My name is Maria McGrath. My earliest memory of stuttering was at school when I was approximately 5 years old.
My earliest memory of stuttering was when I was about age 6, standing in front of the class struggling to say something and all the grown-up kids were laughing at me.
My stutter held me back in so many ways, it dictated who I spoke to, what I said and the career path I choose. As a junior golfer, I lost tournaments for fear of having to make a victory speech.
The list of choices I made because of my stutter goes on and on but I struggled through life as best I could. I was lucky to have family members, school friends and college friends who spoke for me.
I attended speech therapy as a child and then many intensive courses as an adult. Having been let down by many other therapies I attended my first McGuire Programme with a lot of scepticism.
I was amazed at the results and felt like a new person.
I worked hard but then got lazy and relapsed. The beauty of the program is that you have lifelong membership so I came back to another course and worked hard and this time I took full advantage of the support network.
The holistic approach, support network and the fact that everybody involved in the program has stuttered make this approach unique.
Maria McGrath The administrator of The McGuire Programme
