My name is Farooq; I live in Canada, where I am in the insurance business.
My journey towards speaking fluently in any situation has been a long one, full of ups and downs, successes and failures all along the way. There were many times that I actually gave up and thought that I would just have to live with stuttering for the rest of my life.
I first came across Coach Lee’s book in 2017 at the ripe old age of 52. It gave me some hope again, learning that it was written by an ex-stutter, but I must admit that in the back of my mind I was worried that my hopes might be dashed if it turned out to be a scam. But really the only thing that I had to lose was some time and energy to read his book “Stuttering and Anxiety Self-Cures (2nd edition), since he was so kind and generous to email me a pdf of the book for free!
I love, love, love the three pillars upon which Lee has created the Lovett Method! Combined and used consistently on a daily basis, they really have proven to be a 1-2-3 punch to knock my disfluency into submission.
I wish I could say that I focused diligently every day to read aloud for at least an hour each day, repeat my affirmations, (and/or self-hypnosis) twice a day , and master the crutches, but alas these amazing tools arrived at a time in my life where I had finally developed a comfortable detente with my stuttering after having some fierce battles over the years with my arch nemesis!
To anyone who may not be so accepting of their speech deficiencies, – especially those who are young and full of energy and desire – you will save yourself so much time and suffering if you grasp the bull by the horns so to speak, and commit to these three activities on a consistent, daily basis. It can literally change your life for the better!
Anyway, I finally decided to get more serious with the program in 2020, so I signed up to Lee’s website SAC, and had the opportunity to have a couple of zoom sessions with one of Lee’s excellent coaches, Prathusha. I got some great feedback from her, and continued to practice on my own. And then as my fluency improved a lot, my complacency got up to its old tricks again, and I again slacked off from my training.
Then towards the last few months of 2021, I had a zoom meeting with some business professionals related to a project I was working on, and sure enough Stuttering reared its ugly head again, and while the participants in the meeting probably didn’t give that much attention to my speech struggles, and if they did, I am sure they promptly forgot them as time went on. I, on the other hand, definitely felt my speech struggles very strongly in that meeting, and decided that it was time to no longer be at the mercy and whim of my stuttering condition and its power to hijack and control my ability to communicate in a normal manner.
I reached out to Lee, and he graciously offered to coach me for free. I had about 4 or 5 skype sessions with him, and he told me to buy his latest book “How To Stop Stuttering and Love Speaking. So by the end of 2021 I was getting closer to the light at the end of the tunnel I had been dreaming of all my life.
Since 2020, I have maintained my membership in SAC, which just recently changed its name to WSSA in 2022. I also would attend SAM meetings off and on, (the world’s only speech club tailored to PWS and ex-stutterers who help them), and in January I was invited by a fellow member, Ahsan,(an attorney from Scotland), to participate in crutch practice sessions on Zoom calls. This was of great help for me. Having a support-community like WSSA makes a huge difference on the road to fluent speaking.
Ahsan had some other commitments that no longer allowed him to host sessions on Sunday mornings at 9am PST, so he asked me if I would take over. I could have said no, but I knew this was something I needed, and actually wanted to do. My fluency had become pretty good, and I wanted to give back in some way to Lee’s organization that has been so influential on my fluency journey. I really want to support their goal of kicking stuttering off the planet.
I have met and had great speaking interactions with some wonderful PWS and PWSS during these practice sessions. There’s nowhere else in the world where one can find such a group. My advice to other stutterers is to get Lee’s book, join WSSA and learn how hundreds of others have stopped stuttering, because you can do it too.
And finally I realized the other day, it was time to accept and publicly acknowledge my speech accomplishments using Lee’s tools and the other useful techniques I have learned, and the realizations I have had over my 50 plus year speech journey. To no longer feel I need to hold myself back in speaking situations and to no longer appear speech disabled is huge for me. Now I want to keep at it until I learn to love to speak everywhere.
I reached out to Lee again and asked what the procedure was to make a speech at a SAM meeting. He quite promptly replied that I first had to submit a success story. So volia, here it is Lee. You are one of the main reasons for why this success story is being written. My gratitude to you is immeasurable sir.
Cheers Coach Lee!
Farooq, Canada, April 2022
