Rachel Pizarek Uses GROUP Tool to Run Two Group AR Sessions in New York City

By Timothy Cooke

Rachel Pizarek, AuD, a clinical audiologist at the Weill Cornell Medical College Hearing and Speech Center, recently used the Ida GROUP tool to organize two group aural rehabilitation sessions in New York City.

We recently had a chance to speak to Rachel about her experience.


How did you use the GROUP tool to organize the group sessions?

"We used the tool’s Quick Start Guide to plan and organize the content for each of the five sessions. We also took a look at the materials found in the Active Communication Education (ACE) program and took ideas from both the ACE and the GROUP tool when setting up the sessions. During the sessions, we allowed participants to guide the session based on what they were interested in and what they wanted more repetition on.

Using the Quick Start Guide, one of the most well received activities was the Identify Group Perspectives exercise, which encourages participants to write down five ways hearing loss affects them and their significant others in their daily life. This was a great way to do an ice breaker and find out why the participants were attending the program and what they wanted to get out of their attendance.

The Solicit Group Input exercise was also very popular with participants. One could speak to them in the first couple of sessions and say ‘I know you are here for these reasons, but are there any other things that you want to learn while you are here?’ We got a lot of good ideas and we found that people were very interested in more information and journal articles on hearing loss. We were then able to supply them with more articles and handouts."

You mentioned that you used some of the materials from the Active Communication Education (ACE) program as a way to organize the program. How did this work in combination with the GROUP tool?

"We used many of the handouts from the ACE book, so that was why the combination of ACE and the GROUP tool worked so nicely. Without some of the handouts from the ACE program, the sessions would not have been as well organized.

On the other hand, I liked the way that the GROUP tool focused on many of the emotional parts of hearing loss, like avoiding negativity and comparing helpful responses vs. unhelpful responses to communication challenges. These were some of the things that I felt were missing from the ACE program, so we created our own handouts that pulled from the content found in the GROUP tool. This ended up being very helpful for patients. They were very happy to consider and discuss different emotional responses to communication challenges, such as using positive words and realizing that miscommunication is not always your spouse’s fault."

What advice would you give to other hearing care professionals who are thinking about doing a group session, but are on the fence?

"I would say it is an extremely rewarding process and a great educational experience for any students one might be mentoring. I think it gave participants a valuable ‘support group’ (a term participants used) consisting of people who had similar experiences. Even if it did not make the participants’ everyday life better, the sessions helped make them more emotional stable and more capable to deal with the challenges of their hearing loss."

Many professional may find it difficult to provide group sessions due to the lack of insurance reimbursements. How did you ensure that your clinic could conduct the sessions from a financial perspective?

"It was a self-pay system with an up-front cost for the five sessions. We had a large network of patients, so we sent letters to patients informing them of the opportunity to attend the sessions and told them to contact the hospital if they were interested. We also allowed patients to bring a spouse or family member for free. So one participant brought a close friend to the group session, for example, and this helped bring people to the group."


Rachel Pizarek conducted the group sessions in partnership with the Center for Hearing and Communication, another private clinic located in Manhattan. In the fall, Rachel plans to conduct another group program and invite AuD students from Cornell University to participate.

Rachel Pizarek received her Doctor of Audiology degree at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. Her clinical areas of interest include the diagnosis of adult hearing loss, tinnitus counseling and treatment, hearing conservation for musicians, construction workers, and those at risk for noise-induced hearing losses, and audiologic rehabilitation of adult hearing loss.