Redefining Stuttering: What The Struggle To Speak Is Really All About

By John C. Harrison

Updated: 2011 Edition

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John Harrison is a recovered stutterer who lived with the problem for roughly 30 years. He’s also a 30-year member of the National Stuttering Association in America and one of the first people to join the organization.

Through participation in a variety of personal growth programs throughout the 60s, John discovered that stuttering was not what he thought it was. It was not just a speech problem, but a problem that involved many different sides of himself.

Then in 1977 John joined the NSA, and for over three decades he became involved in every aspect of NSA activities.

He ran chapter meetings. He helped develop programs. He ran workshops for the NSA in cities all over the U.S. He served as Associate Director and also served on the board for almost two decades. He shared beers and dinners and life experiences with several thousand people who stuttered. And he talked with people who recovered, some of whom share their stories in this book.

All this gave him an unusually good vantage point from which to explore the stuttering phenomenon.

In preparing a presentation for the NSA’s first annual conference, held in San Francisco in the mid-80s, John came up with a new model, or paradigm, for stuttering that was inclusive enough to answer all his questions. He called this model the Stuttering Hexagon, and this book is a distillation of everything that John found out.

Redefining Stuttering is a fascinating presentation of a new way to look at stuttering. The book explores many different facets of stuttering. You’ll find dozens of stories and articles— including many ahah! moments—written by and about people who developed significant insights into themselves and their speech.

The book also includes a detailed description of the 10 exercises that form the basis of the Harrison Workshops used in the McGuire training.

Redefining Stuttering will broaden your awareness and make you think. It will help to transform the way you see this problem. It will also help you reach beyond the difficulties and challenges of stuttering to chart a course to a freer, fuller, more expressive life.

N.B. A shorter version of this book appeared under the title How to Conquer Your Fears of Speaking Before People.

"Insightful, well written book by someone who has recovered from stammering using his own approach."
Dave McGuire

"I have always found John’s insights into stuttering to be unique, stimulating, in line with many of my own experiences and, most importantly, useful. The 10 group exercises in his book are amongst the very best activities for people who stutter and his Hexagon model goes further than most ideas in helping us understand the total stuttering system. If you are seeking to understand what recovery from stuttering might look and feel like, I can think of no better starting point than this book."
Allan McGroarty

" Stuttering explained clearly and succinctly in context of the total human system by one of the world's foremost experts on the subject. John C Harrison has been there and recovered and in this book contributes information critical for our own recovery."
Geoff Johnston, Regional Director, The McGuire Programme (Aust)