An update to a previous post:
If you asked me a year ago, I would've said, "I'm never going to work with someone who stutters. It's not my thing."
I don't know why. I just thought stuttering was so rare and so difficult to treat. No one even knows the definite cause of it! I would just do my best to steer clear of that population--at least that's how I justified not paying attention during Fluency lectures.
Of course, one of my first clients ever would be a girl who stutters. She began in October, and had been coming weekly for the past 8 months.
One day in May, she told me she had stopped stuttering, because she had been "practicing TOO much." As her speech therapist of little faith, we made a bet. If she did not stutter for the entire 30 minute session, I owed her a donut. Amazingly, she only stuttered one time (which I pretended not to hear), and she requested her favorite donut (glazed) from her favorite donut shop of all time (Stan's Donut Shop in Santa Clara).
When I brought the donut a couple weeks later, I explained that it also meant that she didn't need to come to therapy anymore. She replied, "That's a good thing and a bad thing." "Why's it a bad thing?" I asked. "Cuz...you know..." Being too cool, she could not say it. She got a little teary, which made me teary, and we were both silent for a few seconds. "'Cuz you have fun here? Me too. I'm really gonna miss you, K."
I'm amazed that she stopped stuttering, but I'm even more amazed at the depth of our relationship. It surprised me how much I cared for her, but I think she knew. I truly believe love is at the heart of all healing. And it was the perfect reminder that God is God of my work too.
