Integrated treatment for deaf and hard of hearing clients: focusing on social skills and emotion regulation

My name is Dineke Kramp. I am deaf with cochleair implants. I have been working for 30 years with the deaf and hard of hearing community.

In addition to that I am a mental health trainer specializing in Goldstein and emotion regulation training. My education has been tailored and adapted based on my extensive years of experience,

Michelle Bonsink: Since the beginning of 2020 I have been working at GGMD as a psychomotor therapist. With great interest and pleasure, I work with deaf and hard of hearing clients. Every day I learn new gestures and try to adapt as much as possible to my clients. I would like to continue to support them now and in the future, to get the best out of their lives.

Growing up in a hearing environment, deaf and hard of hearing people may be found at an increased risk of experiencing persistent communication problems, social misunderstandings and other social adverse circumstances. Such adversities can be regarded as environmental stressors interfering with mental health. Restricted access to essential social information may lead to limited possibilities to develop social skills, which consequently may interfere with the development of emotion regulation, and developing and maintaining social relations. Therefore, training social skills and emotion regulation can be an important focus in our treatment.  

General mental healthcare focuses on the treatment of mental health disorders for hearing people. However, adjustment is essential to make it fit for deaf and hard of hearing people. By using existing training modules (Goldstein and ART), we have created a social skills and emotion-regulation training for deaf and hard of hearing people which will be introduced to you in this presentation.