This isn’t my case I just want to share my experience. There’s this hesitation in me to talk to strangers especially on the phone. I have been attending a Speech Therapy every week.I have improved by almost 60%. I stammer more in English, my therapist wanted me to talk on phone but I hesitated for a long time. In that time I prepared myself mentally.

Then on one day I gave it a try and I didn’t stammer in the whole conversation. From that day onwards I find a change in me.I believe that it’s just self-belief and confidence that does it.

I, Subhash Malik, aged 35 years, am presently working in the Supreme Court of India.

WHY DETAILED

I am told to give a synopsis of my stammering history and analyze myself under the able guidance of my therapist. My entire life is related to this stuttering problem. Stammering and me – me and stammering – both have become synonyms and are inseparable. One cannot be treated in isolation. I can’t think of my life without stammering. It has pervaded my entire life and is responsible for all my failures. Had there been no stammering I would have risen in life today and reached dizzy heights. BUT that was not destined to be. Thus I am going to give a detailed background reminiscing my past.

CHILDHOOD MEMORIES

As far as my memories go and I am able to recollect, stammering was never there in the childhood. I have all along been a brilliant student throughout my life. Whenever any question was put I was the first to raise my hand and answer. I remained the Monitor of my class as well all along.

As luck would have it, I suffered Typhoid fever when I just switched over to a new School in class 5th. The Summer Vacations attack rendered me bed-ridden for nearly two months. I presume, and still believe, this has been the cause of weakness of my tongue muscles resulting in stuttering which with the advancement in age, aggravated due to consciousness. I still recollect my trifle with my elder brother and I was unable to speak due to emotions and used to stutter. This was being mocked by him and in the result I started keeping silent. Of course, this did cause frustration in me and I tried to engage myself in books lest I may have to speak. I did blossom in academic field, but at the cost of my all-round personality, because by now I had become an introvert by nature.

Be that as it may, I did gain a boost whenever my instance was quoted, other students and I was encouraged in extra-curricular activities. I took part in games in the school as well as enact a part in Mahabharata (Indian Mythology). All this was due to encouragement given by my teachers and I am till to-date beholden by their graciousness and generosity. I dominated the home-front as well. Being a brilliant student I was widely respected amongst all boys and girls in my colony. I was at my best in Carrom and Cricket as well. There were many times competitions with many onlookers but I never trembled. A superiority complex inhered in me and this lent me great help in overcoming my shortcoming.

COLLEGE DAYS

After passing my Higher Secondary with 59.4% marks, a good second division, I applied for admission in B.A. English Honors course in Delhi University in four colleges. English has always been my favorite subject. By this time I had been very much conscious about my stammering and it was aggravated to a large extent. I could not repeat the thing I uttered if asked to and thus I used to avoid speaking as much as possible.
My name did figure for admission in Saint Stephens College, Hansraj College and Ramjas College. I shirked being interviewed at St. Stephens because of its high standards, as read in newspapers. Gathering courage I went to Hansraj College and sat at the end. To most of the questions I replied ‘sorry, I don’t know/remember’, obviously because I wanted to avoid the situation. Naturally, I was not selected. Left with no other option I took admission in Ramjas which took me taking into account my academic record. To soothe me, a letter from Hansraj College invited me to take admission but I did not think it proper to switch over.

You will laugh at me when I say that till January I was completely unaware about the syllabus. I used to attend the classes but was not able to comprehend properly. Due to shyness I used to avoid questions. Fluent speaking students did cause depression/frustration in me but I just carried on. After mustering courage I asked the fellow students to tell me the syllabus and then I started preparing myself for the examinations. As was obvious I failed in the First Year having secured 36% and 33% marks in two branches. Remaining of the four papers were cleared by me. I just missed the target of minimum pass marks of 40%. I was amazed to see that some students did secure 4 and 6 marks. I don’t know what earned them these petty marks. I was happy that in comparison my 36 and 33 marks were on the higher side.

This was the first failure of my life and thus depressed me as well as my parents a lot. I came to know that if you have secured more than 25% marks in Honours course, you can get admission in BA Pass course in Second Year. I was desperate to save my one year and thus switched over to Second Year Pass Course. I missed most of my classes and always used to remain in the Library as I had to clear 8 papers, 4 papers of each year. When the results came I had not only cleared all the 8 papers but I had topped the class as well. Everybody in my class was astonished at the ‘dark horse’. I secured myself a front seat and was venerated by everybody in the class. This gave me a lot of confidence and to a large extent I overcame my stammering as well.

