The Professional Is In

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Re: Social Phobia and Stuttering

From: Scott Palasik
Date: 16 Oct 2012
Time: 10:50:47 -0500
Remote Name: 130.101.20.195

Comments

Mark, Good day to you! Nice to meet you and thanks for asking some wonderful questions. As a person who stutters and a professional for several years these questions are great to hear from people. You asked first about screening for social phobia. The OASES is a great evaluation tool that touches on how stuttering maybe perceptually effect individual clients in a variety of social situations, which we could potentially connect with a social phobia. As you can imagine, some people who stutter create fears related to speaking situations (which could be viewed as socially phobic). You’d have to look at the DSM-IV (the new DSM – V is coming out in the next year, however from what I hear this is going to be a challenging version for many reasons). Anyway, stuttering definitely has a social communication component to it. In therapy I utilize a form of psychotherapy called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT- pronounced as one word and not separate letters). This form of cognitive behavior science is all about developing behavioral flexibility (both cognitive- internal an d physical-external) by touching on six principles of: mindfulness, acceptance/willingness, cognitive defusion, self as context, values, and committed action related to values. Unlike classical CBT, ACT creates a conversation between the client and clinician where the client is NOT told what they “have to do.” It also allowS the client to touch and accept ALL thoughts as a part of a whole. The great thing about current CBT practices is that they are becoming more ACT like by including discussions of values of the client while still utilizing the components of situational exposure therapy thus allowing the client to think and feel whatever surfaces, while not telling the client how they “should” feel. ACT helps the client to create options within their own language as it relates to values and ultimately living a valued-based life. ACT is concerned with the WHOLE person and making sure they can develop willingness skills to sit with suffering as well as sit with joy (we all have both and they are both important for growth). Anyway, this is the LONG winded explanation. Please ask more questions! With compassion and kindness, Scott


Last changed: 10/22/12