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From: Ken St. Louis
Date: 23 Oct 2006
Time: 09:19:05 -0500
Remote Name: 157.182.15.42
Dear Ashley, I appreciate your thoughtful post. Of course, I agree with you. We are all so much more than the miriad of labels that can be and are used to describe us. You are right that our negative labels are the ones that cause cause us discomfort or pain, but, in my opinion, blanket person-first advocates have confused the negativity of conditions with the intent of people who use terms to describe them. Of course there are examples when term really are negative, e.g., "moron." But much more often the terms themselves are not inherently negative--they are simply descriptors. I would suggest that therapy for stuttering should involve coming to accept stuttering as a part of one's identity, even if one hopes to eliminate it sometime in the future. I just heard a wonderful sermon that included the idea that those who live best do so by making good use of their own suffering. I would suggest that one way we can do that is to tell our story of stuttering (or other condition we don't like or are not proud of) and make it a part of what life has taught us. Then we are liberated to move beyond it. Best. Ken