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‘Your patience and knowledge was just a miracle for our son!’

May 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment

We’ve added some recent testimonials to the site – we hope you’ll enjoy reading the successes patients and participants in Dynamic Stuttering Therapy have achieved. We’re very proud of each of them and what they have accomplished.

Hi Barbara,

Since we the last session, I must say that there has been a definite change in the way Josh speaks.  I can’t tell you the change that has occurred.  It seems like he really has just GOT IT.  He has control of his speech and it has lasted well over a week.  This is the longest that a notable change has been observed. Last night, he had 30 minute telephone conversation with his friend – absoultely beautiful speech.

I suppose I was waiting for the fall before emailing you again for another session.  Maybe we won’t need any more – a very unusual concept in this household as Josh has needed speech therapy since he was 6 and he has just turned 14 years old.

We have really not needed to remind him to use any technique, he self corrects – this approach to his speech works.  At times, I can see Josh working at using the strategies he has learnt from you – it works  …. IT WORKS.  He practices the strategies all the time – using it at all times – he has control – he feels in control.

Last December, I searched for an approach to Josh’s speech that would work for him – he had all the ingredients for success – interest, focus and dedication – but he needed a brilliant therapist and approach.  You are unique – the long search for an approach to fluent speech that worked was worth it.

Barbara, apart from the approach to speech, it was the discussions you had with Josh about the way he feels, linking this with his speech and ability to take a different perspective on board that was also integral to the improvement.

And can I also say that Josh not only enjoyed the skype sessions, but felt respected and liked by you – so thank you for the whole package.

Forever grateful,

Ellen

 

Dear Barbara,

This letter is past due.  I’m sorry it took so long but my husband and I, wanted to personally thank-you for the unbelievable work you put into our son, Avromie.  Before we started treatments with you, we thought it would be just another try, and another large sum of money, going to waste.  At our first visit, we were able to see how your idea and way of treatment just made so much sense!!  Your patience and KNOWLEDGE was just a miracle for our son!!  When our son does practice your techniques, it’s like, (as my husband put it), as if he swallowed some sort of pill!!  Thanks again of everything.

 

Hi Barbara,

Here’s as promised, a review of the therapy:

I have been trough the online stutter therapy,

I had my first sessions for some months ago.

I chose the online therapy because, first of all it was avialable for me - it is available for everyone who has internet.

And the online stutter therapy is very diiferent from other therapies.

What I learned was that my “stutter” (we are thought in the therapy to not use the word stutter) was affected from the major areas: 1) positive thinking and feelings towards my language

2) Fosucing on my vocal chords

3) Speeking in syllables

And also, I learned that my stutter is an old habit, from producing controlled language, in the wrong way.

The goal with the online stutter therapy is a fluent, enjoyable way of speaking.

And after 5 months of therapy I feel that being very much more the case than before, and I recommend this therapy to everyone. Just make sure you have the time for it first. If it is your goal to become fluent, and you have time for it, then I suggest this approach.

Friendly regards,

Oliver

 

Dear Barbara,

I need to tell you how valuable the Dynamic Stuttering Therapy program is to my students. Your approach gives students a “new” way of speaking which they can embrace and share with their families. Being in the public schools it’s often difficult scheduling students but I find my students seek out additional time to work on their speech, because of the program’s “user friendly” units/ goals. Thank you for clearly stating the goals and objectives and providing so many appropriate techniques.  Your program has been extremely helpful to not only the stutterer but to families. Thank you.

Susan Abrahamson CCC/SLP

 

(translated from the original Hebrew testimonial)

Hi Barbara,

First of all, thank you for the online session we had. I really enjoyed talking to you and of course reviewing the natural and normal way of speaking that disappeared from me for some time. The session was very successful and I got a lot out of it. I learned a lot about myself and about the way to speak.

I understand the (treatment) approach at CTI. I know that this approach is the right one and most important the natural method of speaking.

I’m happy to share with you and help you understand the person who stutters. Even though I have always stuttered mildly, I suffered from a lack of confidence in some situations when I had to talk or express my opinions. That was certainly very frustrating and caused me discomfort and not a few times bitter disappointment.

It is absurd to say that the normal way of speaking is the natural and easy way that little children speak, without any control or “filter”. It is just speaking without thinking about how to speak; speaking the way nature meant for us to speak. As a person who stutters mildly, I absolutely know that most people who stutter monitor their speech and plan what they are going to say. This is what disrupts the speech and makes it sound unnatural, causes prolongations, ends in blocks and causes certain words and sounds to get stuck. And it’s terribly, terribly frustrating for some one who has stuttered that unfortunately people who stutter still carry have a negative stigma. The secret is to speak without any monitoring, without filters, without preparing. Simply… talk automatically so that there is a natural coordination between the brain and the whole speech system!

