I have met with Arty for two years now. Arty lives in a group home with four other people and gets overwhelmed easily. Because of this, he will frequently keep to himself and has trouble opening up. A further complication is that Arty has Schizophrenia will has greatly affected his rate of speech as it is very disorganized. It is very easy to dismiss Arty because when he talks it is hard to understand him. Despite this, Arty is very high functioning as he attends daily classes and has a part time job.
My work with Arty has been to work on his symptoms of Schizophrenia concentrating on slowing his mind down and talking at a normal pace. One thing that really helps Arty to slow down is getting daily exercise. There have been times where I have drove to his group home and I have seen him on a side street several miles from his home. When Arty is getting regular exercise, he says he is able to rest and better concentrate therefore slowing down his speech. Arty says that his mouth does not keep up with his brain.
A personal goal of Arty’s has been wanting to better talk with other people. He will joke with me that it is my job to pay attention to him. Slowly Arty has been getting better with his speech. There are days when he will start off speaking at a normal pace and then speeds up and there are times where he has not been able to exercise, and his speech is hard to understand.
Arty is in progress meaning that he has not met his goal but has come a long way in the time we have been working together.
If you are looking for a therapist near you and a Google search is a great way of finding one. I happen to be a therapist in Charlotte, NC but am licensed to counsel anyone in the state of North Carolina. In Google, try looking for “psychotherapist,” “find therapist,” “therapy near me,” or even “counseling charlotte, nc.” If you feel like you have hit a wall you are not able to get past, call me at (704) 458-6298 or email me at jeffhelms@clearerthoughtspllc.com.
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