Shmulik’s story – stuttering “no longer an issue”
May 31, 2010 By View Comments
11 years after treatment with Stuttering Online Therapy, Shmulik, who once stuttered severely, explains that stuttering is no longer an issue in his life.
Gil’s story – before and after stuttering therapy with a client
May 31, 2010 By View Comments
At Stuttering Online Therapy, we see firsthand the progress our clients make, but we love it when our clients are happy to speak for themselves.
During Gil’s first therapy session:
Gil: Let’s say, there are times when I realize that my stuttering slightly bothers me. It happens when I’m a bit tired or if I go out to a pub and drink. Then my thoughts are not organized; they are free and not in my control. I noticed at these times that I have a tendency to stutter more. Or I have problems with the flow of speech, so in these situations I have more stuttering…
After 15 hours of treatment:
Gil: First, I got a new way of expressing myself. (Before) the words were always in my head, but the way to get them out was a bit of a problem. (Now) the ideas simply flow in a very free way. Suddenly, after a long time of not doing this and not being used to doing it, you feel a real relief. Suddenly everything goes smoothly like it’s supposed to. Speech is something so basic. It’s your way of communicating with the outside world. Suddenly, something that was so difficult and not right goes smoothly and, in short, that gives you an excellent feeling.
(In this therapy), you have goals that are A,B,C,D and you know you have to focus on them. These are the basics and you go according to them. This makes the therapy very focused. It doesn’t say to you, “Well, you have to loose 50 kilo in a half a year.” It’s not like that. It’s not something abstract like that. There are specific goals that go with you all the way. The therapy is very focused.
Barbara: Have you changed your perspective about what speech is?
Gil: Yes, of course. Before (treatment) I didn’t know at all what it was – how you develop ideas, how it gets out of your mouth, how everything happens in your brain. Suddenly you actually realize that it (speaking) is really about not doing anything.
Barbara: What is your feeling today as you complete the formal stage of therapy?
Gil: Humm. First there is still more to do. I am not yet 100% there, so that I can’t say, “Great, after 15 hours of this treatment course, I can do everything that I want.” But first of all, it really contributed a lot to my self-confidence. If once, you were afraid or hesitant to open your mouth because of how people might react or because you couldn’t speak fluently, then it’s already normal not to be that way. That helps a lot. I don’t know, it’s just that everything is so much freer. The thoughts that you always had that were such a bother are reduced. They suddenly just aren’t there. So you have the time, freedom and energy to think about a million and one other things. Once the energy was directed to another place. Now you have the energy to use freely for whatever you want. You have peace of mind.
The therapy on skype is something that I had heard of for the first time and had never thought of doing it. I had never heard of such an option. At the beginning I was a bit skeptical. I said, “What? Via skype?” I am used to using skype just to talk to my friends abroad. It seemed strange to get therapy via skype. But, honestly, it is a great development. It’s not the conventional way of coming (to a clinic). It cuts out a lot of the bureaucracy of traveling, parking and sitting face to face. The therapy was much more comfortable and pleasant. It’s so much nicer. You go home to your own home and open up your computer for a 1-2 hour session, and that’s it. You’re finished. You also have all your home practice on your computer. It’s not the regular therapy and I really liked it a lot.
Relapse After Stuttering Therapy
May 20, 2010 By View Comments
A common complaint of people who have undergone stuttering treatment is that the results don’t last. This complaint relates to many other conditions, such as weight loss, anger management, addictions and so forth, and is discussed in a wonderful book, Changing For Good, by Prochaska, Norcross, & Diclemente. The authors discuss the reasons that people who come to treatment wanting to achieve certain goals do not maintain their accomplishments, and they outline a program to overcome this problem. I believe it is a must read for people who want to help themselves to make long-term changes in their behaviors and attitudes. In fact, I have incorporated the principles of this program in the Dynamic Stuttering Therapy Workbook.
Over and above the general difficulties of maintaining change, stuttering is a condition that presents special difficulties for the maintenance of change. One of these is that there is most likely an innate tendency for the brain to use an ineffective way for processing speech. Another is that most people who stutter are usually trying to change the wrong thing. I would like to address these two issues.
Research has shown that there are functional and possibly structural difference in the brains of fluent speakers and people who stutter when speaking. These findings are overlooked in most treatment programs. When working on speech tools, the goal is usually to change speech without any consideration of how the speech is being produced. Tools include smooth, slow speech, gentle onsets, pullouts, cancellations and voluntary stuttering. Working on using these techniques is like trying to change how the cake looks when it is finished instead of changing the ingredients and how they are put together. They deal with the result of speaking, the speech, instead of working on how to make it.
