Haptics and emotions in speech and language therapy sessions for people with post-stroke aphasia

This chapter focuses on the role of haptic resources such as touch in the handling of emotions in the institutional setting of a stroke unit, where people diagnosed with aphasia receive, as part of their overall recovery, their first speech and language therapeutic treatment. Patients with post-stroke aphasia can experience frustration, anger and sadness, which can also evolve into crying. As a consequence, interactions between aphasic patients and speech and language therapists working in the hospital can be very emotionally charged. During these moments of distress, touch plays a key role in establishing physical and emotional intimacy, affection and comfort – more broadly, in emotion regulation. Focusing on the interactive use of touch by therapists and patients, as well as on their subtle negotiation of soothing and being soothed, my paper contributes to an embodied perspective on emotions. It emphasizes the central role played by the therapist in emotion regulation, as well as the central caring and relational dimension involved in aphasia speech and language therapy.