Christian R. Jørgensen

Jeg undgik situationer og mennesker før jeg deltog på mit første McGuire kursus.

Jeg har stammet så længe jeg kan huske. Mine første dårlige oplevelser var i skolen hvor jeg skulle læse op for hele klassen og især hvis der var navnerunder. Får stadig et sug i maven bare af at skrive det her.

Men i dag har jeg heldigvis – via McGuire Programmet – fået en række værktøjer, mentale som fysiske til at arbejde med stammen. For det er et konstant arbejde og noget som man ikke bliver kureret for. Det har jeg lært at acceptere, selvom det var svært i starten.

Min første talepædagog fik jeg vist allerede i børnehaven og forskellige har fulgt mig op gennem skoleårene. I 8.-klasse fik jeg tilknyttet Dorit som talepædagog. Hun havde været på et McGuire kursus som observatør og var mildest talt imponeret!

Hun så i transformation af mennesker som havde kæmpet med stammen hele livet. En af dem var Karina Stoltze, som hun efterfølgende arrangerede et møde med. Her fik mine forældre og jeg, mulighed for at spørge ind til det hele.

Året efter, da jeg var 16 år og lige begyndt på HHX, tog jeg – meget nervøs – på mit første McGuire kursus. Noget jeg aldrig har fortrudt. Min første tanke var det lignede en eller anden crazy sekt, men blev hurtigt modbevist da jeg fandt ud af at alle som instruerede var akkurat ligesom mig – stammer.

Nu har jeg vendt stammen til min styrke. Jeg har erfaret og set at flere som har deltaget på kurset taler bedre, mere klart og forståeligt – end ”normal” talende personer. Målet er nemlig ikke at være stammefri, men at tale ”veltalende”.

Biproduktet af veltalenhed er man kan sige hvad man vil, hvornår man vil, i hvilke situationer det måtte være. Med andre ord, man har selv kontrollen og isoleret frygten for at stamme og tale til et minimum, hvis overhovedet noget.

Christian

I avoided situations and people before I attended my first McGuire course.

I’ve stammered as long as I can remember. My first bad experiences were in the school where I had to read for the whole class and especially if I had to say my name. Still gets a sigh in the stomach just by writing it here.

But today, fortunately – through the McGuire Program – I’ve got a number of tools, mental and physical, to work with. It is a constant work and something that you are not cured for. I’ve learned to accept that, though it was difficult at first.

Got my first speech therapist in the kindergarten and various have followed me through the school years. In the 8th grade I got attached to Dorit as speech therapist. She had been on a McGuire course as an observer and was very impressed!

She saw the transformation of people who had fought with their stutter throughout their lives. One of them was Karina Stoltze, whom she subsequently arranged a meeting with. Here my parents and I got the opportunity to ask her more about the course.

The following year, when I was 16 and just starting in college, I – very nervous – took my first McGuire course. Something I have never regretted. My first thought was that it looked like some crazy sect, but was quickly refuted when I found out that everyone who instructed was just like me – a stammer.

Now I have turned my stammer to my strength. I have experienced and seen that more people who have participated in the course speak better, more clearly and understandably – than “normal” speaking persons. The goal is not to be non-stammer, but to speak “eloquently”.

The by-product of eloquence is one can say what you want, when you want, in what situations it may be. In other words, you have control and isolated the fear of stutter and speech to a minimum, if at all.

Christian