I’ve Been Thinking…
The Therapeutic Dance
April 2021
This is a term I first saw a few years ago on a list serv for speech language pathologists interested in stuttering. It was used to describe the effective speech therapist in action with a client as they move toward a goal, comparing the process to a dance. I wish I could remember the name of the clinician who posted. But what she said resonated with me…Read More »
Buying Toys
March 2018
There are worse things in the world than getting up in the morning and remembering you have to
buy toys. Buying toys is part of my job. How cool is that? Once every month or two, I make a
trip to my favorite toy store to buy toys…Read More »
Goosebump Moments
December 2017
Goosebumps occur on our skin in a reaction to cold, fear, shock and sometime due to sense of nostalgia or something awe-inspiring. The bumps are created when muscles at the base of the hair contract and cause the hair to stand straight…Read More »
He’s Thirty and He Works at Google: What We Do Matters
November 2017
Recently I was in my office with the door open getting ready for the morning’s first speech therapy client. As I was setting up for therapy, the office manager came by with a group of providers from another medical clinic touring our beautiful recently built suite. The visitors looked in my little therapy room/office and made some polite comments then went back out the door following their guide. Then, a few seconds later, one of them, a woman, poked her head back in my door…Read More »
A Letter from Summer Camp
November 2016
CAMP MORE: THE FIRST YEAR
A letter to Jack Artz
Frederick “Jack” Artz was a Portland area businessman and long time supporter of community speech and hearing centers and speech therapy summer camps in Oregon and Washington, donating his time to serve on their boards and donating millions of dollars…Read More »
Adventure and Growth in the Last Frontier: Five Weeks
as a Kayak Guide in SE Alaska
February 2015
It’s February, 2015 and once again, as I do often, especially when I have been cooped up inside, I find myself remembering a trip I took to Alaska. I’ve been thinking…Read More »
Three Little Boys
December 2014
I recently started speech therapy with three little boys. All were late talkers. The youngest, W., was two years, four months, the next, F., was 2 years, 8 months, and the oldest, J. was 3 years, two months old. The little boys began speech therapy within three months of each other. I saw each boy by himself with a parent watching. The boys demonstrated receptive language…Read More »
Stutter-Friendly SLPs
December 2014
It’s December 2014, and I’ve been thinking about stutter-friendly speech language pathologists. One of my Portland State University graduate students, Megan Feurerherd, used the term in her final paper and it caused me to reflect a little more about what SFSLPs are. Read More »
Gifts
December 17th, 2013
It’s December and I have been thinking about gifts. In dictionaries, “gift” is defined mainly with reference to the giver. A gift is something given to us voluntarily, without payment. It is a present. It is free. By implication, gifts are things positive, useful, happiness-producing, desired, helpful, valuable, satisfying. But what about from the point of view of the receiver? I would argue that how the gift is viewed determines if indeed it is a gift. Gifts are given to us, but don’t they have to be used to be fully gifts? If I get a gift card…Read More »
Adults Who Stutter
August 2013
I’ve been thinking about adults who stutter and what they have taught me. They give life and color to the principles of good therapy. I work with people who stutter and am a person who stutters. My approach in therapy is to teach tools to manage stuttering and tools to manage attitudes. Therapy is successful when the client is able to say what he wants to say in spite of stuttering, and when he stops letting stuttering define himself and influence daily choices. Success does not arrive all at once…Read More »
Unexpected Gifts from Haiti
October 2011
In late April and early May, 2011, I spent 8 days with a medical team helping treat Haitian children and adults in a primary care medical clinic in the village of Gramothe, Haiti, about 15 miles south of Port Au Prince. I was invited by a pediatrician friend and wound up working under close medical supervision as a pharmacy assistant. I felt called to go but secretly…Read More »