This case involves a 27 year old female from Korea who was suffering from excessive stuttering and stammering. It was having a significant negative effect on her self confidence and self esteem to the point she was becoming withdrawn and avoiding social contact.
She contacted me at the advise of a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist said that hypnotherapy is a better approach as compared to taking medication and that medication should only be a last resort because she was not showing any signs of mental illness.
During the discovery intake session a few critical things were established. First off as a general rule of thumb, thin people usually have a higher level of anxiety. They tend not to eat much because of constant anxiety knots in their stomach. The same kind of knots people get when they just discovered they have been fired or other negative impact in their income. She was very thin almost to the point of seeing every bone in her body. She said she was becoming increasingly anxious about her stuttering and stammering, and it only made things worse.
We talked about her general behavior being how she ate, what she drank, what she did in her free time and so on to paint a picture of her lifestyle. The discovery showed that she was drinking enough caffeine to be the same as 10 to 12 cups of coffee everyday. That was between drinking cola, tea, coffee and so on. She also talked very fast and blurted her words out at twice the speed people of who are relaxed.
So the first step of helping her was to get her to slow down and reduce the amount of caffeine in her diet. I told her she could expect a crash and become a bit lethargic when she stopped the caffeine that would last about 30 to 45 hours. Combining that with some relaxation from hypnosis she felt great after the first session.
When she arrived for her second session she informed me she a cut her caffeine intake by 75% and was feeling a little off as her body was adjusting to the change. I also noticed that when she came in she was not showing the physical signs of anxiety that she had a week earlier. Before her feet were moving about and she was fidgeting as if she was in need of the toilet, and that was her normal behavior before she came to see me. However now very little of that showed and she was not exactly sure how things would work out. The withdrawal from the caffeine was a negative experience for her, but she was smart enough to see how it was contributing to her speaking. Her speaking had not slowed down as yet, but that was predicted as it was not addressed as yet.
The second session provided her with motivation to continue and look forward to the positive changes. She would sleep better at night, and she would become aware of subtle changes in her behavior.
When the third session started she informed me she had stopped the caffeine intake and was feeling better. She was more relaxed and we started to focus on annunciating her words. Hypnotic suggestions were given that pointed out when a person talks slowly they are given more respect than someone who blurts things out. This started to result in changes in several things. As being more social was a goal of hers, this became an easy suggestion to accept.
All in all when therapy was finished, her stuttering and stammering had ended with the exception of pronouncing words she was not familiar with. However for the most part that can be seen as normal. There were other positive changes as well as the excessive caffeine was causing her to make careless mistakes as she was rushing through tasks. Once she slowed down those behaviors ended as well.
