The Cambridge Self-Help Group for Adults who Stammer invites you to join them online for a talk with academic Paul Brocklehurst about his new book.
To celebrate their move to a new venue, as well as its merger with STAMMA Educators (more later), the Cambridge support group's next hybrid meeting will feature acclaimed academic, researcher and self-proclaimed perfectionist Paul Brocklehurst, who will be linking up from his home in France to talk about his book 'The Perfect Stutter'.
The group is usually for people in Cambridgeshire but this meeting, starting at 7:30pm on Thursday 6th June is open to all on Zoom if you would like to join.
Email group founder Robert Coe at cambridgeselfhelp@hotmail.co.uk for details. If you live in Cambridgeshire and want to join in person, the group will meet at Corpus Christi College.
About Paul Brocklehurst
Robert says, "Paul's book 'The Perfect Stutter' is an autobiographical work which brings together his personal experiences of stammering, his experiments with mindfulness, and his research into the relationship between stuttering and perfectionism.
'Paul had speech therapy throughout childhood. After getting control over his stammering in his early 40s, he went on to study Speech Therapy and Psycholinguistics, and completed his PhD researching the relationships between perfectionism and stammering. After leaving university he founded the 'Stammering Self-Empowerment Programme', a free online course for people who stammer. In 2014 Paul moved to France, took up writing and the concept of his debut book was born. I visited him in the foothills of the Pyrenees for one of his walking and mindfulness retreats, which was a great experience and fascinating to hear Paul discuss stammering and his research into the subject".
(You can also read our review of the book.)
New venue & merger
With its 20th anniversary approaching, the group has found a new home at Corpus Christi College, situated in the historic heart of Cambridge and one of the oldest university colleges.
Another exciting development for the group, which Robert founded in 2015, is the integration of STAMMA Educators Professional Network, with the obvious synergies between the two groups and many students, academics and teaching professionals already attending the Cambridge group. Robert, who is also a teacher, says, "It's great to be welcoming the Educators network and their organiser Roberta Volpe to the meetings, seeing as we have shared interests".
About the group
Since the group was formed, they have hosted two successful open days with speakers and guests attending from the UK and Europe and the innovative, online Celebration of Stammering and the Arts (which you can watch back) during the pandemic.
Robert says, "We are the only service available for adults who stammer in the area, which is nothing short of a disgrace as the NHS no longer supports the majority of stammerers. Obviously we are limited in what we can offer as none of us are trained clinicians but we are able to use our considerable shared experiences of stammering to offer support and a safe space to speak about our stammers.”
The group meets on the first Thursday of every month (apart from January). See the Cambridge group page for more details. If you live elsewhere, see Communities & Groups to see if there's one near you.
