Archive for the ‘Women Who Stutter Podcast’ Category
Episode 15 features Lisette Wesseling, who hails all the way from Wellington, New Zealand. I met Lisette two years ago at the NSA conference that was held in Parsippany, NJ.
Since then, we have stayed in touch through various social media and the covert email group. I was delighted to spend some time again with Lisette when she returned to the US to attend the recent NSA conference in Cleveland, OH.
Lisette is a woman of many talents and of course has a wonderful story to share. Lisette is a Soprano singer, a singing teacher, and also works in a non-profit organization that disseminates information for Braille users.
We talk about a number of things related to the covert stuttering experience and how important it is, that when ready, you receive the right treatment approach. Lisette shares how for a while she received the wrong treatment and what impact that had on her. She shares her experiences with “Smooth Speech” which is the common therapy for stutterers in New Zealand and a bit about the therapy she is currently doing now.
We also discuss the differences in how stuttering may be perceived in the “artsy creative” world vs. corporate culture. And we visit voluntary stuttering, holding and looking at a stuttering moment and how the evolution of the internet has allowed for shared self-help, resources and therapy approaches.
Listen in, agree or disagree and feel free to leave feedback for Lisette, and me as well, if you wish. The comments left here often generate great discussion.
Musical credit for “Silver Shine” goes to Dano Songs.
Women Who Stutter – Episode 14
Posted on: July 19, 2010
Episode 14 has been removed from the podcast archives.
This episode featured a woman that I got to meet when I visited the UK for the first time a few months ago (March/April 2010.) It was such a delight to meet her in person, and her family, after having only “met” S on-line through social media.
She invited me and and two other new friends into her home for a beautiful luncheon. After lunch, we had a tour of her home town and the seacoast of England. We also sat around her kitchen table over tea talking about everything women everywhere talk about.
It was one of the best experiences in my life. I look forward to when our paths cross again.
The Power Of Being Quiet Episode 13
Posted on: July 12, 2010
Episode 13 (Lucky # 13) is a great conversation about stuttering with a woman who doesn’t stutter. This episode features Jill Douglass, who is from Lafayette, LA. I first met Jill at a NSA Conference, but really got to know her at the Friends Convention in New Orleans in 2008. We have been email, text and Face book friends since then.
Jill is in her fourth year of her PhD program at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She is pursuing advanced studies in the speech and language field, with a strong interest in academia and research. She is co-leader of the Lafayette NSA Chapter, along with Derek Johnson and Al Thomas.
Jill is a SLP who “gets it”. She understands that stuttering is about the whole person, and wants to be involved in teaching new clinicians how to best work with people who stutter. She is interested in the complexity of covert stuttering, which is the focus of her doctoral research. Specifically, she wants to understand the process of going from covert to overt.
Jill and I talk about what people who stutter have taught her and the value of quiet listening in a loud and rushed world. She also talks about going to Oslo, Norway for a linguistics conference, where she had an opportunity to present some of her research efforts on covert stuttering.
Listen in to a great conversation with a great friend of the stuttering community. Feel free to leave comments as well. The interactive feedback on this blog and podcast is really special.
Musical credit for “Silver Shine” goes to Dano Songs.
Episode 12 welcomes Victoria Benson Schutter, from Houston, Texas. Vicki is a long time NSA member,and in fact, was with the organization when it was still known as the NSP, National Stuttering Project.
Vicki works at Rice University in Houston, and is a NSA chapter leader, chairing meetings from her home. This week, Vicki will be attending her 25th consecutive NSA conference. Vicki was the 2009 NSA Member of the Year. She has also been actively involved with community theater for over 35 years.
This episode really drives home the power of women sharing their stories. Vicki shares several stories, illustrating the importance of having a good sense of humor and not taking self or others too seriously. This is an especially helpful episode for young people.
Fun Fact: Vicki tells us about how she came to marry her husband, who happens to have a last name that rhymes with stutter.
Listen in to an engaging, funny and inspirational conversation. Feel free to leave comments or ask questions.
Musical credit for “Today Then Tomorrow” goes to Dano Songs.
Proud Of Me, Finally – Episode 11
Posted on: July 1, 2010
Episode 11 features Anita Blom, who hails from Sweden, by way of Holland. I first met Anita two years ago. She attended a National Stuttering Association (NSA) conference, where she gave one of the keynote addresses.
I remember feeling inspired by her active involvement in the world-wide stuttering community. I also remember that she came to the Open Mic session that I hosted on the last day of the conference. I spoke to her afterward, and felt instant connection. Since then, I have “run into” her at the on-line ISAD conferences. We now keep up through social media.
I do hope I get to see Anita in person again sometime. It did feel completely right and comfortable chatting with each other via skype and webcam. Turns out, we both were wearing similar jams!
Anita is busy! She has a large family, is an adult education teacher, does IT support, helps with the family company AND plays in a marching band. She also does a bit of volunteer work – she is Chair of her local stuttering chapter, Chair of the Swedish National Stuttering Association, is Vice Chair of the European League of Stuttering Associations and sits on several committees. It tired me out just typing this!
