Why Can’t God Help Me?” A Shared Journey of SLPs and People with Aphasia
Department
Graduate School
Document Type
Event
Start Date
2-26-2025 4:00 PM
End Date
2-26-2025 5:00 PM
Abstract
Aphasia, a language disorder due to stroke, affects the communication abilities and quality of life of people. Some people with aphasia after a stroke embrace spiritual paths to seek peace and resilience. The purpose of this scoping review paper was to explore the intersection of faith, communication competencies, and recovery from stroke in the lives of people with aphasia. While examining the role of faith, religious beliefs, and spirituality in the aphasia recovery journey, patients’ narratives, emotions, and clinical perspectives and comments collected from aphasia support groups are discussed. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) must integrate culturally and spiritually responsive practices to foster hope, dignity, empathy, patience, motivation, and positive emotions and to honor the lived experiences of people with aphasia. Navigating the challenges of providing holistic, person-centered care by restoring communication systems infused with cultural, linguistic, and spiritual diversities is critical. Future research should encourage the role of spirituality in communication restoration, given the paucity of studies in faith-based speech-language intervention for aphasia.
Recommended Citation
Ray, Jayanti, "Why Can’t God Help Me?” A Shared Journey of SLPs and People with Aphasia" (2025). Day of Scholarship. 22.
https://spark.bethel.edu/dayofscholarship/spring2025/feb26/22
Terms of Use and License Information
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Why Can’t God Help Me?” A Shared Journey of SLPs and People with Aphasia
Aphasia, a language disorder due to stroke, affects the communication abilities and quality of life of people. Some people with aphasia after a stroke embrace spiritual paths to seek peace and resilience. The purpose of this scoping review paper was to explore the intersection of faith, communication competencies, and recovery from stroke in the lives of people with aphasia. While examining the role of faith, religious beliefs, and spirituality in the aphasia recovery journey, patients’ narratives, emotions, and clinical perspectives and comments collected from aphasia support groups are discussed. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) must integrate culturally and spiritually responsive practices to foster hope, dignity, empathy, patience, motivation, and positive emotions and to honor the lived experiences of people with aphasia. Navigating the challenges of providing holistic, person-centered care by restoring communication systems infused with cultural, linguistic, and spiritual diversities is critical. Future research should encourage the role of spirituality in communication restoration, given the paucity of studies in faith-based speech-language intervention for aphasia.
