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Therapy plan for adults wanting to minimize their stuttering

From: Gunars
Date: 10/21/02
Time: 5:37:34 PM
Remote Name: 12.230.252.83

Comments

y'all,

In psychology in Washington State we have to come up with a written plan of therapy before we start to treat a client. This includes informed consent.

Do you think it would be a good idea have this be extended to stuttering therapy?

For example the plan could include the following topics:

1. The goal of the therapy is to minimize the client's stuttering interfering with his or her occupational and avocational goals.

2. The therapy will be a cooperative process between the client and the therapist.

3. The therapy is aimed at achieving unconditional self accepatance (positive self-regard) whether the client manages to achieve his or her fluency goals. Self-esteem is a slippery term. Sometimes, it is used to denote conditional self-acceptance. For example, I can accept myself if my therapist accepts me or I can accept myself if I perform well in some area. Thus, it is better to just work on unconditional self-acceptance, whether the client stutters of not.

4. Perfect long term fluency may not be possible, because NOBODY is perfectly fluent. However, all clients, to the best of my knowledge, can improve the naturalness of their speech, ability to communicate, and minimize their shame and anxiety about speaking situation.

5. Practice usually makes ones speech more flowing. But in the therapy we will investigate what type of practice is a) palatable to you as the client and b) what type yields more bang for unit of effort.

6. I also think that a statment of self-disclosure such as mine: I, Gunars Neiders, as the therapist do not expect to be perfectly fluent. I also expect to work on my fluency as long as I live. My work involves informing everyone that I stutter time to time. (I think la belling myself as a "stutterer" or "Person Who Stutters" (just another label) is counterproductive - I do many, many other things than just stuttering and I am not defined by it.)

7. I intend to re-repeat one syllable in every conversation. Even when I am talking to myself. This, for me, has proven to be helpful. This prevents big swings in my fluency. However, I do not say that this is an answer for everybody.

8. The final statement of the informed consent form should be the success rate with the type of clients that either I as a therapist have had. Or the success rate that my mentor or the method of stuttering therapy has had. This should also include what is meant by "success".

Do you think that this type of informed consent/treatment plan, fleshed out with details of the techniques used would hinder or encourage the SLPs to be more open and, as a result, more effective?

Gunars


Last changed: September 14, 2005