#04 - Adam Pipkin-Litster

Excerpt:

Thinking about the future, how do you see stuttering as an influence in your life?

I want to use stuttering in my life as a means to try to advocate patience with and looking out for other populations that are similarly marginalized, to model the behavior that I hope to receive, and to not pass first judgment on how someone looks or how someone talks or whatever it is. Thinking about how I feel about my stuttering, an overarching goal of mine is to try to reduce avoidance behaviors, so trying to not be afraid of situations or words. I once had a therapist at a university clinic who really focused on the emotional aspect of stuttering, and she invited me to develop a mantra that might empower me, and the phrase I developed was, ‘I am confident in my ability to communicate all that I want to say.’ That’s something I can think back on and can hold onto when I’m feeling down.