The Center for Brain/Mind Medicine > Keys to Healthy Living

Compensatory Skills & Strategies

Train Your Brain to Compensate

Research shows that teaching people to actively work around cognitive changes and neurologic disease supports everyday living and quality of life.  Training to enhance attention, memory, executive functioning, and social communication skills can support people with a range of neurologic conditions, including neurodegenerative disorders.  

Cognitive Rehabilitation

Cognitive rehabilitation was once reserved only for people with traumatic brain injuries.  Now we know that people with other cognitive changes can benefit.  There are generally two approaches to cognitive rehabilitation: (1) compensatory and (2) restorative or capacity building.  However, a holistic, person-centered approach to cognitive rehabilitation also helps people learn skills that can positively impact cognition and thinking, as well as navigate the complex emotional journey that often accompanies changes to the brain and mind.

The CBMM RENEW (REsilience through Neurologic and Emotional Wellness) Program offers a range of programs focused that help people learn new skills, build capacity (when possible), optimize lifestyle factors, and move toward emotional resilience.  These programs take place in groups so participants can learn from both the facilitator and others going through similar cognitive changes.  See below for details on current programs.

For more information on RENEW programs, email brainhealthgroups@bwh.harvard.edu or ask your CBMM provider for a referral.

Compensatory Skills Training

Compensatory skills training teaches people new strategies for working around or improving cognitive difficulties.  The goal is to form new habits in thinking, learning, and problem-solving to improve everyday functioning.  We currently offer the following programs:

  • Goal Management Training – This nine-week program covers the importance of mindset, improving task focus and performance monitoring, supporting working memory, overcoming procrastination, and improving decision making.  Motivation is key to planning and organizing, and is incorporated into this program by exploring values and thinking about long-term goals.  This program establishes skills to build awareness, understanding, and acceptance of goal-management problems and then develop specific strategies to target them.  Mindfulness exercises are also taught to strengthen attention.
  • Memory Skills Training – This six-week education and support group focuses on improving your ability to learn and retain new information to mitigate the impact of memory loss on daily life.  We start with an overview of how memory is organized in the brain, then learn practical strategies and lifestyle modifications that support brain health.  This program seeks to support memory improvement, which in turn enhances confidence and emotional well-being.
  • Mindfulness Attention Training  – This seven-week program teaches mindfulness-based strategies to manage stress, improve attention, and support overall well-being.  Topics include mindfulness and compassion, loving-kindness, and strategies to interrupt autopilot and cultivate present-focused, nonjudgmental awareness.  Each week, we discuss and practice specific strategies, which participants can practice on their own using audio files and incorporate into their daily lives.  Participants are introduced to a wide range of mindfulness-based practices, informal and formal, to build and tailor personal practice.

Lifestyle & Wellness Programs

Lifestyle and wellness programs teach people how to support brain health by making shifts in diet, exercise, and sleep.  Research shows we can change the course of brain disease by following certain guidelines.  Enhancing social and cognitive stimulation is also a priority, as well as learning strategies and techniques to transform changes into habits.  We currently offer the following programs:

  • My Healthy Brain –  This group-based lifestyle program was designed by our colleagues at Mass General Hospital (MGH) to promote brain health in older adults with cognitive decline.  The eight-week program consists of weekly 90-minute sessions that target modifiable risk factors for dementia, including lack of physical activity, social activity, poor sleep, use of alcohol, and diet.  CBMM offers this program twice per year: in the Spring and Fall.

Emotional Resilience

Emotional resilience programs recognize that changes to the brain not only impact cognitive functioning, but can turn our emotional world upside down.  Many experience some degree of depression and anxiety.  Adjusting to brain changes can disrupt how you feel about yourself, and cause  feelings of shame and loss.  

  • EmReg Training – This program is designed for people who have had a change in brain functioning and provides skills to better manage emotions day to day.  EmReg stands for Emotion Regulation and the goal is to better identify and influence emotions.
  • ACT for Cognitive Changes – Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) uses commitment and behavior change strategies to increase psychological flexibility through six core processes: acceptance (accepting positive and negative thoughts about situations you cannot change), defusion (disentangling thoughts), sense of self (separating the self from the process of thinking), mindfulness (focusing on the present moment), valued living (being aware of what really matters), and committed action (taking action guided by your values).