Music Therapy Interventions for Improving Fluency Among People Who Stutter

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Re: Establishing a comfortable environment

From: Erika Shira
Date: 14 Oct 2008
Time: 22:22:34 -0500
Remote Name: 66.92.76.147

Comments

"Also, when you work with SLPs, are they also involved and singing?" Oh, absolutely! This has never been an issue, but I'm from a training background where I wouldn't ask a client to take a risk I'm not willing to take, so I'd expect the same of anyone who's part of a session with me. In my experience though, most of the SLPs I've worked with love to sing, and most are quite solid at it! "How do you create an environment where the client feels comfortable enough to sing?" Well, I've done a lot of work with people with MR or ASD -- clearly pretty mild if they're folks who have the capacity to speak fluently, but there's still something about many of these folks as I'm sure you know that they're pretty disinhibited in this sort of thing. With my more typical folks, they've tended to be arty sort of people if they've come to be, though there've also been a good number who haven't. I guess I do it by putting myself out there, presenting myself in a way that it's clear I'm willing to take risks but I'm not judging anyone, allowing folks to explore instruments or voice or anything else in a non-structured sort of way if this is what they need, and probably most importantly being willing to listen. As we learn in counseling training, you can really set the stage with someone in the first few minutes you meet with them by showing them that you're empathic and really are hearing what they have to say. Taking risks can be slightly unnerving if you feel like the person listening is someone who's paying attention to everything, but it can be traumatizing and horrible if you feel they AREN'T listening. We can't underestimate the value that relationship plays in our work, no matter what discipline we're from.


Last changed: 10/14/08