They call me Shak, I’m from London and I started stuttering at the age of 8. I turn 28 years old in a few weeks, so that’s almost 20 years of hellish stuttering! Throughout the years my speech would fluctuate, going from very fluent to stuttering and blocking on every sentence. Since an early age, I noticed that I only stuttered in certain situations and when talking to older adults or authority figures. So to prevent stuttering I would avoid talking all together in such situations and was often deemed quiet and shy.
The problem became more apparent in high school, when I couldn’t avoid stuttering situations and often found myself in extremely awkward and embarrassing positions. One of my worst stuttering incidents happened when I stood in front of my class mates to deliver a speech and was unable to say a single word. After wrestling with the first word, for what seemed like an eternity, I simply gave up and walked back to my desk almost in tears.
At 21 years old I decided to finally seek help, so I attended group speech theory, which actually made my speech worse. The techniques used were very patronizing and I did not feel comfortable announcing that “I have a stutter”, at the beginning of each interaction I had, as they recommended. I left the group therapy 6 months later, feeling hopeless and convinced that I should simply learn to live with my stutter, as there clearly wasn’t a cure.
In 2017, I had two lengthy hetero-hypnosis sessions with a psychiatrist which I found to be extremely powerful. This immediately reduced my anxiety and improved my fluency, but only temporarily.
At the end of May 2018, after experiencing several distressing situations at work, due to severe stuttering, I decided I was going to do whatever it takes to get rid of this wretched stutter. That’s when I stumbled across Lee Lovett’s book on Audible. I immediately purchased the audiobook, then also the hard copy after a week or so.
I can honestly say that coming across Lee’s book has been one of the biggest blessings of my life! I began applying the methods in the book as soon as I learnt them and could see considerable results very quickly. I also started Skyping with Lee in June and had almost completely stopped stuttering by August. As I write this, in September 2018, I have not had a debilitating stuttering incident in over 6 weeks! I could not thank Lee enough, for all he has done for me and his PWS mates around the world. I am certain that his work will change the way speech therapy is practiced in years to come. If you stutter, read Lee’s book and Skype with him and the other SAA coaches. No one should have to suffer from stuttering anymore.
SHAK, London, September 2018
