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From: Timothy Koch
Date: 22 Oct 2011
Time: 18:56:41 -0500
Remote Name: 209.98.254.13
Thanks, Marta! I'm not sure we've ever tackled all three characteristics in one therapy session, but essentially the order in which they are being addressed is 1) reducing physical secondary characteristics, which in my case included tilting my head upward, 2) educating me about stuttering and desensitizing me to it, 3) making me feel more confident and comfortable with my speech so that I could expand my comfort zone, 4) addressing the stutter itself. In terms of how each of these were dealt with, the secondaries were addressed by making me more aware of them and having me physically combat them (in my case, catching when I was tilting my head up and then consciously tilting it back down). Education involving me reading articles by and about stutterers (this very conference is great for that) while desensitization involved roleplaying out difficult situations, watching recordings of other stutterers in varying degrees of severity and recording my own speech and playing it back and analyzing it. A massive portion of repairing the emotional aspects has to come from the stutterer, though; they have to be willing to put in the work and endure any pain or setbacks that might occur in order to improve. From the therapist's perspective, I imagine this would be largely giving encouragement and advice. Hope this helps (if Katy wants to add anything I forgot or make any corrections, I'd welcome that). :)