Hi, my name is Moises, I live in the state of California, and like the majority of stutterers, I began stuttering at age 5. 23 years later, I finally found a way to stop stuttering, and I know that from now on, nobody will ever tell from my speech that I was a stutterer.
It all started some months ago, when, i had told myself that i was going to have to deal with my stutter for the rest of my life and that i had to accept it if i truly love myself. Couple weeks after out of curiousity, I was on Google looking for ways to improve my speech impediment. I saw a book under the name “Stuttering & Anxiety Self-Cures” came up, and it called my attention because of the numerous five-star reviews. I started to read some of these reviews, and I started to get more excited, and feel more hopeful and confident that I could do the same as all those people did: stop stuttering.
My previous experience with speech therapies, back in elementary and high school hadn’t been very successful, unfortunately, as I kept on stuttering. So, as you can imagine, I was a bit sceptical at first, but the more reviews I read, the more I wanted to give it a try. Then, I found Lee Lovett’s YouTube channel, and I watched a few of the videos of his coaching sessions with other PWS, and even some of the videos of people who stopped stuttering. I even watched a few videos of a certain person, and how his speech went from dysfluent to fluent. It was quite impressive. That’s when I bought the book (I bought the audible version) and even listened to it twice! I later found out that the audible version corresponded to the 2nd edition of Lee’s book. There is a fourth edition now! Don’t make the same mistake as I did, and get the latest edition of the book.
I started following the instructions given in the book, and my speech started to improve, but I still stuttered a bit. That’s when I realised I needed a bit of help to get the job done. So I signed up in Speech Anxiety Cures, and took the video courses, which helped me understand the program much better. Then, I requested the 3 free coaching sessions included in my membership.
I was assigned to Javier, one of the coaches of SAC, and it turned out that we had in common many things. His stutter also consisted in blocks, and he started stuttering at the same age as I did. In the first session that we had, we talked a bit, and he quickly identified what I needed to do to keep on improving. Then, we met again one week later. The improvement, in just seven days, was amazing: I hadn’t appeared speech disabled not even once! And before finding Lee’s book, I would stutter on around 80% of my words!! Two weeks later we met again, with the same result: not a single bad incident. That is, not appearing speech disabled, although I may have hesitated a few times. But everybody does that, and that doesn’t make you a stutterer.
I kept on working on my speech, and improving. During this time I went to the SAM meetings: the weekly meetings that SAC organises, where there is usually a scheduled speaker (a PWSS who gives a talk about their speech journey). I find these meetings incredibly motivating, and you learn a lot too.
Two months later I decided to contact Javier, because I wanted him to know that during all this time I hadn’t had any bad incidents, so I wasn’t sure if I could consider myself a PWSS or not. Since I still had (and still do) fears of stuttering when speaking, and anxiety, I had my doubts. So we scheduled a session and talked about it. He told me that the fears will eventually die, if I stay on the program. About the speech anxiety, it is a problem that even fluent people suffer, it is not something that only stutterers suffer, but if we work on expanding comfort zones, we can win this war too, just like many of us have already won the war against stuttering. This is my goal now.
In a couple of months I plan to give a SAM talk. I want to prove myself that I can speak fluently in front of a large crowd. I see it as a great opportunity to grow and improve, and I hope to see you there!
If you struggle with your speech, waste no time and join SAC. Start applying the Lovett Method. This really works with a bit of hard work and consistency I’m sure you as well can become a fluent speaker (PWSS). The best advice I could give you is to seek the help of those who had the same problems as you do, and who have overcome them. Learn from them. You can do this joining SAC, the world’s only Community of EX-stutterers and those fast becoming ex-stutterers. They have everything you need: books, video lessons, forums, blogs, videos of more than 1500 sessions with PWS and PWSS, support groups, weekly meetings, practice group sessions… What are you waiting for? Become the next one to post a Success Story!
Moises – California, USA – January 2022