Communication breakdown

COLIN Firth’s critically acclaimed portrayal of King George VI in the soon-to-be-released film The King’s Speech has not only generated Oscar buzz, it has also highlighted the effect that stammering has on people’s lives. COLIN Firth’s critically acclaimed portrayal of King George VI in the soon-to-be-released film The King’s Speech has not only generated Oscar buzz, it has also highlighted the effect that stammering has on people’s lives.
In the film, the actor plays the newly crowned King of England, who seeks help to overcome his stammer in order to deliver a radio speech to unite his people as the country stands on the brink of war.
Speaking about the role, he commented, “I’m very well aware that not many films have addressed this issue [stammering], except to make a mockery of it or to use it for comedy.”
While being able to communicate relatively well comes naturally to most people, for approximately 48,000 people in Ireland, this is not the case. Stammering has and continues to control every aspect of their lives, from selecting friends and partners to applying for jobs and everything else that happens in between.
Francis Cahill from Miltown Malbay has overcome the stammer that has affected him since the age of eight with the help of the McGuire Programme.
He recalled, “I was an overt stammerer, meaning it was very obvious. If you met me I wouldn’t be able to introduce myself because of performance fear of meeting new people. I’d probably be stammering every second word. When I got to know someone I would relax a bit and it would be a lot easier to deal with but meeting new people and in new situations where I was put under pressure would nearly have me stammering out of control.”
He explained that before attending the programme he would never have agreed to be interviewed by a journalist. “If somebody approached me I would get a mate of mine to do it. Even coming in to meet you I would have been nearly in a sweat just thinking about the introduction. I would think of everything that could go wrong.You would have yourself convinced that you couldn’t do it before even meeting the person.”
He said having a stammer resulted in a lack of confidence, where he would avoid people rather than speak with them. “You would nearly hide around the corner to avoid the conversation. There would be simple things like when you see your four-year old neighbour going to the shop ordering sweets, whereas you’d nearly be hoping that the person in the shop would just take your stuff and give you your change rather than talking to you. You’d be embarrassed for yourself and for the person stuck behind you because you are slowing everyone down. The bigger the fear of speaking, the more you tend to hide away.”
While for Francis his stammer was obvious, he explained that others are ‘covert’ stammerers. “These are people who manage to hide it. They spend their lives avoiding certain words and situations. You could be working with these people and unless you were aware of it, you mightn’t even know they had a stammer.”
Francis recalled that his stammer first began when he was about eight years old. “I’m not blaming the teacher or anything but I had a teacher that I probably had a fear of and that built up so the fear of speaking counteracted the fear of being punished. The stammer got pretty bad fairly immediately,” he said.
Francis went on to study applied mathematics and computers but it wasn’t until he left college that the stammer really began to affect his life. “Through school and your teenage years you build up a circle of good friends and family who generally do your talking for you. But once you finish your education, you’re out in the real world and that’s where I encountered most of the difficulties and it was what pushed me to do something about it. It really hit home for me after finishing college and doing interviews. You could be the number one candidate on paper but within a minute of the interview you would have no chance of getting the job.”
Francis was offered a job at the same company he did work experience with during his co-op year in college. “I knew once I got my first job the idea was I would stay there. Most would have ambitions to move on after a year and go up but I didn’t really push myself for a job elsewhere It was a comfort zone for me that I could go back to the same place,” he said.
The company then closed down and Francis was left without a job in 2002. While most of his colleagues moved on to other jobs quickly, it was another couple of years before Francis got another job in his field.
He believes that it was attending the McGuire Programme that helped him.
“I had done a few interviews for different places and I hadn’t spoken well in them. It wasn’t really an option for the companies, as I see now looking back on it. Then I was put in touch with Joe O’Donnell on the McGuire Programme and I said to myself that at this stage I had nothing to lose.”
The McGuire Programme runs a number of three-day intensive courses throughout the year. While advocates of the programme say it is not a cure they strive to teach both physical and psychological techniques in order to control the effects of stammering. The programme consists entirely of recovered and recovering stammerers. According to the McGuire Programme, participants must work very hard over the three days as well as after the course and it is up to each individual and their personal motivation to ensure success with the programme.
Francis explained the course begins with the students sitting in front of a camcorder answering questions. “They might sound ridiculously easy, like asking your name or address but with the pressure of the situation, most overts will block badly through that process. That’s the starting point of the programme.”
The programme is perhaps best known for its work with breathing techniques, which pop star Gareth Gates used when overcoming his stammer. The technique is similar to the way trained opera singers breathe. “There are two diaphragms, the costal and the crural. Most people speak by breathing with the crural diaphragm. Your breathing is automatic, you think and the words just come out. Whereas for stammerers, what happens is the fear builds up and your diaphragm freezes and you struggle. The programme retrains you to breathe with your costal diaphragm, which you control manually. For the first two days of the course you spend your time building up the letters of the alphabet, as if you were dealing with a child starting them off talking again,” explained Francis.
The programme also involves, among others, the participants learning to approach people on the street as well as speaking from a soapbox. “The course works first off to build up the physical structures by getting the breathing going but a lot of stammering is baggage that people have built up over the years and that also needs to be addressed. That doesn’t happen in three days so when you leave you are assigned a coach, a graduate of the programme and they offer day-to-day support and you can ring as often as you need to,” said Francis.
He admitted while the programme worked for him, it doesn’t for everyone. “It’s not a cure, it’s a means of controlling your stammering. You see teenagers there with their mothers or fathers who think they’re doing the best thing for them by pushing them on at 15. But the reality is some of them will take it up while others are not ready to put in the work afterwards.
“You might have other people, say in their 40s or 50s, who might find it hard if they’re given a coach in their 20s. It’s not for everyone but if people are ready to take on the challenge it could give them a way of controlling their stammer.”
After completing the course and working with a coach, things took a positive turn for Francis when he was contacted by a company with a potential job.
“I had an interview with that company the month before I did the course and I didn’t get it. By whatever coincidence the same company called after I did the programme and said there was an opening and would I do an interview. By then I was speaking quite mechanically, not as I do now, as it wasn’t long after the course. I did the interview and was open about what I had done in the three months in between and they could see the difference and hear it. I got the job and it really justified the time and money I had put into doing the programme. I’ve never asked but I would imagine that they had been a bit worried about my communication skills,” he said.
After completing the McGuire Programme, Francis worked with a coach for a year, before becoming a coach himself for four years.
“There was a great sense of achievement to feel that there were people there who you were making a difference to in their day-to-day life. That’s one of the great things about McGuire, everyone involved is a recovering stammerer and everybody knows exactly what people have been through or are going through.
“The last year I’ve been seeing how I would get on without much contact with the programme. Generally, the programme is about moving through phases, doing the course, becoming a coach and then there will generally come a point where you will want to go on and, I suppose, live your own life outside of the programme. But because you have a life-time membership, you always know that if you do need the support, you can always go back,” he said.
Francis is optimistic that the new film will highlight the effect of stammering on people’s lives.
“A lot of people with stammers think they are alone, until they go to the McGuire course and see 100 people with the same situation in a room. I was the only one in my secondary school and the only one in my class in college.
“When Gareth Gates was on the Late Late Show a few years ago speaking about the programme, the regional director Joe O’Donnell got 200 calls with enquiries. The more it is highlighted the better. It might give people the confidence to make the call and try and get some help,” he said.
Information packs on the McGuire Programme are available at www.stammering.ie