Laura Spicer Blog

Hi again,

Today I want to write a little bit about stammering as I have been trawling the internet so that I can keep up to date with what else is out there. I guess if you are reading this then you probably know that a large number of my clinic clients come to me for help to become more fluent and to eradicate their stammers and stutters. Of the clients who keep in touch with me I would say I have a success rate in the 90%s but of course that doesn’t take into account anyone who I never hear from again.

Anyway, as I was browsing You Tube and watching Gareth Gates and other people talk about their stammers I came upon Elastica singing their song ’stutter’:

Justine, the singer in Elastica is my cousin and so I feel extra pleased that this song is on You Tube and I can have a link to it on my site.

But to get back to the serious topic of stammering, it is such a horrible thing for some people to suffer with and I thought you might be interested in a few facts about stammering.

• 1% of the world is afflicted with stuttering, thats approximately 66 million worldwide.
• At the moment there is no scientific explanation for why people stammer
• There is no official known cure for stammering but there are lots of people who are ex-stammerers and there are the people who helped them get to be ex-stammerers. So that has to say something interesting!
• There is a ratio of 1 female to 4 males who stutter.
• In practically every case even the severest stutterer can sing fluently
• Some famous people who had stutters are Winston Churchill, Marilyn Monroe, Bruce Willis, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tiger Woods.

I have been told that Marilyn Monroe’s quirky, sexy way of talking came from her search to find a way not to stammer on the set. And her new way of talking not only worked to get her fluent but also became something she was known and loved for. Funny the way things work…

In my view one of the things that makes for more effective treatment is to address both physiological and psychological aspects. I get loads of clients who have been in speech therapy and for whom it didn’t work. Maybe this is because it mainly addresses the physiological. Equally I get clients who have tried hypnosis and it didn’t work - perhaps they need a bit of physical help too. If anyone is reading this who has recovered from stammering or stuttering would be willing to post something I would really appreciate hearing what worked for you. The more we can hear about what works the more people will be able to be helped.

Talk to you soon

Laura

Hi,

At last, I have a blog to post all the wonderful things to do with voices, speaking, and sound that have fascinated me so much in the many years I’ve been a voice coach. Also, as an NLP consultant I work with all sorts of other problems that people have - and I learn so much fascinating stuff from them. I hope some of you will find this material as interesting as I do.

I’m currently in the process of making some of my products available online, including my book, ‘Cure Your Stammer’.

The decision to write this book emerged from working with stammerers in my private clinics. I learnt so much from them and have discovered that there are some defining features that reappear again and again. But the amazing thing has been to discover just how unique and individual human beings are, and how often someone will appear with a stammer that sounds like other stammers - but the key to getting fluent has been absolutely unique.

For example, I had one client who cured her stammer by relaxing her thighs! Her stammer had started when she married the man chosen for her. That was my first clue. We talked about her life and when her stammer got worse and better, and it soon became obvious there was a connection between her dread of sex with her husband and the tension in her body. When she relaxed her thighs, there was a knock on relaxing effect throughout her body and the stammer pretty much disappeared.

I collected the exercises and insights from the hundreds of stammers I have worked with and put some of them together in this book. I hope that stammerers, consultants, and therapists who treat stammers, will all find some useful information in it. It is incredibly rewarding to meet someone who can barely speak a whole sentence without struggling - and in a couple of hours hear them change, and know that their whole life will improve as a result.

Another product I’m releasing (it’s my blog and I’ll plug my stuff all I like! ), is my DVD VoicePower for Teachers. I have also worked a lot with teachers and lecturers and it seems really bizarre to me that teachers, who have to speak all day, get no voice work as part of their teacher training. Every teacher I have worked with thought the skills were essential knowledge. One teacher told me he hadn’t realised before I worked with him that he didn’t have to shout at the kids or tell them they were stupid. I am so glad I got the chance to help him become conscious of that, and to change it to a more effective and happy teaching style! Also, there are some great things teachers can do to come across much better, and every teacher wants the class to respond well, pay attention and be engaged in the lesson. It is amazing what a voice can do.

Everyone has had the experience of liking some teachers better than others. And when you think about the subjects you loved, weren’t they taught by teachers who seemed to be more interesting? I hope I will be able to include some of the feedback I get from the teachers who work with the VoicePower for Teachers DVD. I’m sure there will be a lot to learn from it.

I also plan from time to time to include interesting things I learn from other clients. Compulsive liars, blushers, phobics of all kinds, people who come to me lacking in confidence, cannabis smokers, dieters, anorexics and bullimics are just some of the different clients I meet every week, as well as corporate clients at every level. (Of course, all stories will be both anonymous, and only with permission from the clients themselves.) I find out so many cool things and I am looking forward to recording some of the stories I hear and the things that help them change the most in this blog as well, in the months ahead.

I think I will have to include recording some of the mistakes I make too. Like accepting a cheque without a bank card from a compulsive liar and then the next compulsive liar I saw, instead of learning from the bouncing cheque I agreed to let him drop the money in later instead of paying me at the end of the session.

Anyway, Im looking forward to the coming months of keeping this blog as a collection of the interesting experiences I have. Im hoping that there are people out there who will want to share this with me.

I’ll be back

Laura