Here I decided to go in for speech therapy and went to AIIMS. A group observed me and explained it to me that there was nothing wrong in my tongue and I should get rid of this feeling.

EMPLOYMENT MARKET

I took my last BA Final Exam on April 1, 1976. Sitting idle for 4-5 days with nothing at all to do, I joined shorthand classes as suggested by my father long ago. With plenty of time in hand and of course gradual interest generated therein, I soon overshadowed all students in the class. English was my main asset in success. Very soon I made a place in the hearts of my teachers and my stammering was purposely neglected by them by encouraging me maximally to read out the transcript.

My first appointment was in Hindustan Insecticides Limited as a Typist. I did pretty well in the interview because mere spellings were asked.
I gave up this post after 4-5 months and joined another concern as PA to Editor. I must say my English was greatly improved there. Stammering did trouble me at times but my efficiency made them neglect this handicap.

My first job was as a Junior Stenographer in the Ministry of Finance where I had a chance to work with the top brass in leave vacancies. Those days my stammering was at its peak. Reason was that all the Stenographers/Pas used to sit in a pool and we had to speak over the telephone before 10-12 people. This used to cause psycho-fear in me and I became tongue-tied. I had to pull myself to ooze out a word and this resulted in embarrassment, frustration, depression and the like. I till to-date remember the words of our Director, “He is a good stenographer but not a good PA”. But I too was helpless.
Meantime I got an offer from Supreme Court. Nothing much was asked in the interview and I joined it on 2.11.1978. Many a time I was posted at the residences of the Hon’ble Judges in leave vacancy. Here a plus point was that there was a separate room and thus there was less difficulty over the phone. Some difficulty was experienced in reading out the dictation but I had to bear it with a depressed heart.
It was at this stage that I contacted a speech therapist who gave me the following points to improve my speech:
1. Guttural sound
2. Easy language
3. Rhythm exercise.
4. Timed, stretched reading
Basic points:
(i) take the breath
(ii) prolongation of vowels,
(iii) inter-spacing
(iv) pause after 3-4 words.
Momentarily, there was some relief for a few days but the same old situation prevailed.
It was at this juncture I started analyzing myself.
These points were:
1. Hurriedly counting till 200
2. Different sentences consisting of words mainly starting with a, e, i, o and u.
3. Lip swinging and tongue twisting
4. Translation from Hindi to English and vice-versa was most important and beneficial.
5. Reading spellings separately.
6. Remembering poems and telling myself loudly.
7. Reading a play and enacting character wise.
8. Reading alphabets from ‘Ka’ to ‘Ha’ with all the vowels.
9. Singing songs.
10. Singing songs with the singer.
Rigorous regularization is not adhered to these self-made principles and thus swinging is there.
Despite my helpless problem I have not given any chance to my bosses to grumble. My dedication, sincerity and devotion to duty have overcome my handicap.

Last year I had a chance to appear for an interview before a Board of Supreme Court Judges. I must say I did pretty well, beyond even my expectations and felt quite elated. I was the only candidate selected for the post. It is matter of no concern here that I had to forego that promotion because my Judge did not want him to left alone at the time of his impending retirement.

On April 2, 1990 I saw an ad for a Speech Clinic in a local newspaper and after 4-5 days under a fit of depression I telephoned. I was convinced and started undergoing the therapy since April 20, 1990. It is now nearly three months. Here again there is a ‘swing’ but noticeable improvement is there in that my ROS has reduced considerably, repetitions are comparatively far less and confidence is aroused; to a large extent secondary features have been eliminated. But this is a long-drawn process and I am not expecting miracles within a set time-frame. Regularity of exercises is an indispensable pre-requisite and there can be no compounding of that. I am sticking to this principle and endeavoring to my utmost in that direction. Time is the essence and I am leaving sufficient margin on that count. A few days back a debating get-together took place in the clinic. To my satisfaction I spoke well and felt jubilant. I have not completed the course till-to date and I am sticking to accomplish it successfully. I hope my past will remain buried and will no longer haunt me.

