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From: Lou Heite
Date: 10/21/02
Time: 9:45:09 PM
Remote Name: 24.237.147.43
The majority of the reactions have been positive, particularly when I make it clear that this is a vacation, not a dismissal or a rejection. Adam himself will determine when he resumes therapy. He is not opposed to it on any kind of principal, rather he doesn't think he has time right now.
I can't emphasize enough how important it is to allow the client to take the lead in this kind of decision when he or she is able to. If Adam were not as open and honest about his stuttering as he is, I would not even have considered this option. He is not running from anything, though. If he were in some kind of denial, or engaging in avoidance of stuttering, or were anxious to get out of therapy because he was embarrassed about it, I would not have taken this course. Instead, I might have recruited members of his personal support network to urge him to face the stuttering and work on it. Or I would have found some other way to get him to commit to therapy.
The real message here for any new clinician is "Meet the client where he is, not where you wish he were." To borrow an old saying, "You can lead a horse to water..."
Lou Heite