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From: Kevin O'Neill
Date: 09 Oct 2012
Time: 15:21:26 -0500
Remote Name: 24.18.229.12
Hi Hannah, I really appreciate that you're thinking hard about how to engage with your client. In my experience, adult stuttering is hard for new SLPs because of the cognitive/emotional factors that textbook speech exercises don't address. My best therapists (including two professors who taught graduate courses in stuttering) acted as coaches with the humility to know there was no quick fix solution, and they took a multi-pronged approach that dealt with emotional and physiological aspects of stuttering. You aren't a psychologist or therapist of course, but I believe you *have* to address avoidance, fear, and resistance around stuttering. Here's one idea: take a whole session to practice voluntary stuttering. See if your client can try to become *really good* at stuttering very badly. (You should try it too, of course, so you know how hard it is.) Then progress to trying the same practice with strangers on the phone (again, with you taking the lead), out in the community, and so on. This addresses fear and avoidance head-on, helps establish trust with you, and builds confidence that your client has the courage to stutter openly.