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From: Valerie Henn, Kean U
Date: 13 Oct 2007
Time: 13:39:40 -0500
Remote Name: 69.142.239.251
Hi! Thank you for bringing up this topic. As a student clinician in my first semester of clinical practicum in speech-language pathology, I feel this is a very important aspect of what we do. To be in accordance with EBP, clinicians must base therapy on the individual client’s needs. The three steps you listed are fundamental in personalizing every therapy program for each individual client. Listening to your client (really listening) and finding out what is important to each individual client is something I am consciously making efforts to do this semester. As you stated “real change occurs when the client has decided to commit to an action, which requires ownership of the problem.” If a client does not want to do ‘what you decide therapy should be’ then both motivation and progress will be minimal (or limited) for that client. Once you have done the three steps listed in your article and have planned a therapy program that the client finds appropriate, do you have any advice about how to continue your client’s motivation in reaching those agreed upon goals? No doubt, therapy will be hard on the client at times and therefore it is important to continue to listen and focus on the client’s needs at different stages of therapy (monitoring his/her feelings). What do you do specifically, when you sense your client is losing motivation towards his/her own goals in therapy? In particular, do you have any advice for how to continue motivation for the client who stutters throughout different stages of therapy?