My story in brief…

“My name is John Blosse. I’ve stuttered since childhood and I know how it feels to be unable to say what you want to say, when you want to say it. The tension in the throat area, lack of eye contact with the listener, the lips pursed tight together, I’ve done all those things many times before.

Having a stutter means you will go through a whole range of emotions on an daily basis –  anger, fear, guilt with a great deal of shame thrown in.

For much of my life I avoided speaking situations. In school I asked my best friend to say the answer to questions for me. In my late teens and early twenties I missed out on social occasions because I believed that my friends didn’t want me around because I embarrassed them.

I tried lots of different techniques that I was told would improve the way I spoke but nothing really worked. Meditation made me too relaxed, positive thinking was difficult to keep up – my motivation eventually waned – and a technique that I can’t remember the name of made me sound like someone from The Clangers (the 70s tv show for those of us old enough to remember it!).

Help eventually arrived in the form of a wonderful breathing technique called costal breathing. Using this form of breathing, I was able finally get my words out.

Costal breathing involves taking in a deep breath and breathing from the costal part of the diaphragm as opposed to the crural part, which most people use to speak. The technique has been used by people who stutter for many years.

When I used costal breathing in combination with deeper voice tone my speech improved dramatically. I was able to say so words I had always struggled with or refused to even attempt to say.

However, I soon realised that the stress of speaking in front of people, in certain situations, was proving too great.

I discovered Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) through a friend. Using the technique, I was able to immediately reduce speaking stress and I felt a lot calmer and more confident when I spoke.

I still stutter but my speech has improved so much that I hardly recognise the ‘old me’ when I look at video tapes from the past. I still shudder to think where I could still be without the techniques I have learned and put into practice.

I firmly believe that if one is on the right path, with the right tools to guide them and they put in enough effort they will get very near to where they want to be.