TRYCHIN SELF-MANAGEMENT PROGRAM
FOR
LIVING WITH HEARING LOSS

Samuel Trychin PhD, Psychologist, Educator, Author

A life dedicated to educating people who are hard of hearing and their families and friends.

Reducing the stresses related to hearing loss class

Course Description

People who experience difficulty understanding what others say and who have difficulty hearing, interpreting, or locating significant environmental sounds, e.g., alarm signals, are at risk for a variety of stress-related reactions. These reactions may be emotional, e.g., anxiety, physical, e.g., muscle tension headache, cognitive, e.g., lowered self-confidence, and/or behavioral, e.g. avoiding certain people or situations. One major effect of these reactions, aside from the discomfort and inconvenience they produce, is that they frequently further interfere with understanding what is being said or with responding appropriately to environmental sounds.

Fortunately, there are tactics and strategies proven to be effective in helping people prevent or reduce these unhelpful stress reactions. The benefits of applying these procedures in stress-producing situations are:

The person is better able to determine the best course of action to improve the situation,
The person regains his or her sense of self-confidence and control or influence in the situation, and
The person is better able to remain in situations previously avoided and to participate in social interchanges without experiencing unpleasant, stress-related side effects.

Learning Outcomes

Students will identify the specific features of situations that elicit their stress reactions
Students will identify their unique emotional, physical, cognitive, and behavioral reactions to stress producing situations.
Students will learn procedures for altering their unproductive reactions to distressing situations.
Students will learn procedures for replacing their unproductive reactions with reactions that are helpful in determining the best course of action leading to resolving the difficulty they are experiencing.

Class content

Week One:: Background information about the class; Behavioral, cognitive, emotional, and physical effects of stress; Stress and hearing loss; Pinpointing stressful situations for you and your stress reactions: 3X5 cards (see pp.15-16 in the Workbook)
Week two:: Selecting two most regularly occurring, stress producing situations for you; Pinpointing more precisely your stress B-C-E-P responses in those situations; Psychophysiology of stress: What happens in your body; Deep breathing: effects and practices
Week three:: Deep breathing—trouble-shooting problems with compliance; Pinpointing even more precisely your stress B-C-E-P responses; Assessing reactions to hearing loss in your support system (family, etc.); Freeze Frame procedure added to breathing practice; Plotting progress on a graph: skin temp and subjective ratings
Week four:: Deep breathing progress reports; Freeze frame progress reports; Replace deep breathing video with progressive muscle relaxation; Report on progress in pinpointed situations; Anxiety: types, causes, and effects
Week five:: Progressive muscle relaxation progress reports; Personal experiences with anxiety related to hearing loss and other causes; Cognitive causes of anxiety; Cognitive distortions related to hearing loss; Report on reactions to hearing loss in your support system Pinpointing participants’ personal thoughts that contribute to distress
Week six:: Progress report on results of relaxation training; Plotting progress on a graph: skin temp and subjective ratings; Report on pinpointed personal thoughts that contribute to distress; Report on progress in situations that have been/are stressful; Pinpointing anxiety reactions and causes; Pinpointing anxiety antidotes
Week seven:: Progress report on current general levels of distress; Loss and emotional reactions: anger, anxiety, depression, guilt; Ways of transforming anger
Week eight:: Detailed description of most helpful procedures learned in class; Detailed description of remaining problems/issues; Using mini-relaxations
Week nine:: Progress report on current general levels of distress; Plan of action to continue stress-management program; Evaluation of individual progress and of the class
Week ten:: Progress report on current general levels of distress; Plan of action to continue stress-management program; Evaluation of individual progress and of; Evaluation of the class

What participants will receive

Product	Value
Living With Hearing Loss: Workbook	$23.00
Relaxation Training Manual	$23.00
Deep Breathing/Progressive Muscle Relaxation DVD or VCR	$50.00
Is That What You Think?	$23.00
Biotic Band	$10.00
Anxiety/depression scales plus 3X5 cards
Videotaped interview with Sam Trychin, Ph.D	$25.00
Total value	$155.00

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