DVD: Sharpening Counseling Skills

Luterman's Expertise Sharpens Skills

By Diane Parris, M.S.
Boston University

“In order to be a growing professional, we need to be always on the fringe of our incompetency,” that is to say we always need to be pushing ourselves to our limits of competence in order to learn new skills at higher levels.

This was the invitation offered by David Luterman, D.Ed. as he began training ten participants in counseling skills for the latest Stuttering Foundation production <Sharpening Counseling Skills.

Based on forty years of experience and as Director of the Thayer Lindsey Family-Centered Nursery for Hearing Impaired Children at Emerson College in Boston, and on his seminal book, Counseling Persons with Communication Disorders and Their Families, Dr. Luterman describes the counseling relationship as an unconventional one.

“It is a relationship that necessitates deep, selfless listening.”

It requires the professional to put aside his or her point of view in order to fully understand the client’s point of view and to put themselves in the role of “coach, not fixer.”

This three-hour DVD captures the unique process that a clinician goes through in learning how to listen deeply and to provide counseling with inner wisdom. As a viewer, you will join the ten participants — a graduate student, beginning and experienced clinicians, and researchers — as they transform their thinking about being in the role of counselor and practice the skill of nonjudgmental listening.

You will hear their personal stories and concerns when an environment of emotional safety is created. When understanding and acceptance are provided, they begin the process of resolving problems on their own.

Counseling from this perspective means the clinician must overcome the discomfort associated with silence, an essential tool in deep listening. He or she must resist the tendency to provide immediate information and advice to clients and instead listen to the messages that lie beneath their words.

“And also, sometimes, we have to be willing to take a few leaps into the void” of vulnerability that comes with not relying on being the expert with all the answers. The kinds of counseling techniques that emerge from establishing this type of genuine therapeutic relationship are masterfully demonstrated by Dr. Luterman.

He makes evident the power and opportunity that stillness and silent witnessing create, and he teaches us to open up to others and to ourselves

Editor: This DVD should be an essential training tool for all those in the helping professions.

CELEBRITY FOCUS

Bill Withers

While Bill Withers has long been on the Stuttering Foundation's list of Famous People Who Stutter, many people probably didn’t realize he stuttered. He passed away on March 30, 2020.

Born in 1938 in Slab Fork, W.V., Withers was the youngest of six children. When his father died when Withers was small, he was raised by his mother and grandmother, both of whom worked as domestics.

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.

Kenyon Martin

Kenyon Martin, the basketball sensation who was named to the NBA’s All Star Team in 2004, joins other famous people who stutter in a new brochure. The brochure - which unfolds into a small poster - is available free of charge from The Stuttering Foundation.

The poster is intended to give children and adults who stutter inspiration as they grapple with their speech disorder.

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.

Marilyn Monroe

From Edward S. Herrington's letter to Southcoasttoday.com

I am writing in response to "The importance of voice" (May 29), which mentioned that famous actor James Earl Jones struggled with stuttering. Another famous voice that you cited was the trademark breathy voice of Marilyn Monroe; however, you did not make mention of the fact that Marilyn Monroe also struggled with stuttering at various points in her life, sometimes very painfully.