"Counseling is a major part of stuttering therapy. At first, I felt that this 'talk therapy' wasn't speech therapy and that I wasn't really working on the client's stuttering. I came to find out that the 'cognitive-emotive' therapy plays a role equal in importance to the speech goals. In the beginning, I felt I was 'just talking' to their client. But you, and the client, gain valuable insights into the way the client experiences stuttering. We worked to 'reframe' the way he thought about his disfluencies, which proved to be most helpful for him."

" It took me a while to pick up on the subtleties of my client's stuttering, particularly because the severity of his overt symptoms was so mild. He tried to hide his stuttering too; at first I didn't know that. He also avoided words he was afraid he'd stutter on and used other words instead. In group I saw other clients who stuttered only once or twice per session. Each person who stutters in a different way. If your are expecting each disfluency to be a 'significant event', that may be your first surprise in working with this disorder."

"My client had difficulty figuring out how he felt about his stuttering because he was in such strong denial. He didn't seem to be objectively aware of his overt symptoms. This was really amazing to me in light of the severity of his stuttering."

"When I started out, I was real reluctant to interrupt my client in the middle his stuttering to give him directions, reminders and cues. I learned later that this was part of my job as his clinician. He later said that he was appreciative of my guidance at those difficult times and relieved to be given permission to stop struggling and start over."