My name is Shifa. I am 19 and am one of three sisters who stuttered. I stuttered since I can remember and have seen many Speech Language Therapists throughout my life. But thankfully my younger sister (also a stutterer) found out about coach Lee, and this wonderful community of ex-stutterers (WSSA), and, with the help of my sister (who already stopped her stuttering using these methods), I have been able to stop stuttering. It has made my life so much happier in all ways. Coach Lee’s book about speech and anxiety, his coaching and WSSA’s many videos and services really helped enabled me and my sisters stop stuttering.
It was almost as if my sisters and I taught each other how to stutter. Over time, my stutter became the worst of the three. Under pressure, I often couldn’t say a word or make a sound. My younger sister was almost as bad; my older sister stuttered the least but still stuttered enough to be considered a stutterer. A while ago, my younger sister found Lee’s book online and read it. She joined World Stop Stuttering Association (WSSA) and watched the videos on Lee’s methods and was then coached by Lee. She stopped stuttering and posted her Success Story some months ago. She has since helped me learn Lee’s methods.
During one of coach Lee’s first sessions coaching my younger sister, my older sister and I joined the session. Lee grilled all of us. I couldn’t and didn’t say hardly a word. He explained a few methods and got me talking in less than ten minutes. What was funny was when he said that he was worried about the three of us keeping stuttering going, even when one of us was not stuttering. So, he told us to SING rather than talk to each other. We drilled on that a bit, and he had us all singing and laughing. He said that, 24/7 he wanted us to sing to each other. He called us “The Singing Sisters”. We laughed like crazy but the funny thing was that it actually worked. After that Skype session, when we talked, whoever was stuttering would start singing; we all sang and laughed at ourselves. After a couple of weeks, we began to be able to talk with almost no singing and almost no stuttering. Once my younger sister stopped stuttering altogether (around five months ago), she’s been helping all of us avoid stuttering. Once I read Lee’s book and watched his 20 video lessons on the book, my stuttering declined to very little. Since I started Skyping with coach Lee, my stuttering grew less every week, and I stopped having bad incidents over a month ago.
I still practice his techniques everyday (13 crutches ) which are really helpful, and can help you actually “cure” stuttering. Whatever cure means, I stopped stuttering. The main concept or point to focus over here is to stop thinking too much about it. Everyone has stuttered in their life. They all just disguise it well. Being able to communicate and participate in life is easily something that most of us take for granted but can seem like a massive obstacle for a person who stutters.
Coach Lee’s book shook me. Even though I have read the book, i still read it every day. Most of the words written and said by coach Lee, you can’t find them anywhere. After suffering a lot during my childhood, even in teens, I am so glad to have stumbled across coach Lee, which helped me change my life. He says, “Focus more on your thoughts, rather than thinking about words” these beautiful words said by Lee helped me go far. Everyone in my family including my friends are surprised to see that I can speak so well! A huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders.
And what did it take to get here? Patience, time and Lee’s methods. Self hypnosis and auto suggestions are some of the wonderful things mentioned in Lee’s books some of which you won’t be able to find anywhere but on WSSA. And it’s a miracle that it works!! I have never been so confident and happy with my fluency in speech than I am now. Just few months ago I was depressed and stressed out. I couldn’t speak anywhere in front of people. Fear consumed me and took over almost all of my thoughts.
Note some of the points, that speaking with “extreme pronunciation” and “articulation” while reading aloud everything (books, novels, magazines etc.) will definitely help on the long run. We need to build up fluent memories, by speaking less at the starting stage and then slowly speaking in front of larger audience.
My older sister is now studying Lee’s books and hopes to be coached by him soon. Meanwhile, my younger sister and I are coaching our older sister. Stuttering is almost dead in our house! My older sister expects to beat it too. When she does that will make three sisters who stopped stuttering in one household. Imagine that.
With all my heart, I recommend Lee’s methods, book and WSSA, whose services make the methods easier to understand and use. This is the best platform to cure your stuttering. If you are reading this, then consider yourself lucky, because you are in for a wonderful ride, that will change your life! Mark my words.
SHIFA, Qatar, May 2021
