The McGuire Programme

Regional Director of The McGuire Programme

• Course Date: October 3, 2021
• Course Location: Online via zoom
• Course Instructor: Sharon Gavillet and Freddie Van Der Westhuizen
• Number of New Students: 8

What an amazing online course we held with an international flavour. The Instructors were the brilliant duo of Sharon Gavillet from Ireland and Freddie Van Der Westhuizen from South Africa with the calm and composed Josh Nicholson from the UK South running the zoom and operations.

We had 8 new students (2 of them from overseas). Both overseas new students were under 18 and took the course from South Africa and Iran. The rest were from the UK South with the youngest being just 10 years of age (showing maturity beyond her years).   

As we had an international team running the course we managed to have a mixed group of coaches from around the globe. These inspiring coaches came out in force to help support the new students. During most sessions, we had enough for nearly 2 coaches per new student. We also had some inspirational members attend the course. These were members who had completed the online version in the past year with many doing great speeches and also helping out with some coaching.

As usual, the first few days was challenging for the new students as they replaced their old tricks and avoidance techniques with the new McGuire method. This takes some getting used to but once they gain confidence using this, there is no stopping them. They used weapons to attack and reduce the fear of stuttering and learnt how to accept that they have a stutter and be open and honest to themselves and others.   

With lots of confidence and control of their speech, they all took on great speaking challenges and proved to themselves that nothing has to stop them from saying what they want when they want.

We also held family and friends sessions on a daily basis to help them to have a better understanding of how to support their loved ones.

It’s great to see all the new students graduate from the course and step into real-life speaking situations with such a positive outlook on their speech. With the lifetime support from the programme, the future looks bright for them all with their newfound voice and confidence.