In Dynamic Stuttering Therapy we relate to the neuro-physiological process of speaking. During therapy one of the biggest challenges is to get clients to report on how they process speech both in practice and conversations between therapy sessions, instead of on whether or not they stuttered. I find that the clients who succeed in making this switch in perspective are the ones who maintain the new process and enhance their ability to speak fluently. This makes sense. If you are trying to be fluent, who knows what you are doing. It’s all a matter of chance. If you have a way of making speech that results in natural fluency, as happens when you use the processes you have used during therapy, you can make certain you use it.
Once we accept that there is a correct and incorrect process for making speech, there is still a need to cope with the innate tendency of the brain to function the way it is used to functioning. We have a clearly defined process for producing fluent speech, but that does not mean that just because you know the process and have used it, the brain will always function this way. People who stutter have to decide to use the process. The process doesn’t happen to them. They make it happen. Brain processes become stable only when they are repeated over and over again with awareness for at least 6 months to a year. This requires carrying out the process with awareness for a long time after knowing what and how to do it.
When the goal of therapy is to process speech normally, the issue of regression changes. Stuttering doesn’t come and go. You do not have to hope that you will maintain results. There is a direct connection between what you do and the fluency of speech. Regression does not happen, although the speaker might not use the effective process all the time. In this case stuttering may occur. Nevertheless, if you know the processes for producing fluent speech, you know how to return to it. Being able to do this is not a matter of chance. It is an empowering experience.
Leading to Recovery From Stuttering
March 31, 2010 By View Comments
My experience in treating a few thousand people who stutter has shown me that while it may not always be easy, it is possible for most people who stutter to develop the ability to produce normally fluent speech. We do not yet understand why some people do use different neurophysiologic processes for producing speech, but we see so many examples of people who have apparently changed these processes. These are the people who once stuttered and no longer feel the same difficulty when speaking.
There are a few examples of famous people who for the most part have become fluent speakers. Carly Simon, who once struggled with stuttering, set her speech to a rhythm. In an interview she gave with Tavis Smiley, she showed an example of how she made herself speak with what she describes as syncopation. To me it looked like her speech progressed in syllables, as she was no longer trying to get words out. In the same interview, Smiley, who also once stuttered, says he began speaking fluently by imitating the cadence of Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech. This is an example of achieving a normal pattern of intonation.
Vice President Joe Biden tells of his efforts to overcome stuttering by practicing reading aloud in front of a mirror and trying to eliminate the contortions of his face.
My clients changed their neurophysiologic processes by learning to develop speech internally without any effort to get it out and by letting their voice reflect normal patterns of intonation while giving up all control over forming words or speech sounds.
Whether the change was made by self-help or within a treatment program, we can learn a few things from people who as older children and adults do change how they speak I am listing a few of them here:
- They investigate how people who do not stutter speak.
- They learn from watching and listening to themselves when they speak.
- They become aware of the act of speaking, instead of trying not to stutter.
- They are persistent in looking for solutions, instead of focusing on problems.
- Whether or not it is their conscious goal, they change the intonation pattern of their speech.
- They take responsibility for the recovery process.
- They are willing to do repetitive practice on a daily basis.
- They believe they are capable of making changes.
- They focus more on what they do rather than blaming external situations for their stuttering.
- They realize making change requires patience and time.
If you want to help yourself to speak with greater fluency, the first step is to develop as many of these qualities and behaviors as you can. It will make the process of change easier and so much more rewarding.
Letting Go Is Essential
December 21, 2009 By View Comments
I’ve been talking a lot about control lately. It’s a really important subject when it comes to treating stuttering. Learning how to speak without control is really not very difficult to do. The process of speaking automatically is not complicated. There is so much less to do and think about than when creating stuttered speech. The speech is flowing and expressive. But the hardest thing for clients to do is to accept that speaking fluently requires giving up control.
For some people who stutter control has become so intertwined with talking that to give it up seems very strange. They believe that it is normal to think of what words you are going to say and how to form the sounds. They can’t imagine not doing that when they talk (even though they don’t do it when they are talking to themselves). Other people use control as a crutch. They know how to speak without control, but they are afraid to let go.
Actually the more people try not to stutter, the more control they exert over their speech. That is why chasing fluency has always been a no win battle. When people who stutter give up their fear of stuttering and any negative feelings that they have toward themselves because they stutter, they are often more open to giving up control. Speaking fluently requires using the normal automatic processes of producing speech. Giving up control is essential.
Fluency Without Speech Tools
December 14, 2009 By View Comments
As I have stated in previous posts, it seems very clear that people who stutter generate speech, at least some of the time, with too much control over language planning and motor programming. This is the problem; we need to consider the solution.
We know that the goal of modern stuttering therapy is usually to learn to use speech tools. People who stutter are guided to think about what they want to say and how to say it. They are asked to:
- Change the rhythm of speech or speak slowly.
- Reduce struggle behavior with pullouts and cancellations, preparatory sets.
