My name is Ciaran and I’m 31 years old and I currently reside in Liverpool, England. I have stuttered ever since I can remember, probably since around age 5. I consider it severe, as I stuttered around every other word, and “pressure” to me was EVERYWHERE, strangers, family, friends, everybody. I just stuttered every time I spoke. It made no difference where or who was listening. It took me about five months to stop stuttering.
In my school days, it was tough, reading aloud in class, doing presentations was all very difficult. Some kids made fun of my speech however most were supportive although not really understanding the situation.
As an adult, people expect you to be fluent and be able to say your own name and other details without fail. I tended to stick to menial jobs that I knew I didn’t have to speak too much and I got on with things knowing I had so much more potential.
I had tried different types of therapies. Most of them focused on acceptance and breathing techniques. Although these therapies have helped some people, I just couldn’t get them to work for my life.
In summer of 2019, I discovered Coach Lee’s book. This book has been great, as it gives practical ways to beat stuttering. I really tried to apply the techniques daily and work hard at it. The auto suggestions and hypnosis seemed to help me the most. Then I emailed Coach Lee after some time, seeking further assistance and he replied and offered to coach me, but I wanted to work on the methods by myself some more.
I then recently also joined World Stop Stuttering Association (WSSA), and I loved its program. I watched many video lectures by Coach Lee on his book, and I watched many coaching videos by him and others. All of this was a huge help. I did that for over a year, and I improved my speech a great deal, but I still wasn’t there, so I emailed Coach Lee and he began coaching me in October of 2020.
I found using crutch 4 saved me a bunch of times. I would insert another word or sound and jam the feared word into it, and I didn’t get stuck on the feared word. Using crutch 10, word linkage, began to smooth my speech.
Although I had cut my stutters a whole lot, I was still getting hung on some words. I sounded “choppy”, as Lee said. He got me to humming and holding the hum sound, almost like holding a note when you sing, and I push the sound through the words. This made linking words easier. When I did this and talked in short bursts of 1 – 5 words or so my speech was smoother. Then we added crutch 9, extreme pronunciation, and that seemed to do it. I just stopped having bad incidents. That was over a month ago now.
A few weeks ago, Coach Lee pushed me to talk in even shorter bursts. When I did this, I didn’t stutter at all. My speech was completely smooth. I stunned myself. My friends began to notice and comment about my speech. I can’t tell you what a difference this is making in my life.
I am still fighting some fears, and I want to learn to love to speak anywhere. That’s my next goal. I feel that this is only the start of my journey not the end and I’m under no disillusionment at how hard the road will be to love to speak and the hard work that is needed. All I can say though that it is worth it.
Lee Lovett’s book is incredible and WSSA offers a massive program of video lectures, coaching videos, other books, a blog, a great speech club and an army of ex-stutterers to help. What more could any stutterer want?
I can’t imagine why anyone would want to keep stuttering now. Lee’s methods work and WSSA’s program keeps updating them and offers a community of people who stopped stuttering to help PWS. Lee and WSSA want to kick stuttering off the planet, and I believe that they can do it. I hope I can help in some small way.
CIARAN, Liverpool, England, January 2021
