I’m Jeremiah, 25, and I live in Bermuda. Bermuda is a small place, and I prefer not to publicize my war with stuttering; so, I post this story under a pseudonym, but the story and my victory is no less important to me and of no less value to others in search of answers to the stuttering problem.
I started stuttering around age six, and I stuttered in 75% or so of my conversations. I mainly repeated words or blocked on them and was silent, but, sometimes, I made faces or unnatural body movements to get my words out. I hated it. My friends and strangers of course knew I stuttered. As a kid, I was even mocked sometimes for it. I was told that stuttering was incurable and I’d have to live with it all my life. So, I just accepted it.
Sometime in 2020, a friend of my family’s told me about Lee Lovett, an older gentleman who lives in Bermuda and who had stopped his own stuttering. The friend took me to meet “Coach Lee”, as many call him. He had written a bunch of books on the subject. He was retired and coached stutterers for free. Anyway, my family’s friend and I went to see Coach Lee. I was astonished. Coach Lee started asking me questions, and I stuttered a lot as usual. Then, he began making suggestions to me. He asked me to speak in short increments of words, just a few words at a time, and he demonstrated how to link the words together. He made several other suggestions, and, within a few minutes, Coach Lee had me talking to him WITHOUT stuttering. Next thing I knew I had been talking to him for 30 minutes without stuttering at all. I couldn’t believe. My family’s friend couldn’t believe it, either. It seemed like a miracle.
Coach Lee warned me that unless I had some more coaching and read his book and studied his methods more I would likely start stuttering again soon after I left Coach Lee’s office. That’s exactly what happened. When I left Coach Lee’ office, within an hour or so, I had forgotten his several instructions and I was stuttering again. This seemed to confirm that stuttering was incurable. However, Coach Lee gave me one his books autographed and invited me to come back to see him (online via Skype or Zoom) for weekly coaching sessions until I stopped my stuttering permanently.
The whole experience stunned me. I took his book and read it very slowly. I tried to apply the methods by myself but I couldn’t do it. So, I kept stuttering, maybe not quite as much but close to it. I was stubborn. I had lived with stuttering for almost 20 years; I was used to it. I could live with it. However, the more I thought about it, the more it made sense to go back to Coach Lee and learn ways to end stuttering permanently.
So, in 2024, I emailed Coach Lee and took him up on his offer to coach me for free. We began doing weekly sessions. I had read his book and WSSA’s website. I stopped appearing to be a stutterer. I haven’t humiliated myself with a bad stuttering incidents for months now. I still fear stuttering but even the fears are getting less now. I feel great about it. My family loves my speech now and I don’t embarrass myself at work or at restaurants or wherever now.
The Neuroscience Method, as Coach Lee calls it, really works. So, I want to thank Coach Lee and WSSA with all my heart for helping me join the normal speech world. If you stutter, know that you don’t have to keep doing it, not any longer. Coach Lee can’t coach everyone and can’t coach forever, but WSSA is community of EX-stutterers to help you. So, get Coach Lee’s latest books and join WSSA and get to work. It will change your life forever.
Jeremiah, October 2024