I also attended Hogwarts!
Hello! My name is Natalie and live in a small town called Loughborough in the East Midlands, England. I work in further education, as a teaching and assessment officer delivering apprenticeships to individuals 18+ in their workplaces. I use this as a platform to spread awareness of stammering and the diversity we bring to a work environment. I love this job as it exposes me to a lot of new people, and it challenges me and my speech everyday.
I am an overt stammerer, choosing to stammer loud and proud, without any speech therapy techniques being used, or even conscious thought really. This was a choice I made very young because using techniques made me feel like my stammer had control over me. Fluency has never been a goal for me, I have always set myself big goals in order to keep myself focused and above all challenging what I could achieve. Since the age of 17, there hasn’t been a goal I’ve not hit, so my method can’t be to bad!
I am currently studying a MSc in Psychology in the hope of becoming a clinical psychologist, to one day help PWS professionally, working on the psychological aspects of living with a stammer and also life in general. The reason for this is that since I started to accept my stammer, it was only then that I saw an improvement in not only my stammer, but also my confidence. Rather than trying to work on the speech, I guess my theory is to work on the stresses that affect speech, but it is as yet, still a theory – so watch this space!
As well has contributing to this amazing project, I also run my own blog (please check the link below). Where I share my personal experiences of living with a stammer
I hope you lose yourself in our stories and find belonging & hope in amongst this amazing group of people! Don’t be a stranger and come and join the Stamily!
Any questions feel free to ask! I would love to know more about you so please share your stories with us!
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