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From: Woody
Date: 10/6/03
Time: 9:42:58 AM
Remote Name: 216.240.100.85
Hi Peter.
I am not optimistic that training programs will change very much. They have to grow at their own unbelievably slow pace. But I am hopeful that clinicians who are interested in helping stutterers will get themselves trained in some of the excellent methods used by psychotherapists to deal with thoughts and feelings. The bad rap that psychotherapy has received as a method to work on stuttering is a result of the bad therapies that existed over 50 years ago. Things have changed. Stuttering is not a psychological disorder, but because it develops as a set of reactions nested inside a set of previously developed reactions, psychotherapeutic techniques are very helpful in peeling away the layers and getting to the issues that are deepest under the surface.
With regard to obsessive/compulsive disorder, I don't believe I have ever had a stutterer who suffered from this problem, but certainly some stutterers feel that they think and behave compulsively. Secondary behaviors in particular, since they are acquired through avoidance conditioning, are often performed compulsively, that is, even though the person would rather not perform them.
Woody