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From: Ellen-Marie Silverman
Date: 11 Oct 2012
Time: 07:23:17 -0500
Remote Name: 76.228.192.184
[[I am a graduate SLP student with an interest in fluency. I am very curious to know what you and your readers might have to say about the topic of choosing speech therapy, as I know so many people who stutter do not. I wonder if anyone could share some of the past experiences positive or negative with speech therapy that have influenced your decisions regarding whether or not to continue with therapy. I'd also love to know if there are things that people who stutter have wished speech therapists would have done differently, or would have understood about them. ]] >>> Hello Emily for posing some valuable musings about the therapy experience of people with stuttering problems. You may note that I made a suggestion in the "Subject" line of my reply to your post that you consider reframing and then reposting your request for feedback on this valuable matter in another section of this conference, the "Office Hours: The Prof is In" section because people who log on to links to presentations such as this do not seem to read other's posts, and, even if they did, these sort of links are for comments/questions directly related to the particular piece. /// I think you may be on to a good research project and maybe one of your professors may agree and advise you about how to pursue it. I myself have been interested in much the same matters and have published some research that I conducted to learn what I could. Here is a citation for that article: Silverman, E.-M., and Zimmer, C. (1982)Demographic characteristics and treatment experiences of women who stutter. J. Fluency Dis., 7, 273-285. You can see it was conducted and published some time ago and the experiences of subjects, men and women with stuttering problems and women with no history of having had a stuttering problem, might differ a bit at this time, as well might the questions and areas of inquiry. But I suspect the gender differences may hold up as to preferred gender of therapist and form of therapy. Perhaps, you can help find out!!! /// Relatedly, I would like to add that an adult does not have to participate in speech therapy to continue to develop a satisfying manner of speaking and communicating. Personal growth activities, such as making public talks and practicing mindfulness, can be invaluable aids to become a more comfortable and effective communicator. Incidentally, at the risk of being seen as making a shameless plug, I have authored a book entitled, "Mindfulness & Stuttering. Using Eastern Strategies to Speak with Greater Ease," that should be available at the end of this year or the beginning of next year. In it, I give a detailed account of what is involved and what may be expected when practicing six forms of mindfulness based on my 16 years of experimentation and experience. An abbreviated, highly focused version is included in last year's ISAD Conference Archives available through The Stuttering Homepage website. It is a paper I presented last year entitled, "What to Expect from Mindfulness." /// Thank you for sharing your thoughts and enthusiasm. Sincerely, Ellen-Marie Silverman