“I couldn’t say my name, or anyone else’s, when any form of spotlight was on me. At age 25 or so, I was humiliated beyond all words when I could not speak when trying my first case in court. With a wife, two kids and being broke, I feared that my career and life were over. I went to a psychiatrist six times, and he urged me to learn self-hypnosis. I gave myself three treatments daily for years, studied vocabulary books like a maniac (to add synonyms to use under pressure) and began discovering the Crutches, one-by-one. By age 30, I stopped all stuttering, forever. The fears took ten more years to die. I still have stutter-threats but they are laughably easy and enjoyable to beat. I love to speak truly, and I continue to practice daily mind-training and have thus made stuttering a great blessing in my life. I have spent the last five years of my life, 7 days a week, writing for and coaching people who stutter, helping hundreds beat it. They are my mates, and I am theirs. I have loved every minute of it.”
