Although it wasn’t recognized as such for decades, meta-therapy has been an important part of speech-language pathology since the profession began. Leah Helou, who popularized the concept, writes that meta-therapy includes ”the dialogues, schemas, and reflective tasks that clinicians employ” during therapy (Helou, 2023, p. 618).

The latest forum in Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups highlights the key concepts of meta-therapy and how they can be applied to ASHA members’ daily practice. Although Guest Editor Helou’s experiences with meta-therapy involve work in voice, contributors to the forum discuss how it can be applied to other areas of practice.

Meta-Therapy in Action

In her introduction, Helou describes her history with and attempts to formally define and operationalize meta-therapy. Then, Petty and colleagues discuss meta-therapy as the conversation between clinician and patient that guides treatment in voice therapy, including using conversations to lay the foundation for therapy during the initial voice evaluation.

Gore and Margulis present the first look at meta-therapy outside of voice therapy, providing examples of effective clinical dialogues for novice clinicians to use in stuttering therapy. Next, Donohue and Coyle show how to implement these techniques in dysphagia rehabilitation, providing a rehabilitation framework, case study examples, and techniques. Finally, Tilton-Bolowsky and colleagues show how meta-therapeutic dialogues can be modified to accommodate adults with cognitive-communication disorders.

Essentials of Meta-Therapy

New clinicians rarely receive explicit training in using meta-therapy, instead developing these skills with time and practice (Donohue & Coyle, 2023, p. 631). In this forum, authors provide clinicians of all experience levels with practical tools to help them incorporate these techniques when working with patients who have a variety of diagnoses.

We’d like to thank Dr. Helou and all the authors for sharing their knowledge and bringing this forum to Perspectives. You can read the entire forum in the August issue of Perspectives, or check out the individual articles below!

Explore the Forum

Donohue, C., & Coyle, J. L. (2023). Application of meta-therapy to dysphagia rehabilitation. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups, 8(4), 631–639. https://doi.org/10.1044/2022_PERSP-22-00082

Gore, K., & Margulis, C. L. (2023). Beyond the stuttering toolbox: The concept of meta-therapy. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups, 8(4), 625–630. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_PERSP-22-00245

Helou, L. B. (2023). Introduction to the Perspectives Forum on the topic of Meta-Therapy in Speech-Language Pathology. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups, 8(4), 618–619. https://doi.org/10.1044/2022_PERSP-22-00243

Petty, B. E., Gillespie, A. I., & van Leer, E. (2023). Meta-therapy applications for the voice evaluation. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups, 8(4), 620–624. https://doi.org/10.1044/2022_PERSP-22-00092

Tilton-Bolowsky, V. E., Davis, A. S., & Zipse, L. (2023). Mapping meta-therapy onto the treatment of cognitive-communication and language disorders in adults. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups, 8(4), 640–658. https://doi.org/10.1044/2022_PERSP-22-00072

References

Donohue, C., & Coyle, J. L. (2023). Application of meta-therapy to dysphagia rehabilitation. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups, 8(4), 631–639. https://doi.org/10.1044/2022_PERSP-22-00082

Helou, L. B. (2023). Introduction to the Perspectives forum on the topic of Meta-Therapy in Speech-Language Pathology. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups, 8(4), 618–619. https://doi.org/10.1044/2022_PERSP-22-00243