pathologists, occupational and physical therapists, social workers and vocational/career professionals, among others.

Goldstein recommends counselors build connections with a base of these types of professionals in their local area so they can consult and ask questions when facing a challenge or sticking point with a TBI client. When treating clients who have experienced TBI, “don’t fly solo,” Goldstein urges. “In this work, it’s not a two-way street [with other practitioners]; it’s a superhighway.”

The counselors interviewed for this article emphasize that counselors should resist the urge to refer TBI clients to a specialist right away. Counseling this client population can be complicated and challenging and it requires lots of patience, but the empathic listening and supportive relationship that a counselor provides can make a world of difference for these individuals and their families.

Goldstein encourages those counselors who are interested in this client population or who thrive working in multidisciplinary teams to think about specializing in counseling TBI clients. “Brain injury is scary, and it puts a lot of therapists off,” he says. “If you see someone with a brain injury and you’re baffled, pat yourself on the back, because you should be. And if you’re intrigued and interested [in this topic], consider it as a specialty.”

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Contact the counselors interviewed in this article:

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Related reading, from Counseling Today:

 

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Bethany Bray is a senior writer and social media coordinator for Counseling Today. Contact her at bbray@counseling.org.

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Opinions expressed and statements made in articles appearing on CT Online should not be assumed to represent the opinions of the editors or policies of the American Counseling Association.

A beginner’s guide to client confabulation

By Jerrod Brown and Megan N. Carter September 15, 2020

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In the context of mental health treatment, client confabulation refers to the unintentional recollection and formation of false memories, ranging from subtle embellishments to grandiose elaborations. Confabulation may take the form of a true memory being inserted into an incorrect temporal, spatial or event context. In other words, confabulated memories can be based on an actual memory taken out of temporal context, or they can result from the creation of a completely fabricated memory (one not based on a previously held belief, experienced event or memory). Confabulation may also involve the incorporation of confabulated details or events as part of a true memory.

It is important for mental health professionals to remember that people who confabulate are unaware that they are engaging in this memory phenomenon and have no intent to deceive. Clients who confabulate have no conscious awareness that their memory is false; in fact, they often strongly believe that their memory is true. Confabulation can also manifest in verbal or behavioral displays of unintentional dishonesty.

Confabulation is distinct from delusions, which are firmly held false beliefs that follow a consistent theme and result from psychosis, often involving an alteration of lifestyle to accommodate the false beliefs. It is also distinct from malingering, the purposeful deviation from the truth to achieve a desired outcome (e.g., reporting mental health symptoms that are not present to receive disability payments). Although confabulations and delusions may share a common pathophysiology (i.e., they can present similarly), they are separate phenomena.

Confabulation is a complex and confusing topic with an uncertain etiology, and it remains under-investigated within the context of mental health treatment. It is loosely associated with a number of neurobehavioral/neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g., fetal alcohol spectrum disorder [FASD], intellectual disability) and neuropsychiatric (e.g., schizophrenia), neurocognitive (e.g., dementia, traumatic brain injury) and medical health conditions (e.g., Korsakoff’s syndrome, various brain diseases). Adding to this confusion is the fact that confabulation can also occur among individuals with no identified impairments, disorders or diseases when certain factors are present (e.g., memory confusion, an attempt to fill in a memory gap, high-pressure and stressful interviews).

Although the underlying brain processes associated with confabulation are currently unknown, possible causes have been suggested in the research literature. These include:

  • Attempt to preserve self-coherence
  • Attempt at self-enhancement
  • Competing memories varying in strength and emotional significance
  • Executive functioning deficits
  • Fast-paced and stressful interviewing approaches
  • Frontal lobe dysfunction
  • Guided imagery
  • Hypnosis
  • Impaired attentional control
  • Impulsivity
  • Memory encoding and retrieval deficits
  • Memory loss
  • The mistaking of imagined events for real ones
  • Overconfidence
  • Attempt to preserve a sense of self-identity and self-esteem
  • Reality-monitoring deficits
  • Repeated lines of questioning
  • Self-monitoring deficits
  • An eagerness to please (i.e., wants to demonstrate an ability to answer all the questions)

Most commonly observed in the retrieval of autobiographical memories, confabulations can include information inspired by peers, television, movies and social media. Inspirations for confabulation may also occur from overhearing conversations from other individuals (e.g., inpatient treatment settings, group treatment programs, sober support meetings).

Mental health professionals are often unaware of this topic and typically receive little to no training in the implications of confabulation on client populations. Because of its potential to compromise screening, assessment, treatment efforts, discharge planning and placement, confabulation is a crucial clinical phenomenon for mental health professionals to understand and address in practice.

Types of confabulation

There are two principal forms of confabulation: provoked and spontaneous. Provoked confabulations are incorrect responses to questions or situations in which a person feels compelled to respond. Examples of such situations include intake assessments, investigative interviews and testifying in court.

Research has established that the more stressful a situation is perceived to be, the more likely confabulation is to occur. This is why mental health professionals working in criminal justice or forensic mental health settings need to pay particular attention to a patient’s possibility of confabulation, which may lead to inaccurate diagnosis or symptom identification. Additionally, unintentionally misremembered information can derail the legal process if the person provides inaccurate eyewitness information, prematurely waives Miranda rights, provides false confessions to police or enters inaccurate testimony in court. In the worst-case scenario, it could even result in wrongful convictions.

Spontaneous confabulations are not linked to a particular cue. They range from misremembering insignificant information to generating fantastic and grandiose details. They are believed to result from a reality-monitoring deficit in the frontal lobe combined with organic amnesia. Spontaneous confabulations also differ from provoked confabulations in that most patients eventually stop engaging in the behavior.

Provoked and spontaneous confabulations can be expressed either verbally or through behavior. Verbal confabulation involves articulating a false memory, whereas behavioral confabulation involves acting on a false memory (e.g., going to the wrong home because the person believes it is where they live). Regardless of the form they take, false memories can evoke real emotions from clients, who may have a high level of confidence in the accuracy of their recall despite evidence to the contrary.

An example that one of us experienced occurred in the course of a forensic mental health interview with a woman who was subsequently diagnosed with Korsakoff’s syndrome. During the course of the evaluation, it was clear that she had significant difficulty developing new memories but was able to recall long-term historical memories (e.g., childhood autobiographical memories). She described recently babysitting a neighbor’s three preschool-age children, including fixing them snacks and letting them watch television. A report was made to child protective services because of the woman’s significant impairments and concerns about the safety of the young children in her care. A subsequent investigation concluded that the woman had not been left to babysit the neighbor’s young children; this was an apparently confabulated memory.

Screening and treatment

There are various theoretical models to explain confabulation. One implies a failure to suppress memory traces that were used in the past but that are no longer relevant to what the person is currently trying to remember. Another theory posits that the person simply failed to retrieve the relevant memory. Finally, another theory is that the person failed to locate the memory for that time and context and essentially inserted another memory in its place.

