Objectives: People post stroke experience significant changes to their interpersonal relationships, but unique challenges exist following aphasia (Ford et al., 2018; 2022). Impacts are seen in relationships and the relational self. Speech pathologists are in a unique position to provide supports, and while psychosocial interventions have been proposed many speech pathologists do not feel equipped to provide counselling supports (Harrison et al., 2017; Sekhon et al., 2015). Additionally, none address both relationships and the relational self. This presentation aims to build research derived knowledge of challenges to relationships and the relational self, and will provide a model which can be applied to enable holistic thinking.
Methods: Two groups of participants were included in this research. The first was a longitudinal group of seven adults with post stroke aphasia, interviewed at four timepoints over a year after discharge from inpatient rehabilitation. The second group was cross-sectional and comprised ten people with aphasia. Researchers adopted a constructivist grounded theory approach in developing an early theoretical conceptualisation of the recovery of relationships and the relational self-following aphasia.
Results: Two trajectories of relational recovery will be described. The first describes the recovery of relationships. For participants with aphasia in the early phases, there is a tendency to retreat into an inner circle of close relationships early on before stepping outside of this circle. The second trajectory is the recovery of the relational self, which occurred over the longer term. Pathways of recovery will be presented visually with a call to action around holistic relational supports.
Conclusion: Positive relationships and sense of a relational self are critical for psychosocial wellbeing following stroke (Shadden, 2005; Tauber et al., 2020). This presentation will provide speech pathologists with a model of recovery of relationships and the relational self following aphasia to guide practice and further research.

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Ford, A., Douglas, J., & O’Halloran, R. (2022). The experience of close personal relationships after stroke: Scoping review and thematic analysis of qualitative literature. Brain Impairment, 23(3), 231–261. https://doi.org/10.1017/BrImp.2021.12

Harrison, M., Ryan, T., Gardiner, C., & Jones, A. (2017). Psychological and emotional needs, assessment, and support post-stroke: A multi-perspective qualitative study. Topics in Stroke Rehabilitation, 24(2), 119–125. https://doi.org/10.1080/10749357.2016.1196908

Sekhon, J. K., Douglas, J., & Rose, M. L. (2015). Current Australian speech-language pathology practice in addressing psychological well-being in people with aphasia after stroke. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 17(3), 252–262. https://doi.org/10.3109/17549507.2015.1024170

Shadden, B. (2005). Aphasia as identity theft: Theory and practice. Aphasiology, 19(3–5), 211–223. https://doi.org/10.1080/02687930444000697

Taubner, H., Hallén, M., & Wengelin, Å. (2020). Still the same? – Self-identity dilemmas when living with post-stroke aphasia in a digitalised society. Aphasiology, 34(3), 300–318. https://doi.org/10.1080/02687038.2019.1594151