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From: Vivian Sisskin
Date: 12 Oct 2009
Time: 19:57:02 -0500
Remote Name: 71.191.81.161
Ari, You are referring to “No Words to Say” produced by Allan Holzman and Ron Amick. It features Vivian Sheehan and my husband facilitating group therapy. Alan did a wonderful job on this film and I think there were some great moments. I particularly like when Peter tells the story of the guy who complains that he can’t get a date because he stutters, and then when he recovers from stuttering, he still can’t get a date! This story was meant to demonstrate the notion of “the giant in chains”… a person who sees himself trouble-free if not for the chains of stuttering. Sheehan always said he believed in a genetic predisposition to stuttering. He also believed that the initial cause was related to something more than psychological, however the technology at the time did not allow for the interesting findings that are coming out of today’s research. In any case, Sheehan based his treatment ideas on the notion that regardless of what causes stuttering, much of the struggle (physical and psychological) is related to learned behavior and response to conflict. I think this is why I feel it is so important to separate “stuttering” from “struggling”. From my perspective as a clinician, the road to struggle-free speech is clear and attainable, but the road to stutter-free speech is not so apparent.