Help
Self-help groups
Self-help groups are extremely important in terms of increasing awareness of the disorder and the willingness to work on speech problems together.
Self-help groups as well as stuttering therapies should aim to educate about stuttering and support stuttering persons in dealing with it. Thus, regular attendance can definitely support the success of a stuttering therapy. In general, a certain amount of personal work and initiative is a prerequisite for both a self-help group and stuttering therapy in order to change your speech and achieve your goals. Self-help groups and stuttering therapies can complement each other. They strengthen self-confidence as well as self-therapeutic and reflective skills.
Differentiation of a stuttering therapy from a self-help group
The aim of a stuttering therapy is to show and offer you possibilities like speaking techniques that can change the way you deal with stuttering or shape your speech towards more fluent speaking.
In doing so, already existing skills are consciously used and developed. If you decide to take part in a therapy, you bring a certain self-help potential with you from the onset, which can be recognized, strengthened and modified with therapeutic guidance and appropriate motivation. Stuttering therapy can therefore promote or support your self-help. Many affected people report an improved quality of life and speaking competence after stuttering therapy.
Self-help groups do not replace stuttering therapy. They rather focus on the exchange of experiences and on the contact with people who also stutter. In addition, many self-help groups offer information events, seminars and congresses to raise awareness and educate the community.
Furthermore, you can inform yourself about suitable therapy offers within the framework of self-help. Other components are the application, refreshing and consolidation of techniques and strategies learned in a stuttering therapy in these groups or their group events.
Self-help groups are therefore an enriching component of aftercare or stabilization to support you beyond the end of therapy. All this implies the willingness to deal with your own speaking and stuttering. Active engagement with speech and active participation in a self-help group can lead to progress in speech and an improved quality of life.