I joined the Mcguire Program in 2002 which helped me control my stutter. I still use the techniques I learned most days if I can feel I will have a block coming. usually when i have to say my name or other word i cannot change. or when somebody asks me to repeat what i just said! I did use techniques to hide it before the program. like if I could feel a word I couldn't say was coming up in a sentence, I had to quickly think of a word I could substitute for it. that made telling jokes very hard, because I couldn't change the punchlines. one of the first things I did after finishing the Mcguire course was to tell jokes! or I had to change the structure of the sentence to give me a run up to the challenging word. other things involved not speaking (in my end of year group presentation I just controlled the stage lighting), or just being very quiet and restricrting myself to only speaking in short bursts, like a funny quip, rather than speaking a full sentence. basically not being myself. without doubt the program changed my life.