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From: Ken St. Louis
Date: 04 Oct 2012
Time: 09:35:10 -0500
Remote Name: 157.182.15.121
Hello Ari, Good question, but I believe a bit over-generalized. I respect your experience, and it must be the case that most or all of your clinicians have not wished to focus on fears. That's too bad, in my opinion, since that I believe that desensitization is a very important part of providing best practice to people who stutter. Many current clinicians are not at all reluctant to deal with the fear of stuttering. I will hasten to mention, however, that some others disagree and believe that those of us who deal with emotions related to stuttering are "throwing in the towel." That aside, let me get to your question of "why" clinicians are reluctant to deal with emotions. The answer is no doubt complex. I wrote a paper many years ago on a related topic, i.e., why clinicians are reluctant to treat stuttering at all. Here are some of my thoughts: First, I suspect that clinicians are reluctant to address fears because they have not been in practicums or actual clinical situations where that has been done. In other words, they simply don't feel comfortable doing so because they have not done it before. Or they may have had no training in desensitization and simply don't know HOW to do it. Second, it is likely the case that some clinicians believe that dealing with emotions is the job of the psychologist or psychiatrist rather than the speech-language therapist/pathologist. Third, it seems to be a logical deduction that if one could eliminate the stuttering, then the attendant emotions will simply diminish and go away. That does sometimes happen, especially in stutterers with mild stuttering, with stutterers who are especially resilient, and with very young stutterers. In my experience, however, it usually does not happen with people who have stuttered for many years and therefore have come to view themselves as deficient speakers. I try to drill into my students the following: "ROLE CONCEPTS CHANGE SLOWER THAN BEHAVIOR." So even though a person might become fluent in individual therapy, he/she typically still has the self concept or role concept of a person who stutters. It may take years or even decades for that to change even if the person does not revert back to stuttering. I've probably rambled enough. I hope this addresses your questions. Good luck and stutter well! Ken