Whatever noticeable improvement is there, it is all due to the persistent effort of my therapist and I am beholden to him for treating me like a personal friend and guiding me in the right direction. With this sustained efforts I hope and trust, feel and believe, that I shall overcome my stammering habit for good.
Before I part I would like to say a word about a colleague – a dynamic young gentleman Dinesh Mehta. It pained me to see that such a handsome personality is afflicted with this dreadful disability. Gladly, he has apparently overcome his speech problem within a short span. It was after meeting with him that I stuck to my regularity and made a chart for daily exercises. I may take a little more time but his indelible imprint will always remain there for all time to come.

26/2/90 – My problem in speech from the beginning till the day I joined the speech clinic.

I think it was after going to hostel that it started. I had gone to hostel at the age of six or seven years old. I stayed there for only two years but I used to cry a lot. I was very much attached to my mother so in the hostel I was not at all good in studies. Then I came back to Delhi and was put in school here. I don’t remember it much from where I started stammering. After coming from hostel I was not good in studies at all. I used to say I don’t want to study. Even in school I used to avoid reading etc. if the teacher asked me. I used to avoid doing my homework at home and instead do it in the class. I think from there I started stammering slightly. Then in 10th, 11th and 12th its frequency increased. I started avoiding answering phone calls. Even to say “Hello” I used to take a lot of time. I was not good in studies, so whatever I used to say no one used to bother much. My stammering was increasing with each passing day, due to which I started losing confidence. I started avoiding going out or socializing with others. I couldn’t take decisions anymore, not even when I had to decide about my career after college. My family members started complaining that I used to work very slowly. The things which I know I can do it myself but didn’t do it because I couldn’t push myself and because lacked confidence due to my stammering. My brother is so fluent in speaking. I started to get depressed and avoided talking at home.

26/2/90 – The day I joined the speech clinic up till now how I feel.

I don’t think that I can get it right. I don’t have confidence in me at all. I also think this will take a lot of time. But no harm in trying. Now that so many days have passed I feel the same. I feel there’s no improvement in me. I get depressed when I think of it because talking is must wherever you go and if you cannot talk properly you feel bad about it. Let’s see what happens in the future.

11-1-91 - “Self Analysis of Speech” After my last write-up till now (March- December 1990)

In my last write-up on (26-2-90) I wrote that I don’t feel any improvement because it was very early for me to say about my speech because only twenty days had passed.

But now I can give my self analysis of speech very well. Now I feel much relaxed about my speech because first of all my facial expressions are right. Earlier my facial expressions were very bad because when I used to talk to someone I used to put lot of stress on certain words, due to which I used blink my eyes profusely, my lips movements were not right and one could easily make out that I stammer. Now my facial expressions are perfect. By doing exercises of speech I have controlled my “Rate of Speech” which was very fast before and I used to stammer a lot in talking. My reading was also very bad because of fast rate of speech. Now I can control my rate of speech in reading and interact with spontaneity.

Recently two new stutterers have joined the clinic with same problem as me. I had a spontaneous and interactive discussion with my therapist and others in their presence. They compared my speech with theirs and did not consider me having any disorder. But still I feel that I have problem in speech, because it was a bad habit for so many years, which has improved a lot.

Now I am confident and can talk properly to anyone. But still I think that my speech is not fluent completely. I feel with continuous practice, very soon I would be able to talk fluently and perfectly.

My name is Dhritiman Das. I am presently doing my engineering from Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal.

After my class 10th board exams ended, I had a lot of time to spend time with myself. I was having a suppressed anger and frustration regarding my speech, a frustration which was simmering at the top and was ready to burst out at any moment. However,with my father and grand-father’ s invaluable assistance I went to a therapist on May14th ,2005 for consultation. That day,he asked me questions about my speech ,analyzed my speech as i could make out with his ever-insightful gaze, and gave me some yes/no questions to answer. I felt that “yes” something could be done about this stammering problem that I have.

The very next day my therapy started under the watchful eyes of my therapist. I also began attending the group therapy sessions. Mind you, before coming for G.T., I had almost never in my life come across any other person who stutters,so the very 1st day was quite a new experience for me. What I experienced had a profound impact on me as a person. I met people with severe forms of stuttering than what i have and yet they were cheerful. I expected the G.T. to be a serious affair but it turned out to be the opposite. All members and the therapist -pulling everyone’s legs, joking (I was the prime target whenever I came for G.T.),and at the same time ensuring that the underlying purpose of therapy and achieving fluency was met. 2 months of rigorous therapy brought out a whole new change in my speech. I was then supposed to test it out outside the clinic-constantly taking risks and applying ROS(Rate Of Speech) rules while talking to strangers to get rid of my inhibitions and develop a whole new attitude.

