safety in stumblers

Safety in Stumblers has kindly given me an opportunity to attend the meeting on 3rd December.

I don't know yet what I will do at the meeeting. The last time I spoke to them, 2 years ago, I gave an overview of modelling which might be applied to stammering.

What kind of folk do I hope will be there?

One of the things I have found dealing with academics and others who have thought deeply and long about their condition, whether it be stammering or dyslexia or fear of flying, is that the more baggage they bring to the table the harder it is to convince them of any change. I worked with a dyslexic girl who could spell long words easily when I showed her how but remained unconvinced that it was how she was doing spelling that was the problem and so didn't practice or improve. It was too simple. I only had one session with her so a convincer session was missing!

One of the things thinking about a problem over a period of time does is build up a myth about it. My problem is special and complex and meaningful and so it should be impossible to change easily. I have had PWS tell me that they can see what I am getting at but not actually doing what I ask them to do. Yes, theory is interesting but if I don't taste a food no amount of description will substitute.

I am a practical chap. If I try something and it works then I don't second guess it. I try to use it and think about it later not at the time. I want to do the whatever it is as well as I can, at the time of the work. I don't want to be distracted by extraneous thoughts.

I might look for a volunteer to work with or talk about my working with PWS. Depends what they want on the night, I suppose. It will be sharing rather than preaching. The stuff on this blog is about life in general and I use stammering as an application. But the models and ways of thinking have universal applications.