Advice for new clinicians
Hi everyone! My friend and I are graduate students in speech-language pathology, and we have enjoyed reviewing the resources here and reading the stories of people who stutter. We were wondering if you have any advice for new clinicians on how to build their own confidence in working with clients who stutter (e.g. using pseudostuttering in therapy, etc.). Thank you!
Hello! Thank you so much for asking this question to the professional panel. I LOVE this question as you and your friend have already shown so much care and empathy towards your future individuals in the therapy room by asking!
I truly feel that I did not fully know how to treat people who stutter beyond the textbook and graduate course until I immersed myself in the stuttering community. I started to LISTEN. Anytime a person who stutters shares their journey with you, treat it like gold- just like you would when a close friend shares their deepest life journey stories with you. Your story as an SLP is like a tree: the textbook and graduate school experience are the roots, and the clinical/experience that you gain is the trunk of the tree, the branches and the leaves. You cannot be an SLP without your education and the roots- and this does SO MUCH for you. But your experience is ever-evolving. I am learning new things all the time. I am almost 12 years into clinical practice, and even just last week, being a specialist in stuttering therapy, changed the way I do something. We are always learning, always growing, and always soaking it in as we go along in this field- isn’t that fun? So, my advice to build confidence in the area of treating people who stutter would be to listen to their stories, get involved, and learn. See.. you are already starting to do that! Take care, and be a world changer!