ABSTRACT
This chapter gives advice and practical suggestions about how an SLT can work in collaboration with self-help groups in order to achieve the best possible outcomes for group participants. The development of self-help groups for people who stammer can be understood within the broader context of the self-help movement. Two of the first national organisations for people who stammer were the British Stammering Association, a charity established in 1968, and the USA National Stuttering Association and a non-profit organisation established in 1977. It is vital to consider the role of self-help groups in the therapeutic process for the client who stammers, because, as Bloodstein and Bernstein Ratner suggest, therapists possess nothing as powerful for changing clients’ attitudes as the group spirit engendered through self-help group membership.
