Speech Anxiety Anonymous
SAA
Speech Anxiety Anonymous Organization (SAA), formed in 2016, is a fellowship of people who have stopped stuttering (PWSS) who help people who stutter (PWS) and people with lesser forms of speech anxiety eliminate those anxieties. SAA was intended to showcase case histories of those who stopped stuttering and learned to love to speak and, thus, to give hope to PWS worldwide, hope that they, too, could join and live in the fluent world. SAA was created by Lee Lovett to spread the word that stuttering can be stopped and to help PWS stop stuttering, but, Lee, working alone, could not do all of the administrative things that websites and services require. So, SAA was later kept alive by World Stop Stuttering Association (WSSA) -- a non-profit organization launched in 2022 by Lee and people who stopped stuttering (PWSS) using Lee’s methods.
“The terms “therapy” and “coaching” are used interchangeably on this website. The term “therapy” is defined by Google as “a form of treatment intended to relieve or heal a disorder by verbal communication and interaction”. Merriam Webster defines it simply as “treatment esp. of bodily, mental or behavioral disorders”. Google adds: “Provided by any of a variety of trained professionals – psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers or licensed counselors…The critical aspect is that the client or patient works collaboratively with the therapist and can identify improvement and positive change over time.” (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/therapy)
SAA’s therapists are not medical doctors, Ph.D.’s or social workers; however they are licensed counselors; they are ex-stutterers, who have helped hundreds of PWS stop stuttering. They have proved their ability to overcome stuttering personally by helping hundreds stop stuttering and have been trained and certified by the IRS-approved charity, World Stop Stuttering Association, to give therapy based upon WSSA’s proven to be effective Neuroscience Method of Stopping Stuttering™, as set forth on WSSA’s website and in the books of Lee Lovett, including “How to Stop Stuttering & Love Speaking”, “Stop Stuttering SHORT Course”, “Stuttering Stories with Happy Endings: 101 Real Live Stories”, and “Speech Anxiety to Public Speaking” (all on Amazon). As a result, WSSA’s ex-stutterers are trained and certified to provide “a form of treatment aimed at relieving emotional distress and mental health problems”, specifically as they relate to stuttering.
As of this update in spring 2024, Lee has coached over 8,000 sessions of PWS worldwide, all for free, and he estimates that several hundred PWS have stopped stuttering. Nearly 200 of them have posted their Stopped Stuttering Stories (SSS) on SAA, many with supporting videos, and have joined SAA’s Speech Hall of Fame. Most of those SSS are also posted on the website of WSSA, which does its best to spread the word that stuttering can be stopped and that PWS can even teach themselves to love to speak. WSSA tries to serve PWS at the lowest possible cost to PWS. WSSA’s modest charges cover a small fraction of its monthly costs, which, so far, have been covered by Lee personally and a few donations.
With an estimated 80 million stutterers and hundreds of millions with speech anxieties that materially reduce their speaking, especially to groups, Lee has accepted the fact that he, coaching alone, would never be able to make his methods known worldwide sufficiently to help most PWS, nor can he coach forever anyway. Knowing that his days of free coaching are numbered, and that SAA could not carry the Stop Stuttering Torch alone, a wonderful solution literally fell from the sky: World Stop Stuttering Association.
SAC (Speech Anxiety Cures) has been replaced by
World Stop Stuttering Association (WSSA)
A non-profit organization devoted to helping stutters
The laws of economics have made it impossible for SAA to provide FREE coaching by anyone other than Lee Lovett. World Stop Stuttering Association is solving that problem by simply paying PWSS-Coaches very small fees – approximating ONE-QUARTER of the cost of the time of most speech therapists. While SAA’s Founder, Lee Lovett, does continue to coach for free, he gives priority to members of WSSA, and, as one person, he can only coach handfuls of PWS, while WSSA can potentially help hundreds or even thousands. As such, those seeking coaching should go now to World Stop Stuttering Association.
WSSA is a 501(c)(3), non-profit Delaware corporation. As a non-profit, it has no shareholders and its goal is not profits. It is administrated by Lee Lovett and a growing team of his EX-stutterers who have embraced Lee’s dream.
