#73 Solocast: 10k Show and Tell with Uri Schneider
“The problem is (too often) that people treat problems. What we need to do is treat people, not problems.”
— Uri Schneider
BIO
Uri Schneider, M.A. CCC-SLP the co-director at Schneider Speech (private practice schneiderspeech.com); creator, leader and podcast host at Transcending Stuttering (transcendingx.com); and faculty at the University of California at Riverside School of Medicine. Uri is recognized for passion and impact as a clinician, educator, researcher and innovator. He is proud husband and father (of four), borderline dyslexic, bonafide ADD-creative and a nature-loving runner.
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or your favorite podcast platform. You can also watch the interview on YouTube.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
0:00-01:54 intro
01:54 - 05:52 The Future of the Stuttering Community
05:52 - 14:40 Uri Schneider’s work
14:40 - 18:11 Lack of Knowledge of Opportunities
18:11 - 20:19 Being Ready at Different Stages of Life
20:19 - 24:57 Uri Schneider’s Inspiration
24:57- 33:49 Treat People, Not Problems
33:49 -35:29 2016 Letter on Behalf of the Profession
35:29 - 43:55 Therapy Does Not Work, People Work.
43:55 - 49:16 Therapy Suggestions.
49:16-54:18 Accessibility and Affordability of Therapy
54:18 - 57:38 Transcending Stuttering Podcast
57:38 - 1:04:04 Resources on TS Toolbox
01:04:04- 01:10:11 Podcast Takeaways
01:10:11-01:16:43 Insights on stuttering
01:16:43 - 01:20:09 To Push or To Wait
01:20:09 - 01:21:44 Self-Advocacy
01:21:44 - 01:26:20 Fluency and Giving Back
01:26:20 - 01:31:05 Voice Therapy
01:31:05 - 01:38:15 Reluctancy to Look for Support
01:38:15 - 01:39:38 Artificial Intelligence in Therapy
RESOURCE LIST
MORE QUOTES
"Everything that I tell people who stutter, I feel for myself. I try to put myself in the same edge of my comfort zone and a little bit out of my comfort zone, the same way I'm encouraging other people to do so." -Uri Schneider
"What are the other aspects of who you are and what are the other attributes, characteristics, accomplishments, and identities that you possess as an individual? You are more than just a stutterer."
-Uri Schneider
"You deserve to learn skills of self-care, to be able to love yourself, to be able to like yourself, and to feel good in your own skin."
-Uri Schneider
TRANSCRIPTION:
Uri Schneider: This is an episode like no other. I'm so excited. To share episode 73. This was recorded as I was invited to talk for the world stuttering network. This was recorded in 2022 for stutter Fest during national stuttering awareness week. I share. Some very private things that I've never shared anywhere else. I also share some very open reflections on what I see as a problem.
Uri Schneider: And invite the audience and invite you my listeners to a solution that we're building together at transcendingx. I welcome you to check out this episode. If you like this episode and others. Subscribe to transcending stuttering the podcast. Your subscriptions and reviews make a difference and help spread the word.
Uri Schneider: The first portion of this talk is related to the future. All of the stuttering therapy and stuttering community is flat. And talk about what that means. And the millions of people that are waiting for us to reach them. And then I'll talk about 10 takeaways. From 10,000. Podcast downloads. So looking forward to your feedback and sit back enjoy this episode. There'll be a lot of candor There'll. there'll be some humor And there'll definitely be some things to think About after you listen to this episode Enjoy episode 73. The solo episode
Okay. Awesome. There's gonna be two parts to this talk, um, the first thing I'll talk about is how the future of stuttering therapy and stuttering community, the future is flat.
and then we'll talk about the, um, the podcast and I welcome all of your questions and comments
The future is flat. what I mean by that um, the idea of accessibility and the idea of a connected planet and what that means for future possibilities of connecting us to one another and also creating more possibilities. And max, I'm thinking of you as you're looking for techniques or suggestions, uh, which you definitely deserve to find.
Um, at first, i am going to start by thanking Tom and Trisha and Marvin and this incredible team at the world's stuttering network, really incredible. Um, I can totally just channel back Tom's energy. I remember in episode number 12, I interviewed Tom and at the time he was announcing this idea of the world's stuttering network and look at what it's become.
