People who stutter (PWS) develop fear and avoidance habits. Unless we know how to help a pws with reducing fear and anxiety, we are not providing holistic therapy. An embarrassing moment of stuttering or avoiding talking is "stored to the hard drive"- it is consolidated, and it can be reconsolidated later. You can actually feel an old memory in your soma! As Starkweather and Givens write, stuttering is a variant of PTSD (see below). Anxiety and fear is the biggest obstacle for pws and graduate programs don't train students in CBT. Time-Line therapy is special sauce in providing CBT for pws. Disclosure and acceptance are essential but they take a long time. What if you could run an antivirus scan in your brain and quarantine files of toxic memories, beliefs, and malware thoughts? Caveat: as the wikipedia article states, you must be skilled in the delivery of this therapy.

Links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traumatic_memories#:~:text=Traumatic%20memories%20are%20formed%20after,hours%20after%20the%20initial%20experience.

https://www.stuttering-specialist.com/post/stuttering-as-a-variant-of-post-traumatic-stress-disorder

Books:

Time Line Therapy and The Basis of Personality. James and Woodsmall

Adventures with Time Lines. Bodenhamer & Hall

SSMP Progam: Dorvan Breitenfeldt, PhD is Joined by 5 SLPs

Stuttering Solutions AtlantaBy Tim MackeseyApr 11, 2024