We talk a lot about “good therapy” and “bad therapy” in the stuttering world. Speech therapy for people who stutter has a long, storied history of doing more harm than good, even when the therapist has the best of intentions. From the infamous Monster Study to “speech correctionism” to rigid approaches to fluency shaping to present day cultural and social judgments of disfluency, speech therapy is bursting at the seams with heavy baggage. Researchers and community advocates work in dedicated tandem to correct misconceptions and promote evidence-based perspectives, but it is difficult to revers ..read more

It is increasingly common that small specialty medical and therapy practices are “private pay only”. This can be frustrating and disheartening if you can’t afford the full cost of private pay services, but the only professionals who specialize in your needs don’t take your insurance. Good news: even when a practice is “private pay only”, services are typically eligible for insurance coverage. This works a little differently than “in-network” services. It can require a little more paperwork on your part as the patient, but it can be well worth it to ensure you’re able to access treatment with a ..read more

It’s funny how things come in threes. In the past few weeks, I’ve been invited three times to give presentations on “acceptance-based therapy” for stuttering. This is a general term that doesn’t refer to a specific method, but seems to exist as a concept, based on these requests.  Where is this coming from, exactly? There is a rapid cultural shift occurring in the field of speech therapy, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this applies to other disciplines within health care. We have more people with disabilities entering the field — or perhaps the same number as always, but they are now able ..read more

The holiday season is a series of one reflective prompt after the other. Thanksgiving: what are we grateful for? Winter celebrations: what matters most to us? New Year’s: what are our goals, or what change do we hope to see?  As we moved into the 2021 holiday season, I was particularly struggling with gratitude-oriented prompts, specifically for our line of work at speech IRL. Our work is about growth and change, after all. It can feel invalidating to tell someone that they should just be grateful for whatever struggle they are currently facing. And yet, willingness to be present is a fou ..read more

“So, how has speech stuff been this week?” I was working with a client who stutters, a college student. It was the beginning of the school year, a season of transition and change that can often be accompanied by speech challenges. “Pretty good, actually! I met someone else who stutters in one of my classes, and he recommended this book. It’s called The Stuttering Cure.* He said it helped him a lot. So I started reading it this week and doing some of the things. It’s definitely helping.” He paused. “Have you heard about this book?” My licensed, certified, certificate-of-clinical-competence in s ..read more

As some of the stigma around therapy of all kinds is removed, we’re beginning to discover new attitudes, stressors, or behaviors in ourselves that we may want to address in some therapeutic setting. In identifying some of these for yourself, you may have come to learn about “communication anxiety” and “communication anxiety therapy” — but what does that mean? Here, our clinician Michelle answers some of the most popular questions surrounding communication anxiety therapy, and how you can determine if this course is right for you. What is “communication anxiety therapy”? Is this a kind of speec ..read more

by Amina Dreessen, CF-SLP “If you have come here to help me, you are wasting our time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” – Lila Watson Over the last two years, I completed my master’s degree in Speech Language Pathology. While my master’s program was incredibly rigorous and taught me many important things about speech and language, I found myself noticing by the end of it that we had failed to learn the most important thing of all: that being a good clinician is as much about helping yourself as it is about helping others.  Per ..read more

speech IRL is unwaveringly dedicated to the clients we serve, and to implementing their uniqueness and individuality as the foundation for how we assist them in their communicative journeys. Amina Dreessen is especially dedicated to this ideal. A Social Communication Therapist for speech IRL, Amina takes a particular interest in enhancing the expressive abilities of autistic individuals, a passion she attributes to her brother. After witnessing the range of therapists who assisted him with his communication needs, Amina’s own fire was sparked. As she got older, this original inspiration was st ..read more

All of the important things I’ve come to know about speech therapy I learned through my clients. Today’s story is about the therapeutic power of listening.  ----- One of my most impactful client-teachers was a man with a TBI (traumatic brain injury). He was a very successful professional, decorated with awards of recognition in his industry. He had sustained an workplace injury and was diagnosed with a "mild" TBI. One year out, he was still experiencing difficulty with memory, sensory processing, neurogenic stuttering, and attention fatigue. Formerly a confident and accomplished public sp ..read more

Stuttering most often begins in early childhood, during the preschool years. Studies typically define this as between the ages of two and five years old. While it can be alarming when a young child begins to struggle with speaking, most people know that this is relatively common among young children. Next steps are easy to figure out: talk to your doctor, consult a speech-language pathologist. In most cases, children will naturally recover without the need for therapy.  But what if a person starts to stutter when they are twelve? Fifteen? Nineteen? What’s that about? Stuttering doesn’t ju ..read more