So, there I went out into the ‘new world’, ready to speak and improve. But the whole excitement got to me. You know the whole feeling of not stopping your breath while speaking, of feeling that smooth flow of air while talking, the perfect coordination of the muscles, the knowledge that u can speak whatever you want to speak without substituting, without hesitating just got to me. I lost all control of my speech, all ROS rules and exactly a month later I began stuttering again. Since then it has been a see-saw ride. I did my exercises, practiced reading , but somewhere down the line I still had not been able to understand the ‘crux’ of the therapy itself like many other members had,thus my speech fluctuated a lot. My class 12th board exams ended last year and then I was a bit stressed out and speech was really bad. I started afresh and my speech somewhat improved, but fluctuations do exist. GT has always been inspiring and fun for me.

These days I go for my therapy regularly. I feel my attitude is my problem(I think I am a little immature in this regard). Whenever someone makes fun of my speech , I just turn around and walk off. I try to articulate as much as I can but forget it at crucial junctures. I ,do, analyse my speech at the end of the day and decide what to do for the next day. I do get a bit upset when I stammer and that affects my speech and mood. Also I have noticed a strange thing that whenever I eat any cold-thing such as ice-cream , my stuttering increases manifold. Has this happened to anyone of you? I am practising a lot. I cannot say my roll no.”19″ in class even now, but i still keep it in mind that I will articulate and look to ways and means to correct it. The journey is still on. The destination is yet to be reached. I shall keep walking.

“THE WAY WE BEHAVE IS THE WAY WE FEEL,THE WAY WE FEEL IS THE WAY WE THINK”

Before Therapy:

I had been suffering from stammering since 1962 at the age of 5 yrs. when I suffered attack of Typhoid. Stammering had been acute in my case. In the year 1971 I got speech therapy in a clinic situated in Delhi(India) for about two months but could not get any relief. In the year 1977 I went to Public Speaking Institute Manimajra, Chandigarh got speech therapy for about two months. After this there was some relief. Except in adverse situations, I started speaking alright but this continued for about 3-4 months. After this problem started in normal situations also and I came into the same condition, the acute stammerer. In the year 1992 I heard about Speech Therapy Centre Jaipur. Though I didn’t have much faith in this type of therapy (sing song). But somehow I went there I took treatment for about one month. Same thing happened. In normal conditions I started speaking fluently and in adverse conditions like on telephones, in front of higher officers I stammered. Slowly and slowly I started stammering in normal conditions also. My confidence was shattered very badly.

After therapy:

Speech Therapy which I took in the last three institutes were all based on the same principle. An instrument called device is used for taking breath from mouth and Reading and Talking in a sing song way at a very low speed which definitely cannot be adopted in public. In this Institute method is quite different. Reading and talking is taught in a very normal way and speed. I am confident once I become habitual of taking in the required R.O.S. the problem will be over.

At present situation:

I have started speaking in required R.O.S. in normal condition. Last week during some adverse conditions I could not maintain R.O.S. and L.R.E. and stammered. I know that for coming out of this ‘CHAKRAVYUH’(vicious circle) of stammering I have to maintain L.R.E. but frankly speaking I am not able to maintain it 100%. In some situations despite my efforts I couldn’t maintain it and stammered. May be I am not having the confidence but I feel that slowly and slowly I will be able to maintain this.

I have had a stuttering problem since the age of six when I was sent to a residential school. It started due, probably to feelings of neglect as I went from a home of doting grand parents.

I never got any real help in terms of therapy till I started to work – except as a child when my mother took me to a child specialist who told mummy to remove from the hostel but due to financial reasons (both were working) could not do so. When I was in college I went to AIIMS but only for a single session as the therapist there only made me read and I wasn’t very happy going there.

My first actual therapy was the Precision Fluency Shaping Program (PFSP) at the Clark Institute, Toronto. It was a 3-week therapy program. It is a well-integrated program in that it is a series of steps working up to a new way of speech.

