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From: Ryan Pollard
Date: 04 Oct 2012
Time: 09:55:38 -0500
Remote Name: 69.116.220.90
Thanks for your kind words, Elise! I believe that issues of identity and the upheaval that comes with change are particularly important for those who attend an intensive program. Historically, most intensives have focused on teaching clients how to speak fluently and this process occurs very rapidly (2-3 weeks). Therefore, clients often leave the program walking in very unfamiliar new shoes. It can take time for new ways of thinking about communication and new ways of seeing one’s self to catch up to the physical reality of fluent speech. For many clients, that transitional period, that limbo state, if you will, is just too difficult to navigate. They begin to fall back to what’s familiar and safe for all the reasons I highlight in the paper. I truly don’t believe they’re choosing this; they’re just being human. The problem with intensives is that the physical change occurs so quickly that, for many clients, there’s really not enough time to process and gain insight into the psychological changes that need to accompany it. Those clients are left trying to process that change, to incorporate and make sense of their new identity, on their own. So to finally answer your question (I know, it took me awhile!), I suggest that clients follow an intensive program with what the mental health profession calls continuing care. Whether that follow-up care is from an SLP, LCSW, psychologist, etc. isn’t so important. What’s crucial is that the client is able to explore/analyze/process what speaking fluently means to them so they can truly have the insight to make a decision about how fluently (or disfluently) they want to speak and take ownership of it.