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From: David Shapiro
Date: 06 Oct 2009
Time: 09:35:06 -0500
Remote Name: 152.30.155.19
Thanks for your reply, Ari. From what you added, it sounds like both anticipation and fear have significantly influenced your communication experience. This is understandable. Typically, we interpret our present and anticipate our future on the basis of past events. So, one suggestion would be to create (or receive some guidance to create) opportunities in which you can achieve your fluency objectives in gradually increasing levels of challenge. It sounds like you have begun to do this (i.e., calming). The point is to continue to create opportunities for success; success begets success. Also, as you are discovering, success leads us eventually to predict, and thereby to experience, success. Old habits perpetuate until we create a set of alternative data (i.e., successful speaking experiences) on which we can begin to predict an alternative outcome (i.e., fluency, rather than fear and disfluency). We believe what we experience for ourselves. Nothing is more motivating than success. Creating such opportunities for success, in my opinion, is among the responsibilities of a speech-language pathologist. At first, these opportunities may be developed for you, then with you, and eventually by you. This is what I do professionally and, incidentally, what I have done personally. It would be easier in person to talk about how this is done. Keep up the good work. Good luck; you’re in good company. David Shapiro