Virtual Learning

Virtual Learning by The Stuttering Foundation is an online series of free, interactive workshops with a variety of offerings for speech-language pathologists, parents, and individuals who stutter.

The series includes monthly offerings ranging from clinical training opportunities, to parent education, to a platform for people who stutter of all ages to share their stories. Sessions are moderated by many of the world’s leading clinicians, researchers, and self-help advocates — bringing learning and collaboration to you.

Solution Focused Brief Therapy and Clinical Supervision

Speakers: Ali Berquez MSc, PG Dip. CT (Oxford), BRIEF Cert. SFBT, MRCSLT, RegHCPC; and Martha Jeffery, BSc, BRIEF Advanced Cert. SFBT, MRCSLT, RegHCPC. Michael Palin Centre for Stammering, London, UK

Date: Friday, July 12^th, 2024

Time: 11:00am – 12:15pm ET

Click to Register

Description: Ali Berquez and Martha Jeffery will describe the application of Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) to clinical supervision. They will describe the principles and practice of SFBT in brief; discuss a Solution Focused Mindset and its core components; focus on exploring a supervisee’s best hopes from clinical supervision including the use of scaling; and then describe how to discuss work that’s going well and work that’s not going so well; concluding with a discussion of complimenting and ending clinical supervision sessions. Video examples will be shared.

Learning Objectives:

Participants will:

Understand the guiding principles of SFBT.
Be able to describe how to explore a supervisee’s best hopes.
Understand the process of scaling in clinical supervision.
Have a range of questions to use in exploring work that’s going well and work that’s not going so well.
Know how to include complimenting and how to end clinical supervision sessions.

Details:

Target Audience: Speech-Language Pathologists, Students
There is no fee for this event.
*This course is not eligible for CEUs at this time
Please register if available for the live event only. A recording may be available at a later date on our streaming site for a small fee.

Ali Berquez is Clinical Lead at the Michael Palin Centre in London. She works clinically with clients of all ages who stammer and/ or clutter, including adults. As a qualified practitioner in SFBT and CBT, Ali integrates these methods into her clinical work. Ali is an experienced teacher and trainer who regularly delivers courses in the UK and internationally (including the Stuttering Foundation’s annual Eastern Workshop in Boston). She is involved in writing, offering clinical supervision, and contributing to research projects. Ali is Chair of the UK’s National Stammering Clinical Excellence Network, part of the scientific committee for the Oxford Dysfluency Conference and a certified European Stuttering Specialist and recently published a book about SFBT Solution Focused Brief Therapy with Children and Young People who Stammer and their Parents: A Practical Guide from the Michael Palin Centre (2024) with her co-presenter, Martha Jeffery.

Martha Jeffery is a Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist (SLT) at the Michael Palin Centre (MPC) in London. She works with children and young people who stammer and their families – in 1:1 therapy and in groups – and with adults who stammer. She contributes to the MPC’s research programme (most recently she co-presented a poster about ‘What do people want from stammering therapy?’). She also delivers MPC’s teaching and training programme – most recently on using SFBT in stammering therapy, and soon on using Palin Parent-Child Interaction Therapy with children under 7 years old who stammer, which will be simultaneously translated into Turkish to a large group of Turkish SLTs and SLT students. Martha has attended additional training in CBT, and has an Advanced Certificate in SBFT from BRIEF (London)’s year-long programme. She is co-author of Solution Focused Brief Therapy with Children and Young People who Stammer and their Parents: A Practical Guide from the Michael Palin Centre (2024) with Ali Berquez.

CELEBRITY FOCUS

Carly Simon

Carly Simon began stuttering severely when she was eight years old.

Ken Venturi

As much of the nation watches the U.S. Open Golf Championship, it is impossible not to think about our late friend Ken Venturi. Ken overcame many challenges to win the Open at Congressional in 1964 and go on to become the voice of golf for more than three decades.

However, Ken faced no bigger obstacle than stuttering. Ken Venturi was a champion to those who stutter, going out of his way to share his personal experience when consulted by a colleague, friend, or child who stutters.

Mel Tillis

Mel Tillis, born Lonnie Melvin Tillis, was an influential figure in country music, both as a songwriter and a performer. His journey to fame was marked by overcoming personal challenges, including a stutter that he turned into a defining part of his public persona.

Bill Walton

From BillWalton.com

Thank you for your interest in my life long problem with my speech and communication skills. I was a very shy and reserved young man who could not speak at all without severely stuttering until I was 28 years old. Always a success in the classroom and on the basketball court, I took refuge in the things that I did well as a youngster. A straight A student, my athletic abilities covered the deficiencies that limited my overall growth and development. The game of basketball was my religion, the gym my church. It was a convenient way of avoiding my responsibilities of developing my human relation skills.

When I was 28, a chance encounter at a social event with Hall of Fame broadcaster Marty Glickman completely changed my life in so many ways that things have never been the same since, nor have they ever been better. That day, in a very brief, private conversation (one way, mind you, since I literally could not speak at the time) Marty explained, patiently and concisely, that talking, communicating was a skill not a gift or a birthright and that like any skill, whether it be sports, music, business or whatever, needed to be developed over a lifetime of hard work, discipline, organization and practice. Marty gave me some simple tips that day and then encouraged me to take those keys and apply them to methods of learning that I had received from the special teachers that I had come across in my life, particularly the 6 Hall of Fame basketball coaches that I had played for throughout my career. The beginning of my whole new life was as simple as that. No gimmicks, tricks or shortcuts. Just the realization that with some help, guidance and a lot of hard work that I too could do what seemed so easy, simple and natural to everyone else, yet seemed impossibly out of my reach and comprehension.

Bruce Willis

While the world knows Bruce Willis as an A-list actor, few know that he struggled with stuttering throughout his first 20 years.

Walter Bruce Willis was born in 1955 in West Germany to his German mother, Marlene, and his American GI father, David Willis. The family settled in David’s hometown of Penns Grove, New Jersey in 1957, and the couple has three other children.