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From: Masuhiko Kawasaki
Date: 10/20/03
Time: 9:32:36 AM
Remote Name: 210.132.174.146
Thank you for your question. We study being "assertive" as distinguished from being unassertive (weak, passive, compliant, self-sacrificing) or aggressive (self-centered, inconsiderate, hostile, arrogantly demanding). In our meeting, we discuss why we can't be assertive. One reason is that sometimes we can't understand our feeling. We are not good at expressing what we want to say, because we, PWS, avoid the situation that we have to assert, as we don’t want to stutter. Other reason is that PWS tends to be anxious about the result or the atmosphere of the other people when we stutter. Also, if our way of thinking is not assertive, we can’t act assertively. REBT is very useful in this case. It is not enough for us to know assertiveness. We have to learn the skill. So, we practice appropriate ways of asserting ourselves in each specific situation. Many people attend our self-group meetings, including children who stutter and their family members. Sometimes, teachers, speech therapists, university students and graduate students who study stuttering or self-help group also attend our meeting. I’m very glad that many kinds of people attends our meeting as they know the feeling of PWS and they understand about stuttering.