Hi! My name is Karen. I have stuttered my whole life and never thought the day would come that one day I would stop stuttering.
Growing up, I did not have a voice and was basically a muted child, fearing that each time I opened my mouth, I would block or force my words. I remembered that in primary school, I would have regular sessions with the speech pathologist for about a year at the school. Unfortunately, there was no improvement in my speech. I did not have many friends in school and was teased quite a lot because of my communication barrier. After finishing primary school and heading to high school, I started to speak more and came out of my shell, thus I found that my communication has improved.
When I was 16, I decided to attempt speech therapy again. I vividly remembered that in the first session I blocked approximately 40% of my words and she demonstrated strategies to manage my stutter, such as sounding out every syllable and using elongation. I saw her for a few more sessions and then tried to self-manage it on my own. I continued to practice the techniques for the next few weeks and noticed some improvements, but I stopped. Fortunately, my speech did not go downhill, as I kept getting out of my comfort zone and doing many job interviews. That was after high school when I went to university. It was not until I almost finished my degree in Exercise Science, that I realised I would be interreacting with different clients each day at work. I was fine with that because the more, I interact with others, my speech will eventually improve. My speech did improve when speaking with familiar people and environments. However, each time I left the house to go to a social outing, I always had the fear in the back of my mind that I would force my words in due to being in the high-pressure social situation. Unfortunately, most times my speech did not prevail and I was left in a depressed state.
In May 2023, I found another speech pathologist. I remembered that in our first session, I was able to control my speech and did not stutter. I told him I would often block in high-pressure situations. We had two more sessions and at the third session he spoke about ‘how I should embrace my stutter and be happy who I am, rather than constantly chasing fluency’. At that moment, I did not like what he had said to me and I felt a knife stabbed in my chest. Not surprisingly, I never went back there again. I was so lost at that point and did not know what to do, all I wanted was to stop stuttering. A few months later, I joined Toastmasters, a public speaking club to improve my speech. It did help me to build my confidence when speaking, but I was still blocking my words each time I went there. I had a cry a couple times when I went home, wondering ‘What was wrong with me’? Why do I keep blocking?
Once I stopped feeling sorry for myself, I decided to take action and post videos of me talking about my stutter. This is when I discovered WSSA through YouTube in late January 2024. I stumbled across the organisation and was immediately intrigued. I booked a free consultation the next day and Danny, the director of the program hooked me right in and I never looked back since. I have become a person who stops stuttering (PWSS) in 6 weeks. How did I achieve this?? Due to the time zone difference with America, I constantly wake up at 2 in the morning, since I am from Australia, to attend the group practice sessions, having regular sessions with
my amazing speech coach Javier, who created my speech plan to assist in overcoming my stutter, studying other coaching sessions, saying the auto suggestions daily, and connecting fellow ex-stutterers and stutterers on the community page of WSSA. I have managed to expand my comfort zones by trying to talk to new people on a daily basis. By applying all those different methods, I am more comfortable, confident, and relaxed when talking to strangers. Before the program, I would shy away from speaking in those situations and have high anxiety levels when talking to people I did not know.
On 18th of March 2024, I became a PWSS by having no bad incidents for at least a month. I am so grateful I came across WSSA and wish I had came across this program years ago. WSSA has changed my life, I am now content with my life and able to speak more freely without stuttering. However, this is only the start of my journey, and I will need to keep practicing and stay with the program for a while, until I complete it (by this I mean, until I stop fearing words and I have learned to love to speak in all situations), otherwise, I’m afraid I can relapse. I would definitely recommend this organisation for someone who stutters in a heartbeat, because if I CAN DO IT, YOU CAN DO IT TOO!!
Karen, Australia, March 2024