Numerous conditions can increase the likelihood of confabulation, including:

  • Dementia
  • Encephalitis
  • FASD
  • Frontal lobe tumors
  • Frontotemporal dementia
  • Herpes simplex encephalitis
  • Learning disabilities
  • Nicotinic acid deficiency
  • Korsakoff’s syndrome
  • Multiple sclerosis
  • Schizophrenia
  • Subarachnoid hemorrhage
  • Traumatic brain injury

Given that confabulation has an unclear etiology, multiple definitions, and statistical and clinical associations with a range of neurobehavioral, neurodevelopmental, neurocognitive and neuropsychiatric conditions, the use of a valid and reliable screening procedure is essential. This will help mental health professionals avoid inaccurate diagnoses and the development of ineffective treatment plans that could exacerbate underlying conditions. Screening areas for consideration during confabulation evaluations include:

  • Abstract and sequential thinking
  • Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
  • Executive functioning
  • History of trauma
  • Sleep
  • Learning capabilities
  • Social skills
  • Memory
  • Receptive and expressive language
  • Sensory processing
  • Source monitoring
  • Suggestibility
  • Prenatal alcohol exposure

While confabulation can occur for a variety of reasons, early identification, support and monitoring are key. Possible screening tools that may be useful include the Nijmegen-Venray Confabulation List and the Confabulation Screen. Use of these tools may provide a beginning analysis for further exploration of this issue. If confabulation occurs but is thought to be due to an organic condition such as Alzheimer’s disease, dementia or FASD, referral for neurological testing is appropriate and can provide insight into which areas of the brain are most affected. This can assist in determining the best treatment approach given the individual’s particular areas of need.

Regarding treatment, specific intervention strategies have been found to be useful with clients or patients who confabulate. These strategies involve:

  • Avoiding confrontation
  • Avoiding leading questions
  • Avoiding sensory overload
  • Avoiding closed-ended questions
  • Using a slow-paced interview format
  • Using collateral sources to confirm self-report
  • Using developmentally appropriate language
  • Reassuring that it is acceptable not to know an answer
  • Checking for comprehension
  • Minimizing stress
  • Providing family/support-person education
  • Allowing for extra processing time
  • Allowing for long pauses and silence
  • Treating underlying mental health conditions
  • Treating underlying physiological conditions
  • Teaching memory diary use
  • Teaching reality-monitoring techniques
  • Teaching self-monitoring techniques

Establishing a therapeutic relationship with such clients requires acknowledgment that their misremembering is not intentional and that it lacks malice. This can be challenging for clinicians for several reasons: countertransference, frustration at not knowing whether a client’s documented previous diagnoses or symptoms are accurate, and an unconscious bias that assumes the recollection of inaccurate memories is the result of the client trying to gain something else (i.e., malingering) such as money or attempting to get out of trouble.

Clinicians should avoid minimizing what the client is reporting or prematurely assuming that the client is deliberately being noncompliant. In fact, clinicians should recognize that the content of confabulations may even provide useful information regarding the client’s perceptions and behavioral approaches. Additionally, as previously mentioned, the confabulated information may result in real emotions for the client that will need to be acknowledged and processed.

Clinicians must be sensitive to the fact that individuals who confabulate may inadvertently thwart treatment efforts because they lack recognition that their recalled memories are false. To both address this lack of insight and ensure the collection of valid and reliable assessments, clinicians should obtain collateral information to support or refute a client’s claims (especially when a false recollection could result in significant consequences). When clear evidence of confabulation is found, clinicians should appropriately document this in the client’s case file and consider this during the entire treatment process (e.g., intake, screening, treatment planning, discharge planning).

Adaptive functioning

Confabulation can affect a person’s ability to take care of oneself (e.g., personal hygiene, dressing, cooking), carry out activities of daily living (e.g., home cleaning, clothing care, financial management), and effectively maintain a social life (e.g., empathizing, reading nonverbal behavior, establishing a social group, engaging in effective communication). These adaptive functioning deficits can also lead to issues with filing forms to obtain government services (e.g., disability benefits, subsidized housing) and gaining access to medical records to ensure high-quality continuity of care, as well as an increased vulnerability to victimization. Hence, those who chronically confabulate may be less likely to be able to live independently and more likely to require a high level of support.

Therefore, clinicians working with individuals who confabulate should consider administering a “gold standard” adaptive behavior inventory to help guide and inform treatment planning. Among these inventories are the Scales of Independent Behavior-Revised, the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales Third Edition and the Diagnostic Adaptive Behavior Scale. Similarly, clinicians working with clients who exhibit significant deficits in adaptive functioning, particularly in higher-level skills such as money management, should be alert to possible confabulations.

Although using a standardized assessment to evaluate adaptive skills can be useful in treatment assessment and planning, clinicians should also be aware of certain disorders, such as FASD, in which confabulation may be common and in which standardized testing does not necessarily identify deficits. For example, those with FASD may be able to complete tasks of daily living such as grocery shopping or managing personal hygiene, but they may have poor judgment (and social judgment in particular) that is not measured on typical adaptive functioning scales. For instance, they may be tricked out of money by someone who is “friendly” to them and then have difficulty understanding or explaining the missing money, so they engage in confabulation to account for it.

In such instances, in addition to using standardized testing, clinicians should carefully assess using qualitative analysis of abilities and interactions. This may be particularly important for those with FASD with regard to social skills or other areas of functioning that are difficult to measure. Confabulation may be demonstrated as a way to present a more functional ability with regard to a wide range of adaptive abilities and may need to be addressed through careful clinical interventions.

If adaptive behavior deficits are found, it is the responsibility of the administering clinician to educate the client’s support systems (family, friends, education system) about the practical implications of these deficits. These support systems may need to be relied upon in cases of severe confabulation to ensure client safety and follow-through on the client’s daily life affairs such as attending appointments and medication compliance. Unfortunately, strong support systems can be less common among this client population. Family, friends and teachers may feel distrustful of the confabulating individual because of a misperception that he or she is willfully attempting to deceive them. Clinicians play an important role in intervening in such misperceptions by educating clients’ support systems on the unintentionality of the confabulations and explaining that they are the consequence of cognitive and neurological deficits.

Conclusion

Confabulation can be a serious obstacle in mental health professionals providing effective care and services. It can have a negative impact on intake, screening, assessment, treatment planning, medication/treatment compliance and discharge planning. For this reason, we urge clinicians to pursue self-study and continuing education training via in-person and online courses to expand their knowledge on this complex and multifaceted phenomenon. When a case of potential confabulation is identified, professionals should seek the guidance of recognized subject matter experts who routinely review key research findings on confabulation on at least a quarterly basis.

Finally, additional research is needed to continue establishing evidence-based screening and intervention procedures to identify individuals who may be at increased vulnerability for confabulation. Such screening procedures could be applied prior to clinical interviewing and in the treatment planning process to ensure that the information obtained is of higher fidelity. The use of such protocols would also familiarize users with the social and cognitive risk factors for confabulation, of which many mental health providers currently lack awareness. Through the adoption of such policies and procedures, the possible negative impact of confabulation can be minimized, appropriate intervention approaches can be implemented, and the likelihood of positive outcomes can be increased.

