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From: Paul
Date: 10/15/02
Time: 6:49:10 PM
Remote Name: 193.217.214.116
Hi, Dick.
First of all, I think you misinterpreted some of what I wrote in my last posting. I didn't say that a person's religious beliefs have no place in the therapy process - it is perfectly fine for a client's own religious beliefs to play a role in the process (if this is what the client wishes). It is also fine for a clinician to work with those beliefs of the client, within the framework of the client's OWN religious perspectives, as an adjunct to the therapy process - to help motivate, to bolster confidence, courage, and self-esteem, and to help provide comfort to the client during difficult periods. Certainly religious faith can be valuable to a client in developing faith in his/her abilities to succeed in speech/language goals, to surmount difficult obstacles along the way, and to retain a positive outlook after negative experiences. I believe that you and I are in agreement on these particular points.
But what is not appropriate, to my way of thinking, is to engage in discussions about the CLINICIAN'S own personal religious beliefs. It is what the CLIENT personally believes in, and the particular ways that the CLIENT personally uses religious belief in his or her own life that are paramount here - not what the CLINICIAN happens to believe in, or the particular ways in which the CLINICIAN makes use of his/her own religious beliefs in life.
I see nothing wrong with a clinician advertising oneself as a "Christian religious counsellor" for speech and language disorders, or a clinic set up specifically for a Christian religious approach to speech/language therapy (as long as it is labelled as such for the potential consumer of services).
But outside that particular context, I think that caution is necessary on the part of the clinician when religious perspectives are discussed in therapy. Here the clinician needs to bend and to move beyond his or her own religious way of thinking, and work within the client's particular religious perspective - which may range anywhere from largely similar to completely different from the clinician's own perspective. The clinician must adapt to the client here, not the other way around.
You ask about religious discussions within therapy. There may be a place for religious-based discussion in the therapy room, but not in the sense of WHAT religious perspective is best for the client to use, but only HOW - that is, in what particular ways - the client's own religious perspective can assist in meeting the goals of therapy. The religious framework here is predetermined - it is not the clinician's, but the client's. The only question is HOW that framework can best be used in the therapy process.
I hope that the above comments help to clarify some of my own thinking on these issues. I am not opposed to religious-based speech/language counselling - I merely think that it is important to exercise caution to keep discussions and advice within the client's own framework of religious belief.
Finally, you ask about how my own Jewish religious perspective might be relevant in the stuttering therapy process. I do agree with you that religious beliefs and practices can play a central role in many aspects of life, including the process of helping stuttering. Judaism is more action-oriented than belief-oriented: In this way it is different from Christianity where strong beliefs come first and lead one to proper actions - in Judaism proper actions come first and lead one to strong beliefs. Applying this latter principle, I have often found it important in my own life to work to achieve specific goals (whether stuttering-related or not) even if I may be skeptical that I will succeed or succeed fully. Sometimes I reach goals that I doubted I would ever attain - and then I'm thankful that I took the necessary actions to reach those goals even if I didn't have a full faith in their successful outcome. (Please note that I'm not belittling the idea of faith - but this is an example of a somewhat different kind of religious-based perspective - namely putting actions first.)
One further relevant thought: There does appear to be a form of stuttering therapy mentioned in the Bible or Torah. When Moses appeared with Aaron before Pharaoh during the early plagues to urge that his people be let go, the Hebrew clearly uses the plural form - THEY spoke to Pharaoh to relay the Lord's message, very possibly by speaking together in unison. (Before this time Aaron had been the one who acted as Moses' mouthpiece.) Moses developed confidence in his speaking abilities through this vocal support from Aaron, and by the time of the final plagues Moses was speaking alone without Aaron's help; the Hebrew now specifies that HE spoke, not "they". Apparently Aaron helped Moses develop his fluency abilities by making use of the now well-known choral speaking phenomenon.