The use of mindfulness training for increasing psychological well-being in a variety of clinical and non-clinical populations has exploded over the last decade. In the area of stuttering, it has been widely recognized that effective long-term management often necessitates treatment of cognitive and affective dimensions of the disorder in addition to behavioral components.
What does “mindfulness” mean?
We can be mindful of any state that we find ourselves in. So, just as we can be mindful of being relaxed, we can also be mindful of being angry, stressed, or anxious. To be mindful of something means to pay attention to that, and to be aware that you are paying attention to it. A key aim of mindfulness practice is to train our attention so that we can be fully awake and alert to the present moment and fully open the variety of potential experiences that exist within that moment using all our senses.
How can mindfulness practice influence stuttering?
Mindfulness can help us identify exactly what we do when we stutter.
Mindfulness practice can help us to identify exactly what we do when we stutter. As Van Riper noted in the following quotes from his textbook “The treatment of stuttering” this ability to accurately identify what we do when we stutter is essential if we are to gain more control over it.
· One of the curious features in the stutterer’s perception of his stuttering is his tendency to lump together a host of disparate behaviors ranging all the way from nose wrinkling to saying “ah-ah-ah” and to call that lump “stuttering”.
· To ask a stutterer to begin immediately to change the way he stutters is to ask for failure, if only because he rarely knows how he stutters.
· We begin our therapy by training the stutterer to identify the overt and covert behaviors that constitute his disorder. (Van Riper 1973, pp 245-246)
The “identification” stage of Van Riper’s stuttering therapy constitutes a particularly good example of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy although he himself never actually called it that.
There are many ways to practice mindfulness and meditation, and you may find that a particular approach resonates with you. From simple breathing techniques to mindful speaking, there is a way for everyone who is willing to try and give it a chance.
Sources: https://www.stutteringtreatment.org/ Van Riper, C. (1973). The Treatment of Stuttering. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.