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From: Steve Hood
Date: 10/3/02
Time: 10:58:12 AM
Remote Name: 199.33.133.50
Hi, Judy !! WOW !! You certainly raised some interesting issues and provided some scary food for thought. I am not sure I am smart enough to offer any enlightening solutions, but I would like to make a few comments. Before I do, I was interested in your 1999 Williams reference in the text-- but it was not included in the References at the end of your article. Kindly post this... Thanks.
Yea, there are some stories told of Van Riper that would lead to the conclusion that he was a tough task-master. In the SFA video tapes with Jeff, CVR refers to himself in terms such as "the meekest mildest man that ever cut a throat." And in the 20 year follow-up tape, Jeff and Barry Guitar (who was also one of Van's clients) talk about his toughness in a way that suggests "awe and reverence" for him as a clinician and father figure. The ISAD conference a few years ago had a panel of former CVR clients.
One of the quotes attributed to Van Riper is this one: "Never ask your client to do something that you yourself have not done, or that you would not be willing to do first." As a clinician, I have followed this guideline for many years, and have passed it along to my students.
We need to be careful here. The very nature of desensitization therapy requires that we atempt to "toughen up the client" to withstand the stresses and s trains of the real world. So we might have them make phone calls, stop and talk to strangers or authority figures such as police officers, do a telephone survey, etc... Yikes !! I would hate for one of my clients to file an ethics complaint to ASHA !!! Therapy often involves some carefully calculated risk taking. While the client takes some risks in making a feared phone call, the clinician takes some risks in assuming that the client needs to make the phone calls, and that the client is far enought along in therapy to be ready and able to start making them..... I guess the risk taking here is a two-way-street.
Your comment about internet resources is also of interest. ASHA has a Board of Ethics to deal with alledged violations. States that have Licensure Boards also have a means of working toward 'consumer protection.' So if you or I, as certified and licenced SLP's screw up, there is a watch dog agency to investigate. Unscroupulous non-professionals who have "questionable web sites" are pretty much free to do what they want, because they are not ASHA members and are not board certified.....
ListServs are also areas of possible controversy. People (both SLP's and non-SLP's) are giving advice and suggestions all the time to to persons who stutter--- persons they have never met. If we follow this theme to the next level, we might even question the ethics of this ISAD on-line conference.
Among the lingering, nagging questions/concerns I have is reflected by the title of your provocative paper. Use of the word **AND** in the phrase "tough love and other shady practices" implies to me that you are saying that tough love **is** a shady practice.... I guess for me, tough love need not necessarily be a shady practice.
Thanks for raising these issues Judy !! I hope others will reply also....