Addressing Fear Through Meditation: Zen and Stuttering

I recently read this article written by Stefan Bogdanov, who was born in Bulgaria and started to stutter by the age of three years. Stefan is also a member of the Toastmasters Club and felt that connecting with the audience and being himself would help with his public speaking. He experienced a life crisis at the age of 25 and was in search of a solution to alleviate anxiety that he felt with stuttering and public speaking. He was ultimately influenced by John Harrison's article, "Zen in the art of speaking" which focuses on mindfullness meditation and achieving effortless, fluent speech. In addition, he practiced Vipassana or mindfulness Buddhist meditation which also concentrates on breathing and focuses on ones thoughts and feelings. He writes that some of the activities would include meditating for periods of no longer than 25-30 minutes to avoid potential strain. The goal of meditation is to help with ones behavioral management, that is approaching fears and anxiety associated with speaking. He believes that an individual who stutters should not resort to this form of practice with the expectation that stuttering will be entirely removed. Rather, he feels that an individual can change their attitudes and feelings associated with stuttering through meditation. He writes that meditation also allows him to concentrate on life "from moment to moment" and referred to the Zen saying "Spontaneity is the only truth."

The question that I presented to him was whether or not Zen meditation had a direct or indirect effect on his fluency. In other words, because of a reduced fear of speaking, was he fluent or was it that it helped him with the covert phase of stuttering? He responded that meditation allowed him to focus on mindfulness and on the whole self which is a long term process. He also talks about how it helps reduce fears that a block may occur when producing a /t/ or /p/ sound. As we talked about in class, the covert theory states that an individual has difficulty with the monitoring of sounds before the articulation phase. I also wanted to get his thoughts on interactions with other kids in Bulgaria. He responded that they were understanding and he was not teased. He also does believe that more efforts and attention should to meditation as part of an SLP education.

This article is very interesting and offers another perspective for treatment. However, there are many forms of meditation so I am not sure how convincing this form of meditation is with removing fear and anxiety. Also, interestingly he indicates in the end of the paper that he still has some fear with public speaking and that stuttering may occur. This is a form of behavioral management that helped him to some degree but may not necessarily be effective for others.