After the course I felt I had control over my speech for the first time and had at last acquired something I for longed for my whole life…Fluency. We had to practice “Shaping Program” every morning. (20 mins. of the four classes of sounds lessening the duration of each syllable till you reach actual continuous speech).

When I came home to work, I realized how difficult it was as it was very slow, monotonous and unnatural. Also the speech sound production had to be very precise (the name suggests it) so was difficult to maintain over a period of time. Also I started having strange effects like saliva in the mouth, my voice becoming very tiny, pain in the jaws (maybe because I was doing something wrong or exerting too much) and there was no one to guide me.

I went to Amsterdam in 1990 for speech therapy at the Del Feuo Institute. This therapy was based entirely on breath control for 10 days at the clinic. We had to speak only when we had 100% control on our breath. Initially it seemed good but practically it was again like another strange form of speech. I started exerting too much (mostly in frustration) to get control to speak but would start running out of breath because after speaking we had to exhale vigorously all the breath. Sometimes I would also take in too much of air; all of this because we couldn’t ask any questions out there and then the eventual question of maintenance being the most important and difficult to implement.

I started speech therapy at Adlakha Speech Clinic from November 16, 1992. I had realized by now that crash courses will not cure my speech, it is only continuous and regular effort and therapy.

We started on the exercises and then the Abdominal and Thoracic Breathing and phonation exercises. I began R.O.S. Reading (Hindi) gradually, increasing the time. Since reading the language is difficult for me, it took me a while to stabilize my rate but eventually we did. I found reading for a longer period quite tiring initially but I slowly got used to it, as they assured me I would. My abdominal breathing was stabilized at 16 seconds and I continue to practice it at that. Because of all the exercises and R.O.S. my speech stabilized a lot. Then I got a bad cold and sore throat and was unable to practice for almost 4 days. I couldn’t do my exercises or go for therapy sessions. I felt my progress seemed to drop. (I think because when I do not speak with some kind of control for sometime or days I start losing confidence and feeling unable to cope).

One other problem (which might be associated with the above problem) is that sometimes (usually in the morning) I speak (phonate) with great difficulty, as if no words are coming out and the longer I pause the longer the block. At this time if I speak immediately and fast it might come out or I might block. But I lose complete control at this time. E.g. If someone says good morning, I might manage a meek hello or a very stiff smile. I become totally stiff and disoriented at this time and just cannot concentrate on anything. It is a most frustrating feeling and I came to the clinic and explained the situations. The speech therapist told me that it could be that you are holding your breath and obviously you can’t phonate then. He says that is a very frequent problem with stutterers.

I remembered that and tried not to do it (let out my breath the way he told me). But I felt scared that I might overdo something or do it wrong or at the wrong moment. This feeling of confusion is there with me so much that sometimes I am speaking fine but suddenly I start feeling that now something will go wrong and I start to panic.

January 16, 1993.
My speech during the last 48 hours.

At the start of the day, i.e. when I wake up in the morning, one takes some time getting prepared to actually speak. I have over the years, due to some reasons, developed a sense of dread of beginning to speak in the morning and do not have any confidence of doing so. If it comes out well then probably the whole day it goes well too but if I don’t speak for a period then I have the same feelings of insecurity in my speech with the result that my speech would either tremor or my mouth wouldn’t open and I wouldn’t be able to articulate or have any kind of loudness. I felt I had NO CONTROL.

During the last 24 hours that feeling has improved considerably. Earlier when I spoke I felt my breath would just give in and I would have no breath to continue the rest of the sentence and would resultantly be breathless. I now decided that when I get up and speak and have the feeling that my breath is giving in, I would just increase my loudness on those words and automatically rate also would drop and the feeling of breath not going with my words wasn’t there. My rate of speech (ROS) also automatically stabilizes as the day goes and in spite of others speaking at a fast rate I have no difficulty maintaining my R.O.S. because there is definite clarity of speech and it sounds better. I, though, feel that I need to work more on R.O.S. to maintain that stability and every morning think of the loudness pattern I need to maintain when in trouble to stabilize my speech slowly.

During the last 48 hours I can say that I have had CONTROL of my speech.

Our world is rapidly growing and its effects are showing on our life. As our life becomes faster and faster, we strain our mind and body. This changes our way of functioning of both mind and body. Stammering is also a problem which is also caused due to this. The reason being – trying to communicate fast.