I still think that it is not so easy to get rid of the habit of focusing on words and doing all sorts of preparations to speak, such as changing words, prolonging words. It is really difficult for someone who has used the wrong process for speaking for many years to give up old habits and get used to speaking naturally. Making this change is not easy or simple for everyone, but it is possible and it is the only way to speak naturally without stuttering!! Practicing internal speech (speaking silently in the head) is really worthwhile. (That was what was missing for me all these years!!)

So thank you very much for helping me get back my confidence in speaking. Already, during the past few days since our session, I have felt an improvement. This is the right approach!! A great approach!!! It is the approach that gets to the source of the problem instead of the syndrome and shaping the speech.

If you would like, I would be happy to send you heartfelt recommendations so that everyone will see and will learn the importance of realizing that this is the approach that can save everyone from the problem of stuttering.

 

Hi Mrs. Dahm,

That hope that you have been well. I’m afraid that I have the bad habit that when I don’t respond to an e-mail right away I get busy with other things and manage to forget about it completely… Anyways, here’s my update. I have overall been relatively pleased with the progress that I have made toward consistently speaking correctly. I would say that one particularly positive point has been my attitude toward speaking situations in general.

I have gotten to the point where I really don’t worry about any speaking situations any more. I gave an approximately 10 minute speech at my brother’s wedding, in front of a few hundred people, and I was not nervous about stuttering beforehand. No doubt related to that fact, I spoke correctly pretty much the whole time and therefore was able to speak fluently. There was a long time when I would have probably declined that opportunity to speak for fear of stuttering, and if I had done it I would have worried so much and tried so hard to speak fluently that I would have spoken incorrectly and therefore stuttered a lot.

In general, I have been making progress toward speaking correctly more of the time. I still sometimes slip back into my old way of speaking, trying to use my mouth too much to shape and force out my words. I think that I’m usually pretty good about noticing when I’m doing that and then going back to speaking correctly. I’m still working on making the correct way of speaking more habitual. I hope that you have been well. I’ll keep you posted about how things go in the future.

All the best,

Daniel

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Whose Fault, part II

September 19, 2010 By 1 Comment

In part 1 of Whose Fault, I said that a major cause for the failure of stuttering treatment is a lack of knowledge of how to treat it. That is pretty amazing in the 21st century when so many advances have been made in the treatment of very complicated diseases, and innovative behavioral programs are abundant and often very successful. Our knowledge of biology, physiology, neurology, genetics, physics, and even human behavior has taken giant steps. However, mainstream stuttering therapy has remained pretty much the same, albeit with some refinements, for the past 80 years. We have learned a lot about the nature of stuttering from clinical observations and research, but this knowledge has not been incorporated in how stuttering is treated.

This leads me to what I believe is another major cause for the failure of treatment. There is a tendency on the part of professionals to become so rooted in a treatment approach or a theoretical belief about stuttering that they do not apply research findings and knowledge to treatment. Their prejudices and emotional investment in their work block them from being open to new ideas.

I recently searched for a title for a seminar that I will be presenting to clinicians. I chose Treating Stuttering With Confidence: A New and Logical Approach. “New” that word should no longer be appropriate. It has been almost 20 years since I gave my 1st presentation in Oxford, England in which I said that stuttering can be explained and treated through an understanding of the process of speaking. The presentation was well accepted, even though we still had so much to learn about the differences in brain function and motor processing of people who speak fluently and those who stutter. In spite of the initial enthusiasm of my colleagues, as the research backed my theories and as the clear-cut cause and effect relationship between internal processes used to produce speech and the fluency of the speech became apparent, I saw a growing resistance from my colleagues.

Interestingly, I found a correlation between clients, including young children, telling me this approach to therapy “rocks” and that Dynamic Stuttering Therapy is the most logical therapy they have ever had, and professionals telling me they don’t understand what I’m getting at or just being too busy to review my materials. I do not take this resistance personally, because I don’t think that it is related specifically to the approach or to me. I do think that the inability to change perspective stems from a very human condition – resistance to change.

While understandable, professionals are at fault for not overcoming this resistance. We ask our clients to put their feelings and beliefs into perspective and overcome their fear of the unknown. It is also our responsibility to do this. The time has come to let go of the arguments of whether clients should work on fluency or accept stuttering. Calling fluency the “f-word” as I have heard fluency experts do is not helpful. It is demagogic. The affiliation by professionals with a theoretical camp should to be abandoned. All voices should be heard and minds should be open. Professionals need to work together. We need to brainstorm. We need to put our heads together to make sense of stuttering and to insure that clients do not suffer disappointment from our efforts to treat them.

