close

How do you answer the question “Will I ever walk again?” after a spinal cord injury? - Heather Taylor, PhD

How do you answer the question “Will I ever walk again?” after a spinal cord injury?

Heather Taylor, PhD

Psychologist/Director of Spinal Cord Injury and Disability Services, TIRR Memorial Hermann - Houston

Read Bio More Videos by Heather Taylor
Transcript
When someone asks, “Am I going to walk again?” there’s a lot of unknown. Now, granted, the physician will know the level of injury and everything, but rehab is changing and moving forward. However, I do try to make sure everyone mai... Show More

When someone asks, “Am I going to walk again?” there’s a lot of unknown. Now, granted, the physician will know the level of injury and everything, but rehab is changing and moving forward. However, I do try to make sure everyone maintains a level of hope; it’s really important to have hope. We don’t know what’s happening, we don’t know how far we can reach, how far we can go forward, so it is important to have that hope. But it’s also important to be involved in therapy; there are a lot of steps to get there. So I’ll say, “Yes, our goal for you is that you walk as well, definitely, we want you to be functioning as highly as possible and part of this is the baby steps, we need to start here, we need to start with this part that doesn’t feel as good.”

Show Less
add

How do you answer the question “Will I ever walk again?” after a spinal cord injury?

Heather Taylor, PhD

Psychologist/Director of Spinal Cord Injury and Disability Services, TIRR Memorial Hermann - Houston

More Videos by Heather Taylor
Transcriptadd

When someone asks, “Am I going to walk again?” there’s a lot of unknown. Now, granted, the physician will know the level of injury and everything, but rehab is changing and moving forward. However, I do try to make sure everyone maintains a level of hope; it’s really important to have hope. We don’t know what’s happening, we don’t know how far we can reach, how far we can go forward, so it is important to have that hope. But it’s also important to be involved in therapy; there are a lot of steps to get there. So I’ll say, “Yes, our goal for you is that you walk as well, definitely, we want you to be functioning as highly as possible and part of this is the baby steps, we need to start here, we need to start with this part that doesn’t feel as good.”

How do you answer the question “Will I ever walk again?” after a spinal cord injury?
close