Volume 11
What Your Clients Hate to Hear!
Living with hearing loss is like drinking from a bottomless bowl of emotional soup. It’s a constant loop of mis-hears, repeats, and corrections, keeping our emotions in play. And we don’t do one emotion at a time! Hearing loss is more complicated than that; emotions stay close to the surface, ready to erupt.
Murder Most Foul: Hearing Aid Version
Murder Most Foul: Hearing Aid Version
Warning: The following column may contain content that some people find upsetting. Especially you, the HCP, so you may want to warn your clients!
Help Your Clients Set Better Hearing Loss Goals
We’re well into a new year now, but it’s not too late to make resolutions, specifically goals for better hearing and communication. People with hearing loss have the power to reshape the flow of our daily communication lives.
Don’t You “Never Mind” Me!
The most hurtful words a person with hearing loss (PWHL) can be told when asking for something to be repeated:
“Never mind.” “Don’t worry about it.” “Oh, nothing.” “It wasn’t important.”
Volume 10
A PWHL at a Professional Conference
Gael often speaks at hearing care professional (HCP) conferences and it’s not unusual to feel a bit isolated, like a fish out of water.
“I’ve Lost My Hearing”: Emotions Unleashed
Gael recently spoke at a conference of people with hearing loss – one of her favorite things to do. The shared emotions and experiences of people who ‘get’ each other is eternally inspiring to her.
Sitting Here, Deaf
Gael shares a poem inspired by three interminable hours spent waiting while her hearing aids were ‘being looked at’ by technicians at the manufacturer’s offices.
“Have You Got Your Ears In?!”
All people with hearing loss have experienced the two most painful words in the hearing loss dictionary—never mind. But another question stings every hearing aid or cochlear implant user: “Have you got your ears (or, things) in?”
The Hearing Loss Hangover
Hangovers are the lingering effects of any negative situation. For people with hearing loss, this can be a Bad Group Communication Event (BGCE). Any situation involving marathon group conversations such as family celebrations, parties, women’s getaways, and business meetings that are meaningful and important, can easily sideline you because of accessibility issues.
Volume 9
A Client’s Rant
A client sits down in the chair opposite you. You ask them how they’ve been. You don’t want a long recitation of what they’ve been up to, but you do want honest answers in the area of hearing and communication. If you had asked me how I wasin, say, early October, and I answered you…