First Advisor

Murza, Kimberly

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Document Type

Thesis

Date Created

8-2015

Department

College of Natural and Health Sciences, Communication Sciences and Disorders, CSD Student Work

Abstract

There has been research outlining the importance of the client-clinician relationship in therapeutic outcomes; however, there is a relative lack of research as to the development of the therapeutic alliance in the area of fluency therapy, particularly with adolescents. The purpose of this investigation was to learn about the perceptions of adolescents who stutter regarding characteristics of effective and ineffective speech-language pathologists as well as how these adolescents perceive their own and their speech-language pathologist’s role in the therapeutic alliance. This study addressed the following questions: Q1 How do adolescents with fluency disorders describe their role within the therapeutic alliance? Q2 How do adolescents with fluency disorders describe their speech-language pathologists’ role within the therapeutic alliance? Q3 How do adolescents with fluency disorders perceive factors common across clinicians as they relate to an effective therapeutic experience? Q4 How do adolescents with fluency disorders perceive factors common across clinicians as they relate to an ineffective therapeutic experience? The phenomenological method of qualitative research was employed as a framework to interview three participants who were adolescents who stuttered. Four themes emerged during data analysis as key factors that impacted the development of a client-clinician relationship: adolescents’ trust of the SLP, adolescents’ investment in therapy, partnership and collaboration in therapy, and building a therapeutic alliance. These themes were discussed and may be considered in the treatment of adolescents who stutter in order to develop strong therapeutic alliance.

Keywords

Stuttering; Speech therapy

Extent

128 pages

Local Identifiers

RiggenbachThesis2015

Rights Statement

Copyright is held by the author.

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