Joining them on their journey were over 60 returning members who put in much time and effort into helping the 16 new students over the 3 days, as well as progressing on their own journey.

The outcome of all the hard work, courage and perseverance put in by all was ‘control’ – control beyond their wildest dreams.

We were delighted to present Megan Gribben with her Primary Coach Certificate as she had recently successfully completed her Primary Coach training in Galway in October.

Throughout the 3 days we learned, drilled and practiced physical and psychological techniques. Towards the end of the course we tested these powerful techniques in the real world by talking to many strangers on street and in shops. And to top it off we did public speaking on the busiest street in Cork City. Such a jam packed 3 days!

One of the McGuire Programmes biggest strengths is our comprehensive follow up support. On completion of the course each student is assigned a personal coach who works closely with their student on a daily basis.

My own parents did not know the extent of how my stammer affected my everyday life because I simply never spoke. Silence for years and years.

After years of speech therapy with no results I was 100% certain that my stammer was the worst stammer in the world, I was hopeless. My mum finally came to me about the ‘McGuire Programme’, off we set to Galway! The only people who knew where I was going were my parents, the course was great but I wasn’t ready. I was so deep in denial, there was no way I was going to come home and tell everyone where I was! 

My mother always said to me "Simon, I'll keep looking until we find something to help your speech." In 2009 she came across the McGuire Programme. I was 14 years of age at the time and had already given up. I accepted the fact that I was going to stammer out of control for the rest of my life. I remember coming home from school and she told me that she rang Joe and there was a course coming up in Cork and that if I wanted to, I could do it. In my head I was saying "I've tried everything else, why is this different, why should this work”? But I was willing to give it a go. This was it.