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From: Ellen-Marie Silverman
Date: 17 Oct 2011
Time: 15:45:15 -0500
Remote Name: 76.199.174.140
[[Thank you for your insight! As a graduate student is Speech-Language Pathology, I am curious about when to first introduce this to a client, during the initial session of therapy or after rapport has been built? Also, what if the client sees no difference in the first couple of weeks of practicing this and they want to give up, any suggestions of how to keep them on board? Thanks!]] Hello, Emily. Making the suggestion to a client that practicing mindfulness not only heightens awareness of our thoughts, emotioins, and bodily sensations but it provides us with skillful ways to respond to these thoughts, emotions, and sensations will best be made after our considered assessment of their motivation to engage in speech-language pathology treatment for their stuttering problem. You see, they will have certain expectations of what speech therapy can and, perhaps, will offer them and a referral or suggestion that they practice mindfulness may be quite surprising and even related to antagonistically since it requires a somewhat different level of personal responsibility. So, to successfully make such a recommendation to a client requires knowing what meditation and the practice of mindfulness can and can not do to help them address a stuttering problem. That means you will need to know quite a bit about the process. Starting a mindfulness meditation practice of your own is an especially meaningful way to learn about what is required and what can be experieced by a practitioner. I recommend doing that. If you do, you will realize that before mindfulness can effectively be applied to stuttering, it must be learned. And learning to be mindful such that being mindful becomes a helpful tool in navigating daily life can take some time. So, it will take time. But the learning and benefits accrue. >>> I hope this helps. Your questions are insightful. Best wishes, Ellen-Marie Silverman