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From: Charlton Knowles
Date: 15 Oct 2009
Time: 16:39:08 -0500
Remote Name: 134.29.30.178
Pam, I am not a professional SLP but would certainly qualify as a "professional stutterer." I have stuttered for over 50 years and I have been through the ropes regarding all the psychological/emotional stuff. Those times when I felt the urge to apologize, (I never explicitly had done so) but have instead said that I stutter but those times when I did that it was coming from an apologetic mind set.After a lot of years of self and professional therapy I am at the point with myself where I accept myself as a stutterer and just move on. My listeners sense my self acceptance and they just wait for me to finish my block and continue the conversation. Resolving stuttering, in my opinion, is not just being "fluent" but making also psychological/emotional adjustments to stuttering. A self accepting person (not implying that you are not) doesn't feel the need to apologize for stuttering,neither shame or guilt when they do stutterer. My last hurdle in becoming a more fluid speaker is to dilute the fear infused with feelings of failure to a point where it is not relevant. Walt Manning makes a good point when he says if you could find humour in your stuttering and yourself, then you are on the road to weakening the psychological/emotional hold stuttering have on us.