Sunday, October 30, 2011

Brenda Carey changed her website!

A reader made me aware of irresponsible marketing by Dr Brenda Carey. She has now changed her marketing strategy from a misleading "Stop Stuttering with ..." to a reasonable and factual "Stuttering Specialist Dr Brenda Carey": check out the website. She and her team are definitely stuttering specialists. I might not agree with everything they do, but, if you lived next door to their practise, I would not hesitate to suggest that you take your child to them.

Interestingly, she changed the text from "..what options are available to stop stuttering" to "what evidence based treatments are available to reduce your stuttering and improve your communication." I would have added "reduce your fears" or "improve your well-being".

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Antwerp Stuttering Conference

Check out the announcement for the Antwerp stuttering conference in March 2012. I attended last time. My two memories are that I was utterly bored by two key speakers (one of them talking about how to set up a questionnaire!), and on getting nearly sick on eating mussels! I hope they will change the format a bit and have more panel discussions. Debates not monologues!

But overall, a cheap conference worthwhile attending, even if it's only for networking.

Will she change her website?

Check out Ora's question relating to my post on the unethical marketing of stuttering therapy. He got a reply from Brenda Carey:
Ora, I do thank you for your helpful comments. I certainly did not intend to mislead, and will be changing the wording of my site and its address promptly (as soon as I have the tech support). Regards, Brenda Carey
As in politics, watch their actions and not their words. Let's wait and monitor the site. But as she writes, she needs to find another web address.

Thanks to the reader who made me aware of the website, and all others who supported my post and put ethical standards above sensitivities of a paid professional!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Stop Dr Brenda Carey


[The situation has changed after writing this post, and Brenda Carey has changed her website. Please see here.]

A reader has pointed me to this rather outrageously marketed website Stop Stuttering by Dr Brenda Carey. A highly irresponsible marketing strategy if you ask me: to suggest that you stop (a marketing place holder for cure?) stuttering with her, even for kids. The sentence "Stop Stuttering with Dr Carey" reads in parents and pws's mind as "Dr Carey can make you stop stuttering".She falls below the ethical standards that I would expect of a therapist.

Sunday, October 02, 2011

Judy Kuster's International Stuttering Awareness Day (ISAD) Conference is open until October 22nd, 2011. It's the 14th conference that she has organized and there are always some interesting articles: people who stutter and clinicians sharing their experience. Usually, I get an email asking to publicize the event, but not this year maybe my blog has ceased to be important...

Check out Drayna's summary of genetics results. I plan to ask a few questions.

You can leave questions for the panel of experts in Office Hours.

Have a look at the conference. She does a great job to get people to write and debate. And you get a feeling of how the Internet web pages looked fifteen years ago! ;-)