About the Author

I am an ex-stutterer and author of Comprehensive Stuttering Therapy. I started stuttering as a child and my stuttering worsened during my teens. It gradually became a major problem and simple things such as buying a train ticket or a newspaper were often an ordeal.

I graduated in 1989 and started working as an engineer in the computer industry. I stuttered heavily when talking to the management and had the frustrating feeling that I would be a lot more successful in my career if only I could be fluent.

I never mentioned stuttering to my family. For three decades, my parents and I pretended it was not really happening. From the very beginning, my parents wanted to talk to me about stuttering but feared it would hurt my feelings and make my stuttering worse.

Six years ago, they decided to talk to me. It was not an easy decision and they didn't know what to expect. They feared I might start stuttering so badly, it would make the discussion simply impossible. They were relieved when they noticed that I reacted positively and that I was able to speak about stuttering in a relaxed manner without stuttering more than usual. I also was relieved. I knew I could now talk openly about stuttering with my family. I knew that I could now rely on their support and that I was no longer left alone fighting an invisible enemy.

They advised me to call a speech clinic their doctor had mentioned. I called only to find out it had recently closed down. I felt disappointed but my attitude towards stuttering had changed dramatically.

I was now committed to find a way to control stuttering and was confident I would eventually succeed. It was very tedious at first as I didn't know how to proceed. I finally understood that stuttering is a holistic problem involving the whole person and that only a comprehensive approach addressing each and every aspect of the phenomenon could successfully and permanently eliminate stuttering.

I developed my own therapy and after a couple of weeks, I noticed substantial improvement in my fluency. I kept on practicing and two months later, I was nearly totally fluent.

Do I still stutter? Yes, once in a while, like everybody else. My disfluencies are in fact no more noticeable than the ordinary disfluencies of the average non-stutterer who sometimes hesitates, stops in the middle of a sentence or repeats a syllable once or twice because he is confused or can't think of the right word. Nobody on Earth is totally fluent and I am no exception. I am now slightly disfluent just like 99% of the world's population.

I decided to write a book and to make it available on the web in order to help other stutterers around the world. The testimonials I received from my readers since the publication of Comprehensive Stuttering Therapy confirms the effectiveness of this comprehensive approach.

When I finished writing Comprehensive Stuttering Therapy, I emailed a copy to my parents. A few days later, they emailed back: "This is the kind of book we wish we had read years ago when you started stuttering. During all these years, stuttering was a total mystery for us and we had no idea how you felt about it." I suddenly realized that this book would not only be useful to stutterers but also to their families.



Phillip J. Roberts