Stuttering & Mindful Meditation
I have done research that says mindful meditation can be used to manage stuttering. Is it true that these exercises are effective, and are they used by speech pathologists today?
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Stuttering & Mindful Meditation — 3 Comments
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Hi Julia! Oh yea, mindfulness is used in stuttering therapy and is actually so much fun! I am going to divert this one to my colleague Scott Palasik, as he is a mindfulness pro! Do you want to chime in, Scott?
Julia,
HI! Thank you for asking questions and learning more. Mindfulness is a wonderful activity (practice for helping people who stutter. I, along with so many others in our field have been using Mindfulness for several years now. One more recent study was performed by Emge and Pellowski (2018) looked at Incorporating Mindfulness into SLP therapy with People Who Stutter.
If you email me I can send you a bunch of articles myself, Boyle (2011), and Plexico (2011).
My email is: spalasik@uakron.edu.
Anyone reading this can send me an email and I will send them articles too.
To summarize some experiences I have had performing various mindfulness activities for over 12 years with kids, adolescents, and adults. It seems to help individuals find their sense of worth and confidence, which carries over into a confident voice and for many (if not all) living the communication life and existence they wish to lead.
Thanks! Keep asking questions.
With compassion and kindness,
Scott
Hello Julia!
Thank you for your question!
Interesting to know that you have done research on mindful meditation. I would like to know more about this work – and will search for it.
I think there are so many different categories when mindful meditaion and mindfullness-based approaches are concerned – including within stuttering therapy. Depending on the approach, there are several studies and clinical reports to mention. In addition to Boyle (2011) and Plexico & Sandage (2011), Scott Palasik together with some of his colleagues, for example Michise and Hannan, have been an inspiration, and have contributed significantly. Other clinicians and researchers (ex. Beilby et al. 2012, Jane Harley 2015+ 2018, Cheasman et al. 2013+2015, Emge & Pellowski 2019) have done important clinical work and/or research as well.
I do believe that mindfullness-based approaches can contribute to the stuttering field in many positive ways. Anyhow, I think we have to be aware of, and define more properly, is what we mean by mindfulness, especially when we are running research projects. You, Julia, introduce mindful meditation here. For me, my mindfulness-based work in relation to stuttering is not integrating the meditative component. Hence, I use awareness-based components to improve awareness in different ways and for different purposes. For several years I have been combining awareness-based elements with stuttering and speech modification interventions in my practice, and one study is recently published: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0021992420301209. In this study, we combines value and awareness-based elements from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) with those of stuttering and speech modification interventions. If you find time, you are welcome to read this article. Here we have collected information of previous work on mindfulness-based approaches related to stuttering therapy.
Thank you, and best wishes from
Hilda