ACT and Stuttering: The begining of Acceptance with letting go of "experiencial control"

Submitted by scottpalasik on February 13, 2009 - 7:32am
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I've just started reading Luama, Hayes, & Walser (2007) and from what I've read so far about experiencial control and acceptance, it sounds like you need to let go of idea that our experiences control our behaviors. This is the first step to a path of acceptance.

As it pertains to stuttering, I'll get personal here for a moment, I need to let go of the idea that I don't have to use some old techniques in personal discussion, but need to be fluent as hell when I talk in front of an audiance (e.g., teach a class, give a presentation, or talk in a lab group). It seems that for me, and possibly other people who stutter, this idea of being "hopeless", as Luama and crew call it, is being hopeless in the sense that we need to surrender the constant "fight" against stuttering and embrace it, but embrace it ALL parts of our lives and not just chosen ones. For it we are picking and choicing, it will creap into the areas that we think it won't dare enter.

We as stutterers tend to live in the past and dwell with a lot negative emotions on those past experiences. Anger, pain, depression, and frustrations are common foes and friends in our lives (they play the paradox of our existance, not much different than the paradox of "I want to talk, but I don't want to stutter.").

More as I keep learning ACT!

Comments

After thought on control, paradox, and stuttering...

Submitted by scottpalasik on February 13, 2009 - 1:21pm.

I was just reading Luoma and came across this thought with respect to the control paradox "If you aren't willing to stutter, you will always try and control stuttering." -- inspired by p. 37 in Luoma et al. (2007).

ACT model of stuttering

Submitted by higuera on February 18, 2009 - 4:06am.

I have worked since long time ago with stutterers and, for me, ACT has been a great contribution to the stuttering understanding and treatment.
The origin and cause of stuttering are controversial (genetic, physiological, psychological, etc.). ACT provides a model of its maintenance, that may be explained based in hexaflex.
1. There exists a fusion with an automatic thought, which start every morning and stay along the whole day. It advises of the probability of blocking along this a period more or less long. It is based in a general feeling of a blocking probability that the stutterer indentifies. When the probability felt is high, the fight to reach fluency starts, for instance, increasing tension and speed to utter, looking for appropriate words, etc. And it is this fight that increases blocking appearance probability.
2. When the fear to utter a certain word appears, the fight becomes terrible. And efforts to avoid trigger it without any possibility to avoid it. Stutterers live with a great emotion this lack of control.
3. Blocking itself, normally, is completely unknown, because it is mixed with fight against it and with a great emotion. Stutterers direct their attention to avoid next block or to remember that he had been fluent with this particular word in preceding occasions.
4. Stutterer’s values are changed. One of their more important is to communicate with other people, but their search of fluency impedes it, and fluency becomes their more important aspect of their speech.
5. A characteristic of stutterer’s speech is impulsivity, and another is perfectionism understood as doing many things very quickly. This aspects applied to speech are devastating.
6. For them, being a stutterer is the worse social characteristic of their self. They are fused with this content, ignoring stuttering, hiding it socially, and with a terrible sense of unavoidability.
Of course, ACT provides powerful tools to overcome stuttering and, overall, its consequences. In addition, analysis of behaviors in stuttering, for me, has been very clarifying of many aspects of ACT.
I hope we may share with ACT people our experience in working with stutterers. I have proposed a workshop in next world conference with this aim.

Stuttering

Submitted by Pete on February 25, 2009 - 4:35pm.

As a Therapy Intern who is interested in ACT therapy and who also stutters, obviously I was drawn to your post. I'm still learning ACT but I have already used it to help my clients who are veterans with substance abuse problems. I wanted to thank you for this information and I am very interested in hearing about any research involving ACT and stuttering that is (or has been) done.

Great to here from you!

Submitted by scottpalasik on February 25, 2009 - 5:09pm.

Pete,
Thanks for writing! I'm very excited to talk to you (with many questions). What are you studying? Where are you in your program of studies? You said you are interning, so are you at the end of your academics? Just interested in who you are.

As you've probably read from Jose's writing, he has a book that he wrote in, over in Spain, however there hasn't been much done (if anything that I know of ) here in the states with ACT and stuttering. Who knows, maybe us three can start a new Stuttering Program here in the states that is ACT centered.

Like you, I'm pretty new to ACT. I'm reading Luoma et al.(2007) and getting a ton from it, along with being in an ACT Psychology Lab group here at Bowling Green State University. The lab is great and the students and advisor are very helpful and seem very knowledgeable about ACT, so I've learned plenty from them.

Just wanted to reach back out to you! STay in touch!
always,
Scott

"If there was nothing wrong there'd be nothing right"
---Shine Down---

Great to hear from you too

Submitted by Pete on February 26, 2009 - 11:20am.