- Remember to stutter on purpose
- Control how the mouth and breath forms various classes of speech sounds
- Control breathing and pause after short phrases
Although these “tools” may reduce the strength or frequency of stuttering blocks, they are really asking the speaker to add more control over speech. People are meant to be produced speech automatically, but speech tools support controlled speech. It is no wonder, therefore, that the use of these tools causes frustration and takes away from the joy and freedom of speaking naturally. Speech tools also interfere with the natural quality of speech and make it harder to express mood and the speaker’s real personality through normal patterns of intonation.
People often give up on speech tools and resign themselves to believing that their only other option is to continue to stutter. As much as they want to find ways to be more fluent, they are locked into their belief that their only choice is speech tools or stuttering. They can’t accept what there is now another option that guides people who stutter to speak fluently by learning to give up control.
Dynamic Stuttering Therapy is what both clinicians and clients have hoped for. It shows people who stutter how to speak without effort, thought or control over words or speech muscles. The speech produced is natural and expresses the speaker’s feelings. People who stutter can learn to speak fluently without having to use speech tools.
For those who have hoped for something better than speech tools, Dynamic Stuttering Therapy is the answer.
There Is Hope For Overcoming Stuttering
November 22, 2009 By View Comments
I have recently heard people who stutter saying that they felt that a person who no longer stutters should not be a spokesperson for the stuttering community. They believe that if they speak without stuttering, the public gets the impression that everyone who stutters can speak fluently if they would only try, and people who stutter are given false hope that they can also speak fluently.
I was very bothered by this discussion because I believe these opinions reinforce the belief that people who stutter can at best learn to live with stuttering. It is my belief that the truth requires looking at stuttering from a different perspective. It was once true that we did not know exactly how to guide people who stutter develop the ability to speak naturally in all the different situations that they encounter in their lives. Therapy was a trial and error endeavor. Very often clients tried very hard to develop techniques and control their speech, but to no avail. On the other hand, there have always been people, who once stuttered, who no longer stutter. Since we didn’t know how that happened, it was chalked up to “good luck” or perhaps no longer chasing fluency god.
Times have changed. In my work with people who stutter I see on a regular basis that that there is a clear, explainable, and doable process that people who stutter can use that results in naturally fluent speech. It does not require chasing fluency, an activity that does usually result either in stuttering or effortful fluency. It does not require developing speech controls, the antithesis of automatic, normally produced speech. What it does involve is understanding how a person who stutters process speech and what changes need to be made to make speaking a much easier and dependable activity. I am fully part of the group who believes that there is no magic cure for stuttering. However, as a result of practical experience, I know that people of all ages and severities of stuttering are capable adopting and getting used to a process that results in comfortable easily produced fluent speech.
I believe that the stuttering community should welcome the input of people who have overcome stuttering. People who still stutter can learn from them that change is possible. For those who believe that it is not possible for people who stutter to develop a way of speaking fluently, it is time to gain a deeper understanding of stuttering. Instead of sticking to beliefs based on yesterday’s knowledge, they should listen carefully to the positive experiences of people who have overcome stuttering and to all the new research and clinical knowledge about stuttering. The time for negativity has past. The time for being open to a new perspective on stuttering has come.
Yet Another Therapy
November 15, 2009 By View Comments
We have had many clients who have tried various other therapy approaches before participating in Dynamic Stuttering Therapy. From what I have observed, these clients fall mainly into 3 categories:
1. Those who had stuttering modification therapy, but were not convinced that this was all they could do to help themselves. They come to Dynamic Stuttering Therapy, because they have decided that, while accepting that they stutter and learning to stutter with a bit less struggle is beneficial, they have not been be able to improve the quality of their communication to the extent they desire. In their heart, they really do want to speak fluently.
2. Those who were in fluency shaping programs and have tried to do what they had been taught, but became frustrated because it did not work for them. Due to the high hopes they had, they are often skeptical of yet another therapy and fear being disappointed by another unsuccessful therapy experience. Having been dedicated and serious clients, they may also be reluctant to give up the control techniques that they were taught even though they have really not produced the desired results. When these clients come to Dynamic Stuttering Therapy, they are amazed that the experience of speaking can be easier, more comfortable and, of course, fluent.
3. Those who did not like the therapy approach they had tried and, therefore, never made a habit of using additional speech or stuttering controls to speaking. When they come to Dynamic Stuttering Therapy, they are relieved that the therapy goals are so logical and uncomplicated. They are no longer reluctant to go along with the therapy process, because it makes sense and feels good.
Some of our clients did not let stuttering affect their lives even before beginning treatment. However, the majority of our clients come to therapy with years of negative experiences, thoughts and feelings related to stuttering. These clients work as much on cognitive processing as on neurological processing. Some of our clients need to make substantial cognitive changes in order to begin to enjoy speaking. My experience as a clinician has shown me the power of individuals to make changes. When the there is a direct relationship between change and desired results, the experience is rewarding.