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From:
Date: 12 Oct 2011
Time: 08:03:52 -0500
Remote Name: 131.183.156.122
What a great question.. Like John and others mentioned, I really like working with teenagers too, though teens can be very tough. One piece of advice is to let them know that "the door to therapy swings both ways." They can leave or stop therapy, but they can also come back when they are ready. Like Ken said, many people will make the decision to do therapy later, in early adulthood, and I think that teens need to know that their decision to attend therapy or not is their decision alone. Feeling forced into therapy never a good thing and may lead to them never coming back to therapy later. Treating them like an adult with autonomy is so important. Also, I think letting them do a bit of teaching, about their stuttering and what they experience is helpful. Often, they take an orientation that "adults know everything" so they enter therapy with "this adult thinks they know everything but I still stutter so how much do they really know?" I usually engage clients in this age group in assignments or activities where they get a chance to teach me about what they know about stuttering and their own stuttering. Allowing them to generate the discussion points and tell their story is a very helpful approach. I will make one last point. It is important to share stories, videos, or other examples. We also need to let them know that these are just examples. We have to be careful that they realize that their change, their progress, may very well be unlike others. Often, perfect models or other types of models can be discouraging. We need to help them understand that there are reasonable outcomes to therapy and that their outcome will be their own.