Content
I learned a challenging strategy 20 years ago that has worked for me immensly since then. It's called "Advertising" and it basically means that the first thing that you say is that you stutter. The concept of this form of therapy is that it makes people aware of your stutter, and you knowing that your audience is aware helps to alleviate the anxious feeling we stutters can feel when introducing ourselves. I know for me personally, I was always anxious about how people perceived me when I stuttered. Since it was inevatable that I would stutter, advertising eventually helped me become less anxious and more able to concentrate on my fluency tactics. An example of how I would do it is: "Hello, my name is XXX. Obviously everyone can hear that I stutter." I would try to say this in a light hearted way, so as to make people smile. In the beginning since it was always so incredibly hard to say my name, I would start by saying, "I just want to let everyone know that I stutter... as you can see... my name is XXX" There are many ways you could go about this. I did learn this during a 3 week intensive course that I took in NYC, and this tactic was coupled with many other things we had learned during the course. We also went out onto the street and employed this tactic with strangers. So it's completly understandable if this feels a bit daunting or undoable for you at the current moment. If all else fails always remember to breath. Breathing will open your vocal folds and clear your blockage. Good luck!