Client profiles and testimonials

 Julie wanted to overcome her stuttering

Profile

Julie has a history of stuttering since childhood which has varied in severity throughout her life. As a child she had some treatment for this.

As her anxiety increased around speaking in adulthood she began to work with a Clinical Psychologist (using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy {CBT} techniques). It was at this time that she contacted Word of Mouth. She was in her 30’s at the time.

Working as a health professional with a busy social life, Julie was keen to work at improving her fluency especially for professional reasons. She had an initial medium – term goal of presenting fluently and confidently to a professional audience at an international conference.

At initial assessment, she presented with a mild-moderate stutter. She started the recommended treatment using Speech Restructuring (Prolonged/ Smooth Speech techniques) using the Australian Camperdown Program together with slowing her speech rate. Julie gradually learnt to use these techniques, combined with CBT, within coaching sessions, then integrated them into more ‘real life’ speaking contexts. Focus was initially on integrating the speech techniques into smaller, less formal work-related presentations and finally she achieved her goal of presenting at an international conference with good fluency and confidence.

This has allowed Julie to showcase the research she was already conducting at work and enhance her professional profile. She surprised herself and actually found that she enjoyed the experience of presenting.

As a result of her ongoing work with Word of Mouth, Julie has gained much greater control of her fluency. Combining speech techniques with CBT, allowed her to significantly reduce her social anxiety when speaking in a wide variety of situations. She pushed herself both professionally and socially to achieve the goals she initially set for herself.

Julie has attended ‘follow-up sessions’ over subsequent years when she either had presentations scheduled or felt that control of her fluency had deteriorated.

Testimonial

My stutter had been a big part of my life for as long as I can remember. I had become extremely skilled at avoiding public speaking for most of my professional career until I moved to Australia from the UK to take up a nursing management position. A large part of my duties in this new position involved facilitating workshops and an expectation to present at conferences. I was referred to Word of Mouth via my GP who also suggested I see a clinical psychologist to address the anxiety issues I suffered as a result of my stutter.

This combination proved extremely successful and for the first time in my life the possibility of public speaking with confidence became a reality. Lana at Word of Mouth creates a safe, comfortable and supportive environment where progress is made and confidence is built. I have been seeing Lana since 2009 and am now able to present with confidence, self-belief and even enjoyment, something I would never have imagined possible. Lana has, quite frankly, changed my life and I would highly recommend Word of Mouth to anyone who has issues around fluent speech.

 Zahk wanted help with his professional presence

Profile

Zakh arrived in Sydney from Nepal in 2007. After studying a Masters of Accounting he decided to make Australia home.

He worked in accounting firms in Sydney for several years before changing his professional direction and set up his own business in education consultancy.  Whilst setting up his business he worked in call centres and undertook study in Migration Law.

Zakh contacted Word of Mouth to build his professional presence. He wanted to consistently make a strong impact, to appear credible, to build rapport easily and to ultimately win more new business. He also reported issues with his vocal quality and stamina when working in the call centre.

His training objectives, developed through detailed assessment with Lana included: slowing his speech rate; focusing on specific voice techniques to create a more resonant and engaging spoken voice quality; more varied intonation to energise his vocal delivery; reduction of fillers e.g. ‘um’; use of more dynamic words to better sell his message; techniques to quickly and easily build rapport, together with neutralising aspects of his accent.

Zakh made substantial improvements in all of the communication areas addressed in his program.  He reported that he could speak on the phone for whole days working at the call centre without vocal fatigue.  He believed that as a result of integrating all of the techniques into his business and every day communication, he was able to communicate with more confidence and finesse.  As a result he was better able to build business relationships which helped to grow his business.

Testimonial

As soon as I arrived in Australia, I realised that I needed a good command of English if I wanted to move up my career ladder as well as to build good relationships with people around me. Since that time, I tried lots of things to improve my communication like talking to and recording myself, I joined speech clubs and spent several hundred hours watching YouTube videos about voice tone and fluency.

After hours of practice I was still feeling I wasn’t going anywhere.  Luckily one day I heard about Word of Mouth and took classes with Lana and I now can see massive growth in my English language and communication ability.  She debugged all of the myths I had about voice production and ways of speaking English and equipped me with the right techniques.

Take the first step towards achieving your communication goals.