The Emotion Builder: An Intervention for Emotional Deficits after Brain Injury

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): People with traumatic brain injury (TBI) are often plagued with socio-emotional deficits that include difficulty identifying emotions in oneself (alexithymia), difficulty recognizing other peoples' emotions (impaired affect recognition), and empathy loss. These highly prevalent deficits, ranging between 39-70% of the moderate to severe TBI population, are significant because they are associated with poor emotional control, inappropriate behavior, negative social outcomes, and reduced community integration and quality of life. A major limitation of rehabilitation services is that there are no standard, evidece-based treatments for alexithymia, affect recognition, and empathy deficits after TBI. As a result, therapists andrehabilitation facilities are not equipped to adequately treat these impairments in patients with TBI. Consequently, there is a robust need for an intervention that can effectively address these socio-emotional problems. In order to meet this need, Em