Therapy experience
Hi everyone! I’m Tatiana Hunter and I’m a second year speech-pathology graduate student. I’m curious to know, what aspects of your experience with stuttering do you feel are most often overlooked in therapy, and how do you believe those insights could help shape more effective support for you and others?
Hi Tatiana,
I think something that is overlooked in the therapy is what else is going on in that person’s life. In my college speech therapy sessions, my SLPs made it a point for me to talk about what else I had going on before we talked about stuttering. That helped me focus on the task at hand.
Hi Tatiana
Earlier focus was on the mechanics of stuttering, and on fluency. Today it’s about acceptance. But one size does NOT fit all. So I’d like to see less pre-prepared therapy and more starting with listening and asking questions, to get to know the client, its background, its culture, its “luggage”, and from there offer a smörgåsbord with different things to try, even out of the box. This can be all from speech training to refer to relaxation, mindfulness, NLP, speaking circles, theatre, art, presentation techniques, yoga, swimming, singing, and maybe even a combination.
I’ve tried most things out there. Even hypnosis, carrying pyrit (stone) in my pocket, whispering, you name it. 😉 But what suits me the most is what comes as close to my regular speech, and my personality. So for me that’s pausing and making shorter sentences, a slightly slower speech, slightly more articulating, a slightly lower pitch. But also using body language, courses in presentation techniques, singing, Mindfulness and NLP, self-worth exercises and affirmations, challenging myself (f ex public speaking) and standing up for myself. And also to keep calm and stutter on. As it’s up to me how I chose to speak, and this can vary from moment to moment. And the most important tool for me is acceptance. It’s my safety net. As it’s hard to use techniques all the time. (Don’t give exercises you wouldn’t do, f ex try yourself and speak in 3-4 word sentences for 24 hrs.) Also, to know I’m OK no matter what, and that stuttering doesn’t define me, is a strong base to build upon. Acceptance and Act go nicely together.