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From: Ellen-Marie Silverman
Date: 14 Oct 2009
Time: 17:57:55 -0500
Remote Name: 64.12.116.142
[[I loved how you integrated the mind and body with stuttering. I was wondering do you feel that these meditations and visualizations are great techniques to include in therapy? I love how it’s a whole different approach to working with those who stutter.]] >>> Thank you for your enthusiastic response to Doing The Work. It's true: I did stress the significance of the belief-behavior relationship associated with stuttering problems. But, I wasn't the first to do so. There is a long, very long, tradition in stuttering therapy and research to examine stuttering behaviors themselves and the so-called "attitudes" related to stuttering. As such, I merely highlighted the need to address the role beliefs have in generating related thoughts, feelings, sensations, and actions. Pretty elemental, really, when you think about it, which you seem to be doing. As you do, I hope you will recognize that the relationship between belief and thoughts, feelings, sensations, and actions associated with stuttering problems is no different than it is in life in general. Whether or not someone has a stuttering problem, is plagued by acne, or devours flavored popcorn, that person is living out belief-behavior links. >>> So, yes, Jessica, examining this key link in therapy through visualization and meditation or in other ways, personal journaling for instance (in the recently published text, Mind Matters: Setting the Stage for Satisfying Clinical Service. A Personal Essay, I describe several different ways for doing this key work), helps move the change process forward. >>> Yes, meditation and visualization have not been in the forefront of techniques applied to stuttering problems, but they are not new techniques. The meditation techniques of vipassana, shenpa, and tonglen are more than 2,000 years old, for example, and they wouldn't be if they weren't helpful. I found them to have a good fit to stuttering therapy objectives for adults. That is not to say they can not be used with children as well. For instance, the UCLA Mindfulness Awareness Research Center has been exploring applying mindfulness mediation techniques to children's chronic pain, and mindfulness (which, by the way, is quite similar to vipassana meditation) is being used to structure public school elementary education classes. But, any way, I digress, helpfully, though, I think. Nevertheless, what I wish to impart is that the only reason to become excited about trying a different approach in therapy is because it seems to be a more efficient, affirming, effective,and appealing than others. Being excited about applying an approach just because it is new to the field or to the therapist personally is not sufficient reason to adopt it. >>> Well, maybe, this reply is a bit wordier than you expected or hoped, but I hope it encourages you to continue exploring and gives you a criteria for doing so and some, perhaps, useful information about the application of mindfulness meditation to the problems of children and adults. >>> My best wishes for a satisfying career, Ellen-Marie Silverman