We chat about acceptance, turning points, “lost and found” and even why Anita once wanted to be a boy. Anita has a wonderful name badge that she wears everywhere. It says, “S-s-sure, I s-s-stutter! What are you good at?”
Listen in on a great conversation, and feel free to leave comments for Anita (and me too!). Your feedback is always welcome, and helps me know that I am getting this right.
Musical credit for “I’m Gonna Go” goes to Dano Songs.
All Your Worst Fears – Episode 10
Posted on: June 25, 2010
Episode 10 (already!) features Christine from London, England. I met Christine when I visited the UK several months ago and attended a British Stammering Association -BSA-meeting. It was a great opportunity for me to meet women from another country who understand the stuttering journey. They were just like me!
We have kept in touch through email and Face book, and most certainly will chat again soon.
Christine has an active interest in the woman’s stuttering experience and was instrumental in getting a telephone support group for women up and running in the UK. She also has supported and attended social gatherings for persons who stammer in the London area.
Christine and I chat about career paths and acceptance. We also dive into a very honest, very powerful discussion of how stutterers feel when hearing other stutterers, perhaps more severe. We both agree that this is a topic – feelings – not talked about often enough.
It raises a very real point. How can we talk about our feelings to people who don’t stutter if we are not willing to dive into the tougher stuff with each other?
Listen in! Please feel free to leave comments or questions for Christine, and applaud her for being vulnerable with us. Thanks Christine!
Musical credit for the clip “Today Then Tomorrow” goes to Dano Songs.
Episode 9 features Beth Bienvenu, from Olney, Maryland, located outside of Washington, DC. Beth works for the US Department of Labor Office of Disability Employment Policy.
As a woman who stutters, Beth has used her personal journey as a stutterer to raise awareness at the federal government level. She offers advice about reasonable accommodations that one can ask for to make stuttering in the workplace a non-issue.
Beth has been involved with the National Stuttering Association for six years and attributes self-help and support to helping her move toward acceptance of her own stuttering.
In our chat, Beth shares valuable information and resources for career success. She has been very instrumental in facilitating a Career Track at the upcoming NSA conference in Cleveland in July. For more information on accommodations in the workplace, visit the Job Accommodation Network.
Musical credit for the intro and out-tro of the song “I’m Gonna Go” goes to Dano Songs.
As always, your feedback and support is appreciated. Feel free to leave comments or ask Beth some questions.
Living An Honest Life – Episode 8
Posted on: June 14, 2010
Episode 8 features Barbara Wimpee from Milwaukee, WI. Barb is the NSA Chapter leader in Milwaukee for the adult group, as well as leader for the NSA chapter for kids and teens.
I met Barb through social media. We are Face book friends, and she is a regular reader of this blog. We have shared some ideas for use in her kids/teens group in the past.
Barb is a biologist, and is very interested in women’s health issues. So we spend some time exploring women’s health issues as they relate to stuttering, of course.
We also chat about the complexities of being covert. Barb shares how she was “passable” in the fluent world, and also the fear, anxiety and stress that is all too often discovered by the covert trying to be fluent.
Barb further shares about living a life that is honest, career choices, and even mentions a character from Harry Potter.
Musical credit for the song “Silver Shine” goes to Dano Songs.
Please feel free to leave comments or questions, of just let Barb know what a great job she did!
Life Gets In The Way – Episode 7
Posted on: June 8, 2010
Episode 7 features Lesley Kodom-Baah, who hails from London. I first met Lesley on the covert list-serv,where she posted a lot of questions and shared her stuttering experience.
Soon enough, Lesley and I began following each other on Face book and Twitter. One social media account is never enough!
Lesley is a college student, majoring in Sociology. She shares what being young and in college with a stutter is like for her. Stuttering is like a taboo in England, so Lesley largely lived her life as a covert. We talk about that as well. She was eager to talk with someone about admitting and being a covert.
Lesley reveals some powerful insights in this episode. She discusses having felt locked in a prison,and the contrasting feelings she now has of being liberated. We discuss fears of not being liked or loved,and how stuttering makes you humble. Lesley also freely discusses her family life and her goals for the future.
Lesley attributes a major change in her life to having listened to other stutterers on the podcast Stuttertalk.
Musical credit for the song “Today Then Tomorrow” goes to Dano Songs.
Feel free to leave comments or feedback. The discussions are always great.
It’s OK To Stutter – Episode 6
Posted on: June 2, 2010
Episode 6 welcomes Gloria Klumb from Madison, Wisconsin. Gloria is a NSA and Face book friend. She is leader of the Madison NSA Chapter.
She often reads my posts on this blog and takes the time to comment. So it was a no-brainer that she and I would eventually chat and put our great minds together.
We talk about different things. Her friend Bernie pestered her for a year to attend her first NSA conference. That conference was so life-changing that Gloria wound up moving from one city to another in Wisconsin so that she could be close to a NSA group, and then wound up being chapter leader. Another friend Bob “conned” her into eventually co-leading a stuttering workshop.
Gloria also tells about why she couldn’t tell her own children where she went or why when she attended NSA events. And she talks about her “freedom trail”, work and even Botox.
