Support Groups

I have been a member of the McGuire Programme for 8 years now and one main reason for my speech success has been the use of my local support group. I have been lucky enough to be a member of the Bridgwater Support Group and during the early stages of my recover I made myself attend the two weekley......two hour long Sunday night meeting. I needed this support and attended regularly for a few years.

When I came off my first course, I felt on top of the world. I felt nothing could stop me moving forward in my recovery. But what I did not realise was just how much I needed to use the amazing support network of the McGuire Programme to move forward in my recovery.

We used to run the group in a local pubs skittle alley and I was lucky that my coach Martin Coombs attended regularly as well. More to come later on Martin, who was one of the main reasons I have reached so many speech goals during my time on the programme!

During support groups we practice using the techniques taught on courses. We also discuss the last two weeks of our recovery and discuss how we can improve our speech in challenging situations. We always look to move forward in our recovery, never stand still.......lways look to improve our speech. Its a great way to help improve and learn to speak well in all situations and take control of all words and sounds. During the session we always end on a speech or a table topics session to let go and have fun speaking.

I really wish more graduates who make the effort to attend their support groups. Some people think they can do well without using the support on offer. I know a lot do, but more would surly do better if they made that extra effort every other week. Use the support on offer guys!! Its the way forwards!

Working on my speech when ill and learning from my mistakes.

Well...its been a while since I last put a post on the blog, mainly cause I have been to hospital. Its been an interesting few weeks speech wise, trying to keep up with the technique after my operation. The operation effected my throat and stomach so I could not speak using the costal diaphram for a few day. When speaking I just used the basic pause, breath, speak, release technique and used a few tools to keep myself centred/focussed on my speech. Its was a good job I was feeling stong with my speech at the time, otherwise it may have been harder. It was a relief to feel the full breath come back after a few days. Now I have no excuses!!

Its amazing how your physical state effects your speech, just like your emotions can. I have found myself to be more spontaneous since the operation and I think its down to not feeling 100%. I have found myself having to cancel more words lately, not because I am fearing them but just because I feel im not articulating properly and stumbling over words, sometimes without noticing. I am now more focussed and will get back to normal soon.

A few months ago I met my cousin for the first time for ages. He was back in the area and had not heard me speaking with control before. He was amazed as to how good my speech was as I was speaking with discipline. I saw him every week for a month or so and every time he could not believe how well I was doing, when speaking in front of different people. Then one night, I was talking to people in the pub and getting excited. He stopped me and said, he had noticed my speech had not been as good tonight, as it normally is. I straight away slowed down and used more discipline. I was so grateful that he had pulled me up and make me noticed I was sloppy. He then told me at the end of the night that since he mentioned to me about my speech it improved and went back to the normal eloquent way that I know I can be. This shows me that we need people to pull us up on our speech. This way we can learn from our mistakes. When people mention it we need to make it a positive, because its a great way to move forward in our recovery.