Del 8

40 years with Stockholm Stutter Association  - Del 9    
On the P-club biannual meeting Sunday, Nov. 26, 1967 I was elected to the auditor.

                     
 Club career was launched. In 1968 I was elected editor of the magazine Plus and later librarian and   secretary before I was elected President in 1977.      
Stutter a disability              
We searched membership of the HSO in 1973 which was granted. By this our barriers were classified as a disability with membership in the psychiatric group, something that the individual member, if necessary, can have practical benefits from today.    

It was a major step that was taken in the history of the Association Club. When I came to the club I was informed that they worked in an unobtrusive way. "We package the magazine Plus in envelopes, so that no one will understand that this is about stutter.” The discussion was about whether the paper´s name would be on the envelope as was agreed in the end.            
 
Information meetings in 23 locations       
Many stutterers perhaps don´t suffer so much of their stutter that they have need for what the club can offer them. Others suffer too much to dare to exploit the club's services since they would be able to update their problems.                    

A grant of eighty thousand SEK from the Swedish State Inheritance Fund gave us the opportunity for a limited time to make a concentrated effort on the field. In autumn 1977 and spring of 1978 we arranged briefings on the first 23 places. This was part of our program:

                       
GOAL:
that "target groups - like teachers - through information on the concept stutter and the situation of stutterers would improve understanding of this form of disability,

to provide the stutterers themselves, among other things, the explanation for the stutter that scientists today can recognize,

to give the stutterers more advice and guidance in health care issues (therapy, experience, etc.);

to spread knowledge about stutter to people who suffer from stutter as well as the public in general,

to search for stutterers who dare not seek institutions for treatment and to give them inspiration and incentive to systematically begin working on their stutter,

to increase the ability of therapists to assess the correct treatment methods currently in use, and to convey and deepen knowledge of the modern therapies that exist today.

It became a blockbuster for the information campaign
In the autumn of -77 and -78 spring campaign was conducted. In the middle of the period the National P-club (RPFS) was formed. Probably the information project was a fairly significant driving factor here, when requirements for participation in a natural way were raised in the local clubs (Ik).                 
There were 31 newspaper articles, 15 notifications, six radio programs and three radio interviews. The listeners in the 25 meetings were 839 people. For the Planning Group in Stockholm 1977. / / Lindh                   

Extensive activities            
During the time I was president we achieved  premises in Birger Jarlsgatan in Stockholm. The activity increased continuously. The activities covered by most two to three activities a week.

The premises were getting too small so we changed for a bigger one in “Reimersholme” in Stockholm. We could influence both the external and internal environment because of the fact that the buildings were not yet ready.    

Therapy Experiments unprecedented      
For an expensive cost we had soundproofing in one of the rooms. The idea was that it would be conducted therapy type of Primal therapy with the name of Identity therapy. The stutter specially tailored therapy and association premises were dismissed at the beginning of 2 000's.

The liquidation of the experiment            
During this time, we had many experiments with different elocutions. The test of the Identity Therapy could have been the biggest one ever. I was driving through the therapy alone for 25 years. It would have been good if I had had the help of some stutterers. I still wonder what would have happened if I hadn´t resigned as chairman. The question is if I had been able to involve the others? For my own part life changed for the better.   

The two legs 
I needed my two legs to stand steady. My legs symbolized that I could break my loneliness and both have good relationships at home and at work. After ten years I both divorced and married my present wife.                     

Association work- A survey done by the P-club Stockholm  // Lindh 1979.

 Stig Lindh, Kerstin E Andersson and Gunilla Stenberg

As the newly appointed chairman I presented the investigation under the heading "P-club in the future." It was about the circle operations, information operations, the local premises and projects at The Stockholm Stuttering Centre, the film project and the therapy project with Stromsta technique and the video project - but as I said, what was it that the individual member really wanted to get out of the club?                     

 
Experimental stutter therapy                   
It was considered unequivocally that the club should focus on experimental stutter therapy discuss an objective and work out an action plan. Most would consider visiting the club premises on non-programmed days or nights. The club could also serve as points of contact, sometimes with events both inside and outside the club-room.

Why a Stutter Club?          
Ultimately it is about informal community - a place where you're accepted by the majority. You hang out in every possible way with the stuttering being the common glue.

We may have different motives for our membership in a stutter club. The stutterer may have a desire to find something in one way or another resulting in a change of the problem of speech. You may also have resigned to your problem or accepted this and only wish to have contact and  community spirit with other stutterers.

                     
What motive can the therapist have for his commitment in the club? As long as the core problem in the stuttering is not resolved and as long as many despite treatments have not been rid of their symptoms, it can be assumed that the therapist's interest is to see what the stutterers can do. There may of course be many other motives than those mentioned above.

