What does stuttering affirming therapy look like?
Back in 2005 at the age of 31 years old this was my first experience of stuttering affirming therapy with Dublin Adult Stuttering and then again in 2022 with ARTS®.
What was different about this therapy to previous speech therapy was there was no effort to suppress my stuttering. This doesn’t mean taking a “do nothing approach” as often leveled at affirming stuttering therapy.
In fact ARTS® is about action, doing planned assignments moving through the therapy, getting to a stage where you end up doing less as the process of the therapy is concerned with doing less.
It’s important to state the belief that stuttering affirming therapy such as ARTS® is steadfast in the belief that “the person who stutters is not broken and does not need to be fixed and instead of managing stuttering with techniques, ARTS® eliminate efforts past and present, used to manage and control stuttering” What does this look like?
Step 1: Understanding disfluency (prolongations, repetitions) and struggle (everything else we do to escape moments of stuttering including negative thoughts & feelings). This is an exploration of what we do, what is our stuttering pattern, our thoughts and feelings, and our hopes and dreams.
Step 2: Increasing efficiency and comfort Monitoring escape & avoidance tactics Focusing on open stuttering, getting used to that loss of control and the reactivity that can happen when you try to pull it back and control it. Letting go of the tension leading to spontaneous disfluency.
Step 3: Confidence, spontaneity, identity acceptance, congruence This Step is all about Embracing identity as a stutterer Self-disclosure Planning to stutter, enacting the role of a stutterer and given permission for people to feel whatever they feel and for you to feel whatever you feel. Being truly authentic.
Step 4: Change by doing!!, taking initiative 3 planned assignments a day, doesn’t sound much but it is!!The lifestyle of ARTS® is Action, Support, Semantics, Problem solving and Assignments the perfect recipe for change.
Source Material: Avoidance Reduction Therapy for Stuttering (ARTS®) Vivian Sisskin #ARTS®
By: Stephen Greene: @the_stutterverse
