Can a Fluent Stuttering Therapist be as Good as a Stuttering Fluency Therapist?

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A Few Questions

From: Melanie- SLP Grad
Date: 18 Oct 2008
Time: 16:23:49 -0500
Remote Name: 66.191.61.155

Comments

This was a great article and definitely offered good insight into both sides of the situation. I am currently a graduate student and have not had any fluency clients, so I am still somewhat nervous about entering that territory. Because of this I have had very mixed feelings about what clinician would be better: someone who stutters or not. My first thought was that a clinician who stutters would be able to make a better connection with a fluency client. But then I read Joe K’s comment about turning the client into the therapist, as well as his experience with a client that became fluent at reading a paragraph and yet still was not comfortable because she sounded like Joe, rather than herself. Then Joe D. mentioned the importance of empathy, but also needing to challenge clients. How and where do you draw the line between empathy and creating challenges to push a fluency client forward? Obviously clinicians need to be good listeners and for those of us who do not stutter, we need to be wary of pretending to fully understand, but how do you prevent clients who are resistant of challenging therapy work from manipulating their clinician’s lack of personal experience and inability to fully understand? Has this ever been problematic?


Last changed: 10/18/08