McGuire programme

The McGuire Programme is a stammering treatment programme/course run by people who stammer which teaches the use of costal breathing (also known as diaphragmatic breathing), assertive self acceptance as a person who stammers, non avoidance methods and sports psychology. All methods are taught to control stammering with the aim being controlled speech and not fluency. There is no cure for stammering and the McGuire Programme does not claim to be a cure, instead offering a viable therapy option. However many stammerers that have had poor results with conventional speech therapy through childhood and adulthood, report significantly more success. As with all approaches there will be a distribution of outcomes. The McGuire Programme genuinely attempts to measure success rates across regions, and results in the range 65-85% are typical according to their criteria. Stammering is however notoriously difficult to measure, especially where the majority are covert, and tricks and avoidance play a major role.

The McGuire Programme was founded in 1994 by Dave McGuire, himself a person who stammers. He brought different therapy options together, namely non avoidance and diaphragmatic breathing, and combined them with his background in sports psychology. The courses follow a rigorous 3 or 4 day residential set up and all people on the course are people who stammer-this is a unique and key aspect of the course as we believe that advice is a form of nostalgia. The McGuire Programme has a substantial after support network with experienced graduates available in many regions of the world to help support new graduates of the programme and indeed established graduates.

The programme's best known graduate to-date is the British singer Gareth Gates who has regularly promoted the course during TV interviews in the UK and Ireland. Also Graeme Duffin, lead guitarist of the band Wet Wet Wet joined the programme and Scottish international rugby union captain, Kelly Brown, is another graduate of the course. Adam Black, a graduate of the course, received a national honour, a BCA (British Citizen Awards), where his work raising awareness of stammering has been recognised. [1]

References

  1. ↑ Dirs, Ben (5 February 2014). "Scotland captain Kelly Brown tackling his stammer head on". BBC News. Retrieved 30 September 2014.
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