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From: Dick Mallard
Date: 10/18/03
Time: 5:54:54 PM
Remote Name: 66.90.253.68
Caron, this is a good question. I assume by time in therapy you mean the time you spend face-to-face with a speech-language pathologist. If that is incorrect, please let me know.
I believe that time in therapy has nothing to do with progress made in stuttering therapy. In my view, "therapy" starts as soon as you leave the professional's office. Every time you speak is an opportunity to change the way you talk, to learn to control the next moment of stuttering better than you did the last one. I am working with a client presently who consistently goes beyond my suggested activities. She looks for opportunities to enter speaking situations and be more open with her speech. Our sessions are quite short since all she wants to know is "What do I do next?" I had that same attitude when I was in therapy and I learned to control my stuttering in a relatively short period. The actual time I spent with Norman Barnes was very short relative to the amount of time I was actually working to control my speech.
In case you are wondering, I worked with Norman in 1966. I still have to monitor how I talk but it has become more automatic and much easier than when I started.
Again, thanks for your question.
Dick