Hypnosis to help with a stammer or speech impediment

The ancient Greeks were the first to document the nature of a stammer and to develop a treatment for the condition. People who deal with a stammer or any speech impediment have become the victims of treatments, to some extent.

Well intentioned physicians, therapists, and psychologists have developed a number of treatments for a stammer. The problem with the treatments is that they are lengthy and expensive. The National Health Service may not pay for the treatment and while private insurance may pay, the results are not guaranteed.

A stammer can have a devastating impact on a person’s life. It can create problems in school, in relationships, and in obtaining employment. Bullying is often a result of being different. Even so called “good-natured” joking can become a source of mental anguish to the person that stammers or suffers from any speech impediment.

Recent clinical work has shown that hypnosis offers a cure for a stammer and other speech impediments. The clinical work has been proven in work with children and adults who have recovered from a speech impediment.

There are three causes of most speech impediments:

1. Genetic causes produce improper chemical signalling structures in the brain.
2. Accidents and birth defects can produce physical damage to the speech centres in the brain.
3. Physical and emotional abuse can produce a speech impediment or a stammer.

Hypnosis has been proven to be useful in eliminating stammers and speech impediments caused by all three major causes. The processing of the event is largely the same in all cases. A stressful event produces a stammering incident. The memory of that incident is stored in a person’s brain. The feeling of stress automatically invokes a stammering response. The cycle becomes repetitive.

Hypnosis seeks first to find the event or stress that causes the verbal response. Once the stressing incident or idea is named and accepted by the patient, the hypnotist leads the person back to a time in their life when they did not stammer. The person realises that stammering may be a protective mechanism.

The hypnotherapist can make suggestions to the patient that eliminates the memory of the event that produced the stammer or speech impediment. The repetition of the techniques may require more than one session.

An additional method of hypnosis that can help people deal with speech impediments is self hypnosis. This is a simple technique that should be taught by a trained professional. The person who has a speech impediment trains themselves to avoid the stress that triggers their outbursts of speech difficulty.

With hypnosis, stammers and speech impediments can potentially be cured. A life time of therapy is not necessary. There is a beginning and a foreseeable end to the treatment. Proof of the success of hypnosis in helping with a stammer and other speech impediments is available.