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From: Walt Manning
Date: 13 Oct 2008
Time: 12:43:00 -0500
Remote Name: 141.225.97.59
Hi Alison, I’m answering your questions several days late as I have been off in California for several days presenting workshop with a colleague. I like your professor’s comment. And, of course, there are ever better ways to stutter than others – less effort, struggle, moving forward with air flow and voicing, etc. The new ways, even if they are better will feel and sound strange for it is the old form of stuttering (and thinking) that we are most familiar and comfortable with. Helping the speaker to begin appreciating how really good, smooth, easy stuttering is possible and that they are really capable of achieving this form of stuttering may help change the person’s perception in a more positive direction. Giving themselves permission to stutter - especially easily – can also break the link between stuttering and being so out of control. During earlier ISAD conferences we have discussed humor as an important variable that indicates cognitive change. We all have stories – often now our favorite ones – that describe how we were able to reinterpret our understanding of a scary or embarrassing experience once we achieved some distance, mastery, and a paradigm shift about the event. People who have achieved some success in treatment have many wonderful and very funny stories that they can tell about their experiences. That is not likely to happen for those at the outset of treatment or for those who have not come very far in the therapy process. Hope that helps Alison.