Strong Story Lab

08/18/2026

🎧 Having autonomy over your recovery is an important aspect of rehabilitation. We hope you'll take a listen to Vivian Fu share about the Take Charge program for recovery from stroke. This program supports people post stroke in having conversations about their identity, hopes, and future and empowers the person living with stroke as the expert in their own life.

🎧 Now available: New Podcast Episode! Katie Strong interviews Dr. Vivian Fu about Taking Charge After Stroke, an innovative, evidence-based program rooted in self-determination. Discover how empowering people to lead their recovery can make a lasting difference. Listen today 👉️ https://aphasiaaccess.libsyn.com/

07/21/2026

We hope you'll join the Stroke Onward Community for this discussion centered around using AI in rehabilitation. Dr. Strong along with SLP colleagues and stroke survivor advocates will engage in a lively discussion! You'll need to register for the event - details are in the original post.

What does it mean to “get your voice back” after stroke – literally and emotionally?

As AI-generated voice technology becomes more widely available, many stroke survivors, carepartners, and clinicians are beginning to explore both its possibilities and its complexities. These tools can create new opportunities for communication and self-expression, while also raising important questions about identity, ethics, access, and emotional readiness.

Join Stroke Onward Co-Founders Debra Meyerson and Steven Zuckerman, alongside speech-language pathologists and other voices in the field, for a thoughtful conversation exploring how AI voice tools are beginning to shape the future of stroke recovery.

📅 Wednesday, Aug 5
⏰7 PM EST / 4 PM PST
🎥 Join here on SOCC: https://circle.strokeonward.org/c/solive/ai-voices-stroke-recovery-promise-pitfalls-and-perspectives

06/19/2026

Ever have a client come in worried about their memory — word-finding trouble, "fogginess" — but they don't screen positive for anything? Not sure what your role is?

It's easy for SLPs to feel like prevention isn't really "our lane." But there are roughly 180,800 SLPs in the U.S. compared to about 5,000 neuropsychologists — we're already seeing these clients. The question is whether we know what to do with them.

This new open-access tutorial — developed by the Joint Committee on Interprofessional Relations between APA and ASHA — walks through exactly this: normal aging vs. MCI vs. subjective cognitive decline, using motivational interviewing to help clients act on brain-health goals, and why up to 45% of dementia cases may be delayed or prevented by addressing modifiable factors we could be discussing in session.

Free to read — useful whether you're seeing clients tomorrow or building next semester's syllabus.

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Purpose: There are significant opportunities for speech-language pathologists (SLPs) to play important roles in the primary and secondary prevent...

06/10/2026

Trish Hambridge and Amy Walters along with others at National Aphasia Synergy are leading a revolution! 👊 This was such an empowering conversation! We hope you'll take a listen. 🎧

✨ June is National Aphasia Awareness Month and that means a meaningful podcast tradition is back🎙️

This latest episode features two inspiring leaders from National Aphasia Synergy (NAS), Trish Hambridge and Amy Walters. NAS is a peer-led nonprofit created by and for people with aphasia. Through connection, technology, and community, NAS is breaking down isolation and building something powerful—what they call Sinergia: where one plus one equals three. 💬✨

Tune in and listen to the conversation today! 👉️ https://buff.ly/ZZOGfyI

06/10/2026

Hope you'll join us tonight!

Link for joining the community on the original post.

Tonight! Stories Together: How Sharing Changes Everything

Join Dr. Katie Strong — speech-language pathologist, researcher, and founder of Strong Story Lab — for an inspiring conversation on how sharing your story can rebuild identity, create connection, and spark advocacy.

🔗 On SOCC: https://circle.strokeonward.org/c/solive/stories-together-how-sharing-changes-everything-ae274d
📅 Wednesday, June 10th
⏰ 7 PM EST / 4 PST

06/09/2026

📢 New publication alert!

"Building boats and riding bikes": a one-year longitudinal study following people with aphasia one year after completing the My Story Project narrative co-construction intervention.

What did participants do in the year after their stories were complete? They built boats. They rode adaptive bikes. They kept their stories close and kept growing.

Key finding: behavioral changes emerged 6–12 months post-intervention, not immediately. Identity work doesn't follow a straight line — and this study shows why that matters for how we evaluate narrative interventions.

🔓 First 50 readers get free access via this eprint link:
https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/AWZUD38VD4MVHFMCBPYR/full?target=10.1080/02687038.2026.2686781

Aphasia disrupts sense of self and constrains the narrative capacity essential for identity reconstruction. While narrative co-construction approaches show promise for supporting identity developme...

06/06/2026

This week Dr. Strong attended the Saugatuck Institute of Neuropsychological Rehabilitation conference where the topic was Identity and Brain Injury. She presented a poster with her colleague Dr Rianne Brinkman from the Netherlands on a collaborative project from Central Michigan University and Hanze University centered on training speech-language pathology students on how to use stories to help people with aphasia in exploring their Identity.

06/06/2026

Please considering joining us this week for a discussion on the power of sharing stories.

Registration link is in the original post below.

Join Dr. Katie Strong — speech-language pathologist, researcher, and founder of the Strong Story Lab — for an inspiring conversation about how storytelling can help rebuild identity after stroke and aphasia.

In “Stories Together: How Sharing Changes Everything,” Dr. Strong explores how sharing your story can help reconnect you to yourself, build community, and create meaningful change.
Drawing from 30+ years of clinical experience and research, she’ll share why storytelling is not just part of healing — it is healing.

In this session, she will cover:
- Why your story is central to your identity and why telling it can shift how you see yourself
- How sharing with others and having clinicians who are trained to truly listen is part of rebuilding who you are
- How storytelling is a natural path to advocacy and how your story can create change beyond your own healing

🔗 On SOCC: https://circle.strokeonward.org/c/solive/stories-together-how-sharing-changes-everything-ae274d
📅 Wednesday, June 10th
⏰ 7 PM EST / 4 PST

05/18/2026

Happy National Speech Language Pathologist Day!

What inspires a career in speech-language pathology—and what sustains it over time?

In this featured interview, Katie A. Strong Strong Story Lab, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Fellow, Associate Professor at Central Michigan University and Co-Editor-in-Chief of Seminars in Speech and Language, reflects on her path into the field and her work in aphasia rehabilitation.

Her perspective highlights the profound role of storytelling, identity, and human connection in helping individuals rediscover their voices.

👉 Read the full interview: https://news5.thieme.de/a/a.aspx?nlkey=T2D7E$YI77JaOT52SH8jGq02RwTH1n

05/09/2026

CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT! 📣
The 8th Just ASK. Aphasia Stroke Knowledge Annual Aphasia Awareness Conference is tackling the taboo topics that often go unspoken after brain injury, stroke, and aphasia.

Each free virtual session is designed to educate, support, and empower survivors, caregivers, and professionals

📅 Saturdays in June
⏰ 9:00 AM – 11:30 AM EST
💻 Live on Zoom

Join us this June for a powerful and important conversation

➡️Register here: https://uek8uqvh.paperform.co/