People with hearing loss are most successful when their goal moves beyond ‘hearing better’ to ‘communicating better.’ It’s not always easy to do, but in this vibrant session, Shari Eberts & Gael Hannan will demonstrate strategies to help your clients do just that. In addition to a broad range of hearing technology, clients must engage other dynamics that are often underrepresented or overlooked in standard clinical practice, such as the reframing of attitudes towards hearing loss, and embracing a range of non-technical behavioral game-changers. Without these communication-based strategies, clients will often continue to struggle, even with the best hearing aids.
In "Empowering Your Clients to Live Skillfully with Hearing Loss" Shari and Gael will introduce client-centered concepts that can help practitioners empower their clients to develop an improved mindset that will transform them into stronger self-advocates, better builders of relationships and who are equipped to improve almost any listening situation.
Shari Eberts is a passionate hearing health advocate, author, and speaker on hearing loss issues. She is the founder of LivingWithHearingLoss.com, a popular blog and online community for people with hearing loss, and an executive producer of We Hear You, an award-winning documentary about the hearing loss experience. Shari has an adult-onset genetic hearing loss and hopes that by sharing her story, she will help others to live more peacefully with their own hearing issues. Her book “Hear & Beyond: Live Skillfully with Hearing Loss” (co-authored with Gael Hannan) is the ultimate survival guide for living with hearing loss. Shari holds a BS in Psychology from Duke University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Gael Hannan is a hearing health advocate, writer, and speaker/performer who lives with profound hearing loss. She creates award-winning awareness projects that help people live more successfully with their hearing challenges, including the acclaimed one-woman show “Unheard Voices,” a humorous memoir “The Way I Hear It: A Life with Hearing Loss” and a regular blog for HearingHealthMatters.org that has a passionate international following. Gael lives on Vancouver Island. “Hear & Beyond: Live Skillfully with Hearing Loss” (co-authored with Shari Eberts) is the supportive how-to guide she wishes she’d had at the start of her hearing loss journey.