When The Guardian published Ross Coleman’s beautifully honest piece, “My cultural awakening: Jonathan Groff inspired me to overcome my stammer” , something extraordinary happened. A deeply personal story about fear, identity, and finding one’s true voice suddenly became a mirror for thousands of people who stutter.

For the McGuire community, it was especially meaningful.

Ross, an Irish member of the Programme, described the years he spent unable to say his name, struggling through teacher training, and feeling that people never really knew him. His humour remained hidden. His opinions stayed locked inside. His world shrank around his fear of speaking.

This is a reality many people who stutter recognise all too well.

A Turning Point at 3am

What changed everything for Ross was not a technique, a book, or a course but a moment of connection.

At 3am, exhausted and terrified the night before flying to the McGuire Programme course in Reading, he clicked on an interview with Broadway actor Jonathan Groff.

Groff spoke openly about identity, fear, and finding strength through acceptance.

That moment unlocked something in Ross. A spark. A possibility.
A sense that if someone like Groff could step into the world fully, maybe I can too.

And that is often where transformation begins: not with certainty, but with courage.

The McGuire Programme: The Hard Work Begins

Ross describes the course exactly as it is, tough, immersive, disciplined, and life-changing.

Four full days of:

• costal breathing
• naming fear and facing it
• learning to speak with intention and control
• undoing years of freezing, struggle, distortion, tricks, and avoidance
• using new behaviours to break the old stuttering cycle

The Guardian captured what so many graduates experience:

“It was gruelling but it worked.”

Just like Ross, most new students arrive sceptical.
Most leave with something they never expected:
real control, real confidence, and a real voice, not a perfect voice, but an empowered one.

100 Strangers, 100 Acts of Courage

On the final day, Ross, like every McGuire graduate, completed the 100-stranger challenge.

Not to “be fluent.”
Not to “get through it.”
But to:

• use deliberate technique
• disclose his stammer openly
• eliminate avoidance
• practice assertiveness
• rewire emotional patterns
• build confidence through action

What he discovered stunned him:

“Strangers were kind. Strangers were understanding.”
“For the first time in my life, I could be myself.”

This is the heart of the Programme:
we don’t aim for perfection, we aim for ownership.
We train mechanical control, but the goal is ultimately freedom.

A New Beginning, Not an Ending

Ross describes standing under the moon that night feeling “queasy with joy,” imagining a life that had previously felt out of reach.

A life where:

• he speaks on the phone
• he takes drama classes
• he asks strangers for directions
• he expresses humour, personality, identity
• he is no longer ashamed
• he steps into the world fully

This is The McGuire Programme at its best, not a cure, not a quick fix, but a pathway to a stronger, more confident self.

Ross ends his article with a lyric from Merrily We Roll Along:

“It’s our time, breathe it in. Worlds to change and worlds to win.”

And he’s right.

It is his time.

And for anyone reading who resonates with Ross’s journey, it could be yours too.

Original newspaper article: My cultural awakening The Cultural Section of The Guardian Newspaper.

My cultural awakening: Jonathan Groff inspired me to overcome my stammer

Watching the Broadway actor’s joyous energy, along with his calmness and openness, I was convinced that I could step out into the world and be myself

by Ross Coleman theguardian.com

Sat 6 Dec 2025 https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2025/dec/06/my-cultural-awakening-jonathan-groff-overcome-stammer