Dealing with Chronic Sorrow and the Loss of a "Fluent Child" (a personal story)

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Re: Separate Sessions/ Counseling

From: Scott Palasik
Date: 13 Oct 2010
Time: 11:23:36 -0500
Remote Name: 131.95.172.211

Comments

Jennifer, First thank you so much for your kind words and thank you for sharing your questions...Can I ask you, are you therapist? Do you have much contact with stuttering clients and families (if you are a therapist)?...Your first question about "why many clinicians may prefer joint sessions or sessions with the client only?" is a great one. I believe it can be many reasons, one being time. Most clinicians have so many clients on a caseload that time is short for them (which we understand that is completely understandable). Another reason maybe that it maybe easier to see the client and parent at once (that way you are not explaining things twice, sometimes). The importance of having separate times (e.g., sessions, phone calls) is that the client and parents come with different "thoughts"(perspectives) related to stuttering. We as therapist have the opportunity to counsel and listen to all thoughts and guide both the client and parents to the same point (acceptance), at which we can bring them together. I say this with the deep understanding that many many therapist really don't have time to see parents and children separate. The irony of our field is that we are in high demand which is GREAT for finding a job and job security, the down fall is we then see so many clients that we sometimes can't do all we want to do...Challenging...As for my training, I didn't have a counseling class in my masters however I did specialize in counseling and stuttering, and was part of a contextual psychology lab in my PhD and have read all forms to therapy (e.g., CBT, ACT, RFT, Interpersonal). At the end of the day we can start with learning how to listen...Listen to words, gestures, eye contact, facial expressions, along with what clients are NOT saying...Listening to the whole person, not just the behaviors...That is a just a piece of counseling,however it is a vital piece that anyone CAN do and learn....Learning to be "flexible" and "willing" to address our own fears and anxiety and finding out what we value can help us guide others to "acceptance" of their thoughts (ACT)... These are just some quick thoughts I had...Please feel free to ask more questions and share ANY thoughts you may have!! With compassion and kindness, Scott


Last changed: 10/13/10