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From: Ian W
Date: 16 Oct 2012
Time: 09:08:49 -0500
Remote Name: 193.201.133.250
Great paper, I actually find it quite sad that there are practicing therapists who don't consider stammering from this angle. For some reason my stammering has never caused feelings of self loathing or similar in me, maybe it is not severe enough or maybe I was lucky to be raised with good self esteem and all that. For me the identity of a stammered was always a small part of a bigger whole. The thing I have found helped me most is probably trying to stop thinking in terms of 'condition', 'treatment' and 'relapse'. Easy for me to say as a relatively mild stammered I guess! I'm working on being gentle with myself and my muscles and my brain - allowing myself to stammer a little when ordering food etc, almost like I am sharing a little bit of my weakness with my listener. In turn I don't worry about if it will happen so much. The problem of choice is definitely a real one - I became completely fluent using costal breathing but soon after my course I found I could not continue to use the technique every time I opened my mouth. Maybe I wasn't trying hard enough, but I try not to worry about that. For many of my course mates it was life-changing, because without the technique they could barely say a word. So this is a bit of a ramble, but I would encourage people to understand that speech is a spectrum and I would be wary (as a patient) of thinking in terms of treatment and relapse.