The Professor is In

[ Contents | Search | Next | Previous | Up ]


Re: Truth or Controversy Question...

From: Ken St. Louis
Date: 15 Oct 2007
Time: 10:53:29 -0500
Remote Name: 157.182.15.19

Comments

Hi Mike, I've seen a few stutterers who have become worse in therapy. And some of them have quit. For children, who often can't make these choices on their own, sometimes, the parents quit therapy. We cannot treat every case who comes to us, and occasionally, what we try to do has some unexpected negative effects. In my experience, that is most likely to occur when there are other, complicating problems, such as psychiatric problems, significant personal/family crises, etc. But it is not uncommon for people to come to therapy, discover that they are stuttering more (often because they have become more aware of their speech or have tried to eliminate some accessory behaviors). Some of these people apparently preferred not to tolerate some temporary increases in stuttering and presumably returned to the adjustments they had earlier. On a different--but related note--I had at least one severe stuttering client who quit therapy after he finally became decidedly better. This was after doing 100 speaking assignments in one day at the mall (Van Riper's so-called "stuttering bath"). He apparently could not abide the new adjustment that this experience forced on him, i.e., that he could no longer use his stuttering as an excuse to be a victim. Lest anyone think these are common occurrences, in my experience, they are not. Most clients willingly accept the ups and downs that are part of any significant life change. Ken


Last changed: 10/22/07