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From: Gunars Neiders
Date: 21 Oct 2007
Time: 21:08:04 -0500
Remote Name: 67.171.0.68
Dear Svetlana, For older teenagers or adults, I would suggest that they start learning becoming their own psychologist/counselor and speech therapist. I would recommend learning to work through one's own disruptive and unhealthy emotions (such as anxiety and shame) by using a counselor/psychologist (or speech therapist with counseling skills) who is familiar with Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy or getting Lynn Clark’s second edition of “SOS Help for Emotions: Managing Anxiety, Anger, and Depression” and reading it. For younger children I would recommend trying to validate their emotions, by being emotionally available to them. I would recommend that the parents read Lynn Clark’s “SOS Help For Parents.” Of course, good speech therapy should be also part of the mixture. This can be gotten from either a Board Recognized Specialist in Fluency Disorders, or an SLP who can consult with one of the specialists. One can go on the website for SOS programs at www.sosprograms.com and read about translations in Korean, Chinese, Turkish….Life will always have practical problems, problems created by the outside world. They are much easier to solve when all the emotional baggage is stripped away and discarded. The young immigrants have to be acknowledged that they have more conflicts and there is a balancing act between “home culture” and US culture. Learning to deal with stuttering is another layer of difficulty that best be faced. The emphasis best be on learning that as you master your emotions and learn to speak with less struggling, you will have more and more opportunities in life to attain whatever you wish. Give examples of people who have succeeded in world even though they stutter. For example, “BusinessWeek” October 29, 2007 copy on page 42 there is a story about Sir Richard Branson, a billionaire businessman and philanthropist, who is doing very well even though he stutters (I have heard him on numerous interviews). Joining up with self-help organizations can also be useful if the client wants moral support.