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From: Woody Starkweather
Date: 10/9/01
Time: 4:36:46 PM
Remote Name: 155.247.229.193
Hi Gunars:
Scott's answer was as complete and on the mark as I have ever seen. Nevertheless, I have a completely different criterion for "dismissal". (I don't call it "dismissal," and you'll see why). I think therapy should end when the client thinks it should end, and I make sure that clients know that this is the criterion right from the beginning and remind them from time to time. So, if they begin to feel that they have made as much progress as possible for the time being, they terminate treatment. Of course, they can come back if they want to also. If they feel for any reason that they are not getting enough out of it for the fee that they pay, then they can and should stop seeing me. This seems to work out really well. I am seeing now a man who was extremely severe when I first met him, long, very long blocks on essentially every syllable. We worked together for about 10 months and he made very good progress, largely because he took a lot of responsibility for his own recovery, was totally honest with himself, and paid close attention to his own experiences of stuttering. Then he came for a one week intensive at our place on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, and reached a remarkable level of comfort with his speech. He was very close to having normal nonfluencies (which would be my criterion, if I had one). So I asked him if he wanted to continue seeing me, and we talked about it. He will see me now less often, and then even less often, fading treatment away to perhaps once or twice a year, as he sees fit. To me, this is the way therapy should "end," just a gradual fading of support at the pace that the client feels comfortable with.
Woody