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From: Ellen-Marie Silverman
Date: 08 Oct 2005
Time: 17:42:21 -0500
Remote Name: 205.188.116.138
Sarah,thank you for your interest in the paper. // Working with shenpa provides an opportunity to stop struggling with thoughts and feelings about stuttering and with the stuttering itself and to, instead, realize acceptance of these. That, paradoxically it may seem, brings about greater clarity of thought, calm, and ease of stuttering, even less stuttering altogether. Developing a shenpa practice, as I emphasized in the paper, requires prior experience with meditation, most helpfully vipassana (insight) and/or zen (mindfulness) practices. Someone who has no interest in meditating may be helped by a speech therapy approach that includes, as tried and true goals, some of the benefits that derive naturally from a shenpa practice: 1) Close familiarity with, then substitution of, the gross and subtle thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that maintain the stuttering problem with thoughts and behaviors that reduce the frequency and severity of stuttering; 2) Development of realistic views of stuttering and communicating through speech; and 3) Acceptance rather than judgment of self and others as communicators. // Best wishes, Ellen-Marie Silverman