Megan Gribben

It’s extremely hard for me to put into words what this programme has done for me. I joined this programme at the age of 17, I was scared, embarrassed and ashamed of having a stammer, or being different from everyone my age! I had a multitude of tricks and avoidance behaviours. The first time I spoke to my own dad on a telephone was after my first McGuire course. 

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! 

The turnaround for me was the birth of my niece, I set a small goal of being able to read stories for her. That one goal changed my entire life. 

In October 2017 I made a decision to return to the McGuire Programme. I had to try again. It was the most nerve-wracking train journey of my life as my stammer was worse than ever. However, the support I received on that course & still receive to this day will genuinely stay with me forever. I slowly built up my goals, I was honest, I knew what I didn’t do the first time around and I made sure to put all of the techniques into practice, I was determined to turn the panic into fun. I challenged that little voice inside my head that told me for years ‘you can’t do this Megan’.

The past two years have been the most magical of my life! I have reached a level of freedom in my speech I have only ever dreamed about thanks to a lot of hard work, courage and support. I’m so excited about what is to come.