My name is Eleanor, but that’s a pseudonym. Frankly, I just not ready to “go public” and admit to my stuttering past. Anyway, I’m from Toronto, Canada. I’m 20, and I’ve been stuttering since I was 9 to 70% of my words. I tend to repeat and block and to use “umm” and “like” a lot. I also find it hard to whisper. I’ve never had any therapy, as I’ve heard that it doesn’t work. If found Coach Lee’s name on Google and his book on Amazon. I’m in college now, and I’ve been made fun of on a constant basis for years. It hurts.
Now that I’m in college, I am required to do presentations all the time. Just the word “presentation” makes my heart panic. I’m terrified beyond belief to speak in public. It’s crazy. I used to love public speaking. At some point, I panicked in a presentation and couldn’t talk and it’s been a battle ever since. I once booked flight home early to avoid giving a talk that I knew would be humiliating for me.
When I found Coach Lee’s book, I was over the moon. It laid out a clear path that made sense and made me believe that I could really overcome my stuttering. I memorized his crutches and they helped immensely, and I emailed him in early 2019, and he stunned me by replying and then even coached me for free. We coached off and on for two years, maybe 20 sessions in all. In my early Skypes with him, I remember crying as I described my failed presentation before 8 professors and many classmates. Coach Lee reminded me of the progress that I was making and that a bad incident now and then does not erase all my good incidents, which were growing, and we drilled various crutches, and he gave me lots of homework. He is truly the best, and I am so grateful for all his help. He is god-sent
After improving a lot, sometimes, I got lazy and quit Skyping with him and my speech went backwards. Then, I started the sessions again and I made steady progress. I think C-9, pronunciation, helped me the most, but word linkage was great too. Coach Lee also explained ways to use sounds, holding my tones as he says, that helped me a lot too.
As of this writing, it’s been about six months since I had a bad incident. Coach Lee wants me to stay on the program until I love to speak in all situations, and I want to do that when I can make time. I am so grateful for the sessions that I had with him and for his incredible books. I’m not stuttering any more, and I have the tools to beat the fears that linger. All of this is my way of saying that, if I can beat stuttering, so can you. Get Lee’s books and get to work. You can also find dozens of video-lectures on his books and hundreds of his coaching videos, all of which make it easier to apply his methods. You can find all of these on Speech Anxiety Cures, which is an organization staffed by EX-stutterers, all people that Lee helped beat stuttering. No one can help you as much as an EX-stutterer. They truly understand the problem. So, now it’s your turn to stop stuttering.
ELEANOR, Toronto, September 2020