My name is Richard Parent. I am a French-speaking Canadian with a good knowledge of English. Some say that I have translated more books and articles on stuttering into French than anyone alive or dead. I was, up to my late forties, a rather moderate stutterer, and I have been very active, some thirty years ago, in the French-Canada’s stuttering community. I was able to stop appearing to have a speech disability by using methods remarkably similar to many of those detailed in Lee Lovett’s book, “Stuttering & Anxiety Self-Cures”. I have also been an executive member of a regular Toastmasters Club for over four years and my translation work helped me (and still does) to learn about all related aspects to stuttering and to improve my speech tremendously, thanks in great part to Brain Training.
In 2017, at the very insistant suggestion of Matthew O’Malley, I contacted Lee Lovett who was coaching PWS for free and was posting their “success stories” on a website that he had created (Speech Anxiety Anonymous) in what he called the “Speech Hall of Fame”, and I mentioned to him that I may translate his book into French after having taken a look to it. That was the Second Edition of it. I loved his book and translated his Second, Third and an upcoming new book as well.
During the past five years, Lee and I have communicated via email and Skype countless times, and, thanks to the translation work, I came to know quite well his work and the thinking behind it. I have also recommended a number of my stuttering (French and English) friends to him, and he has helped them, at no charge, to find their fluency. Some of them were incredibly difficult cases.
The more that I have translated Lee’s book, the better I have understood his methods. What he recommends makes great sense to me and to a growing army of people who stopped stuttering (PWSS). As I learned his methods, I realized that I had been using, unconsciously, a good many of them myself. While I knew some of them, some I did not. His massive coaching of PWS has given him incredible insights into the stuttering problem. I have watched him work with PWS and witnessed their progression from stutterers to fluent speakers. Some of these were stunning victories over stuttering.
The time has now come for the stuttering world to stop insisting that stuttering cannot be stopped. The appearance of the stuttering disability can be stopped by most PWS. Lee estimates “over 90%”. Whatever the number, I firmly believe, with Lee, that the vast majority who use his methods are systematically beating it, and the world’s PWS NEED to know about these methods and take advantage of them. Lee’s hundreds of posted success stories offer irrefutable written and often video evidenced(?) that cannot be denied. Seeing is believing. Many of these PWSS (people who stopped stuttering) remain fluent 2, 3, 4 and more years already.
Lee is not a spring chicken. He can’t do this forever, and he can’t do it alone. He says that he has done “over 5,000 free coaching sessions since 2016 and helped a couple of(?) hundred PWS beat it, and I have trained 10 others to do what I do” and I don’t doubt it for a minute. He also spent, believe me, a great deal of his own money helping create online-programs to help PWS, such as those offered on World Stop Stuttering Association (WSSA) website, and he has done his best to make those programs available as inexpensively as possible for PWS. He is passing his healing-baton to WSSA and other organizations that carry on his work.
I, for one, am proud to be counted among Lee’s legion of strong supporters and it is with great pleasure that I authorize him to post my Success Story online. After watching his successes and considering my own, it is time for me to let others know of my support of Lee and his methods.
So, I hereby urge all PWS to stop believing that stuttering is “an incurable disorder”, because, for a great many, that is simply not true. “Acceptance” is fine for those who choose to live with it or who cannot seem to beat it no matter what they do, BUT it is NOT fine to fail to alert the world’s PWS that there is a VIABLE option that is working for a great many PWS. We need to give PWS the option of a solution that is helping so many move seamlessly into the fluent world.
With this Success Story, I here thank Lee for all that he has done and continues to do to help my millions of mates who still stutter.
Richard Parent, July 2021