Stammering is one-in-a-million problem. A rare defect, not disease, which is found to affect only a few people. It is not a mental problem or a physical one. It is just the mis-co-ordination between the thinking of words and the execution of the process of speech. I have no strong base of information to give you but to me the most probable reason of this flow in speech is trying to convey more and more information in a shorter period of time. In simpler words – trying to speak fast.

In my opinion this problem has been affecting people for ages. People of all ages are affected by it. But males are more prone to it as they tend to lead a fast and tensed life whereas the ladies are calm and thus only few are affected by it. 80% of the cases are males and the rest 20% the females.

Stammering is of 3 basic types. The first being formation of blocks. The second being prolonging of words and the third being repetitions of words.

These are simple ways by which anyone and everyone can help a stammerer overcome his problem. We should be patient and calm but should not show him that he is abnormal. We should speak slowly and make him do the same. We should tell him that he has our full attention and he should be relaxed. We should also encourage him to talk maximum with everybody.

Yet, in my opinion, the answer to a high degree of stammering is through speech therapy. It is a process consisting of individual therapy or exercises – administered by the speech therapist and group therapy – where many people affected by this problem interact together. To make sure the stammering does not return after cure, which is known as ‘Relapse’, there is a maintenance therapy which ensures continuity in near flawless speech.

Hello. I would like to share my recent experience with you all.

I appeared for the US visa interview at the US embassy about 3 weeks ago. I had completed the formalities for it about 2 months prior to that, and for a change I had no fears whatsoever. I am generally good at written English, but when it comes to oral English I don’t find myself very good. Off late I have been trying to improve upon it by regularly talking on phone with airtel and vodafone customer cares. Luckily I had some issues with airtel landline connections at home, so I was compelled to call them almost once or twice everyday for over 2 weeks. The only effort I put in was to make sure I am speaking in english, and I asked my wife to hit me on my head with a cricket bat if I ever switched back to hindi no matter what happens

Coming back to the US interview chapter, for a change I never had horror dreams or any fear of appearing for the interview, though I was damn sure I’ll be nervous when the ‘D’ day arrives. I decided I would give a call to my therapist and speak to him for a while before appearing for the interview, and in case I get stuck I will admit before the interviewer that I have a stammering habit and that I am a member of a speech clinic and trying to improve upon it. This would offload all the burden and fear from my shoulders, and that WILL help.

But even on the interview day I wasn’t nervous at all. I called up my therapist this strange problem ( that I am not nervous ). He asked me if I had fears of getting stuck, or failing to succeed at the interview, but I kept denying all that. I was like a free bird. I was not worried at all about the end result. In fact my wife (who is a normal speaker) was nervous and I was trying to calm her down. I had thought it would be the other way round

At the end all went off fine. An American interviewer spoke to us for about 7-8 minutes. For about 90% of the time he spoke to me and read all my documents etc. I was absolutely calm and patient… and whenever I thought I’ll ge stuck I applied articulation. Even my wife was pleasantly surprised the way I gave the interview. I was speaking even when it was not required :))

All in all it was a wonderful experience, and I am on cloud nine till date. I guess the only reason I was fearless was because of the following two reasons :

a) I WAS NOT WORRIED ABOUT THE END RESULT.

b) I DIDN’T CARE ABOUT MY SPEECH. I imagined the worst case scenario… at the most my speech will not go well and the interviewer would deny me the visa. So what?? Is that the end of life?? No it isn’t. Life is much more than getting a US visa.

That kept me motivated.

I am Sikander Singh a person who had never thought he would be able to talk fluently. Having been fed up with stammering, suddenly I came across Speech Therapy. That day, I was very happy as I felt that there is still a hope I could be cured. Even for two years I was satisfied with the information that there is a treatment of stammering. At last, the day came on 1st March 2006 when I decided to take speech therapy and met a speech therapist. From the first day, I found a lot of improvement in myself. There were some words starting with ‘TR’ such as tray, tree, which always made me embarrassed whenever I tried to utter them but in a few days of my session, I got control over those words which are now easily being spoken by me.