Uh, it's absolutely amazing. So I want to thank you guys at the leadership and want to thank each of you that are looking at this, looking at me present right now or listening later. I want to thank you for welcoming me, and I want to thank you for giving me a space. And give me grace to be party to this amazing community and also to be able to contribute all that I can together with you.
Um, I'm reminded of a comment from Jean Jordan. Uh, she commented about transcending stuttering, the following quote from JFK. She said the rising tides will raise all boats. And I really feel that what the world's stuttering network is doing. And the spirit that I try to bring is that if we can really create goodness in the water around that iceberg, if we can think about ways, we can just bring more light into the world that we live in, in our smaller home and intimate family in the school or in the workplace.
And then of course, in our greater communities, be they local national international, global galactic. Um, if we could just bring that much more goodness. Everyone rises. And I think there were some shares earlier today about, you know, I think Maya uh, I caught, you know, doing this press release on the footsteps of the city hall in San Francisco.
And all of a sudden the council person suddenly feels a sense of identity and a sense of, wow, I didn't realize there were people out there making community and making space for people who stutter. And I have that countless times. And so I think it really, it behooves all of us to recognize that on stuttering awareness week and always, it's not just for us.
So if you're a person who stutters or if you're a speech language pathologist, if you're inclined to bring about more advocacy for your own self, that's wonderful. And if you don't feel it know that you might be blazing a trail and opening a door for someone else who isn't in the position to even know that they need to do that, or isn't in the position of courage to take that step.
So if you're not doing it for yourself, you might be doing it for someone else Just a little bit of self-advocacy right there. The openness of dealing with an allergy and I will be contending with these uninvited, uh, unwanted interruptions in the flow of my speech. Uh, and it's authentic and it's real and it's annoying and I really wish it wasn't there. And I did a couple of things to try to prevent it acting up.
Uri Schneider: I've got a bottle of, I don't know how many ounces of ice tea here I took anti-histamines, but at the same time, it is what it is. We're going to roll with it. But if I put myself on mute, it's really to spirit, your eardrums, the barking cough. Um, okay, so,
Uri Schneider: so that's it for the, thank you. That's it for the rising tide. Let's get to the, to the meat of what we're going to talk about. First of all, disclosure, again, I don't stutter. And yet here I am at this ridiculous hour in solidarity, and also a bit more than that. I'm really here to share what keeps me up at night.
Uri Schneider: What bothers me or concerns me, what jazzes me up. Um, and maybe it's what bothers you too. And I'll share my humble thoughts about what I think we can do about it. What we can do to bring more light to re you know, rise that tide, just a few more inches, the words, accessibility, inclusion person centered care, lifespan perspective, four terms.
Uri Schneider: They're extremely trendy. For me it's not trendy and they're not catchphrases and they're not cliche. It's in my blood. I'm going to share with you some stuff that I've never shared before, uh, about why, why I'm so passionate about these things. Why for me, it's so visceral. It's not like something I read in a book or something.
Uri Schneider: I see trending on Twitter that I think I need to start talking about to get more follows. That's not at all what drives me. And more importantly than why it matters to me, why it matters for all of us. And then maybe I'll share a vision for the future. I invite you to join me as we build it together. Now as a goal in my mind, the goal, very clear, very simple, very short, make it easier for people who stutter to be themselves and to do really well in real life to make it easier.
Uri Schneider: It's gotta be easy and it's gotta be able to be yourself in your own. And it's gotta be also something that translates not only into these safe spaces and into a conference or into a support meeting or into a therapy room, but it's got to also be, to do really well in real life. Okay. I think that's the goal.
Uri Schneider: For anyone that doesn't know me, my name's Uri Schneider. I know Tom gave me a short intro. Um, but I think I need to share with you is Maya definitely is crushing it. And I recommend all of the people here. And I think mark is here also. So you've got stutter proud. If you got stutter proudly, you've got proud stutter.
