Getting Below The Tip Of The Iceberg
by John Russell

The emotional aspects of stammering, for example, fear and shame, were addressed during this one day workshop presented by Professor Woody Starkweather and Janet Givens of the Birch Tree Foundation in the U.S.A.

Addressing an audience of approximately 60 people (mostly Speech and Language Therapists) at Kings Cross Hospital, Woody Starkweather explained that the aim of the Birch Tree Foundation was to provide support for people who stutter, and to represent people who stutter who have been discriminated at work.

Prior to the workshop, Professor Starkweather explained that he had been a researcher in stuttering, and had concluded that an effective therapy was needed for children who stutter, one that looked at the emotional aspects of it. He then got into training in Gestalt therapy, which took stuttering to be a behaviour. Gestalt therapy was devised by the famous psychotherapist, Fritz Perls in the 1960's. Although there is no English meaning for the word, Gestalt, does anyone have any ideas or inkling as to what it could mean...? [See Janet's description: Webmaster]

In her introduction, Janet explained that her stuttering had been a series of silent blocks. She had been afraid of being discovered as a stutterer and tried to come across as a fluent speaker when she was on the telephone.

Being introduced to Gestalt therapy helped her to become more honest with herself, and being able to share experiences in a group environment, made it easier for her to accept her stuttering difficulty. We then split into two groups with the Speech Therapists acting as the audience, as a group of stammerers (myself included) got into a group discussion with Woody and Janet. Each one had to describe our stammers in terms of a picture, and to talk about our emotions towards that picture.

One person described their stammer in terms of being out in a thunderstorm, whilst someone else said that their picture was of their stammer as being like a coiled spring pressed down inside them. I described my stammer as being like a glass wall, preventing me from speaking.

We then had an exercise where we sat opposite another chair and imagined that our stammer was occupying it. What things would you say to it? Conversely, if your stammer could reply to you, what would it say?

I found this a powerful exercise because the emotions associated with stammering can be quite profound, and if you can view your stammer in this way, or from a different context, your feelings towards your stammer will change.

After lunch, I facilitated a group of therapists who were asked to get in touch with the child inside them, by writing a letter to themselves, when they were children. The idea was to re-create your emotions about particular episodes in their lives, and when they had been expressed, the feelings towards them would be different.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent examining in more detail exactly how people felt about their stammers, and this time, the therapists were called upon (under the eye of both Janet and Woody) to help people explain exactly how they felt about their stammer. One lady said that she saw herself a champion avoider, and consequently wasn't being true to herself.

Overall, the day was very positive and informative. From my own viewpoint, I felt it gave another perspective to view your stammer from, and having taken part in the role play discussions, I now feel very different about my stammer, in terms of not being so critical of myself.

Sincere thanks should go to Woody and Janet for facilitating an enjoyable day's workshop, to the staff at the Michael Palin Centre for providing the refreshments, and a personal thankyou to Isobel O'Leary, (Sheffield SLT), for helping me to describe my feelings at being behind a glass wall, and unable to communicate.

From the Autumn 2001 edition of Speaking Out