During the first group therapy I met many members who motivated me a lot. That was an unforgettable day for me as that day I openly discussed my stammering with others. I shared a lot of incidents of my life which I had never shared with anyone and not even with my family. I must say I have learnt speaking from our clinic. If I had not joined here, I would have been spending a miserable life. Since my joining our group, I have been very confident and there has not been any negative attitude towards my speech. The members of our group have been always with me whenever I needed their support. Their support and advice always help me overcome my negative attitude. I am very grateful to my therapist for making me able to speak fluently. Without their support it would not have been possible.

There is a member in our group who always inspires me. His name is Manoj Pant. He always attend the Group and motivates all the new members. Seeing him, we feel that we should work very hard so we could achieve the fluency as he has got. We have a live example of Manoj Pant that with hard work and practice, acheiving fluency is a very small thing. We really appreciate him.

I feel very proud being member of this Society, an organization which makes us feel special.

I am in Melbourne Australia working as a Business Analyst and Capital Programmer with Syncronised Software.

My journey to fluency was forcefully started on 7th March 2004 when my parents especially my mom forced me to meet a therapist. The reason being is my past experiences with doctors had alwaysbeen a nightmare, right from reading a book in front of a mirror or tastingyour Mama’s thumb on Wednesday or eating green color food on Wednesday or putting some lolly in my mouth while speaking or speak as if you are singing.

During the first meeting, my therapist analyzed my problem and he told me that you don’t have to read books in front of mirror and do some stuff which I have done in the past. It will be all new therapy and it actually left me wondering if he would be able to help.

My first official day of therapy was on 12th March 2004 but the damage was already done. Meeting on 7th has already left some questions in my mind. What new techniques? What new therapy? Then things were moving along fine right from the word ‘Go’ and slowly slowly R.K.Gupta became “Rohit Kishore Gupta”.

From my Group Therapy sessions, I learned the meaning 8 Characters making one word “ATTITUDE”. This has not only helped me in improving my speech but changed my lifestyle, my way of thinking. I used to be negative in life, I used to find faults in others as I wanted to hide my problem. Here at my Speech Clinic, I figured out the best way to cure any problem is accept that you have a problem and if you do it then you have already achieved 50% results (i.e. of 100% only 50% is left).

From Group Therapy, I learned to improvise on my skills. Also my Speech Clinic is just not any speech clinic, it is an organization which creates your personality by bringing out YOU from YOU (which is hidden).

My latest experiment which I would like to share with everyone:

One day I was sitting on my bed and was going through my DIARY and came across experiments which I had done in past. I realized, I have been struggling a bit when I was facing interviews, so I thought to experiment with Interviews. The very moment I decided to apply for jobs only for the sake of interviews not for finding a job. I applied around 30 jobs on the very day and then waited for the calls to come by. After two or three days I was getting calls from a lot of consultants who discussed about the roles and package and some of them asked me to come for face to face interview. I used to go for the interviews and tried so many ways to calm myself. One thing which I realized was, I wasn’t able to control my excitement of answering questions. I used to rush thinking that If I will take time then I might not get selected. At that time I didn’t had anything to loose, so I took my time and started recording my conversations on my phone without letting them know. So after the interview was over I used to hear them 1000 times and analyzed what mistakes I made. Then this process went on for months and months until I was able to control my self. My emotions, my excitement. Like before I never had fear of stammering or feeling ashamed, I always tried to overcome the situation by hook or by crook. But after joining the clinic, my attitude has got changed and this time I decided to tackle is situation. So, after 4-5 interviews, I started to relax myself, when Interviewer is asking me some question then I just stopped to answer abruptly. I used to give a gap of 10-15 secs after he finished his questions and then used to start is slowly slowly. Key was I used to answer 100 questions in 30 minutes interview which I drastically reduced to 50 or 100 questions were now answered in 60 minutes instead on 30. After getting involved in more than 50 interviews I actually felt confident about myself and stopped it. By the way I got 8 offers from those interviews but I rejected them as some of the jobs I actually didn’t liked or I just made some excuse like salary is not good or the work place.

This experiment might be hard for everybody to try but if you can get a chance to try, JUST GO AHEAD. You will enjoy it.

I sometimes struggle with my speech when I am over excited but always try to make myself calm. This excitement is in me from my childhood. From my bad and good experiences, I am trying to calm down and hope one day I will achieve what I want.

I was recently in New Zealand for my company’s project work at the client and there were several meeting and seminar and I felt good about it. My speech was 8/10 and I am going next month as I have a big presentation over there. Will give you guys an update on it.