Stuttering: The Rest of the Story

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Re: A Soon-to-be Student Clinician's Question

From: Bobby
Date: 05 Oct 2009
Time: 22:43:02 -0500
Remote Name: 71.228.119.75

Comments

Chelsea: The first thing I would do to achieve a strong clinician-client relationship is to be honest with them. Tell the client that therapy will increase their fluency but will not cure stuttering. Adults know there is no "magic pink pill" that will make us quit stuttering, but some people will have that hope anyway, no matter how remote it seems. Adult clients will also know that you are a student SLP and probably won't have lots of experience. So long as you admit that you don't have all the answers, and sometimes will need to consult with seasoned SLP's the "clinician-client" relationship will be mutually beneficial. As for my therapy a few years ago, my student clinicians and I didn't spend a whole lot of time trying to change my attitude about my stuttering. We would talk about it some, but mostly worked on my fluency with the "side effect" of slowly changing my thoughts about my speech (or lack thereof as I used to call it). Trying to set a specific amount of therapy time to counsel attitude would be a waste of time in my opinion. As you are working with the client on the various fluency techniques, opportunities will arise that will give you insight into the client's "stuttering attitude". As therapy progresses and your client sees their fluency improving, so will their attitude. It just takes a little time and patience.


Last changed: 10/05/09