Counseling and Acceptance for PWS
Hi, my name is Sarah and I am a second year graduate student. I am currently in a stuttering course and have previously worked with an adult client with a stutter. We wanted to help this client work on the fear and anxiety he felt related to his stutter. What practical advice would you give to help ease the anxiety of a PWS or what practical actions could this PWS take to step out of his comfort zone to overcome the stutter-related fear and anxiety?
Hi Sarah,
It is important to find out what the fears are at first and why they are there. If you have analyzed that together it is important to talk about a hierarchy to take the steps. Every person is different and need different steps, some need smaller, some like bigger steps. In the hierarchy you move to the next step as soon as the client feels comfortable doing the step before. If the steps are to big the anxiety might get worse, so it is important to discover together what might work and what might not work.
Manon
Sarah, I believe much fear and anxiety about stuttering comes from feelings that stuttering is “wrong” or “bad” due to negative experiences the person has been through, so a good starting place is generally helping people who stutter understand that stuttering is not their fault, that it’s not due to some personal flaw or laziness or “not trying hard enough.” Stuttering simply is (as with any other chronic condition), and when people release themselves from this guilt (i.e., that they are doing something wrong by stuttering or are inherently “bad” for it), it opens the door to tackle the feared speaking situations and to courageously come out of their comfort zones. I would also encourage you to watch a recent video that was published on positive effects of speech therapy that relate to acceptance and perspective changes: https://youtu.be/l4pddgtEH3g?si=6Seo69NoAtene7I6.