Relatability, Empathy, and Encouragement
Hi, my name is Taylor and I am a second year speech-language pathology graduate student. Throughout my college education journey, I have learned quite a bit about stuttering and worked with a variety of clients. I feel one of my strong suits is the way I am able to build rapport with my clients. I love being a positive person in their lives and I love being able to relate and empathize with them through speech therapy. However, I have found myself struggling with building rapport with my fluency clients. How can I as a future SLP, build rapport and show empathy to a fluency client without diminishing the clients personal struggle? I want my clients to feel safe, valued, respected, and heard. Also, what are some examples of positive feedback/encouragement you give to your fluency clients during therapy? I am always looking for meaningful things to say other than the typical “good job” or “I like how you did _____.”
Hi Taylor,
You are on the right track in asking this question since a huge variable in the progress a client makes has to do with the therapeutic alliance that exists between the client and therapist. I would say that the first thing you can do is make your therapy sessions a safe space for your clients to speak however they want to speak and to say whatever is on their minds or in their hearts. So being a good and empathetic listener is of the utmost importance. Letting them know that their stuttering doesn’t bother you or make you uncomfortable, both by what you say and by your nonverbal communication will help them be more comfortable with you. Finding out what it is about their speech that bothers them the most and what THEY want to work on can go a long way toward building a relationship. Also, letting your clients know that they will have a lot of input about the direction of therapy is key…we call this client driven therapy. And finally, realizing that there are many things to reinforce your clients for in therapy that may have nothing to do with the mechanics of speech…such as praising them for speaking in a previously avoided situation (“That’s amazing that you went ahead and said what you wanted to say even though you might stutter. That was very brave of you. How did that make you feel when you did that?”) or disclosing to someone that they stutter (“Wow. You told the person interviewing you that you stutter so they wouldn’t be confused or think that you were nervous or didn’t know the material. That’s being your own self-advocate!” This is called descriptive rather than evaluative praise. A great book that deals with this and other helpful topics is called How to Talk so Kids Will Listen and Listen so Kids Will Talk, by Faber and Mazlish.
Hope this is helpful to you.
Best of luck as you go forward with your studies!
Tricia