GOAL Management Training (GMT)

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• Difficulty staying organized, and effectively completing daily tasks are common challenges following a concussion.
• These challenges typically relate to impairments in executive functioning.
• Common complaints include feeling overwhelmed, distracted, forgetful, and inefficient in the completion of daily tasks.
• Goal Management Training (GMT) is an intervention designed to address these cognitive concerns, with the goal of improving functioning in daily tasks.

• A standardized cognitive rehabilitation program grounded in neuroscientific principles
• Designed to help individuals with impairments in executive functioning improve their organization and ability to achieve goals.
• Developed by world-leading clinical researchers in the neuropsychology of executive functions
• Promotes a mindful, metacognitive approach to completing complex everyday activities by raising awareness of attentional lapses and reinstating cognitive control when behaviour becomes incompatible with intended goals
• Comprised of self-instruction strategies, self-monitoring exercises, cognitive techniques aimed at improving planning, prospective memory and cognitive control, mindfulness practice exercises, stories promoting discussion about executive dysfunction in daily life
• The ultimate goal of GMT is not only to assist with reduction in cognitive symptoms, but to provide the skills to return safely and independently to participation in pre-injury activities (i.e., work, school, household management, caregiving responsibilities, community mobility, leisure activities)

• Our GMT program is structured into 8 one-on-one virtual sessions, held on a weekly basis.
• Participants in the program will receive an official GMT workbook to allow them to follow along with lessons and keep track of assigned homework.
• The main objectives of GMT are to train individuals to periodically “STOP” what they are doing, attend to task goals, evaluate their performance, and monitor or check outcomes as they proceed.
• The program includes components of education, interactive discussions to raise awareness of various aspects of goal management, tasks that illustrate goal management concepts in action, and homework assignments to facilitate the transfer of concepts to real life.
• In addition to the 8 sessions, a cognitive assessment is conducted both before and after implementation of the program to assess areas of challenge and evaluate change over time.

Writing: Gabriella Boccone

Last update: November 2021