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From: Ryan Pollard
Date: 18 Oct 2012
Time: 19:47:55 -0500
Remote Name: 69.116.220.90
I’m glad the paper shed some new light on stuttering for you, Kate. In my experience, I think a lot of clients haven’t fully worked through the identity change that can occur when they speak fluently following therapy. They can revert back to old speech patterns after learning new ones without really knowing why. Many will cite the two common explanations I give in the paper (too hard to talk that way, sounds too weird), and I do think those are valid complaints, but I don’t think they’re the whole truth, at least for those for whom the stuttering identity has always been significant. Many clients return for repeated stints in therapy through the years, while others will work it out on their own. A sizeable portion of clients will decide that they’d rather just learn to accept themselves, stuttering and all, learn to manage the stuttering moments with less tension, and give up constantly trying to be fluent. That can be a very liberating choice.