Combo Therapy for Adult Stutterers- By Ms. Jyotsna Nadkarni, Audiologist & Speech-Language Pathologist

Anecdotal narratives from practice: perspective and perseverance.

An individual desiring to pursue Medicine (MBBS) came to me during his 12th standard. His father is a renowned Ophthalmologist from Jammu & a close friend of one of our honorary doctors at the hospital. The boy though very intelligent, was extremely shy.

When I asked his name, he literally couldn’t utter anything for long time. After scratching his head, could utter with great difficulty. He used to avoid phone calls, and even used to run away from his home when guests visited. In short, there was great avoidance. He had word as well as situational fears. I told him to fill a personality chart. When I did psycho-pathogenesis, I found lots of negative traits & explained him that there is nothing wrong in his oral or vocal musculature; but due to his anxiety, he anticipates the problem & stutters. Then I started my hypnotherapy sessions along with relaxation & speech therapy.

In hypnotherapy there are some exercises called light trance, medium trance etc., where slowly you have to activate the subconscious mind & give suggestions to acquire new positive personality traits. This boy was highly motivated & when he saw the improvement in his speech. He worked quite hard as he had come all the way from Jammu. Within a period of  2 months, he improved a lot & was very happy. He got admission for MBBS & could give his viva-voce exams as well. Now he is also a full fledged Ophthalmologist.

Then there was another individual, a girl pursuing her MBA degree. She was a very brilliant & knowledgeable individual, but while doing presentations, before she could utter anything, there were severe lip tremors. So used to feel desperate. As usual I made her fill up the personality form. She also had lot of negative personality traits which are responsible for aggravating her overt stuttering symptoms. I explained her through hypnotherapy sessions, and along with speech therapy techniques, it helped her to get rid of all the negative personality traits. I also did lot of desensitization techniques through hypnotherapy sessions. She successfully did lot of self hypnosis as well. She went on to clear her MBA with merit & got an excellent job in UK. She used to call me up to express her gratitude.

When I started my practice in 1971, I tried to treat every speech & audiology case as & when they were referred to me. So with others speech cases, I treated quite a number of stutterers. Somehow I used to feel that just working on his stuttering problem is not enough. The personality of these individuals of the on the whole had to be changed, only then could their relapses be prevented. I would do a lot of counselling, along with the speech therapy techniques which we had learnt from the text books.

Also if the psychological aspect is predominant in an individual with stuttering, then I would refer the patient to a  Pychologist or if medication was required, then to a Psychiatrist. While doing all such researches, I came across a well known hypnotherapist, Dr. J.B. Athavale. In fact, I had consulted him for my annoying Tinnitus problem which was accompanied by severe Vertigo. Bedridden for about 6 months, my vertigo was tackled by Allopathy as well as Homeopathy treatment, but the tinnitus persisted. I had to endure so many sleepless nights. So I went to him for my treatment & learnt self hypnosis due to which, in spite of persistent tinnitus for 24 hours, I started getting sleep.

So I discussed the psychosomatic problems of stutterers & under his able guidance started treating my stutterers with a combination of speech therapy & hypnotherapy, wherein I used to get them to fill up a personality chart with various personality traits. One more chart was given to the close relative or a friend to check the biased opinions about oneself. Then I would explain to them which are the negative traits directly or indirectly responsible for worsening the stuttering problem. I then trained them to use adequate techniques to overcome those through the hypnotherapy sessions where the subconscious mind is activated, which governs your 90% of day to day activities. I also used to teach them how to do self hypnosis at least three times a day to have good & fast results. I have treated many doctors, MBAs and several professionals with severe stuttering. Although they had good intellectual levels, they were helpless due to difficulty in communication. They were my most motivated patients & followed my guidance really well. They could overcome their problems & now are very successful in their profession & are extremely thankful. It gave me immense pleasure to help them & sort out their problems. However I was quite inquisitive to explore different fields in our profession, and didn’t pursue treating only stutterers. Even now, if any adult stutterers are referred to me, I would still use my combo treatment.

My passion gives me the way to handle challenging cases in my professional journey.

About the Author:

Ms. Jyotsna Nadkarni started her practice in 1971, after completing  bachelor’s degree in Audiology and Speech Language Pathology  from B.Y.L. Nair and T.N. Medical College. She was an honorary consultant at L.T.M.C. (Sion) hospital for 32 years. She is a consultant in Bombay Hospital since 1975. At present her area of interest includes treating voice disorders & professional voice users, speech & swallow therapy for Neurological & Oncology cases and treating misarticulations, especially for CLP (Cleft of the Lip/Palate) cases.

Disclaimer: The views, narratives and practices expressed here are the author’s own. Information provided is for educational purposes only and does not constitute professional medical advice or evidence backed research. Professional training is advised for any further specializations done. Readers should consult with a qualified healthcare professional before making any decisions about their health or treatment.