The Duluth Minnesota Chapter of the National Stuttering Association met on Thursday, April 2. There were 10 total people in attendance in our 3 way Google chat including 4 people who stutter. We were happy to welcome two new attenders to the Duluth meeting (including 1 new PWS).
We started with a choral reading of the welcoming words. We then joined with Dr. Gunars Neiders from Seattle, WA and Josh Drzewicki from Lansing, MI. We had a great group discussion on Dr. Neiders’ therapy approach to stuttering (Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy). He discussed how he approaches therapy by reducing struggle, managing emotions, and pursing self-generated goals. There was a discussion about personal experiences with stuttering; this included several of the students in attendance discussing their experiences with pseudo stuttering in public as part of their Fluency Disorders course. Dr. Neiders then discussed his treatment approach in view of these experiences. We also discussed Josh’s upcoming participation in a study at the University of Michigan. He will be undergoing tests with the use of an fMRI. We ended with a choral reading of the closing words.
Our next meeting with be Thursday, May 7th.