BSA Conference 2009: Making the 'Fear Monster' your friend

Presenters: Michael Wyant, Phil Davies, Phillip Baugh

Review by David Preece

For anyone with a speech problem who was looking for ways to combat stammering, this pre-Sunday lunch workshop was an inspiration. The three presenters, all past Starfish course attendees, interlinked their own stories to show how it was possible to take forward post-course ideas and aims and turn them to individual benefit by devising personal plans to be more outgoing about speech in your everyday life.

They emphasised the importance of having 'daily positives' which you write down, and add to as time goes by. Examples could be talking to your neighbour, making a phone call rather than avoiding it, or complaining in a shop. I liked, too, the idea of the nine point 'Pain to Power' graph on which you plot your position daily from 1 (pain) to 9 (power), in line with carrying out the 'positives'. Hopefully the line goes up - but if you slip back you can still move forward again. The importance of keeping your written goals visible such as on a graph - as opposed to having vague thoughts in your mind - was also strongly advised as a constant reminder to help fulfil the aims.

Being your 'true self' was explored at length and incorporated ideas on becoming more comfortable with your stammer. Letting people into your world and being honest and open isn't always easy, but the presenters of this workshop had certainly overcome that hurdle and were very at ease with themselves and interacted well with their audience. Their lives had changed for the better, and I had the feeling that nothing would ever change that positive outlook again in regard to their former speech problems.

From the Winter 2009 edition of Speaking Out, page 9.