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From: Ken St. Louis
Date: 12 Oct 2012
Time: 09:00:43 -0500
Remote Name: 157.182.15.121
Hi Andrew, Thanks for the comment. I agree that counseling is a very important aspect of all of our interactions with people who are distressed with speech-language-hearing-swallowing problems. Since stuttering is one disorder (but certainly not the only disorder) that evokes significant fear, embarrassment, humiliation, and so on, feelings often play a large role in its treatment. That said, my paper is not about being a counselor; it is about simply getting the whole story. One does not need to be a trained counselor to know that a client/patient has past experiences with the problem in question and that attempts to address it should ideally involve knowledge of those past experiences. In some sense, it's about being smart about initiating therapy. Listening to the clients experiences and thoughts (i.e., his/her story) will make us more effective clinicians. Good luck in your studies. Ken