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From: Gunars K. Neiders
Date: 10/3/01
Time: 4:40:59 PM
Remote Name: 12.13.226.12
Jerry & Eric,
This paper is so well written and provides such good guidance as to be anointed :-) to be a seminal paper!:-) In sciences the term "seminal" is used to refer to those few papers that open the doors for new, creative thinking and, thus, create a flurry of research and application of the techniques described in the paper.
I was greatly impressed with the following, if I understood you correctly:
1) Eric, your observation that stuttering is mainly "mental". I would have used the term "psychological" or "cognitive", but, I believe, we both mean the same thing. I.e. that the attitudes, beliefs, self-talk and feelings about stuttering and speaking situations play a very important role. Did you mean that the change in attitudes, beliefs and self-talk about stuttering is instrumental in becoming more fluent?
2) Jerry your advice to Eric: "Whatever you do, do not blame yourself..." I still can hear my mentor's and therapist's Albert Ellis' words: "No self-downing, no self-blame,... Did I understand you correctly that you encouraged Eric to accept himself unconditionally no matter whether he stuttered or not?
3) Eric your statement..."self-therapy that I am currently in." And, Jerry your point 2."Allow the teen to interpret the goals and strategies of therapy and to be able to select from the "plan" those ideas that "seem to make the most sense". Have I understood you both correctly that you believe that all therapy eventually best lead to self-therapy?
My questions to you Eric and Jerry:
A) At what age would you, Eric, personally have started to benefit from the use of e-mail is stuttering therapy?
B) Jerry, the mechanics of building a therapeutic relationship are not straight forward :-) : i) Did you meet with Eric in person to establish this "buddy" relationship? Or did you meet over the internet/e-mail? Can you explain in a bit more detail how in this particular relationship was formed?
C) Jerry, can the complete set of e-mails be also obtained in electronic format either as an attachment to an e-mail or on a diskette (in IBM compatible format, not Mac format). I am more used to handling electronic media than hard copy and would be willing to pay premium price for the set.
D) Jerry, I have an academic question: Are these e-mails copyrighted. I.e. if a clinician wanted to use some sentences verbatim from the material would he have to disclose to his client in each and every instance that he had them lifted from this set of e-mails or would an acknowledgement at the start of the therapy and at regular intervals be enough?
Gunars