 

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Jerrod Brown is an assistant professor, program director and lead developer for the master’s degree in human services with an emphasis in forensic behavioral health for Concordia University in St. Paul, Minnesota. He has also been employed with Pathways Counseling Center in St. Paul for the past 16 years. He is the founder and CEO of the American Institute for the Advancement of Forensic Studies and is editor-in-chief of Forensic Scholars Today. Contact him at jerrod01234brown@live.com.

Megan N. Carter is a board-certified forensic psychologist who practices in Washington state. Her career focus has been on forensic psychological evaluations in both civil and criminal court proceedings. She has also focused on providing education about fetal alcohol spectrum disorders to mental health professionals.

 

Counseling Today reviews unsolicited articles written by American Counseling Association members. To access writing guidelines and tips for having an article accepted for publication, go to ct.counseling.org/feedback.

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Opinions expressed and statements made in articles appearing on CT Online should not be assumed to represent the opinions of the editors or policies of the American Counseling Association.

Dealing with the realities of dementia

By Bethany Bray December 23, 2019

7 Comments

Licensed professional counselor (LPC) Ruth Drew oversees the Alzheimer’s Association’s 24-hour helpline, which offers support to those facing the challenges of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, including families and caregivers. The fact that the helpline receives more than 300,000 calls each year hints at the heart-wrenching issues that accompany a dementia diagnosis, not just for the individual but for the person’s entire support system.

“We receive a wide range of questions, from someone worried about the warning signs of cognitive decline or dealing with a new diagnosis, to an adult son whose mother didn’t recognize him for the first time, or a wife wondering how to get her husband with Alzheimer’s to take a bath. Whatever the reason for the call, we meet callers where they are and endeavor to provide the information, resources and emotional support they need,” says Drew, director of information and support services at the Chicago-based nonprofit.

Professional counselors are a good fit to help not only individuals with dementia and Alzheimer’s, but also those in their care networks, Drew says. Whether counseling individuals, couples or even children, the far-reaching implications of dementia mean that practitioners of any specialization may hear clients talk about the stressors and overwhelming emotions that can accompany the diagnosis.

“People diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and other dementia diseases are going through profound life changes — coping with the realities of an incurable disease that is stealing their abilities and their memories. Counseling offers a place to process the losses, develop ways to cope, and find meaning in their current situation,” Drew says. “Similarly, family members face emotional, physical and financial challenges when they care for someone with Alzheimer’s. It helps to have a safe place to process feelings, get support, learn to cope with present realities, and plan for the future.”

A growing need

“Dementia isn’t a normal part of aging. It just happens that most dementia patients are older,” says Jenny Heuer, an LPC and certified dementia practitioner in Georgia who specializes in gerontology. “There is this stigma that just because you’re getting older, you’re going to get dementia.”

The Alzheimer’s Association (alz.org) defines dementia as “an overall term for diseases and conditions characterized by a decline in memory, language, problem-solving and other thinking skills that affect a person’s ability to perform everyday activities.”

Although many people associate dementia with Alzheimer’s, there are numerous forms of dementia, and not all are progressive. Dementia can be reversible or irreversible, depending on the type, explains Heuer, the primary therapist in the geriatric unit at Chatuge Regional Hospital in Hiawassee, Georgia. Alzheimer’s, an irreversible, progressive form of dementia, is most common, followed by vascular dementia, which can occur after a stroke. Forms of dementia can also co-occur with Down syndrome, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease and other diagnoses. Research has also linked moderate to severe traumatic brain injury to a higher risk of developing dementia or Alzheimer’s disease years later.

Heuer, a member of the American Counseling Association, recalls a client she counseled who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s prior to age 62. She had lived with a husband who was violent and physically abusive toward her, and the client’s caregivers wondered if she had suffered a brain injury that contributed to her early onset Alzheimer’s.

Heuer notes that other conditions can lead to an assumption or misdiagnosis of dementia. For example, a urinary tract infection (UTI), if left untreated, can progress far enough to cause confusion in a client. Once the UTI is diagnosed and treated, the confusion can dissipate. In addition, excessive alcohol use, depression, medication side effects, thyroid problems, and vitamin deficiencies can cause memory loss and confusion that could be mistaken for dementia, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.

“There’s so many [other] things to rule out,” Heuer says. “Doctors try to rule out every other health issue before they diagnose dementia.”

The complicated nature of dementia only reinforces the need for counselors to do thorough intake evaluations and to get to know clients holistically, Heuer says. Counselors should ask clients about anything that has affected or could be affecting their brain or memory, including medication use, stress levels, past physical trauma or brain injury, depression, sleep patterns, exercise and other factors.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that roughly 50 million people worldwide currently have dementia, and nearly 10 million new cases develop each year. Alzheimer’s disease-related dementia may contribute anywhere from 60% to 70% of that overall number, according to WHO.

Alzheimer’s is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Alzheimer’s Association estimates that 14% of people ages 71 and older in the United States have some form of dementia. A recent report from the nonprofit estimated that 5.7 million Americans of all ages were living with Alzheimer’s-related dementia in 2018, the vast majority of whom (5.5 million) were 65 and older. Close to two-thirds of Americans with Alzheimer’s disease are women, according to the association.

These numbers are only expected to increase as the U.S. population ages and the baby-boom generation reaches retirement and later life, Heuer notes.

The U.S. Census Bureau projects that in the year 2034, the number of Americans 65 and older will, for the first time in history, eclipse the nation’s number of youths under age 18. By 2060, close to one-quarter of Americans will be 65 or older, and the number of people older than 85 will have tripled.

“Aging issues hit home for counselors across the board,” Heuer says, “because we are all aging, and many are caring for aging parents. … I invite other counselors to join me in working with this population. [Alzheimer’s] is the sixth-leading cause of death. That sounds very morbid, but it’s only going to go higher. More and more people will be diagnosed. With the aging baby-boom population, there’s someone around every corner [who is] going to be impacted by this disease.”

Caring for the caregivers

There is an obvious emotional component to caring for a loved one affected by memory loss and the other aspects of dementia, but there is also the burden of assuming management of the person’s practical tasks, such as financial planning and keeping up with medical appointments. The stress of it all can affect the person’s entire network, says Phillip Rumrill, a certified rehabilitation counselor in Ohio whose professional area of expertise is clients with disability, including dementia.

“Dementia affects the whole family system, and possibly for generations. The person [with dementia] needs help, yes, but [so do] their spouse, children and entire family system. That’s critically important [for counselors to be aware of] when you’re dealing with dementia,” says Rumrill, a member of the American Rehabilitation Counseling Association, a division of ACA. “There is a tremendous amount of burnout that comes with being a dementia caregiver.”

Witnessing a loved one’s memory and abilities decline can cause caregivers to feel sad, frustrated, exhausted, overwhelmed, hurt, afraid and even angry, says Matt Gildehaus, an LPC who owns Life Delta Counseling, a private practice in Washington, Missouri.

