Hello! My name is Jason, from Kansas, and I am 19 years old. I began stuttering, like most of us, at around the age 5 or 6. I can’t remember what caused it, but I’ve been living with this problem all my life, and has affected every aspect of it. Although I was very situational and mainly stuttered with authorities and groups and on the phone, when I stuttered, I blocked on most words. I just couldn’t communicate in those extreme pressure situations. Except for those situations, I didn’t stutter. So most people who knew me had heard me stutter. Since I’m not generally known as a stutterer, the last thing that I want to do is broadcast the fact that I was. It might even make some prospective employers not hire me. So, my story will be posted under a pseudonym and with no picture.
After I finished high school and started going to college, I decided to finally do something about my stutter, so I went to the internet and started searching for solutions. The one that really caught my attention was a book written by Lee Lovett: “How to stop stuttering and love speaking”. That’s exactly what I was looking for! The numerous positive reviews on Amazon encouraged me to get the book. If all that people have stopped stuttering, it seemed like there is no reason why I can’t do the same.
A couple of days later I received the book. Although it is a long book, it is very easy to read and comprehend, and I immediately started applying the methods of the book, and my speech started to improve. In this book, Lee Lovett says that some of his students have created a community of PWS and PWSS, and that they help each other stop stuttering, they have courses, group practice sessions, weekly hang-out meetings, and more, so I decided to take a look at it. This community, WSSA, is actually all that and more, and they offer private coaching sessions at very reasonable prices.
I continued reading the book, and when I was around half-way through it, I couldn’t wait more and purchased 5 coaching sessions. I was assigned to Javier, one of WSSA’s coaches, and we began having our sessions. We had them once a week.
In our first coaching session Javier explained to me what I had to do every day and some ways to smooth my speech and avoid the blocks and stutters. I also learnt that stuttering is not only a speech problem, it is more than that (insecurities, anxiety…). I had to practice what he showed me until I really mastered it, but it wasn’t too difficult. It’s just a matter of discipline.
The next week I stopped having clear blocks and stutters. My speech sounded fluent, and nobody could tell that I stutter. I could sound like a bit nervous sometimes, but just like a fluent person would speak in a stressful situation, not like a stutterer. In our following sessions we worked on this too, and I learnt ways to smooth my speech even more.
A bit more than a month after our first session I have reached what WSSA calls 1st base; that is, I have become a Person Who Stopped Stuttering, or PWSS. What does this mean? That I know ways to avoid appearing clearly speech disabled. I know ways to avoid getting stuck on words. I have done it for more than a month, so I can do it for the rest of my life. But I still need to continue working on my speech: I still feel fear of getting blocked on a word, but fear is not stuttering.
Now I am working on getting rid of these residual fears, and learn to enjoy speaking in all situations.
What I said at the beginning is true: if so many people have been able to stop stuttering, including myself, what’s stopping you from doing the same?
Jason, Kansas – February 2024