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From: Ellen-Marie Silverman
Date: 16 Oct 2006
Time: 15:01:03 -0500
Remote Name: 205.188.117.10
Hello, Dear Reader, Yes, the therapy I do is personal. I gear it to the client's (and/or caregivers')wishes, capacties, and needs. I favor mutuality in treatment, i.e., negotiated goals, methods, timeline, etc. That being said, therapy becomes a balance of working with clients' beliefs and behaviors. Sometimes, one is accentuated more than the other. Often, at the outset, behaviors receive more attention. As a former transactional analysis therapist trainee, I learned from my trainer that the founder of TA, Eric Berne, generally told his (adult) patients: "First change, then we can talk about it." Change is at the heart of TA; it is not an intellectual, talk-cure. And I think for most of our speech therapy patients, change is also what they desire, but there are times during the process of change when it is helpful and even welcomed to analyze client's core beliefs and more so after they have begun to change to help strengthen them to be their own best speech therapist. Thank you for your interest in "Mind Matters;" I appreciated your comments and questions. I hope what I have written to you helps. Ellen-Marie Silverman