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From: Ken St. Louis
Date: 12 Oct 2010
Time: 08:22:49 -0500
Remote Name: 157.182.15.31
Dear Shayanne, You ask a difficult question, and probably one that cannot be answered in a generic sense. Motivation is very much an individual thing. We often talk of motivation as if it is a quantity, e.g., "My client needs more motivation." In my view, it is best though of as the complex interaction of cost versus benefit. What is the client gaining in terms of benefit given the amount it "costs" him or her in term of time, money, effort, courage, pleasing parents or friends, etc.? If the benefit exceeds the cost, the client will be "motivated." Therefore, the answer to your question, "How can we keep our clients motivated?" is to reduce the costs or increase the benefits of therapy, or both. Importantly, that may or may not be possible. If a client really does not care about being fluent, then it is likely that no amount of "interesting" materials, dog an pony shows, etc. will make the difference. Some clinicians fall into the trap of making the benefits of simply coming to therapy the end in itself. In such cases, therapy might be great fun, but it may have little real lasting benefit in terms of understanding, dealing with, or reducing stuttering. Is it any wonder that these clients either make little progress or relapse? I believe we should make therapy as interesting and enjoyable as possible, but stuttering is sometimes very painful, and therapy must deal with that too. If your future clients eventually find that the benefits from your treatment are "worth it" to them, don't worry, they will be motivated. Best wishes in your studies. Ken