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From: Jill Douglass
Date: 11 Oct 2012
Time: 17:27:50 -0500
Remote Name: 130.123.104.22
Hi Michelle, I apologize for the delay to your response. I see you posted twice! Response to Question/Comment 1: Walt Manning covers the process and stages of change in his text (Clinical Decision Making in Fluency Disorders, 2010, p. 291-299). I highly recommend reviewing this text, considering his wording is far more comprehensive than what I can provide here. We can not force change upon a person. Instead, we need to see where the person is in their process of change and go from there. In other words, we can not suggest a person “come out of the closet” if they are not ready, otherwise this can be traumatizing and degrading to the client. Ideally a client who is covert will come to us to help them advertise their stuttering, here’s the thing: we don’t live in an ideal world. We must work through the current emotional state and cognitive abilities of the client that sits before us. Response to Question/Comment 2: Yes, I agree there is a spectrum of thought processes that have an influence on our quality of life. The way we speak and convey ourselves does, in fact, influence our concept of identity. Stuttering may be a part of a person’s identity. Stuttering may be given credit for some character traits of themselves: compassionate, empathetic, sincere, etc. Acknowledging that stuttering exists in a person’s life is suggested. Attempting to create a positive relationship is recommended, not for peace, love and happiness reasons, instead for reasons to help move forward and work with their stuttering (rather than against). In the end, we need to empower our clients by actively listening to them and by perceiving the client as the expert on their stuttering. Many thanks for your thoughts on this. –Jill