[ Contents | Search | Next | Previous | Up ]
From: Joe Mirly
Date: 30 Oct 2005
Time: 04:28:30 -0600
Remote Name: 67.168.86.109
Hi Arnie, Thanks for reading my paper, and taking the time to comment. Acceptance is a difficult piece to place, because it means facing and embracing a part of yourself that you'd rather not acknowledge. However acceptance is very important for the success of any therapy the stutterer pursues. It shouldn't be viewed as giving up however, just because you accept that you stutter and will likely always stutter doesn't mean that you can make an effort to stutter more easily, and reduce the pressures that you put upon yourself. When you accept stuttering you also reduce the feeling of failure when or if the therapy doesn't work as well as you'd hoped. The goal of fluency is not one that is easily achieved, and if that is your goal you're setting yourself up for frustration. Effective communication, which has been defined as being able to say what you want to say - when you want to say it - and to whomever you want to say it to - is a much more reachable goal. It isn't really setting your sights lower - rather focusing on something different. The ironic part is that many times acceptance is accompanied by an increase in fluency, even without any additional therapy. When combined with effective therapy though acceptance really helps make great progress. Of course this is my opinion based on my own experiences. Thanks for your questions and comments. Joe