Office Hours: The Professor is In

[ Contents]


Re: The Role of Support Groups

From: Lynne Shields
Date: 10/7/02
Time: 10:08:49 AM
Remote Name: 199.217.208.172

Comments

Bernie & Chris,

Thanks for your good questions. From my perspective, a support group can play a variety of roles, depending on the focus of the particular group. I see the primary role of groups such as NSA as just that, support. It is not intended to be a therapy group and, thus, I would not expect there to be an emphasis on therapy techniques. That said, I do see support groups as serving a very therapeutic function. I encourage my clients to participate in a support group, either face-to-face or through various online opportunities, such as Stutt-L. Being in the presence of others who have similar experiences, having a place where stuttering can be talked about freely, and a friendly environment in which to try out new things--you can't beat em'. I suppose that's your 'feel good' focus, Bernie, but I think it goes deeper than that. There is real power in numbers.

Chris, your question about the experience of increased disfluency as a result of being involved in a stuttering support group leads me to ask you a question. Do you think that the increase in stuttering that you are talking about could result from people being in an environment where they can let go of controls and worries about stuttering? If this is the case, I guess I see that as a positive rather than a negative. I'm interested in what you think about this.

Regards,

Lynne


Last changed: September 14, 2005