“The caregivers and loved ones are often the hidden victims of dementia. They can become completely overwhelmed as the role becomes all-encompassing,” says Gildehaus, who counsels adults facing a range of challenges, including aging-related issues and dementia. “Taking care
of someone can easily become an identity that gets affirmed and reinforced until it comes at nearly the complete expense of self-care. When being the caregiver for someone with dementia overtakes their life, the caregiver’s emotional and physical health frequently begin to decline.”

Each of the counselors interviewed for this article asserted that clinicians should, first and foremost, emphasize the importance of self-care with clients who are caregivers to individuals with dementia. Counselor clinicians can ask these clients what they are doing for self-care, help them establish a self-care plan if needed, and connect them with local resources such as support groups and eldercare organizations.

It is also important to encourage clients to ask for help from others when they are becoming overwhelmed, says Rumrill, a professor and coordinator of the rehabilitation counseling program at Kent State University in Ohio, as well as founding director of its Center for Disability Studies. If clients mention having a loved one with dementia, counselors should listen carefully to make sure these clients are taking care of themselves and processing their feelings related to the experience.

Connecting clients to support groups and other resources can be vital because many families feel lost and isolated after their loved one receives a dementia or Alzheimer’s diagnosis, Drew notes. “This isolation can increase throughout the journey as caregiving demands intensify, especially if they don’t know where to turn for help,” she says.

Families may also experience emotions that parallel the grieving process as they witness the progressive loss of the person they knew. Caregivers might even find themselves with hard feelings emerging toward their loved one, particularly as they try to handle the frustrating behavior challenges that Alzheimer’s and dementia can introduce.

“The disease can be very deceiving because one day the person may be very clear, and another day they’ll be confused. Caregivers can feel [the person is] doing things on purpose, just to push their buttons,” Heuer says. “I often ask if the person was aggressive or called [the client] names before they were diagnosed. Most often, the answer is no. Then I explain that it’s the disease, not the individual” prompting the behavior.

Gildehaus, a member of ACA, has seen similar frustrations among clients in his caseload. “I often help caregiver clients by providing a safe place for them to share the things they don’t feel they can share with family and friends,” he says. “For caregivers, there are three tools I focus on using: therapeutic silence, empathic listening, and normalizing what they often describe as ‘terrible thoughts.’ These … can be ideas like, ‘They make me so angry,’ ‘I dread going to the nursing home some days’ or even ‘Sometimes I secretly hope they don’t live for years like this.’”

Rumrill notes that clients caring for a loved one with dementia may need a counselor’s help to process how the disease has disrupted roles within the family. He experienced this personally when caring for his grandmother, who lived with dementia for years before passing away in 2009 of stomach and liver cancers. Rumrill, who held power of attorney for his grandmother’s financial affairs, had to adjust to taking care of someone who had taken care of him throughout his life. It felt like a role conflict to have to begin making decisions on his grandmother’s behalf while still trying to respect her wishes, he recalls.

“It’s changing roles: They used to take care of you, and now you take care of them,” Rumrill says. “There is an odd juxtaposition when a child is telling a parent what to do. It can be hard [for the older adult] to accept when it’s coming from the younger generation. The roles have switched, and no one got the memo.”

Counseling sessions for couples and families can also serve as safe spaces to talk through the stressors and disagreements that come with caregiving, Rumrill and Heuer note. Counselors can serve as neutral moderators to facilitate conversations about tough subjects that clients may be fearful of or avoiding outside of sessions. This can include talking over logistical or financial issues, such as dividing caregiving tasks or assigning power of attorney, and harder conversations such as when and how to move a loved one to a care facility.

Counselors who work with couples should be aware of the intense stress that providing care for someone with dementia can put on relationships, Rumrill adds. Home life can be turned upside down when one member of a couple’s time and attention are devoted to caregiving. This is especially true if the family member with dementia moves into the home. Tasks that used to flow easily, such as unloading the dishwasher or taking the kids to sports practices, can become points of contention. Challenges that the couple successfully navigated before — from budgeting to parenting issues — can become more pronounced and complicated as caregiving puts extra strain on the couple’s time, emotions and finances, Rumrill says.

It’s an unfortunate reality, but counselors working with clients who have dementia or their families also need to be watchful for signs of elder abuse, including financial abuse, Rumrill says. Dementia patients and their caregivers are also at higher risk for issues such as depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and substance use and abuse (which may be used as a coping mechanism).

Listen and validate

Clients who have dementia can get a variety of needs addressed in counseling sessions — needs that will change as the dementia progresses.

In the early stages of dementia, counselors can help clients process their feelings and fears about the diagnosis, as well as work toward accepting and adapting to the changes that are coming. In the middle to latter stages, clients may benefit more from reassurance and validation from a counselor, as well as occasional redirection and calming techniques.

Heuer recalls a client whose husband had recently been placed in a memory care facility because of Alzheimer’s disease. The client — whom Heuer calls “Anne” for the purposes of this example — was dealing with pre-existing depression, which was the initial focus of the counseling sessions. Heuer and Anne also discussed Anne’s relationships with family members and the various changes she was facing, which included moving because of her husband’s placement in the memory care facility.

According to Heuer, Anne harbored a great fear of losing her own memory, and over time, her memory did in fact begin to deteriorate. She would acknowledge the decline in counseling sessions as she and Heuer talked about its impact on Anne’s life. Later, as Anne’s dementia progressed, Heuer shifted her work to focus more on fostering Anne’s feelings of safety and connection. “The interesting part of working with Anne is she never mentioned the word dementia. I heard about her diagnosis from family and caregivers,” Heuer recalls.

“As her memory declined, I would reflect her feelings [in counseling],” Heuer says. “Then there were sessions where Anne would spend the majority of the time talking about how she had been traveling on a train and had just gotten off the train. Frequently, she would share the story as if it was the first time she was telling it to me.” Heuer says one of the best suggestions she has been given for working with clients with dementia is to show them the same level of patience and attention regardless of whether they are telling her a story or sharing a memory with her for the first time or the 10th time.

“Anne also had hallucinations [in the latter stages of dementia],” Heuer says. “She had moments of clarity where she knew they were hallucinations and questioned her own sanity. I had no magical cure or answer. I would try and imagine how I would feel if this were happening to me and [then] tapped into empathy and the core foundation of person-centered therapy.”

Most of all, individuals with dementia need a counselor to simply “be present and listen,” adds John Michalka, an LPC with a solo private practice in Chesterfield, Missouri. He specializes in working with clients who have mood disorders related to chronic illness, including dementia.

“Patients living with dementia often tell me they just need their loved ones to stop nagging them and making them feel like the things they are doing are intentional,” says Michalka, an ACA member who has personal experience caring for a loved one with dementia. “The patient isn’t forgetting on purpose. The patient has enough to deal with without being made to feel like a burden as well. It always amazes me how simple and unselfish the patient’s request is when it comes to what they need: just simple love, understanding and patience.”

The following insights may be helpful for counselors who treat clients with dementia. Some of the guidance may also be relevant to share with clients who are family members of or caregivers to a person with dementia.