In addition to Therapy & Coaching, Lee licensed WSSA to present Lee’s methods in unlimited forms, including Lee’s books, video courses on his books, blogs, a video library of already over 2,000 coaching videos and growing rapidly (each of which is much like a private coaching session that can be seen by all WSSA members), a speech club tailored to the special needs of stutterers and speech anxiety sufferers, and even group practice sessions. Lee and WSSA firmly believe that EX-stutterers can better understand stuttering and how to beat it than can SLP’s, most of whom never stuttered.
While many forms of therapies have proven helpful, there is a widely held misconception which holds that stuttering “is an incurable disease”. The Stopped Stuttering Stories listed have proved, and continue to prove every month with new success stories, that people can stop stuttering and become fluent to all appearances (typically in a few months); and, additionally, over a longer period, stop thinking about their speech entirely. While other methods may work, we rely upon that which we know works – the Neuroscience Method of Stopping Stuttering™, which is set forth in Lee’s stuttering books and courses, available from WSSA and on Amazon.
Stuttering became Lee's biggest blessing in life.
"Lee Lovett has developed a comprehensive, easy to follow approach to stuttering self-therapy which may bring lasting relief from stuttering, and demolish its underlying iceberg of fears and anxieties. Lee’s approach worked for me. A severe stutterer until age of 40, I adopted the approach and many of the crutches that Lee teaches, and my stutter went into remission. Now, twenty years later, I have not relapsed and my fear of stuttering has completely vanished. Lee’s/SAA’s coaching is completely free and available to anyone anywhere. I applaud his contribution and have decided to join his winning team at SAA."
"My hope is that, in time, the broader stuttering community will come to recognise that Lee’s/SAA’s approach offers a genuine and valuable alternative to the currently mainstream approaches, and that, for many adults who stutter, SAA’s approach can bring success where the mainstream approaches have failed them."
"A few years ago I felt I had identified my life's purpose. It was to better understand stuttering and to design a treatment regimen that truly and successfully accomplishes the improvement of stuttering and the anxieties around it. Your book seems to do much of that and I am glad to hear reports that it is proving effective with others. I am about done with the book and I like many of its methods; a number of which I am implementing."
"As a Certified Hypnotist who conquered his own stuttering, I loved Lee’s book and his methods rang true to me. I recommended his book to a stuttering group and at least one of them gobbled it, Skyped with Lee and self-cured. This person I knew well, a life-long, stutter-on-most-words PWS. He now advises that he feels freedom that he never felt in his life. This is like miracle work! If only my father (a life-long stutterer) had lived to see this day."
"My speech is phenomenal, I don’t even think about it for a second.
Months go past and I’ll think, oh yes I used to stutter.
I am so confident and I just wish more people knew about you!
It makes me so sad to think people are wasting their lives when there is a cure!"
"Your [Lee’s] book is a medical breakthrough…It will help many, MANY people…As you wrote…stuttering can be REALLY cured only by attacking the root cause: the Mind…You are a pioneer in the ‘stuttering field’. You are A GENIUS…Our Skypes lift my spirits. I cannot thank you enough. You are changing lives!"
"Previous therapy has been a waste of time and perhaps even detrimental in some cases. You truly are a god send and my husband and I are very grateful to you. I too have noticed a change in our son. He is more willing to get out of the house and try things, and his stuttering has decreased dramatically."
"You not only improved my stammer you are also improving my life. You helped me learn how to stop stuttering permanently.
May God bless you all the happiness"
"I have worked with you for several months. As I mentioned many times, without your help, I would never reach the fluent level now. For the first time in my life, I begin to enjoy the joy of speech. I can tell that you are doing excellent jobs to help people."
"My fluency reaches a new level these days. Now, I'm 95% or more stutter-free when I speak in Chinese, 90% or more stutter-free when I talk in English. Moreover, when I talk in English in a group, I DON'T feel NERVOUS anymore. I never feel that I enjoy the joy of speech as I do today. I'm SO happy for this. Thank you, Lee, without your help, I can't go that far."
"My name is abbas badami. I live in Iran and I’ve read your impressive `Stuttering & Anxiety Self-Cures`, and it changed my life. I can now truly use my talents in an effective way thanks to your books."