Uri Schneider: You've got the world's stuttering network. You've got many, many wonderful podcasts and many of them have achieved things that I haven't yet achieved. And many of them have contributed things that I can't contribute, but I also think that each of us has something to contribute. So I keep at it and we do have tens of thousands of downloads. But really it's not about the downloads. It's, it's been an honor and a privilege for me. It's a playground of learning research and development. And what I'm really excited about is a growing library of true stories, of lived experiences, insights, and tips from people who stutter as well as
Uri Schneider: a window into the latest research and clinical mastery. I thought about today, it's 24 hours stutter Fest. Cheers.
Uri Schneider: It's 24 hours, 72 episodes into transcending stuttering, the podcast. That's like three days you could sit and binge listen, if you're ready to do that, I don't recommend it because some of them are even more than an hour. But I would be privileged if you would listen. And if you feel inclined to offer some feedback, what you liked, what you'd like to hear more of, if you would feel inclined to subscribe and drop review.
Uri Schneider: That's awesome. So transcending, stuttering, it's on every podcast platform and I will drop the link or maybe Steph or Jess, Jessica, somebody transcending x.com/podcast. That's the new destination to get it all straight on the web. Um, but I'll put more links in a little bit later in addition to the podcast.
Uri Schneider: So some people just know me as the podcast guy. Um, I also have a private practice Schneider speech, where we lead a team of therapists and we see over 200 people a year who stutter online and in-person, that gives us a lot of opportunities to learn a lot of opportunities to listen, and a lot of perspective, um, in terms of the variability of stuttering and the variability and variety of people who stutter.
Uri Schneider: So as much as there are different types of stutters, there are also different types of people. So I think the practice also is a place where obviously we're able to, to service people, to help people that is a fee for service.
Uri Schneider: And it's always bothered me and concerned me. And I think this is my first concern. Not everybody can afford that fee. Not everybody can get to us, whether it's state licensing issues, whether it's physical distance, whether it's a language barrier, that's something that concerns me always. And so transcending, stuttering is very much the birth of a solution that I feel levels the field and kind of creates more flat access for people.
Uri Schneider: And it also creates a two way street for both professionals and people who stutter to contribute to a shared fund of wisdom and a shared fund of. Access for people to find their way and to figure out what works for them. So our private practice is certainly something that I'm very proud of, but it's also something that I'm aware is, is limited in terms of how many people we can help.
Uri Schneider: And also how many people can access that kind of help. And that we need to come up with better solutions because there's too many people that are not able to access the support that they're seeking. I'm also part of a research team at UC Riverside, with Dr. McGuire and Scott Yaris and Shelly Jo, Per Alm, and others.
Uri Schneider: So looking at psychopharmacology, epigenetics, brain imaging, diagnostics, evidence-based therapy practices. So I just think sometimes you find yourself pigeon-holed in one arena. So I'm not just the podcast guy. Um, I enjoy, and I'm informed by my conversations with the people we work with in the office.
Uri Schneider: The young people, the parents, the teens, and the adults, as much as I'm informed by the greatest academics and researchers in the world, as much as I'm informed by every single podcast guest and every single podcast that I listened to and I consume and listen to many other podcasts, I actually find it painful to listen to my own.
Uri Schneider: Um, but I find it extremely enriching not to get stuck in this single story. So I think just one takeaway by the way, not to get stuck in the single story, all of us live an amazing life, a life that's worth writing a book about at the same time, it will enrich all of us to see ourselves through other people's eyes.
Uri Schneider: So communicating with others, whether it's in these rooms like this, and just understanding that the way we see ourselves might not be the way other people see us. There's often a lot of good that we don't see in ourselves that others can shed light on. And there's also a lot to be said for, I have been solving this problem this way.
Uri Schneider: In some ways it's working for me in some ways. I'm not so happy about it. I want to find a better way. I might not figure out a better way, but by listening to other people's stories, through all the wonderful podcasts that are available through videos online and so on, and by talking to other people, perhaps, but if you're not ready to talk to people, that's the beauty of the podcast.
Uri Schneider: You can do it in complete anonymity and complete privacy from wherever you are. So just recognize and getting out of our own heads and recognizing that there is no stuttering truth. No one owns the truth on the stuttering experience. But, uh, when we listened to many stories, we start to get the multi-dimensional 360 degrees of what this is all about.
