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From: Vivian Sisskin
Date: 11 Oct 2009
Time: 18:19:38 -0500
Remote Name: 71.191.81.161
Joe Sheehan was a professor of psychology at UCLA from the late 1940’s until his death in 1983. There had not been a communication disorders (speech sciences) dept. at UCLA (or any of the UC campuses) since the 60’s. All of the programs ended up in the State University system, for example, California State University, Los Angeles (where I taught during the 80’s and 90’s). That said, Sheehan’s doctoral students were studying psychology. Many of them did publish in the area of stuttering, as this was Sheehan’s main area of research interest. I worked with Sheehan over a period of 10 years as an undergrad (psych) and also as a graduate in the school of education, and beyond. There were others like me who spent time learning about his unique approach to treating stuttering. I have remained in contact with some of them over the years, none of whom would say they focus on stuttering today. They have developed other clinical interests in the field of speech and language therapy. Some of my best sources for collective memory regarding the Sheehan legacy are the clients we had in the clinic, many of whom consider themselves recovered from stuttering (my husband, Peter Kupferman being one of them), as well as his children. There have been a number of SLPs who have worked with Vivian Sheehan over the years in the clinic that she kept going after Joe passed away. Vivian was a wonderful clinician and mentor, and these clinicians were fortunate to be exposed to Vivian’s talent and the therapy that Joe created. I am friendly with many of them, and I know that they would have loved to have had the opportunity to watch Joe in action (leading the group). Thank you for asking, and for allowing me to reminisce a bit!