The McGuire Programme

Regional Director of The McGuire Programme

• Course Date: July 10, 2019
• Course Location: Harrogate, UK
• Course Instructor: Dave Conley
• Number of New Students: 6

The McGuire Programme UK North region held a very successful four day, intensive, a residential course in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, from Wednesday 26th until Sunday 30th June 2019. We had six new students and over 70 returning graduates who attended over the four days.

The McGuire Programme UK North region held a very diverse and challenging four day, intensive, residential course for people who stutter/stammer in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, from Wednesday 26th until Sunday 30th June 2019. Often in our courses, the stutter/stammer is not the only issue to deal with.  Some people who stutter / stammer also have to live with learning disabilities, physical disabilities and other medical conditions. This was the case for some people on the Harrogate course. Another issue we had was one of the new students did not speak or understand English very well. He was born in The Gambia and spoke an indigenous language as his mother tongue. Luckily, he also spoke and understood Arabic. McGuire Programme courses always attract many people from different countries, cultures and backgrounds. Fortunately for us, we had a number of graduates on the course who could speak Arabic and were able to translate the course material into English and explain it to the new student in Arabic. It was a very difficult process at first but we triumphed in the end!

The course in Harrogate was organised by Anthony Gray and instructed by Dave Conley. This was Dave’s fifth time as a Course Instructor on the McGuire Programme. The course followed the standard UK North format of beginning on Wednesday evening and ending mid-afternoon on Sunday. A number of graduates remained on the course until the very end. On Sunday morning the course schedule catered specifically for them and a number of graduate split sessions were arranged to keep them focused and working on their stutters until the end of the course.

The course ended, as usual, with all the remaining new students and graduates making a leaving speech. Many parents, family members and friends attended to support the new students and to listen to their new, eloquent and articulate way to speak. Everyone spoke very well, on the very spot in the conference room where the new students struggled to speak only four days before. We ended the speeches with a very apt quote from the Rt Hon Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, a famous person who also stammered. The quote was made after the Allied victory at the Second Battle of El Alamein in Egypt in October 1942 – This is not the end. This is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

The next McGuire Programme UK North course is in Birmingham, 21st-25t August 2019.  See you there!