Uri Schneider: And we realize how much overlap and how much we share in this. I'm speaking in the collective "we." Again, I don't stutter and I'm not suggesting that I should, uh, in any way hijack that experience. And at the same time, there's a piece of stuttering that when I meet somebody and when I speak with each of you, with the utmost respect, I somehow relate to it.
Uri Schneider: I somehow relate to it at a human level. So when I say we I'm just saying it in that way, not to suggest, uh, that I understand stuttering because I don't, but I'm learning and I'm listening and I'm trying, I think I'm getting smarter day by day. Um, so that's what I do and that's who I am. So now a little bit of a surprise, a joke.
Uri Schneider: It's a little bit edgy. I'm going to see how it goes, but I really think it frames everything that I was saying before, because I'm thinking about the people that have opportunity and privilege, people that have found this room, for instance, You are 21 people. I popped into a few rooms today. I don't know what the most numbers were.
Uri Schneider: I hope that Tricia and Tom and Marvin and the team recognized what an amazing success it is, but let's not kid ourselves. How many millions of people who stutter didn't find this room. That bothers me. That concerns me. How many millions of those people are feeling lonely. How many of those millions of people are looking as max was asking?
Uri Schneider: Have you got any techniques for me? No. I think max would ask about speech techniques, but how many people are looking for just self care? I just want to feel better. I just want to feel okay. I sit at the table every day and my mother and my father, they're not very gentle. They're not very kind. And they haven't found a space like this.
Uri Schneider: How many millions of people that concerns me. So the joke is like this. There was a Hispanic fireman and he had . Twins. What did he name as twins? Anyone know this one? What did he name his twins named his twins. Jose and Jose B. I think that's good. Jose and Jose B. So in Spanish, Jose is like a pretty common name.
Uri Schneider: He was a fireman, Jose A and Jose B. You're going to remember that joke and I hope everyone felt it was inbounds. I think it's okay. It's really a linguistic play. What I want to highlight is there's two paths. We can go down in life there's path a and there's path B it's like those television shows there's do.
Uri Schneider: You'd like to open door number one or door number two. So I'm thinking about all of you. I'm sort of preaching to the choir over here. You are those who chose to open door. Number two, how many people are still choosing door? Number one, because it's more familiar. It's more safe. It's the only one they can reach.
Uri Schneider: That's the only one they know they don't yet have the. They don't yet have the reach. No, one's really invited them to open that door. No one suggested what might be on the other side of that door, but they're living a life that's very safe, but very stagnant. And they have this unresolved longing for something more that either they haven't seen the door, they can't reach the door or they don't have the courage to open that door.
Uri Schneider: And so I think of Jose A and Jose B, just to frame this whole thing as a takeaway, I want to make sure that every person on the planet who stutters has the opportunity to open the door, they choose to open. And that they know there are doors that they know there are choices. I don't think everybody is going to respond to any one solution.
Uri Schneider: I don't think everybody at every stage of their life needs the same solution that think about yourself.
Uri Schneider: Thank you. When that happens, if you just hang in, it's worth the wait. I learned that from some. Thanks. Um, if you just recognize, like there's so many people that don't even know there's another door and that's what I stay up at night about is trying to figure out how can we show people another way without pushing them to do it.
Uri Schneider: And what I was going to say was, how many of you that are here today would have been here at the age of 12? You know, how many of you, you know, something you can hear me say today that might resonate. If I had said that to you at the age of 15, you would have like quickly turned off the screen, shut the thing and gone to sleep, you know, at different state,
Uri Schneider: the same person at different stages of life of maturity of development is ready to do. Certain things is ready to not do other things. And that changes over time. It's not uncommon. The 12, 13 year old is ready to (yiddish word) to borrow some of Tom's Yiddish. He's ready to (yiddish word), but he's not necessarily ready to discipline himself into doing anything about it.
Uri Schneider: Not in terms of behavioral shifts in his speech and not in terms of self-acceptance, there's a lot of pain to be shared. And I'll share with you a little bit about that. And on the flip side, there's things that a 21 year old is ready to do that they're ready to make change. They're ready to do some things differently.
