ABSTRACT
This chapter describes a line of future enquiry in relation to understanding how people with aphasia communicate in groups, and is inspired by two of the major foci of Chris Code’s work in aphasiology, namely his long-standing concern that services provided for people with aphasia be directed to the individual needs of the person (Code & Müller, 1995, pp.1-2), and that emotional response and support is integral to recovery in aphasia (Code, Hemsley, & Herrmann, 1999). Code has played an important role in drawing together the diverse range of approaches to the assessment and treatment of aphasia, which have included group therapy, both in his edited books (Code & Müller, 1995) and through his role as journal editor for Aphasiology, and more recently for the International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders. He has been a strong advocate for the need for an eclectic approach to aphasia therapy, for example, he states, “The major ability of the therapist involved in the treatment of aphasia is to be able to carefully select the most appropriate approach to help support those individuals with aphasia in achieving their goals.” (Code & Müller, 1995, p. 46). In his own research he continues to underscore the surprisingly low proportion of services that provide this efficacious and efficient method of service delivery (Katz et al., 2000). Group processes work to re-establish the sense of identity and selfesteem of participants, and Chris has always had considerable commitment to the role of self-help groups in this regard both at a personal level,1 and professionally (Code, Eales, Pearl, Conan, Cowin, & Hickin, 2001), with the development of a simple tool through which counseling support could be offered (Code & Müller, 1992; Code, Müller, Hogan, & Herrmann, 1999). This chapter takes these two notions (that group therapy is an important way to provide services and that group interactions provide emotional support for recovery) as foundational “givens,” and seeks to push our understanding one step further through attempting to identify those key elements within the myriad of interactional processes that make groups work. Understanding these processes allows us to develop our skills in running groups, to educate others to run groups, and to facilitate the interactions of others who may be involved in group interactions with people with aphasia.