>> Correcting versus agreeing: Patients in the memory care unit where Heuer works sometimes come up to her and say, “It’s so good to see you again!” even though they have never met her before. Over time, she has learned to read clients and think on her feet to respond appropriately to remarks that aren’t based in reality.

For caregivers, deciding whether to correct a person with dementia or go along with what the person is saying can become a daily or even moment-to-moment struggle. Heuer says her decision to validate or correct is often based on how likely the person is to become agitated or aggressive. But empathy also comes into play. “I try to put myself in their shoes. How would I feel if I were seeing a friend I hadn’t seen in a while? It really comes down to meeting them in their emotions.”

Some clinicians may call the practice of validating or going along with a client with dementia “therapeutic lying,” Heuer says, but “I call it ‘molding the information’ and doing what it takes for them to feel calm and safe. …We have to adapt to them because they are not able to adapt to us. It is as if they have a different inner world, and we have to meet them in their world.”

Michalka says he also finds validation therapy helpful for easing anxiety in clients. With clients who are dementia caregivers, he often emphasizes that what is going on in the mind of the person with dementia is their reality.

He recalls one client who was beginning to panic because they saw someone in their room. “There was no one in the room, but the patient’s experience or perception of a stranger in their room was real,” Michalka says. “A natural reaction for most caregivers would be to correct the patient. In doing so, we are challenging the patient’s perception of reality. This typically will only escalate the patient’s anxiety and, in doing so, escalate the loved one’s or caregiver’s anxiety.

“Imagine if you saw a stranger in your room, and when you [try] to tell someone, they proceed to tell you, ‘No, there [isn’t].’ Would you not become more and more agitated as you try to convince them [and] they continue to challenge your reality? Instead, we should validate their experience by asking if that stranger is still in the room. Then, one would empathize with the patient by validating how scary that must have been, but now the stranger is no longer there and they are safe. After which, the patient’s attention should be redirected to a more pleasant thought or situation.”

>>  Considering the whole person: Working with clients with dementia “takes you out of your comfort level because you have to become very creative in how you interact with [them]. It’s not the type of counseling that you learn in a textbook,” Heuer says. “Your ability to counsel and work with these individuals goes well beyond the knowledge you gain about counseling in your master’s [program].”

Heuer encourages clinicians to learn more about who clients were before their dementia diagnosis — what they did for a career, what their hobbies were, their likes and dislikes. Counselors can ask clients directly for this personal information or seek details from their family members. Learning these personal details can help to better inform counselors’ interventions and help form stronger connections with clients, Heuer says. “Tapping into what made them happy as a human being [without dementia] may be therapeutic for them,” she adds.

For example, a client who loves baseball may be comforted and more responsive while watching a televised ballgame or flipping through an album of baseball cards with a counselor. A client who was a teacher or a banker might find comfort writing in a ledger. Even clients with late-stage dementia can respond when their favorite music is played, Heuer notes.

She recalls one client who had previously worked in business and would sometimes think that his caregiver was his secretary. When this happened, the caregiver would “take notes” for him by writing on paper. “It doesn’t have to make sense, but to them it may make sense,” says Heuer, whose doctoral dissertation was on the lived experiences of individuals with early stage Alzheimer’s disease.

>>  Redirecting: When working with clients in the middle to latter stages of dementia, techniques that prompt a change of focus are invaluable. Redirection can keep these clients from becoming upset or escalating to aggression, Heuer says. For caregivers, this technique might involve engaging the person in an activity that they used to enjoy or simply asking for help with a task, such as folding laundry or setting the table.

“Redirection really comes into play when an individual is exhibiting behaviors such as agitation, fear, anger or paranoia,” Heuer explains. “Normally, there is something in their environment that is triggering them. An example we often observe and hear about is an individual [who] is wanting to go home. In essence, they want to feel safe and are looking for something familiar. Redirection is a technique that refocuses the individual’s attention in an effort to therapeutically calm them and make them feel safe.”

Heuer mentions a woman who was wandering in the care facility where Heuer works and feeling a strong urge to leave. The woman was getting agitated and escalating to the point that staff members were going to medicate her. Heuer stepped in and asked the woman if she wanted to take a walk. The woman agreed and soon calmed down as she and Heuer walked together and chatted.

With dementia, behaviors often manifest out of the person’s worry about their own safety or the safety of loved ones, Heuer notes.

“We all have that need to have a sense of purpose. Just because someone has dementia, they’re not less human. They have similar needs but have a different way of communicating them. Usually, there is a need behind every single behavior they’re displaying,” Heuer says.

>> Working through grief: Individuals with dementia and their loved ones often experience a range of grief-related emotions, from denial and avoidance to sadness. Counselors may find it helpful to use grief and loss techniques with these clients, Rumrill says.

Watching a loved one with dementia decline and seemingly change into a different person can feel similar to experiencing that person’s death or loss, Rumrill says. In the case of his grandmother, even her vocabulary and the way she spoke changed. She began using profanity and other words that Rumrill wasn’t previously aware she even knew. When she became angry, Rumrill says she would “go off” on people, which she never did prior to her dementia diagnosis.

“There’s a tremendous sense of loss that can go with that. The person you knew and loved isn’t there [any longer],” he says. “I was grieving the loss of who [his grandmother] was and also grieving with her over her loss of independence.”

Feelings of loss can also resurface for clients with dementia who are widows or widowers, even if they have previously processed their partner’s death. Dementia can reaggravate the person’s feelings of grief and sadness or even ignite feelings of anger toward a deceased partner for leaving them to go through their dementia journey alone, Rumrill says.

Family members and caregivers may experience repeated cycles of grief as their loved one’s dementia or Alzheimer’s progresses, Michalka adds. “Each time the loved one living with dementia progresses to the next stage, the client [a caregiver or family member] in some ways repeats the grieving process. They now are experiencing another loss. It is as if they have lost their loved one once again,” Michalka says. “It is extremely difficult for many clients to have mom or dad not know who they are or simply not remember their name. The client loses their loved one many times during the progression of dementia. At a minimum, the client loses the person their loved one once was, and then once again upon the passing of the loved one.”

>> Focusing on strengths: Clients with dementia are likely to be saddened by the anticipated or actual loss of their abilities. A counselor can help these clients flip their perspective to focus on what the person can still do, Heuer says. She often uses the words strengths and challenges, not weaknesses, during conversations about what the client is still able to do and enjoy.

For example, a client with dementia may no longer be able to maintain a garden outdoors, but gardening supplies and planter pots can be brought to the person inside so they can still get their hands in the soil. “Activities can change as the disease progresses,” Heuer notes.

>>  Using “tell me about” prompts: Gildehaus says that narrative therapy can be a helpful technique with clients who have dementia. These clients often respond well to storytelling prompts, even as their memories fade. It can be therapeutic for clients with dementia to share memories and, in turn, to feel heard and understood, he explains.

Similarly, Heuer uses reminiscence therapy with clients with memory loss, asking individuals to talk about their careers, families, and other favorite memories. It is not helpful, however, to frame questions by asking clients whether they remember something, she stresses. Instead, counselors can use gentler “tell me about” prompts to spur clients to open up. For example, instead of asking, “Do you remember your parents?” a counselor would say, “Tell me about your parents,” Heuer explains.

