Success! In Spite Of (or maybe because of) Stuttering

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Re: In response your article

From: Tony
Date: 08 Oct 2006
Time: 04:08:46 -0500
Remote Name: 82.37.85.35

Comments

Hi Jenny Thanks for your message. Am very clear about the turning point. After going on a 2-week stuttering course organised by Franklin Brook in the UK, I felt very empowered, and knew that there were situations where I may not stutter. Being an "all or nothing" kind of person, I decided to ask a local hospital radio station if I could present programmes. I found that when in a studio environment, wearing headphones, the stutter completely vanished and I could, by and large, talk how I wished. Until then, I'd been pretty much a loner, and interested only in "boring" (not my view) classical music. The radio experience not only introduced me a broader outlook on musical styles but, more importantly, gave me a whole new social life. My life was never the same again. Without this, I'm sure that I would still be living at home with my parents rather than having a lovely family of my own and an exciting career. In fact, I'm working on an idea for a health-related radio programme right now. With regard to therapy, I had plenty - ranging from 1:1 speech therapy sessions (OK but fairly lightweight) to hypnotism (worked once for a while, but the effect soon faded). My parents even tried elocution lessons, which helped me to speak beauifully (still have a plummy English accent :) ), but did nothing for my stutter. Furthermore, for years afterwards everyone assumed that the way I spoke meant I was gay (I have no problem with homosexuality, but am not gay), making my life considerably worse than I was when just stuttering!! The Franklin Brook course encouraged us to use breathing and slack syllabic techniques, as well as going out and stuttering at strangers severely, just to stop us being afraid if stuttering. Best wishes and good luck for your studies and future career. Kind regards Tony


Last changed: 10/23/06