Foreign Languages and Approach-Avoidance Conflicts

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Re: Therapy

From: Kevin O'Neill
Date: 10 Oct 2012
Time: 15:48:05 -0500
Remote Name: 24.18.229.12

Comments

When I say that stuttering is mostly a non-issue, I don't mean that I never stutter, that I don't occasionally have a bad day or worry about it. What I mean is that most people I interact with don't think I have a communication disorder, and some people are surprised when I tell them "I stutter." I'd say that 70% of this has been in the last 5 years, during which I haven't had any therapy at all, focusing instead on the cognitive/emotional stuff, going to support groups, and mindfulness work [see Ellen-Marie's comment]. Much of the fluency-shaping therapy I had (e.g., in high school) made things worse because the focus was on not stuttering, and the techniques totally failed under pressure. Fortunately I had a great and experienced therapist 8-10 years ago who took a holistic approach that got me thinking about the confidence/anxiety stuff. The main realization for me is that AVOIDANCE = STUTTERING. If I'm avoiding speech out of fear, that's a problem even I speak fluently. If I speak disfluently in an open and relaxed way without avoidance, no problem. It takes a long time (years) to really get that as an adult stutterer. And once you're there, you kind of figure out the fluency-shaping techniques that work for you.


Last changed: 10/22/12