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From: Marija
Date: 10/8/03
Time: 3:41:36 PM
Remote Name: 195.29.101.192
Hi Shelly, thank you for such warm words. I want to emphasize that I still stutter and right now on a scale from 1 to 10 (10 being the most fluent) I am a 6. I have my good days and bad days, but stutering is way out of my focus. I just came back from a nice coffee chat with three fluent people where I spoke a lot and I not once held back what I wanted to say, although I stuttered. So what I managed to do is VALUE myself. I am important to me and I know I have a lot to give, I see this every day. My result isn't visible in my speech technique, but in my attitude and spirit. Of course I didn't do this alone. The initial stir in my self-image was made by an psychoalalist when I was about 16-17. I understood a lot of the things he said but couldn't quite grasp them. Later in life I often remebered his words, like my threshold being too close to my inside and that I should push it farther. But the biggest credit goes to our famous Croatian stuttering specialist dr.Darko Novosel whose Valmod therapy I undertook for 3 times. Attending this therapy was the first time that I had heard myself speak fluently in front of a group of people, the first time I had broke a silence with my voice, asking a question. It felt great and I was hooked to this emotion, wanting to feel it over and over. As often happens, coming home changed things for worse, but my mind was changed for better - forever. The last time I spoke to dr.Novosel he was unsatisfied with how my technique was (it has vanished) but I kept smiling because I got what I needed from Valmod therapy. And that is a boosted self-esteem and right self-perception. I am very glad that I attended that therapy.
Other than Valmod therapy I had been attending speech-therapy with different logopedists since I was 6 up to when I was 14 but it was plain reading with earphones on and had no impact on my inner self. I saw a couple of bioenergy-people but guess what the result was :o( And that's about it. I have read some interesting papers here at this Conference and am sure I'll apply some of the ideas and experiences into my own life. I think my biggest gift is that I AM ALWAYS SMILING! TO EVERYONE!!!