Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Integrated with Stuttering Management: A Case Study
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Keywords

Stuttering, acceptance and commitment therapy (act), mindfulness

Abstract

The case study investigated the efficacy of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) in integration with stuttering management. Mr A. A was 17 years old, presented with developmental stuttering. Assessment measures that were used included Stuttering Severity Instrument (Riley, & Bakker, 2009); Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (Bond et al., 2011), Drexel Defusion Scale (Forman, et., 2012), Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (Brown,West, Loverich, & Biegel, 2011) and Overall Assessment of the Speaker’s Experience of Stuttering (Yaruss & Quesel, 2010). Stuttering management focused to improve stuttering symptoms. ACT targeted psychological inflexibility to teach willingness to experience fear of speaking and act in accordance with value of communication. Total 12 weekly sessions and 3 follow up were conducted. Post therapy evaluation indicated reduction stuttering symptoms as well as psychosocial impact that maintained progress at follow up. ACT is found to be effective as a psychosocial intervention in integration with speech management. Client was able to develop the acceptance of stuttering, distancing from unhelpful thoughts, feelings and committed action of applying the controlled speech in his communication and set achievable life goals to live meaningful life. The current study has important implications in the management of stuttering in the indigenous context.

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