Feelings of confidence and self-esteem can become affected for those people suffering from stuttered speech. Increased stress and anxiety diminishes the ability of a person with a severe stutter to communicate with those around them and can be detrimental to their social relationships.
Hypnosis has been used as an effective therapy tool in relation to stuttered speech since the 19th century with a person’s very first session indicating marked improvements in speech fluency. Case studies have indicated that following 12 hypnotherapy sessions, a person’s stutter while reading aloud shows remarkable improvements in fluency, in turn increasing a person’s self esteem, confidence and showing decreases in anxiety. A 29 post-doctoral scientist from London, S, had been through the hypnosis process before to aid his increasingly severe stutter. The hypnosis process S had previously undergone had not been successful. Then, after the more structured hypnosis method described above was administered to him by the Director of the Hypnosis unit of London College, the young student found himself increasingly able to control the stammering speech he had become afflicted with at a very young age. Self-guided hypnosis therapy helps the stutter afflicted individual to transfer the techniques they have learned while in therapy to everyday situations. Student S had part-word and complete word repetitions as well as long, awkward moments at the start of words and sentences (prolongation). Along with the stutter, S suffered from feelings of anxiety and distress regarding his style of speech. This hypnotherapy style of stuttered speech correction demonstrated by the University Doctor, provides a method of therapeutic intervention that’s puts the control back into the stammering persons hands, empowering the individual to gain power over the disorder and pursue a life of fluent, undeterred speech.
