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From: John Wade
Date: 10/16/03
Time: 1:18:28 PM
Remote Name: 129.237.191.219
Megan,
Good question. And thanks for reading the article.
So, how can speech therapists provide support for the person who stutters with their internal struggle? I do think there are some practical factors that help, such as utilizing active listening skills, reflecting back what you have heard, etc. I think that probably the most important factor, at least in my opinion, is the desire to hear about the person's internal struggles, the genuine desire to listen. I do believe that for most people, change does not occur until they have felt truly understood.
I think that much of being a good therapist depends simply on having a real working knowledge of the experience of stuttering, even if it is not explicitly talked about every session. About 15 years ago I had speech therapy that was very effective for me - probably my first experience with lasting improvement in speech therapy. My clinician, and I'll mention her by name because I think she is terrific, was Trisha Krauss-Lehrman. I think she was so effective, not because of her knowledge of the mechanics, all clinicians should have that, but because I knew that she really "got" stuttering, and that she knew that what I'm sure looked like it should be easy was in fact very difficult. She had an awareness of the various factors that were obstacles to getting better. Which is true of most things - at some level losing weight is a matter of eating less and exercising more, which sounds very simple, but as most of us know can be very difficult to actually implement on a daily basis.
This is probably a long-winded answer, but to summarize, I think the best way to be supportive is simply to be willing to listen.
John