
Adults - therapy at the Michael Palin Centre

What sort of therapy can I get at the Michael Palin Centre?

What are 'speech' skills?
This means learning ways to control how often you stammer, to reduce how much struggle or tension you experience, or to stammer in a more ‘easy’ way and mind less about it. You may have experience of learning speech skills before and you may or may not feel that it is the right approach for you now. Importantly, it is not the only way to move forward towards the goals that you have and indeed feeling more comfortable about stammering openly can be an important idea for many people.
How can therapy help me with how I feel about stammering?
Find out more about Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)
Find out more about Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) (pronounced ACT rather than A.C.T.) aims to help people do things which makes their life richer, fuller and more personally meaningful. Key skills are learning how to unhook from difficult thoughts and feelings so that they have less impact, learning mindfulness skills, getting clear about what you really want life to look like and taking steps towards that. ACT is increasingly being used in work with people who stammer.
Find out more about Solution Focussed Brief Therapy (SFBT)
Solution-focussed Brief Therapy helps people to get a clearer picture of how they want life to be and start making changes in that direction. SFBT conversations are focussed on bringing the strengths and resources that you bring to therapy into sharper focus and on augmenting the changes that you are already making. In SFBT you are encouraged to notice small changes which show that you are building your life in the way you want to.
How can communication skills help me?
What if I don't know what I want?
That is fine. Many people don’t know that much about what sort of therapy is available, and when that is the case it can feel daunting starting out. If you feel you would like to explore therapy then the main thing is to get in touch, and the therapist you talk with will help you gradually work out the right direction for you. People often want to explore different ideas, or combinations of things, and the direction that therapy takes can change over time as well. The most important thing to know is that therapy is tailored to everyone individually.