Sukima van Velzen
My name is Sukima van Velzen; I am 37 and a resident of Groningen. From the year 2009 onwards I have been the owner of “Rondom Spraak”; a practice specialised in speech and fluency disorders. In this practice I treat people with problems regarding stuttering, voice disorders. I took several post-graduate applied courses pertaining to stuttering and voice problems. My experience as a mother of a 12 year old son has taught me valuable lessons on how to deal with children in speech therapy, but also on how to communicate with the parents of these children.
The reason that I chose for studying speech therapy as an undergraduate came forth from my personal experience with stuttering. At the age of five I started stuttering, and it continues to have a strong influence on my life. When I was young it determined what I would, or would not say, what activities I would dare partake in. In addition to which it influenced how I felt and what was on my mind to a great extent. Currently, it awakens a spirited passion in me when working with people who stutter in my practice, when I do presentations concerning stuttering in schools, or even when I am simply talking about it. Although my interest in stuttering has only increased over the years, the personal experience I have with stuttering did cause a somewhat subjective view of the problem at the very beginning of my career. However, over the years I have learned that it is a valuable attribution to my ability to empathise with those who stutter. For example, I can truly grasp the magnitude of the confrontation with the fear that comes with conquering a stutter. The variety of manners in which people experience stuttering and how they cope with it fascinates me. Disentangling a stutter problem together with someone, and seeing how they learn to accept, and consequently, how to manage it is a wonderful process to me.
Molenstraat 262C
9402 JW
Assen
Netherlands