Rumrill notes that group work can be very helpful for caregivers or family members of people with dementia, especially to prevent or ease burnout. Motivational interviewing, cognitive behavioral techniques, and rational emotive techniques can also help clients process the changes and stresses that come with having a loved one with dementia. But Rumrill urges counselors to use whatever techniques they find to be most helpful to and best suited for the client.

Dementia is “no more stressful than any other life issue that brings people to counseling; it’s just different,” Rumrill says. “It has unique features that need to be understood to help. Marshal all the coping reserves you can to help the client.”

>>  Offering empathic listening: Gildehaus notes that professional counselors’ core skills of listening, empathic reflection and normalization can go a long way for clients dealing with dementia.

“In my experience, clients struggling with dementia need someone to listen to them for understanding without confronting them, trying to argue with them, or trying to fix them,” Gildehaus says. “Normalizing frustrations and fears related to memory challenges and aging also helps clients feel less defective.”

When working with clients who have dementia, Gildehaus says his primary objective is to offer a nonjudgmental environment in which these individuals can share their frustrations and fears. “My efforts are focused on providing an interaction where they feel heard and understood without feeling questioned or having someone trying to talk them out of their ideas,” he says.

This came into play this past summer as Gildehaus faced a tough conversation with a client who needed to give up her right to drive because of cognitive decline. “This was very hard for her,” he recalls. “She argued that she did not drive far, that she had not had any accidents, and that she didn’t care if she died in an accident. She became very emotional — tearful and angry. I listened empathically, validated her truths, and reflected her logic and feelings. Then, I asked if she wanted her lasting legacy to be causing someone else’s injury or death. She agreed this was not what she wanted. We then explored options and resources that would allow her to maintain her freedom and active schedule without driving. We talked about local taxi services, friends who were going to the same activities [and could give her a ride], and the obvious solution became allowing her home health care provider to drive her most of the time.”

Still human

Individuals with a dementia diagnosis often feel as if they’ve been labeled as damaged goods, “deemed incompetent and unable to do anything for themselves,” Heuer says. The empathy and support that professional counselors are capable of offering these clients can go a long way toward changing that mindset, she asserts.

People with dementia “are still capable, still human, and they have emotions,” Heuer emphasizes. “There is an immediate stigma attached to someone [with a dementia diagnosis] that they aren’t able to do anything for themselves, and that’s often a source of frustration. There is an assumption that they’re helpless. But they will say, ‘I need help.” … They will let you know. What they need from counselors — and everyone else — is the recognition that they are still a person and still human.”

 

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Counselors as caregivers

Despite a career as a helping professional, Phillip Rumrill found himself feeling “inadequate” when it came to caring for his grandmother as her dementia progressed. He admits that he learned how to manage “through trial and error.”

The professional objectivity that allows practitioners to help others process issues in counseling simply isn’t there when it comes to caring for their own loved ones, says Rumrill, a certified rehabilitation counselor and a professor and coordinator of the rehabilitation counseling program at Kent State University.

“All of this stuff that you know about professionally goes out the window when you experience it personally,” Rumrill says. “You may have helped a client who is dealing with this, but it’s not the same when you’re going through it yourself. … You may think that because you have expertise in helping others you might know procedurally what to do, but it’s just different when it’s affecting you on a core level. You can arm yourself with information, but it’s going to be very different to be going through it on your own.”

Although it may not come easily, counselors who have loved ones with dementia should heed the same guidance they would give to clients in the same situation, including keeping up with their self-care and asking for help when needed.

After his grandmother passed away in 2009, Rumrill collaborated with two colleagues, Kimberly Wickert and Danielle Dresden, who also had cared for loved ones with dementia, to write the book The Sandwich Generation’s Guide to Elder Care. Their hope was that their insights might help other practitioners who were facing similar challenges. “You can’t be [your] family’s counselor,” Rumrill says. “Sometimes you have to shut off your professional side and deal with the humanity of your own experience.”

John Michalka, a licensed professional counselor and private practitioner, says he and his wife experienced a range of issues — from stress to anxiety to grief — while caring for his mother-in-law. Michalka’s mother-in-law, who had vascular dementia, moved in with Michalka and his wife in 2013 when she was no longer able to care for herself.

“I took a hiatus from work, and for the last two years of her life, I cared for her until she passed [in January 2015],” he says. “I watched my wife, as a daughter, struggle with pain and grieving during every step down of the disease, from [her mother] forgetting our names to [us] becoming absolute strangers. For me, I was the caregiver and did my best to suppress the emotion. To say the least, caring for anyone living with dementia can be extremely difficult. At least it was for me.”

 

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The Alzheimer’s Association has a wealth of information on dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, including nuances of the diagnoses and resources for living with or caring for a person who has been diagnosed. Call the association’s 24/7 helpline at 800-272-3900 or visit alz.org (click the “Help & Support” tab for links to online and local support groups).

Also, the U.S. Administration on Aging offers an eldercare services search tool at eldercare.acl.gov. Resources are also available from the Dementia Action Alliance (daanow.org) and the Family Caregiver Alliance (caregiver.org).

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Contact the counselors interviewed for this article:

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Read more

Check out an extended Q+A with licensed professional counselor Ruth Drew, the Alzheimer’s
Association’s director of information and support services, at CT Online: ct.counseling.org/2019/12/qa-helping-clients-affected-by-dementia/

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Additional resources

Take advantage of the following select resources offered by the American Counseling Association:

ACA Divisions

  • The Association for Adult Development and Aging (aadaweb.org)

Counseling Today (ct.counseling.org)

Books (counseling.org/publications/bookstore)

  • Counseling Older People: Opportunities and Challenges by Charlene M. Kampfe

 

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Bethany Bray is a senior writer and social media coordinator for Counseling Today. Contact her at bbray@counseling.org.

Letters to the editor: ct@counseling.org

 

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Opinions expressed and statements made in articles appearing on CT Online should not be assumed to represent the opinions of the editors or policies of the American Counseling Association.

Q+A: Helping clients affected by dementia

Compiled by Bethany Bray December 13, 2019

2 Comments

The Alzheimer’s Association estimates that 14% of people ages 71 and older in the United States have some form of dementia. Alzheimer’s disease, the cause of the most common form of dementia, is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States.

Each dementia diagnosis will affect not only the individual but also his or her entire care network – emotionally, relationally, financially and in myriad other ways, says Ruth Drew, a licensed professional counselor and director of information and support services at the Alzheimer’s Association.

The most important message a counselor can give these clients – whether that be an individual with dementia or the family or caregivers of someone with dementia – is that they are not alone, says Drew, who oversees the Alzheimer’s Association’s 24-hour helpline.

 

Counseling Today sent Drew some questions via email to get her perspective.

[Note: Some responses have been edited slightly for purposes of length or clarity.]

 

What do you want counselors to know about some of the common fears, challenges and questions that come with dementia and how they can support clients through these challenges in counseling sessions?