Stutter seminar at “Härskogen” 1986

From the left  to the right: Gilbert Pettersson, Stig Lindh, Kjell Gustafsson, Roger Jönsson, Thomas Pettersson, Marie Lundell, Gunnar Dahlstrand, Lennart Rosander and Johnny Karlsson. (Photo: Bertil Ferm)

My involvement in The Swedish National Association  
Nine years passed before I became a member of the SSR, the union that I myself had been the inspiration of. The year was 1986, I was elected as a member and was given the post of deputy secretary. Given the strong influence I had of Identity therapy I happened to come in at the wrong time. Unfortunately I had not overcome the therapy, nor had the distance required for it to work well, so it lasted only for one year. Typical is that it was to happen when I was not particularly oriented towards results. The stimulation came when I, together with another person was assigned editor of the magazine Plus, which is the present magazine called ”CommUNICation.” It happened after I presented a comprehensive plan for the journal development. This was adopted and implemented at the best of our ability, but by others than me.

Now things happen that make me impressed. The management of the SSR has understood that the look and readability is important in the dissemination of information. As a reader, I can only be grateful today and welcome this nice magazine.

Me and. . .

 . . . Charlena Seymour

. . . Lars Åfeldt                       . . .  Åke Byström

THE ROOTS OF THE STUTTER ASSOCIA-     

TIONS

P-club, club for ordinary stutterers was formed officially in 1954. (Plus Club).

Specialized people worried 
In the 50s phoneticians, psychologists and speech therapists were those who treated stutter. They were worried about that the patients had a compound which also went out to examine their work. They argued that the stutterers would be affected in a negative manner and not make any improvements.

We wanted to bridge the gap                   
Dan Mogren questioned the effectiveness of Swedish stutter therapy, both the therapy given at the  Karolinska hospital and the rest they could  receive in our country. It is he who has taken the initiative to unite the opposition and criticized speech technical treatments designed to teach patients to speak right and more focused therapeutic methods.
"All stutter treatment is unrealistic" felt Dan Mogren, "as long as nothing is done to bridge the gap between the treatment situation and everyday reality. It is a big difference between speaking calmly in a friendly and empathetic environment in a therapist´s room and to try to make their views known among impatient and unresponsive people in school and working life." After a few unsuccessful attempts to influence the treatment authority to extend its activities outside the treatment room the opponents themselves took the responsibility and became their own and each other´s therapists. First of all they focused on jointly acquire such opportunities of speech and experience - plus experiences - which they believed was required to widen the stutter-free sector and make the speech-making ability safer and more durable. The cooperation was soon organizational charter in the formation of P-Club - Plus Club.” / / Hans Danielsson, Poor me, 1983.  

Plus Club - welcomed landfill                  
"P-Club had the ambition to act as intermediary-ing link between treatment and daily life. With great eagerness I helped propagate the P-Club activities. I tried to influence my patients to continue their exercises in the P-Club when they stopped with me. As soon as one of my patients contacted the Plus Club, I felt I had liberated from a heavy responsibility. The Plus Club became for me a very welcome tipping-or-relief spot. Or - to put it more positively - Plus Club became for me a valued link in a planned development chain.”

 / / Hans Danielsson, Poor me, 1983.         

Thanks, Dan Mogren         
"You started Plus Club, and thus gave us a forum for a free and open debate about the perception of stutter and stutter treatment. Thanks for all the information you impart on the stutter treatments  across Europe and America. Thank you also for all the help you gave me in my efforts to identify my patients´ communication problems.”    

   / / Hans Danielsson

SSRS 30th anniversary of Brunnsvik in 2007. I start talking about the formation of the SSR, also on how it was when the first association club called P-club was compounded in 1954.

National Association SSR for-med                     
National Association was formed in September 10, 1977.

Some of SSR´s achievements are the publication of Per Alm´s book “Stutter,” the start of youth camps and parents´ network, the arrangement of the Swedish introduction of Dr Fluency and the improvement of the CommUNICation magazine.

Organizations in the world

From nothing to be formed as the first stutter organization in the world 1954 in Stockholm. Today is the European Association ELSA and the International Organization ISA - International Stuttering Association.

Anders Edenby, Stig Lindh, John Ljungquist          

P-club and the therapies  
The country's stutter therapies changed on the day the association was formed. It was like a door locked up and opened. Stutter therapists became members and the stutterers began to hope for remedy and improvement.     

In 1978 we organized seminars with Professor Courtney Stromsta in Gothenburg and Stockholm. In Stockholm was presented over five nights Stromsta theory of stutter therapy. During the autumn we formed a "Stromstagroup" to follow up the workshop and to train technology on our own. It lasted for two years.