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From: Tom Brennan
Date: 11 Oct 2009
Time: 10:35:21 -0500
Remote Name: 144.96.128.14
Natalia, I've thought a great deal about my speech teacher from back in 1st grade. That's been a long time ago but what I remember most about her was that she always seemed interested in what I had to say and that she always found answers to my questions. If she didn't know when I asked (things like how did the telephone we were using work, how did the batteries work, why three leads on the wiring rather than four like our home phone, etc.) and if she didn't know when I asked she'd know by the next time I came to speech class. The only technique that I really remember about those classes was talking on the phone. I can recall that she would tell me we'd do what I wanted and talk about what I wanted but I first had to do the work she wanted and had to really work hard. Another thing that I remember about her was that if I was being frustrated or even sometimes for no reason that I could figure out we'd stop working in the middle of class and talk about something that interested me. I think I was more motivated to work in that class than I've been in nearly any class I've taken since up through doctoral work. If you want to touch your client's hearts be interested in what interests them and listem to them. Even if you're not truly interested you can at least involve yourself in what interests them and acknowledge the worth of their interest. Remember that what's important to them is what's important: what's important to you as the clinician may not be important to them.