Q. How many stutterers do you treat on an annual basis?

A. At HCRI, we treat 180-200 stutterers annually. We offer 17 sessions per year. Our clinical staff members are among the most highly experienced professionals in the treatment of stuttering.

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Q. How long will I be in therapy?

A. At HCRI, we provide 100+ hours of concentrated treatment over a 12-day period. Clients participate in morning, afternoon and evening sessions.

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Q. I thought that the therapy program was 19 days long... how was it reduced to only 12 days?

A. The new 12-day therapy schedule is based on an extensive, hour-by-hour analysis of our previous 19-day schedule. A number of revisions have been made that improve the utility of our stuttering therapy program. They include:

1) A more efficient therapy work schedule.

2) An increase in clinician-client contact hours.

3) Improved use of the computer to facilitate learning of fluency skills within therapy.

4) Each therapy participant receives free access for three months to FluencyNet™, HCRI's proprietary internet based home/office practice system.

The new 12-day schedule involves slightly more than 100 hours of work, compared with approximately 110 hours in the old schedule. We did not make the transition to the new schedule until we were sure that no compromises would be made in the quality of our therapy program.

Other important benefits include the fact that the therapy fee has been reduced by one-third, and that clients will experience similar decreases in costs of lodging, meals and other living expenses. Finally, the 12-day program means that most people will find it easier to fit therapy into their busy personal schedules. We also offer more sessions per year (17) for scheduling convenience.

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Q. Why do I need such an intensive program?

A. Programs should be of a known duration and intensive enough so that each therapy session is spent making progress on the problem not spent re-learning what has been forgotten from the last therapy session. Open ended programs or programs requiring less than 10 hours of attendance per week are generally ineffective.

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Q. How will I sound after therapy?

A. Our goal is normal-sounding fluent speech not "improved" fluency or "feeling better" about stuttering. At HCRI, 90% of our program participants acquire normal levels of fluency (3% or less disfluencies) in both reading and conversation. In addition, those clients show normal reactions to speaking situations as measured by the Perceptions of Stuttering Inventory. (See video samples from program graduates before and after therapy).

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Q. How long can I expect to continue to speak fluently after therapy?

A. At HCRI, follow-up studies verified by outside sources show that 75% of our program graduates retain normal levels of speech fluency 2+ years after completing the program. An additional 15% retain improved fluency although outside of the normal range of 3% or less disfluencies. Some treatment methods, if they are intensive enough, may yield short-term benefits such as improved fluency, reduced secondary behaviors and improved self image. However, long term results or follow-up studies are not available for most treatment programs.

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Q. What is the drop out rate prior to completion of therapy?

A. At HCRI, the drop out rate is less than 1%. In many other treatment programs a high number of people become frustrated with their lack of progress and drop out of therapy.

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Q. Why is an intensive program desirable?

A. Programs should be of a known duration and intensive enough so that each therapy session is spent making progress on the problem, not spent relearning what has been forgotten from the last therapy session. In our experience, open ended programs or programs requiring less than 10 clock hours of direct clinician contact per week are generally ineffective.

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Q. What is the cost for attending HCRI and what if I can’t afford to pay the total cost of treatment?

A. The cost of participating in the Hollins Fluency System is roughly one-third that of traditional treatment programs. Participants in the program are responsible for their own maintenance during the course of the program. Area hotels work with HCRI clients to provide them with very affordable housing rates for the 12-day period of attendance.

Assistance in meeting the costs of attending the Hollins Fluency System may be available through a variety of sources including State Vocational Rehabilitation Agencies and/or personal or group health insurance plans. We also offer payment plans and accept Visa and Mastercard. Additionally, HCRI provides limited scholarship assistance for those who truly cannot afford the cost of attending our program. Previous program graduates usually donate the available scholarships.

Find out session availability and the current therapy fee by calling our business office at:
540-265-5650.

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