Self Help 4 Stroke

• Sue – I sometimes find it hard to find the right words to let you know how I am feeling. I’d like to be able to talk to you.
• Steve – Ok, if you remember, last time we were at the stroke club I was speaking to Sandy and she was telling me about something that she’d tried and she’d said she’d found it pretty useful. She called it emotional touchpoint cards. I’d never heard of it. What you do is you get cards with lots of words, or you could use pictures, and use them to help describe how you feel and to talk about your feelings with other people. Maybe we could give that a go?
• Sue – yeah, lets try that.

(Scene with cards on the table showing the words: anxious, moving on, stuck, loved, happy, lonely, involved, dependant)

• Sue – ok, so what do we do now?
• Steve – what Sandy said is to take a moment to think about how you’re feeling and then you pick a card and you just talk about why you picked that card.
• Sue – Ok.

(Sue picks up the word anxious)

• Steve – why did you pick that one?
• Sue – I picked anxious because I feel anxious about telling you how I really feel (they both laugh)
• Steve – go on, pick another

Sue picks up the word dependent

• Sue – I picked dependant, sometimes I feel I have to rely on you for so much and I feel as though I am a burden to you.
• Steve – You’re never a burden Sue, I like caring for you. Em, I’m no fussed too much, I think maybe we should come up with a plan you know try and find something that you feel confident that you’re able to do and where I’m not worried too much about you giving it a try, and givce that a godoing it. You know I can be a right old fuss pot sometimes
• Sue – Ok, let’s pick another.

(Sue picks another card – loved.)

• Sue – I also feel loved by you. Will we try this another time?
• Steve – yeah, lets try it again..