What indicates the need for psychotherapy after a spinal cord injury? - Toby Huston, PhD

Everybody’s who’s got a spinal cord injury is seen by a psychologist. Not because they’re depressed, or they’re anxious or they’re crazy. As I tell my patients often times when I first come to see them, “I’m not here because someone thought you were crazy, I’m here because dealing with something like a spinal cord injury is a physical, emotional, spiritual and psychological journey, and I’m here to help you figure out how we’re going to manage the shoulders-up piece of this.” I follow people throughout their inpatient stay, and we make a decision together by the time they’re getting close to discharge about whether ongoing counseling is going to be needed. Or whether we’re going to play it by ear and they’re going to get in touch as they need it, or as they feel things come up that they’d like to talk about.