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From: Ellen-Marie Silverman
Date: 19 Oct 2008
Time: 20:16:27 -0500
Remote Name: 64.12.117.10
[[Thank you so much for sharing this insightful article! Your words of wisdom can be related to all people, not just for people who stutter. What advice can you give to future SLP’s who may work with PWS who have previously tried to walk the path of happiness but failed or gave up?]] Hello, Alyssa, You raised some basic, practical matters relative to clinical work. Thank you for asking my advice in those regards. First, let's always keep in mind that people with stuttering problems, just like any client we may collaborate with, is first of all a human being, subject to the same desire to be happy as anyone else. In fact, adults with stuttering problems seek therapy to help them become happy or happier. What they individually expect to accomplish by participating in speech therapy to satisfy that desire will always be particular. For instance, one person might come to therapy to be able to fluently recite his wedding vows; another to be more competitive in the shrinking job market; a third to be a better speech model for his son and so on. So, they know what they are seeking from therapy to make them happy, and it is important for you to discover what that is. And Secondly, most adults with stuttering problems will have previous speech therapy experience, as you noted, and at least some of it has been unsuccessful from their perspective. So, how to deal with any uncertainty they may have about being able to succeed this time becomes an integral part of treatment. Well, in a nutshell, an overall structure that may help is: 1) Mutually set reasonable goals with no set timetable for achievement; 2) Sequence them appropriately; 3) Focus therapy on What's Right with the Client as well as What Needs Fixing so the balance is about 50-50; and 4) Help the client learn to monitor their own self-talk (internal dialogue) to quickly dispel any negative messages they send themselves that can sabotage their efforts to change and be kind to themselves through word and deed (this may require the suggestion that they undertake a practice of mindfulness meditation of the sort written about by Jon Kaba-Zinn). >>> I know, Alyssa, you asked a more wide-open question, i.e., how to help clients walk the Path of Happiness, and you probably think I skirted it. And I did! I believe, unless a speech-language pathology has been especially trained as a counselor, psychologist, psychiatrist, social worker, meditation teacher, spiritual director, etc., speech-language pathologists need to confine their professional work to addressing individuals' communicative, cognitive, and/or swallowing needs for which they are qualified to provide service. Doing so with the perspective that a) all clients are human beings first and foremost and desire to be happy and b) our work helping them function more effectively in those areas is a service that can help them become happy/happier. Best wishes for a satisfying career, Ellen-Marie Silverman