TURNING ON TO THERAPY FOR TEENS

TURNING ON TO THERAPY
by William H. Perkins, Ph.D.

WHY SHOULD YOU SEEK HELP?
There are at least two answers to this question.  One is that you may 
have to improve your speech to get what you want.  This can involve 
getting friends, getting grades, getting parts in plays, getting jobs, 
getting promotions, getting respect--the list is endless.  Another 
more important answer is if your speech bothers you enough to want to 
do something about it.  A version of the same answer is if you want to 
feel more accepting of yourself as a person.  These together form the 
best reason for seeking help because you will be doing it for 
yourself. 

CAN THERAPY DO ANYTHING FOR YOU SELF-HELP CAN'T?
Self-help has a big plus.  One is that even if you're working alone, 
the fact that you are trying to help yourself shows your determination 
to not let stuttering run your life.  If you bring that much 
determination to therapy, then your chances of success are VASTLY 
BETTER than if you go to therapy hoping that the clinician will do 
something to you or for you that will make life easier.  

What therapy can do is to help you to help yourself.  A clinician can 
give you enough distance from your problems to get things into focus.  
No matter how determined you are to improve, it will be unnecessarily 
frustrating and slow if you don't know how to go about helping 
yourself.  The Speech Foundation has an excellent self-help book, but 
it can't demonstrate some of the skills that will be useful to you. 

WHEN SHOULD YOU SEEK HELP?
The longer you wait to start, the greater the pressure you will feel 
to improve your speech.  As big as those pressures may seem to you 
now, they'll seem even bigger the closer you get to job hunting or 
college.  Don't wait until your last semester to start.  Therapy is 
not an overnight business.  It takes time, especially for progress 
that will stay with you.  Although you can improve in a matter of 
weeks, if not days, improvement can evaporate just as quickly as you 
learned it.  All you'll have left is fog if you don't practice 
frequently and put what you've learned to the test on the tough words 
and sounds, to say nothing of the tough situations you've tried to 
avoid.  Give yourself years, but at the very least months, if you 
expect therapy to work.  

HOW DO YOU COPE WITH AUNT BUFFIE'S AD?
The Aunt Buffies of the world are concerned and are trying to help.  
If your Aunt Buffie thinks she's found help for you, remember that 
she's probably on your side, but also remember that she's not likely 
to know much about stuttering.  So thank her for being interested and 
tell her you'll check it out.  Then you are free to investigate her 
lead as thoroughly as you can, or want to.  Who knows, she may have 
done you a favor.  Then again maybe she unearthed a quack.  

CAN THERAPY CURE STUTTERING?
No one has found a cure for stuttering.  If you hear of anyone who 
claims a cure, steer clear.  This does not mean that some do not 
improve so much that they think of themselves as cured.  When that 
happens, though, it's the exception, not the rule.  If you are 
determined to cope with stuttering, you can improve your speech and 
you can improve how you feel.  

CAN YOU BELIEVE CLAIMS OF OVERNIGHT SUCCESS?
No. Probably not, at least as far as giving you answers to whether 
you'll get the help you're looking for.  The problem is in knowing 
what the claims mean.  Does 98 percent success mean cure, fluency 
improved, feel better, or what?  Many therapists could claim 100 
percent success if every little improvement in fluency meant success.  
But that improvement would be so small as to have no meaning.  

Good therapists don't make such claims.  If a clinician hesitates to 
let you talk to anyone they've seen, or observe their therapy, or 
steer you to just certain former clients, or use testimonials from 
satisfied clients, or show a slick commercial example of their 
success, you should be cautious.  They may advertise, but the better 
they are, the more discrete their advertising is likely to be.  Good 
clinicians have nothing to hide.  They're open for inspection.  

DID YOU TRY THERAPY AND IT DIDN'T WORK?
If you've had therapy before and it didn't help, you're probably 
convinced it won't help.  Worse, you may be feeling guilty because you 
think it's your fault that therapy didn't work.  Maybe you're also 
scared you'll never outgrow it.  You're probably right.  If you're 
waiting and hoping it will eventually go away, the risk is that you're 
waiting in vain.  (This of course does not apply to young children).

Don't despair.  There is hope.  For one thing, the clinician you had 
may not have specialized in stuttering.  Many therapists don't know 
enough about it to be of much help, but there are specialists 
available.  Read on. 

The fact is that many who are helped most were sure there was no hope.  
If you have doubts, but still are willing to try, talk to people who 
have been through different therapy programs.  Good clinicians can put 
you in touch with most of the people they've seen.  See for yourself 
how their speech sounds, as well as how they feel about it and 
themselves.  Find out how much help they feel they got.  Their outcome 
won't guarantee your outcome, but they will give you a clue as to what 
to expect.  

ARE YOU AFRAID TO GIVE THERAPY YOUR BEST EFFORT?
Nothing is quite so frightening as having to confront a moment of 
truth.  What's scary about giving your best effort is the prospect 
that it might not be good enough.  You might fail.  If that's as far 
as you let yourself think, if you only look ahead as far as the 
possibility of failure, then fear will paralyze you.  Try going beyond 
the failure, though, and see what happens.  Let yourself think about 
failure in its grossest form.  Turn it over in your mind.  Play with 
it.  Make it as bad as you can make it, then play each failure 
scenario out as far as you can take it.  When you put failure in 
perspective, it doesn't make it pleasant but is does make it bearable.  
Most important, it makes it possible to give your best effort, and 
increases the chance of that effort succeeding. 

IS 30 MINUTES A WEEK ENOUGH?
In the best of all possible worlds, no.  Especially if you are just 
beginning therapy.  Until you've made substantial progress, 30 minutes 
a week, even an hour a week, is like going to the movies and seeing 
nothing but previews.  Momentum helps and it's tough to get it even 
with a couple of hours a week.  Still, if you can only get an hour or 
so a week, progress will be slow but it is possible.  Later on, when 
you know what you're about and are moving out on your own, brief 
weekly sessions can be particularly useful.  

HOW DO YOU FIND HELP?
Before you go shopping for therapy, work out a shopping list.  Do some 
reading about stuttering and the various therapies that have been 
developed for it.  The Speech Foundation is a non-profit organization 
that specializes in help for people who stutter.  They have 
publications containing the information you need for your shopping 
list. 

HOW DO YOU FIND A THERAPIST YOU'LL LIKE?
Therapists help people who stutter several different ways.  No single 
therapy or therapist is right for everyone.  Finding the right 
therapist who can give you the help you want as well as the help you 
need is as difficult as finding the right girl friend or boy friend.  
Don't despair, though, it is possible. 

The Speech Foundation can steer you to specialized help, but you'll 
have to decide if the therapist is for you.  The only way you'll find 
out is to give whoever it is a try.  First impressions aren't always 
right, but if you have strong objections, this therapist may just be 
wrong for you.  If you've done your homework and prepared your 
shopping list (see "How do you find help?") you'll probably have a 
number of questions you'll want to discuss in those first sessions.  

Finding the right clinician to help you isn't like finding a mechanic 
for your car or a surgeon for your appendix.  Skill and knowledge 
alone aren't enough.  Until you find a therapist who is both skilled 
and really cares about you, keep shopping.