I graduated from Chapman University in California with my MA in Marriage and Family Therapy. I am currently working on my internship hours and I'm hoping to be licensed next year. I work at a transitional housing facility that supports homeless veterans with substance abuse problems. It is very fulfilling work and I get a lot out of it since I am a veteran of the military myself. I would like to work with Iraq War veterans and their families with PTSD issues using an ACT therapeutic process because the process was very silimar to the way I had dealt with my own problems in my life before I had ever heard of ACT.

I've read about ACT and I have used some of the fundamentals of ACT with my clients and have gotten good results from it, but I'd be lying if I said I really know about it. I wish there was a mentoring program so I could have a mentor to help me understand the therapeutic process better than I do. I often feel like I should know more about it than I really do. Hopefully, I'll find such a mentor someday.

Thanks a lot for your reply and your support.

Pete

ACT mentor... Great thought!

Submitted by scottpalasik on February 27, 2009 - 7:03am.

Pete,

Congrats on graduating from Chapman University along with being in an internship that you find rewarding. You can't much more out of life than finding a job you not only enjoy but get an emotional reward from. That is great.

Do you know anyone out there who does much ACT work? Maybe at another university? What books or resources have you read on ACT? I'm currently reading Luoma et al.(2007) and find it extremely well written with examples and different techniques that you can do with clients. If you haven't read that book, you might want to check it out.

Learning is a constant process Pete. As fellow person who stutters, I learn everyday about myself and how I view stuttering. It can be a moment to moment thought or a day dreaming analysis.

Great to talk to you(well write). Have a great day!

Scott
"If there was nothing wrong there'd be nothing right"
---Shine Down---

Hi Higuera

Submitted by scottpalasik on February 22, 2009 - 4:53pm.

Hi! Great to hear from you and thanks for your thoughts.

You seem to know a lot about stuttering and you said you proposed a workshop in the next world conference? Is that proposal specifically for "stuttering?" I'm a doctoral student (third year) at Bowling Green State University specializing in "stuttering" along with being a Speech Pathologist for almost 10 years. My current research is with Implicit Association Tests but I'd like to incorporate ACT into my clinical work as well as some research (some day after graduate school). Are you a researcher? Is so what field? Just wondering.

I agree with all you said, especially the emotional battle of "blocking." This is one of the focuses I'd like to eventually look further into myself (personally and professionally) to see how this may connect with increasing perceptions of a clients sense of honesty and using ACT. Just my first thoughts as a novice to ACT.

Thanks for taking the time to reach out and share your thoughts. Very much appreciated!
Have a great day!
Scott

Hi Scott

Submitted by higuera on February 23, 2009 - 3:20am.

I am a psychologist (PhD) in private practice in Madrid (Spain).
My interest in stuttering comes from my contact with a book of Van Riper: “The treatment of stuttering” (1973) at the beginnings of my practical training. Since then, I have worked with a certain quantity of stutterers applying Van Riper’s ideas. When I had taken contact with ACT I found a very interesting advance in the same direction. I wrote a book about (in Spanish): Psychological Treatment in stuttering: from Van Riper to ACT.
The workshop is entitled “An ACT model of stuttering” and it will be directed to develop ideas I summarize in my replay to your post. For me, application of ACT to stuttering has been very illustrative and clarifying of ACT processes and methods; and conclusions from there may be applied to many other psychological problems.
Finally, ACBS has admitted the workshop and I hope to meet with other interested people to share our experiences. I hope you could attend; your personal experience would be invaluable.
Best Regards,
José Antonio

An Act Model of Stuttering

Submitted by scottpalasik on February 23, 2009 - 9:52am.

Jose,

First, I'm sorry I got your name wrong in my first message. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Wow! You live in Spain! I've never been, but I hope to some day. I love the premise of your book "From Van Riper to ACT." Do you think they have an English translation version? I'll have to look for the book online. Funny, I was actually thinking about turning ACT into an entire therapy program (after my PhD is completed in the next year and half) and someday writing a book about it. You have inspired me even more! If I can't find an English version of your book maybe I will pick up my Spanish again and see if I can get through it that way ( I took Spanish years ago, so I'm a lot rusty).

Thanks so much for sharing your experiences. I'll have to look up the ACBS and find out where it is and see if I can attend. With money being tight (being in doctoral school right now and all) I'm not sure it's possible, but I would love to go someday.

I truly hope our paths cross, in person, one day. For now, I'm glad to share any thoughts I have with you via email and messages here and continue to enjoy your ideas and perspective about stuttering and ACT. Thanks for the inspiration!

Have a great day!
Scott