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From:
Date: 14 Oct 2005
Time: 08:22:16 -0500
Remote Name: 165.190.57.89
Beth: I think its important to disguish between anxiety disorders and anxiety about speaking/stuttering. I don't know that PWS have any higher incidence of anxiety disorders than the general population, but there is certainly a more universal focus of anxiety around speaking among PWS. As for who best to treat? I think a skilled, experience SLP can be very capable. In my experience, psychologists don't know enough about stuttering to be effective in this arena. Your suggestion of the SLP and psych. might be seen as a good compromise. As Van Riper pointed out a long while ago, the SLP who is a PWS can easily project his/her feelings/emotions into their client... ANY SLP needs to be first a good listener and learn about the client's perspective, being careful not to inject his/her own biases into the situation. The client has his or her whole story within them; its my job as the SLP to bring it out and help make sense from it. In some ways, I'm like a news reporter interviewing people to get the story. I have a general framework into which I need to get more facts and fill in the pieces to get the story right. For me, this is the delight of stuttering therapy and a path through which I've learned a great deal about myself. THnaks for reading the article and taking time to comment.