[ Contents | Search | Post | Reply | Next | Previous | Up ]
From: Scott Palasik
Date: 08 Oct 2010
Time: 17:51:06 -0500
Remote Name: 131.95.172.211
Amanda, HI! First, thank you for sharing your thoughts about your mother, I do appreciate your honesty and willingness to open up like that. Wonderful questions! Can I ask, are you a speech pathologist? If you are, do you treat many clients who stutter? (Just wondering)...Your question about referring parents to another professional is a vital one, so thanks for asking it. One aspect of our jobs as Speech Pathologist is counseling. Unfortunately I've had many people say they didn't get much education about "how to" counsel families, parents, and clients in graduate school or at conferences. Stuttering is a disorder that (in my humble opinion) requires counseling skills. Most of these skills lend themselves in just being comfortable "listening" to parents and clients without judgment. I go by the rule that if the parents are NOT expressing something that is criminal, is "hurting" the child, or is some sort of deep psychological concern, I usually feel comfortable talking with them and counseling them with their thoughts that are leading them to anxiety. The fun thing about counseling, you can relate to anybody because we all have the same things in common: our thoughts can cause us to choose reactions of "fear" which are in direct CONFLICT with our values and fears lead to anxiety. This is a little deep, however that is a philosophy from contextual psychology....Anyway, back to your questions...I try and keep the parents' and the children's "sessions" separate (at first). I will treat the child while providing education and counseling to the parent until I feel we are all on the same page (leading to a path of acceptance of stuttering) and then bring in parents for activities to teach techniques that they can use at home and to show the client that they can enjoy talking (kids need "Fun" in their lives, don't you think?). That maybe vague, however stuttering effects each client differently, so all I can give you are general guide lines like the above....Please let me know if you have further questions or want me to clarify something(when I write I tend to ramble, I know)..Have a great day and thanks! Scott