Stammer

Once an architect, Mr. Bell, aged 46, now works full time on his stammering cure. "From the age of four I had a stammer which got worse as I reached my teens," he says. "My inability to communicate often left me angry. A lot of money was spent on treatments, none of which worked. It seemed I had a difficulty which nobody was able to do anything about, and it would be with me for life."

By the time Mr. Bell had reached his mid-20s, he had had enough. He was determined that stammering was not going to control his life and began to investigate his problem. Because stammering is a fragmented way of speaking, he reasoned that if he broke his speech down to basics and gradually rebuilt it, using techniques he had now refined over many years, then fluency would follow.

Although it took prolonged and painstaking effort, he says that by 1967 he was successful. After a two-year battle, he had beaten his stammer. "I discovered that if you are speaking fluently you cannot be stammering at the same time. It is a bit like learning to drive. After a while, you are automatically doing the things necessary to keep you going."

In 1969, having examined in detail how he had taught himself to become fluent, Mr. Bell quit architecture to give his first course for stammers. He believes stammering is caused by anxiety from an emotional upset when the sufferer was young. This may prevent self-expression, and the anxiety produces an unnecessary urge to rush speech. This inevitably results in a tripping over words which develops into a stammer.

"You have to have had a stammer and then gained fluency before you have a total understanding of how to overcome stammering. Most speech specialists do not have this understanding of the problem." He says.