Services
Consultation - Free
Anyone is welcome to request a free 15-minute consultation, held via video call. Here, I'll learn a bit about you/your child and we'll decide together on how to proceed.
Assessment
A thorough assessment is essential in understanding of what you/your child will benefit from in therapy. Standardized assessments, surveys, multiple speech samples, and other measures will contribute to this comprehensive evaluation of stuttering and communication skills.
Treatment
Regular treatment sessions provide you/your child with personalized goals and strategies to build & enhance effective communication skills and become a "stuttering expert"!
If you are a parent of a younger child, a significant portion of my time will be spent with you - guided by your questions, concerns, and ideas - because you know your child best. As I learn from you and your child, I equip you with the tools you need to become a "stuttering expert" yourself and be their strongest advocate.
Who do you work with?
Sanford Stuttering Therapy welcomes clients of all ages. My diverse assessment and treatment models allow for personalized care for all - whether your 2-year old just started stuttering or you're an adult who has stuttered for as long as you can remember, I can create a treatment plan that suits your needs.
What do we do in therapy?
No single approach provides every answer for every person who stutters. However, strong research evidence as well as my own clinical (and personal) experience lead me to prioritize a few things for my clients:
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Spontaneous and effective communication
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Becoming a stuttering expert
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Growing in advocacy skills
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Bouncing back from stuttering-related challenges
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Desensitization to stuttering
Even the best & most research-backed approaches are not a substitute for meaningful connection between client and therapist. More than anything, I strive to create an environment where my clients feel respected, understood, and safe. In this way, I am grateful for my own experiences with stuttering, as being a person who stutters often helps me connect with clients who frequently feel so misunderstood.
Pricing
Rates may vary depending on several factors, including whether services are provided via video call or in your home, where you are located, and individual session length. During your free 15-minute consultation, we can discuss a pricing plan that will work best for you.
Although my assessment and treatment models can differ between children and adult clients, pricing is the same for each of these groups.
Insurance
Unfortunately, insurance companies often do not cover stuttering treatment.
Additionally, while I do not currently accept insurance, I keep my rates as low as I can to increase affordability and access to my services.
Other FAQ's
I've heard a lot about how speech therapy can fix or reduce stuttering. Is this possible?
Because 80% of young children who begin to stutter will see it naturally subside by around age 7, it makes sense that we wonder if a similar result can be found for older children or adults. Countless strategies, techniques, and approaches have been (and continue to be) promoted as solutions in eliminating or reducing stuttering.
What recent research has begun to show is that focusing on avoiding stuttering when speaking usually leads to negative life outcomes for people who stutter, whereas learning to live with stuttering reduces the likelihood of these negative outcomes.
Speech therapy seems to fix other communication disorders. How is stuttering different?
Other conditions we commonly see in children (such as speech sound/articulation or language difficulties) appear to be much more easily modified. For example, a 4 year old with difficulty making the "k" and "g" sounds may receive intervention teaching them to change their tongue movements - as they practice these new movements, the correct sound gradually becomes easier to produce, and eventually the error no longer occurs.
Stuttering is much less straightforward, as the nature of the genetic factors that contribute to its emergence lead us to believe that it is embedded firmly in one's speech motor system. While it can fluctuate significantly - some people who stutter may go hours, days, weeks, or even months while stuttering very little - a set of exercises, a "shift of mindset", or "creating a new way of talking" will not remove or eliminate it. Such changes may alter what stuttering looks and sounds like, but we know that stuttering is less what the listener hears and more what the speaker experiences - a loss of control, physical tension, a feeling of getting stuck, and often anxiety & frustration with communication - things that often remain or may even increase the more one attempts to control or fix their stuttering.
How can I trust this information when I see so many other ideas out there?
For decades, because speech-language pathologists have viewed stuttering as something that can be fixed, most of the questions asked (and research funded) were centered on a cure. As a result, much of what we see online from both professional and informal sources stems from these perspectives.
While many in the stuttering community still hope for a deeper understanding of stuttering and its cause, for years our field has largely neglected many of the most important questions that we could have been asking:
- Can people who stutter be successful communicators even if they stutter openly?
- Can they reach their personal and professional goals regardless of how often they stutter?
- Could someone's speech actually sound more natural when stuttering openly vs. when trying to hide the stuttering?
- Do they enjoy talking more when they stop worrying about whether or not they will stutter?
- If they are provided with education focused on a view of stuttering as a different way of talking (rather than an enormous problem), will they see it as being much less of a problem?
- Are there aspects of their experience with stuttering that they can learn to value, and do they have strengths that stem from being a person who stutters?
- Does stuttering create openings for meaningful connection and relationships with others?
Research in our field from recent years has begun to answer these questions with a resounding yes. These findings are leading a movement away from high-risk, low-reward approaches and toward ideas that help people who stutter live fulfilled and happy lives.
Wait...so are you saying that there's nothing bad or problematic about stuttering?
Stuttering is hard for many people.
Stuttering does create differences in communication that are often surprising to listeners.
Stuttering may never be something that is easy to live with.
Spoiler alert: I, as a speech therapist, have yet to master the experience of stuttering. Stuttering has been, and still sometimes is difficult for me to live with.
But...
Have you ever been treated differently because of something you couldn't control?
Have you tried and tried to fix something about yourself, but then realized it wasn't going to change?
People who stutter often share those experiences.
For a condition of this nature, it simply is not helpful or productive to focus our energy on labeling things as wrong, bad, or in need of fixing. While I do not shy away from discussing the very real difficulties that my clients experience, I focus on what is achievable, hopeful, and within your control rather than on what is vague, unpredictable, and likely unattainable.
Get in Touch
Sanford Stuttering Therapy can serve you in several ways:
- In-office: located in Provo, UT (highly preferred for clients in Utah)
- In your home: for clients in Utah County or Salt Lake County
- Through teletherapy (online video call): for any clients who prefer meeting online or where distance is a challenge
I currently serve clients who live in Utah or Idaho.
I will soon be able to see clients in other states - please check in with me on this if you live in another state and are interested in receiving services.
Schedule a free 15-minute consultation today!
Text me at: 801-210-9054
Email me at: caleb@sanfordstutteringtherapy.com
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