My name is Cindy, and I currently live in Arizona. I’m 68 years old, started the program in March and am now so proud to announce that I’m a PWSS.
My stutter was pretty much consistent over all my years – Repeating on first words, blocking, injections of sounds such as ah & hum and some facial/body contortions. I probably stuttered on 20% of my words. I had speech therapy about 5-6 times over the years with no results outside the sessions.
Some key information about my stuttering history:
- I’ve stuttered since I was 3 or 4 years old. I lived in Pennsylvania and my parents would take me on the bus to the city for Speech Therapy on Saturdays. I hated it. And there were no results.
- I went to a catholic grade school and had to go to the public grade school for Speech Therapy each week. My mother would drive me and I had to walk down a long, long hallway in my catholic school uniform to the therapy – I thought everyone was staring at me. Again, I hated it and there were no results.
- In high school, for some reason, my parents didn’t make me go to Speech Therapy. I was free from it. In my opinion, I had a normal high school years – was a geek (OK by me), but had friends and participated in cool school activities including the drill team and I even was selected to form and lead the new color guard team. I had summer jobs and my speech was never an issue.
- Although I was an expert in Math and Sciences, my parents wanted me to go to college for Nursing or Teaching, which was pretty typical for women in the early 1970’s. I choose Nursing.
- A turning point in my life happened during my 1st week of college at the School of Nursing. There was an orientation day for all freshman nursing students. We had to go around the room and say our name, where we were from, etc. – a dreadful situation for a stutterer like me. I thought I did pretty good, in my opinion. Anyway, at the end of day, the Dean of the Nursing school called my name to come to her office. She told me she didn’t know I stuttered, and a nurse cannot stutter, and she just didn’t know what they were going to do with me.
- I left her office in tears, changed my major the next day to computer science. And of course, never told anyone the reason.
- In college, my parents made me go to Speech Therapy because it was a condition of a state vocational scholarship I received. Again, I hated it and there were no results.
- After college, I worked for 2 top technical corporations, worked very hard and had a wonderful career. I rose from software engineer to management positions very quickly and led hundreds of people in very complex engineering roles across the United States and in Europe – high stress positions. I gave presentations multiple times a day, talked on the phone, traveled extensively, etc. and just “plowed through” with my stutter. I had hundreds of humiliating speech disability incidents and just thought my speech was a burden I had to “grin and bear” and kept on going.
In summary, lots of speech therapy, no results and I was successful in my professional career despite my stutter. I never talked about my stutter or researched options to improve my stutter. Looking back now, I think this may be based on behaviors I learned from my parents. Although they insisted I go to speech therapy, my stuttering was never discussed – seemed like a taboo topic. I hated my stutter but did nothing about it – just “plowed through my speech and life”.
I retired in 2021 and started a winery in Arizona with my husband. My speech was better in that I still stuttered but didn’t have the awful humiliating incidents because I didn’t give large group presentations and my stress/anxiety was greatly reduced. I was enjoying my retirement, but I was still a stutterer and it bothered me all the time. I was happy on the outside but not so on the inside.
So – how did I find Coach Lee, the book “How to Stop Stuttering and Love Speaking” and begin my journey to become a PWSS?
Although I stuttered all my life, I had never really known another stutterer. I met another stutterer who was in a college Engineering program and I started mentoring her regarding her studies, potential jobs, etc. In March, we decided to investigate potential stuttering books/programs which may help the both of us – since we both stuttered. My goal was to NOT have her go through all the humiliations I had during my 40 year career due to my stuttering. I didn’t really have any idea that I could stop stuttering – since I’d been repeatedly told that stuttering was uncurable and I was stuck with it and all its’ baggage that I must bear.
Long story short – I found Lee’s book and fell in love with the program. It explained so much of why I am who I am. I’ve always been a perfectionist, and worried constantly about what people thought about me. My stutter was a habit which I constantly fed! My mind “spun and spun” all the time on words on how to speak to reduce my stutter. It’s a wonder I could do my job with all the mind spinning ….
In all the speech therapies I’ve had over the years, I had NEVER been told about Reading Aloud or Mind training / Self Hypnosis. And the tools past SLPs gave me made my speech un-natural sounding, so I never used them outside the sessions – they were not like Coach Lee’s crutches.
I started the program in mid-March, and my speech improved drastically within weeks. The 1-2-3 Punch worked fabulously for me:
- I read aloud at least 2 hours per day (Lee’s book)
- I did Mind Training in the morning and afternoon and Self Hypnosis at night
- I learned all the crutches and used them in my Stutter free zones
- I tried to attend 5 Speech Practices a week and SAM on Saturdays
And it worked – I am so proud to be a PWSS and I love the WSSA community – you have helped me on my journey and are my true friends for life! And what can I say about Coach Lee – he is my hero and I’m so thankful that he founded these methods, wrote the books and coached me and many others on their fluency and “loving to speak” journey.
In closing – I need to make one plea to all – if you are still a PWS or know anyone that is a PWS – please go for this program and work 110% on it. It works and will change your life, as it has changed mine. Don’t wait until you are old, do it now – the whole world is waiting for the new you!