"I am thoroughly enjoying your book. I very much appreciate being able to understand your therapy and what [my son] is doing as reading your book has let me into his world. There is a big improvement for him and it is solely because of your methods…I assume that he is reading aloud when perhaps he has the house to himself and his speech at home with my husband and I is very good. He hardly stutters now."
"The book on stuttering is really helpful…u have opened a new chapter in my life and usurped with positivity…I’m going to start my life with this new perspective and u r my God…thanks a lot Mr. lovett…"
"For those of you who have faced this struggle, Lee Lovett is the real deal. I listened to his audible book, read his book on Kindle and he repeatedly Skyped with me….at no charge. His methods work and he’s a genuine and good man…"
"Lee Lovett deserves the praise…I’ve no doubt in his methods at all. God bless him. He’s a light at the end of a long dark tunnel for the PWS."
"Happy birthday to the man who has already set into motion my brand new life…"
"May all our stutterable armor’s be cracked by this blessed man."
"You are the living model for me. It is excellent. I am looking forward to talking with you on Skype."
"You are undoubtedly doing a great service to the PWS.
All the love is coming back to you, Lee."
" Yes, your methods are working for me. I stuttered only 7 times in the last 8 days."
"Keep being awesome, you are making a huge difference in people’s lives, I know it.
See you, man."
"I appreciate you so much and all that you’ve taught me. I have a whole life of free speech ahead of me, thanks to your communication and life skills that you’ve taught me…"
"I haven’t had any ‘bad days’. I’m having fun speaking."
"You are the topic of every [therapy] session for months now.
Know that we are grateful for all that you do."
"Lee, your book should be in the pantheon of the most helpful ‘alternative’ stuttering self-helpo tomes. This book stays away from technical jargon, and goes right into easy to use ways to become fluent. The author will even help you on your journey to fluency for FREE…"
"I stutter mainly when under pressure. The techniques in this book are definitely helping. This book may launch an era of new thinking about stuttering."
"This book offers the most impactful methods
of managing stuttering of any book I have read.
Being the boss of your mind, auto suggestion and
visualization will change how you speak. It changed mine."
"I am happy to share w you that I had a short but so nice chat with my neighbor today (last time had a long block) and [also] I ordered coffee at Starbucks, so had to say my name. Almost blocked on “Ro” [the first two letters of her name] but then I remembered the crutch and dropped the R. THANKS LEE! Baby steps, I know BUT I was so desperate and depressed this last year. Yesterday I booked an Uber and the driver called me and I spoke with him and was okay! This baby steps are making me so happy."
"Two weeks ago I ordered Stuttering and Anxiety: Self-Cures, from Amazon and I can't put it down! I am a lifelong (I'm 36) stutterer . . . [Y]our self-cure techniques are god-sent! . . .Thank you so much for restoring hope in what I long ago deemed was a lost cause!"
"As you have so correctly pointed out in your beautifully written book… we stutter because we have a FEAR of stuttering…I was 10 years old when my stutter began…My life, as I knew it, was falling apart…I am starting to practice your techniques every day, and I believe that in one year I will be fully cured of my stutter. I wish I had found your book 17 years ago. I have been changed forever."
"I very much appreciate the positive encouragement Lee. It goes along way...I always feel so inspired after speaking with you. Thanks for all you do for the PWS community."
"I owe my cure to Lee’s book and Lee’s coaching on Skype…
Lee’s methods work and he gives his time freely and unselfishly…"
"You are doing really amazing work…Thank you for all you have done for me and will continue to do for other PWS."
"Congratulations Lee. Lee, your now years of work in the trenches helping as many people who stutter as you can is paying huge dividends. It takes a strong character to persist on the journey you've been on. You were just the man for that job. The tons of people you have helped is incredible. Not only does it positively impact their life, but every life has a strong ripple effect on others. Your helping of these people doesn't only impact them but the people around them in positive ways. Keep up the incredible work. The positive impact you are having and its ripple effect is profound."
Lee’s methods are explained in
his magnum opus,
“How to Stop Stuttering & Love Speaking”