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive brain disease that worsens over time. Currently, there is no medication that can cure, prevent or slow down the disease — only medications that help with symptoms. Receiving an Alzheimer’s diagnosis is life-changing, and it impacts the entire family. Along with the diagnosis and disease journey comes a wide range of emotions — fear, resentment, despair, anger, denial, relief. As a result, many families often feel lost and isolated after the diagnosis. This isolation can increase throughout the journey as caregiving demands intensify — especially if they don’t know where to turn to for help.

We want everyone to know that no one should face this disease alone, and no one has to. There is so much information and support available round the clock, and it is only a phone call or mouse click away through the Alzheimer’s Association Helpline (800-272-3900) and website at alz.org.

Counselors can help people facing dementia by acknowledging that it is normal to experience a wide range of emotions. Getting information and support is an empowering first step in coping with the challenges ahead.

 

What kind of help does the Alzheimer’s Association Helpline offer?

Our free, 24/7 Helpline receives more than 300,000 calls a year, answered by specialists and master’s-level clinicians who provide disease information, caregiving strategies, local community programs and resources, crisis assistance and emotional support.

Ruth Drew, LPC, director of information and support services at the Alzheimer’s Association.

If a caller is worried about signs of memory loss, we provide information on the warning signs of the disease, how to approach the conversation with the person [showing signs of memory loss] and how to seek a diagnosis. If a person recently received a diagnosis, we can answer their questions and provide a safe place to process their feelings and learn about the peer support that is available. If a caregiver is exhausted, grieving and feeling burned out, we can listen, normalize their experience, and help them find the support and resources they need for themselves and the person they are caring for.

We advocate for a person-centered caregiving approach and help families figure out how to navigate Alzheimer’s based on their unique set of circumstances. That can include connecting people with local Alzheimer’s Association education programs, support groups and early stage engagement programs offered by our chapters across the country.

 

In addition to counseling, what resources do you recommend for people with dementia and their caregivers and families?

Alzheimer’s can go on for many years, so people need different resources and levels of support as the disease progresses. Whether you are the person living with the disease or [whether you are] a family member, the first step is to educate yourself about the disease, care strategies and available resources. The second step is to have open conversations with the people who are important in your life and make plans for the future.

Getting support from the people you care about and making plans for the future are empowering steps that can help families make the most of their time now and avoid a crisis later. The Alzheimer’s Association offers a number of education programs in local communities across the country that can help people understand what to expect so they can be prepared to meet the changes and challenges ahead and live well for as long as possible. We also provide free online education courses, from understanding the disease to planning for the future.

Whenever facing difficult times, having a good support network [they] can turn to for advice and encouragement can help individuals feel socially connected and give them a sense of belonging and purpose. Connecting with others going through the same situation — whether they are living with the disease or a caregiver — can help put their own experiences with the disease in perspective and provide them with the support and encouragement they need. The Alzheimer’s Association also offers local face-to-face support groups and an online support community.

 

What would you like to highlight for counselors to recommend for their clients? Is there anything that comes to mind that they might not be aware of?

One thing we always want people to be aware of is the Alzheimer’s Association free 24/7 Helpline (800-272-3900). It’s available 365 days a year, in over 200 languages, for anyone in need of information, advice and support — whether it is a person living with the disease, their caregivers, professionals, academia or the general public. Trained staff are ready to listen and equipped with information to provide referrals to local community programs and services, disease education, crisis assistance and emotional support.

 

Are there any assumptions or misconceptions that counselors might have about dementia and Alzheimer’s that you’d like to clear up?

Sometimes when people picture a person with Alzheimer’s, they envision a person in the late stage of the disease. Alzheimer’s often progresses very slowly, and people may live four, eight or even 20 years after the onset of symptoms. The range and variety of symptoms is enormous, and many people can stay very engaged with family and activities of living for a long time in a supportive environment.

Often, caregivers tell me that everyone asks about the person with the disease, but no one asks them how they are doing. The data show that caring for someone with Alzheimer’s is much more arduous physically and emotionally than other types of caregiving, so it is crucial to ensure the caregiver is well supported.

Family members often deal with grief and loss throughout the time they care for someone with the disease. They grieve each loss of ability and memory, as well as anticipating the losses to come. Symptoms of stress, depression and anxiety may be connected to this ongoing loss.

 

Our readers are professional counselors of all types and specialties (including graduate students). Are there any main takeaways you’d like to share?

People impacted by dementia need understanding, information and support. While each situation is unique, the more you know about the disease, the better able you will be to connect with each person and provide a therapeutic setting where they can get the help they need.

 

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  • The Alzheimer’s Association has a wealth of information on dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, including nuances of the diagnoses and resources for living with or caring for a person who has been diagnosed. Call the association’s 24/7 Helpline at 800-272-3900 or visit alz.org

 

  • See Counseling Today’s January cover article, “Dealing with the realities of dementia,” for an in-depth look at helping clients with dementia, as well as their families and caregivers.

 

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Follow Counseling Today on Twitter @ACA_CTonline and on Facebook at facebook.com/CounselingToday.

 

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Opinions expressed and statements made in articles appearing on CT Online should not be assumed to represent the opinions of the editors or policies of the American Counseling Association.

 

How do you know it’s not counseling?

By Jenny Heuer October 28, 2019

2 Comments

It was my “aha!” moment as a counselor. My mentor had captured it in one question: “How do you know it’s not counseling?”

What I had been taught and what I had envisioned as counseling was the Carl Rogers, one-hour, chair-to-chair, face-to-face session, and that was definitely not happening. I was counseling an individual in the middle stage of dementia. I would sit and listen about how she was getting on and off a train and how she wanted to learn to knit again to make clothes for her grandbabies. My client had not been on a train. And as much as I wished for her hands to be OK, they weren’t capable of coordinating the task of knitting because of the impact of dementia.

So, I would just sit and listen — usually right next to her on the couch because she had hearing issues. Sometimes the sessions would not even last an hour. In fact, at times, they lasted only 30 minutes because I could tell she was getting tired. I felt bad and started to fear that ethically I was doing the wrong thing. How could I spend only 30 minutes with this client listening to her repeated story of getting on and off a train and knitting?

I began to wonder whether I was taking advantage of the situation. After all, I was getting paid to work with this client, but the process didn’t resemble what I thought counseling should look like. Eventually, I told the family I couldn’t ethically continue to work with the client because her dementia prevented her from processing. However, the son wanted me to continue spending time with his mother, even if it only involved activities such as drawing.

In my mind, this did not equate to “true” therapeutic process. So, I called my mentor, and that’s when she asked one simple question: “How do you know it’s not counseling?”

I felt the weight and pressure of my boxed-in idea of counseling lift off my shoulders. I consider myself to be an outside-the-box, creative individual. Why had I not considered this to be counseling? In continuing to discuss the situation, my mentor encouraged me to further expand my definition of counseling. “I think we all need to broaden our perspective on what constitutes counseling,” she said. “We get hung up on the picture of therapy and forget that it is all about meeting the needs of the client.”

