NSA Newport Beach – days 2 and 3

Day 2 of the NSA conference featured a keynote from Morgan Lott. This was a “ten years on” update of his documentary, thisisstuttering. He described how at first it was exciting to talk about his film, but later he would find it wearing due to people repeatedly asking him the same types of question. The process had exhausted him. Lott then embarked on a journey of self-discovery. He wanted to get away from creative expression, and did so by becoming a parcel courier. Around this time, Lott added “accepting my stutter” to the title of his film. He is now the co-founder and chief creative of Mane Co, an Emmy-nominated production company.

The presentation ended with three recommendations, or reminders. The first was that we are all on our own journey. The second was to talk to oneself. And the third was to “lean into it” – we wouldn’t be where we are if we weren’t affected by stuttering.

The Friday afternoon sessions featured a discussion of how NSA could increase racial and cultural inclusivity. Saturday focussed largely on audience participatory workshops. Xiao Fanlei and Chunming Cao led a session on caring less about stuttering, Cathy Maciejewski led a session about covert stuttering, and there were also open mic sessions (audience speaks on any topic) and a conference round-up highlighting some of the day’s speakers. Saturday’s sessions were often emotional, with attendees sharing deeply private experiences. It was a privilege to hear about these. One of the recurrent themes in the many and varied testimonies was that trauma can be strongly associated with stuttering. It surprising in this regard that there is very little research on trauma associated with stuttering. Plenty of research describes different types of anxiety, but it is far more difficult to find discussion of post-traumatic stress. Perhaps development of psychological therapies for adult stuttering would benefit from a more thorough appraisal of treatments which have been found to be effective with post-traumatic stress disorder. A related consideration is that activism which has a focus on traumatic experience due to stuttering (e.g. campaigning which highlights stigma connected to stuttering) has the potential to re-traumatise adult stutterers. Given that 99% of adult stutterers do not engage with the stuttering community, the importance of “do no harm” as a guiding principle should not be taken lightly.

The NSA conference is a terrific antidote to negativity around stuttering. It has a large social component, is very well organised, and is particularly impressive in its attention to first time attendees. The strong focus on parent-child and teen workshops is exemplary. If you stutter and have plans to visit the USA, arranging a trip to coincide with the NSA conference is highly recommended.