These conversations with women are turning into exactly what I had hoped for. We don’t need “famous” people to inspire us with their stuttering stories. Ordinary people lead amazing lives every single day, and it is important to listen to these stories. Gloria’s “tell” is wonderful!
Musical credit for the intro and out-tro of the song “I’m Gonna Go” goes to Dano Songs.
Feel free to leave comments and feedback for Gloria. (And me too!)
Episode 5 welcomes NSA friend Stacey Fitzenrider, who hails from Seattle, Washington. I e-met Stacey several years ago through various stuttering groups and met her in person last year at the NSA Scottsdale conference.
She and 5-year-old daughter Ava came to the Open Mic session that I hosted at 8:30 am on Thursday, as a favor to a good friend who asked me to fill in for him at the last minute.
Always the good sport, I was at the ready at 8:30am. Not too many other people were (!), so I had the chance to chat it up with Stacey and Ava. We chatted as if we had known each other for ever. And Ava did a good deal of the chatting. It was a treat getting to know them.
Really cool fact – Stacey’s “handle” is chattygirl. Don’t ya love it? And you will love Stacey’s gut honesty as we chat about all kinds of things, including choices, parents that stutter, feeling whole, and living life.
Musical credit for the intro song “Today Then Tomorrow” goes to Dano Songs.
Feel free to leave comments. As a matter of fact, I encourage it. Let Stacey know your thoughts.
Episode 4 features my friend Lori Melnitsky, who is a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) and a woman who stutters. Lori and I first met at a National Stuttering Association annual conference two years ago. She is a co-leader for the Long Island NSA Chapter. We have kept up with each other by phone and email.
Lori has her own private practice, All Island Speech & Stuttering Therapy. She also maintains a blog, which can be accessed directly from her web page. Her blog details her personal journey with stuttering and provides updates for people she works with and anyone who may be interested in therapy.
In this episode, Lori talks about how she overcame severe stuttering, and how that motivated her to want to help people who stutter. We also share our opinions on fluency therapies, how tough it is sometimes to accept compliments,and how important it is for women to communicate and share with one another.
Musical credit for the intro “I’m Gonna Go” goes to “Free Royalty Free Music” by Dano Songs.
Please feel free to leave comments. We welcome your feedback.
Lots Of Tough Stuff-Episode 3
Posted on: May 17, 2010
Episode 3 welcomes Annetta Price from Trinidad and Tobago. I first came to know Annetta when she started commenting on this blog and began sharing some of her own feelings about stuttering,which she had rarely made public.
We do a lot of honest talking about how stuttering makes us feel. We cover a lot in a short time, including some of the tough stuff, like feeling flawed, vulnerable and inadequate.
Annetta starts off by explaining that she prefers to be affectionately called Marie, because she can say that, instead of always stuttering on the “A” in the name Annetta. I was very impressed that she shared that right off the bat – as that certainly is not easy to publicly admit.
This episode features my first attempt at adding a little intro music. It took me a long time to add a 15 second clip. I am confident that I will get better at this each week. Musical credit for “Silver Shine” goes to “Free Royalty Free Music” by Dano Songs.
Annetta authors a wonderful blog herself, called Finally A Mom. Her blog has been commended by the community health blog-o-sphere, as her personal experiences helps many, many women. Check it out!
Feel free to leave comments or ask Annetta questions.
In this second episode, Pam is joined by Sarah Bryant, a woman who just recently graduated from college and is looking for a teaching job. Sarah talks about some of the challenges she faced while stuttering in school. We also talk about advertising and acceptance, and how stuttering influences social relationships.
Sarah recently contributed her story to this blog in a written form, where her raw emotion and authenticity really resonated with readers. Her courage at still a young age is commendable. Read her blog entry here!
Sarah also shares how worried she gets about creating a poor first impression with people she has just met, because of the stuttering. We reflected on how many people worry about first impressions, stutterers or not! And Sarah acknowledges that she no longer focuses on the goal of attaining fluency.
So listen in as Sarah and Pam chat about how stuttering influences us. Feel free to leave a comment.
Pilot Episode – The Women’s Podcast
Posted on: May 6, 2010
I am really excited to add an audio section to this blog that I hope will be at least weekly. Good friend Daniele Rossi, creator of the site Stuttering is Cool, encouraged me to start a podcast that would just focus on women who stutter and our stories. There doesn’t appear to be any other podcast devoted specifically to women and our stuttering journeys.
Danny has helped guide me through the basic steps of launching a podcast and adding it to this site. He may not realize it, but he will probably become my podcast mentor. He helped me get some (free) recording software and was patient with me as I worked with my first audio file longer than 10 minutes. I met Danny on Twitter, along with lots of other really amazing people who just happen to stutter.
I pretty much know this will be a work in progress. I hope to get better each week with the logistics of posting audio files. The most important thing is the honest dialogue with women who stutter as we share our stories.
I am pleased to welcome my very first guest, Tamara Nunes Williams. She is a wife, mother, daughter, college student, and care giver to persons with disabilities. And she happens to stutter. She has an amazing story. Please listen to Episode 1.
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