Some people who stutter that have had disappointing and frustrating therapy experiences are angry with clinicians in general. They think that clinicians are taking advantage of them and don’t care about them. In all my contacts with my colleagues, I have not seen that this is the case. I see that clinicians are concerned with their clients’ wellbeing and believe they are helping people by sticking to their belief. Nevertheless, the lack of progress and being closed to new ideas is hurting these clients who we care about. We, as professionals, owe it to our clients to make therapy the most rewarding experience possible. If not, it is our fault.

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Chasing Fluency

February 21, 2010 By 1 Comment

Desire of people who stutter: Becoming fluent

Reason for continuing to stutter: Trying to become fluent

So many people who stutter go to therapy to fulfill their desire to become a fluent speaker, only to be disappointed when it doesn’t happen. They try and they try, and the more they try, the more they become frustrated. The consequence is either giving up on their hope of ever speaking without stuttering or continuing to search in vain for the magic cure that will get rid of their stuttering.

I don’t believe there are any magic cures, but I do know that people who stutter can speak fluently. I also know that people who stutter will never speak with normal fluency by trying to speak fluently. As a matter of fact, trying to be fluent is very counterproductive, because it usually makes the person more aware of words (a good way to make stuttering happen), and putting in more effort to try to get them out (adding control to what must be an automatic process).

It’s hard for people who stutter to grasp that there is a way that they can create fluent speech without chasing after fluency. Perhaps that is why the hardest challenge of Dynamic Stuttering Therapy is to keep clients focused on the internal processes of creating speech when all the really want is the outcome-fluent speech. In Dynamic Stuttering Therapy, fluency is never the criteria of success. Nevertheless, when the person creates speech in the normal way, the effortless outcome is fluent speech.

As I write this, I am watching the Winter Olympics. I see sportsman after sportswoman focused on their process for their sport as they go for the gold. I think this is a good example of how to achieve success in therapy.

Desire of people who stutter: Becoming fluent

Reason speech is fluent: Focus is on the inner processes of creating speech

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It’s time for a new theory on stuttering therapy

February 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment

This week I am traveling to Tampa, Fla., to the ASHA Special Interest Division in Fluency Disorders 2010 Leadership and Clinical Conference. The title of the conference is “Unique Challenges and Common Themes in Stuttering Assessment, Treatment, and Research”. I am very much looking forward to this conference, because I believe that the time has come for everyone interested in advancing the treatment for stuttering to work together at developing a unified scientific theory.

This conference will be a gathering of clinicians who are concerned with delivering effective therapy to their clients, researchers who want to find answers to the many questions about stuttering, and professors who want to pass on correct knowledge to their students. The Stuttering Foundation of America and National Stuttering Association, two organizations that represent consumers who want and deserve improved treatment will also be lending their support. It should be an ideal forum for exploring new ideas, observations, and findings. A realistic outcome will be the ability of all to look beyond the same ideas and treatment approaches that have been discussed over and over in the past and to find the best direction for advancing the field.

I am planning to do my part as part of a roundtable discussion. As all my readers know, I will be presenting a theory and treatment approach that is different from what most of my colleagues follow. This is not the 1st conference in which I will be sharing my views. I first presented my seminal theory at a conference in Oxford England in 1993. The reaction I received there and at seminars and conferences that followed was extremely positive. However, my clients who tell me that Dynamic Stuttering Therapy is the most logical therapy that they have experienced don’t understand why other clinicians do not use this treatment approach. Perhaps the late Hugo Gregory was correct in 1993 when he told me that my ideas would not be accepted in our lifetime. Apparently new ideas do trickle slowly into the collective consciousness. That is why I am pleased for the opportunity to share my experiences, learn more about the latest research findings and insights from my colleagues as we brainstorm together with an open mind. By doing this, we should be able to make this a successful conference. I’ll give you my impressions when I return.

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Letting Go Is Essential

December 21, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I’ve been talking a lot about control lately. It’s a really important subject when it comes to treating stuttering. Learning how to speak without control is really not very difficult to do. The process of speaking automatically is not complicated. There is so much less to do and think about than when creating stuttered speech. The speech is flowing and expressive. But the hardest thing for clients to do is to accept that speaking fluently requires giving up control.

For some people who stutter control has become so intertwined with talking that to give it up seems very strange. They believe that it is normal to think of what words you are going to say and how to form the sounds. They can’t imagine not doing that when they talk (even though they don’t do it when they are talking to themselves). Other people use control as a crutch. They know how to speak without control, but they are afraid to let go.

Actually the more people try not to stutter, the more control they exert over their speech. That is why chasing fluency has always been a no win battle. When people who stutter give up their fear of stuttering and any negative feelings that they have toward themselves because they stutter, they are often more open to giving up control. Speaking fluently requires using the normal automatic processes of producing speech. Giving up control is essential.

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