My name is Andrew. I’m 39, married and have two children. I am a native Canadian and live in Toronto and work in equity research for a bank. I majored in computer science at university. I have had problems with my speech for as long as I can remember. I guess you can call me a “situational stutterer”. My biggest problem has been saying my name and talking to strangers in general. In many of these situations, I often either stuttered badly or simply didn’t talk. When I was in these pressure situations, I thought about stuttering and fears of it most of the time. Fears of stuttering had become my obsession.
In the spring of 2017, I found Lee’s audible book on Amazon, and it helped me a great deal. I then emailed him and we began Skyping. I did my best to apply the methods in the book. I read aloud extensively; Lee suggested that I read to my 3-year-old daughter, and I began doing that often; she loved it and so did I. She’s learning to read and I’m learning to speak without fear, a double win. I intend to keep doing that as long as she’ll listen to me. I have also been faithful doing my auto suggestions daily. After several months of this, my fears of speaking began to subside. I studied the Crutches too and basically memorized them and I practiced using them when reading aloud and in conversations. As I became comfortable with them, I realized that they were enabling me to duck, dodge, jump over, go under, around and through speech-fears one-by-one. So, I began to accept the fact that I COULD beat stutter-fears, because I was actually doing it live time. As a result, after about eight Skypes, and my daily efforts over the span of five months or so, even in pressure situations, instead of thinking about fearing speaking most of time, I think about it less and less. I do still have lingering fears of speaking but I am confident if I continue to do my auto-suggestions and use the crutches, these fears will eventually disappear.
Most importantly, it has been six weeks now since I had a negative speech incident that a stranger might identify as stuttering. The bottom line is that I am not a detectable stutterer now. I intend to continue Skyping bi-weekly with Lee or one of the other SAA coaches, because I still want to become “the best speaker in my peer group”, and I’d like to help some other PWS beat stuttering, and I intend to continue doing AST’s as long as I live, as I hope to continue to improve myself, my attitudes and my life. SAA’s ultimate goal is to convert stuttering into a blessing. That’s a tall order for anyone who has suffered so many humiliations, but the fact is that it is being done, and I’m one of those who is doing it.
My wife, my two children and I shall be eternally grateful to SAA, its methodology and to Lee for his incredible book and for all of the help that I have received. I’ll never be able to repay them – except by helping another PWS, as I have been helped. I hope to do that, and, if you stutter, I urge you to contact SAA, where self-cured PWS help others self-cure and do so as a labor of love. What can be better than that?
To see a short, classic video Summarizing Andrew’s story, go here: https://vimeo.com/388855300/dc69083506
Andrew, from Toronto, September 2017
P.S. In June 2019, almost two years after posting the above Success Story, Andrew confirmed that his speech has improved and that there have been no relapses and that his fears of speaking are less. We discuss a plan to end ALL fears within the next six months. See and hear him here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
