Liberating Ourselves as Clinicians: The Care and Feeding of Us and Our Clients

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The smart approach to therapy

From: Gabrielle Kowalski
Date: 08 Oct 2006
Time: 15:17:30 -0500
Remote Name: 69.69.123.52

Comments

Being the eldest sister of a severe stutterer and now an aspiring speech therapist enrolled in a 5 year bachelor/master program, I have been fortunate enough to experience alot of fluency problems. I am now enrolled in a stuttering class and similar to what you have written, we are constantly reminded that if the patient is not motivated and doesnt work in a team-like manner with his/her SLP and family, it is very hard to see a positive progression and as a result will be very frustrating for both the clinician and the patient. As you mentioned, it is an important reminder that SLP's do not "do it all". I realized after reading your paper, that SLP's in fact dont necessarily concentrate on only speech therapy but work on helping the client with their self esteem, independence and realizing that their true successful therapy, lies within their own will power. When you are able to equip a person with these qualities that may not have had, or had enough of, you have given them something greater than money or any speech therapy can ever give. Of course therapy is extremely important, but I think the first move should be as you described in your paper: get the client motivated and realizing their own potential they have to succeed, which will encourage them to be very active in their therapy which will help both themselves and their SLP.


Last changed: 10/23/06