Chapter Meeting – April 4, 2019

Four of us met at the Bala Cynwyd Library, one of them a family member. After the Welcoming words, we introduced ourselves and shared a movie that we have enjoyed recently.

Three of us had attended the previous week’s Panel of People that Stutter at La Salle University and we talked about the experience.

We talked about the difference between identifying ourselves as “stutterer” versus saying “I stutter” or “I am a person that stutters”. We prefer saying “I stutter”. “Stutterer” feels like a label, which can have a lot of negative connotations. It feels like it is a definition of all we are, as opposed as just one more quality about us.

A question was posed that made us think a lot: Would you go to a therapist that stutters? You would think that it would be an advantage because that person would understand a lot of what we go through. But some wouldn’t go to a therapist that stutters because if he/she is still stuttering, can the therapist help you? It was an interesting question and we spent quite sometime talking about the pros and cons. What would you do?