[ Contents | Search | Post | Reply | Next | Previous | Up ]
From: Laura, ISU graduate student
Date: 22 Oct 2011
Time: 19:31:36 -0500
Remote Name: 50.103.45.148
Accepting who you are is difficult for anyone, but last semester I worked with an adult covert stutterer and now he is in his second semester of therapy still working on overcoming his fear of stuttering in front of others. Stuttering has made him so self conscious and he would do ANYTHING to get around a stuttering moment. The process of becoming ok with himself is much more time consuming and emotional than I ever could have imagined. Also, the concept of having to stutter before you can modify just makes no sense to him. While I understand his concerns and questioning, I worked so hard at trying to get the message to him that he would be ok stuttering. Also, being a person who does not stutter, he had a hard time trusting me and my confidence that it would be ok if he stuttered aloud. Overall, I believe that a good rapport is essential especially for clients who stutter covertly. An honest open relationship did help our communication, but sometimes working with this specific client seemed more like counseling than stuttering therapy. I learned that counseling is really the first step to this type of therapy and I think that it is something a lot of SLP's do not understand. There are so many emotions tied to stuttering and covert stuttering, it seems as if (in my case at least) they hold their emotions in along with the stuttering moments, which surmounts to a great amount of internal negative emotions.