Stuttering Coaching: A Psychological Approach to Speech Fluency

👉 Click here to email me to schedule an introductory session.

Have you struggled with stuttering in conversations, even though you know you can speak fluently when you’re alone?

Do you notice that your speech patterns change depending on who you’re with or how you feel emotionally?

Over the years, I’ve worked with many individuals who stutter, and I’ve made some important discoveries that may resonate with you. One of the most powerful insights is this:

When asked whether they stutter while talking to a pet or an infant -and they know no one is around to hear or judge them- almost everyone says NO.

This tells us something essential:
You already have the capacity to speak fluently.
The stutter isn’t about your ability to speak — it’s about how you experience expressing yourself in the presence of others.

A Psychological Perspective on Stuttering

While I’m not a speech therapist and don’t focus on technical articulation, I specialize in the psychological and emotional aspects of communication. Through this lens, stuttering is not really a mechanical issue — it’s deeply tied to:

• The experience of expressing yourself in social settings
  
• Perceived judgment or pressure
  
• Emotional states like anxiety or excitement
  

Many people who stutter notice that their fluency varies depending on how they feel. That’s because stuttering is often state-dependent — more present in some emotional states or completely absent in others.

But here’s the empowering truth:
No emotional state makes stuttering mandatory.
You can build flexibility in how you respond to your own inner experience so you can speak fluently and enjoy expressing yourself. 

The Role of Breath in Fluent Speech

Another key insight is the way breathing patterns differ between people who stutter and those who speak fluently. With greater awareness and gentle training, you can learn to:

• Coordinate breath with speech naturally.
  
• Build a more relaxed and confident speaking flow.

Ready to Explore a New Approach?

If this perspective on stuttering speaks to you, and you’re curious about working together, I invite you to reach out. We can schedule a brief consultation to see if my approach is a good fit for you.

👉 Click here to email me to schedule an introductory session.

I am a guy in my 20s who has stuttered since I was around 5 years old. The stuttering hasn’t been the worst kind, but it has always been there, and I’ve always been aware of it. Some periods have been better than others, but the stuttering has always been in the background and controlled my day. Over the years I became quite skilled at covering up the stuttering by switching words and avoiding situations I knew could become uncomfortable for me. Even making a phone call to a store, I always had others do it for me.

After I started studying, I felt that I had “had enough” and looked around to find out if there were any ways to get rid of the stuttering. That’s how I came across State Training, which Rasmussen offers.

The first meeting with Rasmussen was a big encouragement. I got a good introduction to what State Therapy involves and quickly realized that much lies in the way I think about myself and my relationships. In this first session, I worked through some strong self-image issues and almost completely removed the fear of stuttering in front of people. For the first time, I could wake up and think I might not stutter. The focus was on what I should do to have a good day. This was incredibly liberating!

In the next two sessions, we worked on going back to situations that had reinforced my fear of stuttering and processed some unpleasant feelings around this, and events that may have laid the foundation for me starting to stutter.

In the fourth session, I found a way to remove the stuttering entirely. By focusing on a different speaking technique where I relaxed more while speaking and slowed down, and also by switching sentence structures! This was challenging, and I had to continue working on this “permanently.”

I later had another session where I had fallen back into old speech and breathing patterns. Here I was refreshed in mindset and attitudes and went back to even earlier events. By processing these, I no longer walked around with the same discomfort and tension in my chest as before, and I found more confidence.

Today, I sometimes stutter again occasionally, but then I become aware of my breath and correct myself. For me, it’s not a relapse, I just have to keep working on it, and I am confident I’ve found a way to stop stuttering!

Petter J