Therapeutic: Something that is therapeutic is beneficial.
Reasoning: The ability of the mind to think and understand things in a logical way.
Therapeutic Reasoning™: An effective strategy used in dementia care that provides “reasoning” that is logical to the person and helps to reassure and calm.
Therapeutic Reasoning involves using reasoning which is logical to the person with dementia (but not necessarily logical in reality), which creates a reassuring, calm feeling. As a result, it is beneficial to both the person with dementia and to the caregiver.
Caregivers need to go into the reality of the person they’re caring for, and do or say anything that will help the person to feel reassured. Therapeutic Reasoning comes from a place of caring; we are aiming to help, not hurt. When normal reasoning becomes difficult, the goal now becomes less about who is right or wrong. Instead, the goal is to ensure everyone is happy and at peace.
Examples of Implementing Therapeutic Reasoning:
- Agree with them to keep the peace
- Apologise to them to keep the peace
- Say something nice to flatter them
- Show them you care about their concern
- Tell them you will look into it
- Tell or provide visuals to reassure their concerns are solved
Do or say whatever works!
Would you rather be right… or at peace?
Important Dementia Care Reminders:
- You can’t change someone else; you can only change how YOU respond to the situation
- Know the person you are caring for so you can properly personalize
- Know their triggers and do all you can to avoid potential triggers for conflicts
For example:
A person in the middle stages of Alzheimer’s disease may firmly believe they need to “get home to milk the cows”. Stating facts such as “You don’t have the farm anymore, you sold it 15 years ago,” can cause feelings of upset, sadness, mistrust, and/or additional challenging behaviours. Instead, one can use Therapeutic Reasoning™: “Milk the cows? Well… lucky us! They’ve already been milked today! Isn’t that great news?! How about joining me for a cup of coffee/tea to celebrate… treat’s on me!”
Please use this approach wisely. Practice will help you to feel more comfortable. 😊
4 Responses
Enormously helpful. Funny, I had a similar situation myself recently. My dad was really agitated because one of our clocks wasn’t working. I tried a new battery over and over, but even then, he still insisted. So today I bought a new clock. He didn’t say anything about the old broken clock. Problem solved. I think this technique, taken together with Validation Therapy, will really help me. Thanks very much for the info.
Thanks for sharing this Catherine! I’m glad your creative idea of getting him a new clock worked! Please feel free to stay in touch anytime as we would love to also learn from you and your dad. Warm regards Karen 🙂
I had this exact example used above regarding the cows being milked . My resident would become quite distraught over this on days his focus was about the milking. I would tell him not to worry about milking , that a lad down the road was doing the milking . He eventually wanted to know the lad’s name so I had to contact his wife to obtain some names that would be familiar to him and use those names as the milker.
This really helps and makes a lot of sense. I just wish that I’ve known it when my mom was still alive 🙁 I was her full time caregiver. I’ve learned a lot so far and I wish to volunteer in a dementia care home. Now I have the tools and the passion to help other people living in dementia that I didn’t do while mom was still alive. Thank you Karen!