What makes this situation even more embarrassing is that I specialize in working with individuals with dementia. Whatever their disease stage, I listen to them in the moment, meeting them where they are and identifying the feelings they are experiencing. How were my sessions with this client any different? I was meeting her where she was in the moment and reflecting on her feelings about the adventures on the train and the excitement about the idea of knitting again. It wasn’t my job as a counselor to contradict her story or her sense of her own abilities. It was never about the content. I was that person sitting next to another human being who just wanted to be heard. This situation was beyond counseling techniques and textbook knowledge. This was person-centered empathy at its core. I realized then that even when I question whether I am helping, I am.

 

Providing a sense of safety and security

Knowing how to respond to a client’s concern — which may or may not be based in reality — can be challenging. For example, I met an individual with late-stage dementia who wanted to leave a locked unit to get to his wife, who was sick. He walked from door to door trying to get out. Although the client’s wife was not sick, at first I didn’t correct his misapprehension. Instead, I asked myself how I would feel if my partner were sick and I couldn’t get to them. Then I said to this individual, “That sounds scary, and I know you are worried.”

In cases such as this one, there is some debate about which technique is appropriate: therapeutic lying or validation therapy. I side on using both techniques to keep an individual calm and limit the potential for agitation and aggression. In this instance, I told the client that his wife was safe, and a sense of calm came over him.

In some cases, it’s most therapeutic to just “go along” with the client. I often meet individuals in the later stages of dementia who walk up to me and say, “It’s been such a long time. It’s wonderful to see you.” Except I have never met these individuals before. But how would I feel if I encountered someone I always enjoyed spending time with whom I hadn’t seen in a long time? I would feel excited. So, I will often respond to these individuals by saying, “It has been a long time. It is so nice to see you again.” Responding like this often elicits a warm smile, hug or handshake from the person.

Sometimes the only choice is to support and affirm a client’s recognition of a painful truth. The client I referenced originally knew that her memory was fading, and that was her worst fear. How would I feel under the same circumstances? I would feel scared. I told her, as I tell other clients in similar situations, that what she was experiencing sounded scary but that she was safe with me, that I was here with her. Letting clients know that they are not alone in their fear is crucial. Individuals with dementia are frequently looking for a sense of safety and security.

In addition to reflecting on clients’ feelings, it is also important to know who they were before the disease. What did they do for a living? Were they a parent? Did they love dogs? What was their favorite holiday? This is where counseling is really out of the box and creative.

Learning clients’ interests presents opportunities to engage them by tapping into all five senses — sight, sound, touch, smell and taste. It also provides opportunities to learn and focus on what they can do rather than what they can’t. How? Envision a client who enjoyed going to baseball games. Unfortunately, the client is no longer able to attend games because it stresses the client to have their environment changed frequently. But what would stop a counselor from tapping into the sights and sounds of a baseball game and encouraging the client to put on their favorite baseball hat and look through baseball cards or pictures, eat a hot dog and, if possible, listen to a game on the radio? As the client enjoys the experience, the counselor could encourage the client to share thoughts and memories about the game. One word of caution: Never attempt to engage a client by asking, “Do you remember?” Also, never underestimate the power of a little  humor.

Two of my favorite examples of how knowing clients’ backgrounds can positively affect therapeutic interactions with dementia involve a former member of the military and an ex-government employee. In the first case, I was working in a psychiatric hospital, and an individual with dementia started to get agitated. A case manager I was working with said to this individual, “That is not behavior becoming of an officer.” I was amazed at how this individual settled down. My co-worker had taken the time to learn important details from the individual’s past that could help in his care. The second case involved a client who had worked with the government in a position involving maps. To give him a sense of purpose and an opportunity to engage in something he enjoyed, the staff gave the client maps that he could “work on” throughout the day.

When talking to other counselors about how effective it is to connect clients with what they enjoy, I ask them to imagine themselves in a similar situation. What would they want others to know about them? If they were feeling alone, lost, scared or confused, what favorite sights, sounds, smells, tastes or tactile sensations would soothe them? I know that for me, wearing a cardigan and flip-flops, sipping a pumpkin spice latte, holding a dog, and looking at pictures of Halloween decorations would do the trick.

 

An overwhelming need

The individuals I have described are only a few of the 50 million people worldwide who currently have dementia, according to the World Health Organization. The increasing number of individuals with dementia is overwhelming. To me, what feels even more overwhelming is the number of counselors I meet who do not have the knowledge and skills to work with someone with dementia. Recently, while giving a presentation on counseling individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, I asked the participants to raise their hands if they could answer yes to the following questions:

1) Do you have a basic understanding of the medical aspects of Alzheimer’s disease, such as symptoms, behaviors, and the process of receiving a diagnosis?

2) Do you have a holistic viewpoint of the person with this diagnosis: a psychosocial history, who they are, what their likes and dislikes are, their perception of their own lives, and their perspective about being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s?

3) Have you reflected on and identified your own biases, stereotypes, and stigma regarding people living with Alzheimer’s?

4) Are you aware of counseling techniques that are effective when working with individuals with the disease?

5) Are you aware of resources that could assist these clients, such as neurologists or other specialists, support groups, and informational literature?

Unfortunately, none of the attendees could answer yes to any of the questions. Admittedly, it is currently difficult to acquire the information that might have enabled them to answer yes. While doing my own research, I found only a handful of articles that discussed counseling individuals with dementia. Of those that did, most focused heavily on caregivers. I do not want to discount the impact of the disease on caregivers. However, those who are struggling with dementia have an urgent need for support. How can counselors meet their needs if they are unable to learn how?

We are living in a time in which you may not hear much about dementia, but its effects can be found around every corner. Fear and stigma surround the disease, making it more difficult for those affected to get help. Almost daily, people who know I specialize in working with individuals with dementia approach me about someone they know who is impacted. I wish I could put on a cape and help them all. My call to the counseling profession and fellow counselors is this: I need your help. Ask yourself if you can answer yes to my presentation questions. Do you have a general understanding of dementia — a disease affecting more than 50 million people? What personal biases and stereotypes may be preventing you from working with these individuals? Do you know which counseling techniques are most helpful when working with people with dementia?

I was speaking with a friend the other day who has early onset dementia. She was struggling with not being able to help more people. I told her that all we can do is help one person at a time. I guess this is my philosophy in counseling. If I help one person with dementia, it is worth it. I will no longer question if what I am doing is counseling or if I am helping, because it is and I am.

 

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Jenny Heuer is a licensed professional counselor specializing in gerontology. Older adults are her area of expertise in clinical practice, teaching, and research. She is a certified dementia practitioner and adjunct instructor at Georgia State University’s Gerontology Institute. Her passion is opening up dialogue about the lived experiences of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease. Contact her at jenheu77@gmail.com or through her website at jennyheuer.wixsite.com/aging.

 

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Related reading: Look for an in-depth cover story on working with clients with dementia, and their families and caregivers, in the January 2020 issue of Counseling Today.

From CT Online: “Understanding the gap: Encouraging grad students to work with an aging population”

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Opinions expressed and statements made in articles appearing on CT Online should not be assumed to represent the opinions of the editors or policies of the American Counseling Association.