Uri Schneider: They're ready to put themselves out there, given some tools and get out there and interview and socialize and date and try to do things they hadn't done before. And they might not need as much of the (yiddish word) space they're ready to move. And this has to do with what we know about the stages of change and so on.
Uri Schneider: So my point is we got to meet people where they're at, and we've got to think about a solution that kind of helps different types of people, but also helps different people at different stages of their life based on what they need at that time. So that's Jose A and Jose B. Here's the part of my story that most of you don't know.
Uri Schneider: Um, and why this is all to say another Yiddish word it's in my (yiddish word) anybody need a translation of (yiddish word) because (yiddish word) is like, it's in your, it's in your gut. It's in your gut, this whole like activist spirit. Where does this come from for me? So there's just backstory. Uh, again, I don't think I've ever shared it.
Uri Schneider: Most of you, many of you may know my father, my teacher, my partner, my professor Grandmaster, the goat, Dr. Phil Schneider is one of the greatest, uh, human beings on the planet. No bias. You can ask like 10 people in the community. They can tell you what they think. Dr. Phil Schneider. And he's amazing. And he's influenced me deeply.
Uri Schneider: Let me tell you about my mom, because we're on the Eve of Mother's Day In America. So for all the moms out there happy mother's day, I'll be the first ones to tell you. Um, and for my mom and for all the want to be moms, you should have that experience in the right time. And, uh, for those of you that are not moms and not on that path, that's okay too.
Uri Schneider: But all of us were born to a mother and that's a day to have gratitude to the mom. So here's my mom. My mom taught me the following. She taught me, try harder, do a bit better, find what you have and give it, use it to help someone who's a little less privileged than you are. I grew up in a home where my mom, she was a social worker working with young people in the Bronx.
Uri Schneider: Children's psychiatric juvenile delinquents system, social worker, working with kids that were definitely on the wrong side of the tracks. And she was the one that would try to meet them where they were. With decency and see them as who they really could be, not who they were, but who they could be. And to try to help them get their lives back on track.
Uri Schneider: She retired many years ago, but she volunteers tirelessly. She has adopted so to speak a family from Costa Rica that has a child with a very rare syndrome. And when they come to New York, they stay at my parents' home and my parents would take them to the treatments and do the translation. My mother had learned Spanish in order to help this family, my mother, and more recent years adopted a young Dominican American boy from the other side of the Bronx, near Yankee stadium, where she originally grew up and this kid has some learning differences and his parents don't know how to work.
Uri Schneider: The system. His parents don't know how to get the best help. His parents don't know how to get them into the right schools. So my mom has him over and plays games with him and tutors, him and advocates for him and with him and his family to get an IEP, to get services, to get school placement. This is my mom.
Uri Schneider: My mom's life is about being a champion for others, giving to others. She's always going through the closets figuring out what she can give away to bring to the homeless shelter and to give away clothing that we have, that we don't need that someone else does. My mom cannot tolerate. She never has never will tolerate social injustice.
Uri Schneider: She can't stand by when someone is passing up an opportunity to do something, to help themselves. You know, if this family doesn't take advantage for their son, an opportunity, my mom is going to jump on this father and be like, how could you let your kid not get this opportunity to get the math help? My mom, she gave me the genes.
Uri Schneider: Her name is Jean. So that's kind of funny. She gave it to me in my genes, it's in my DNA. And then she raised me through her example of that emotional sensitivity and social attunement to really tune into people who find themselves on the, on the other side of the circles. We dance. And maybe even look beyond that, the people who aren't even in that circle.
Uri Schneider: So I grew up with this activist spirit and I was drawn to see what was, and I just couldn't look away nor could I accept the status quo. And this created some trouble in school at times. I think I spent more time in the principal's office than the principal did, but, um, I just couldn't tolerate injustice and I wrestled with it and spent much of my private time.
Uri Schneider: And I still do. And my inner space is consumed with workshopping and think tanking, how we can do better. I think about it for myself. I drive my team crazy about it, and I invite others into that space of really thinking and believing there's a better something. And let's see how we can just inch our way to it.
Uri Schneider: It's not a perfectionism, but it's definitely a driven feeling of trying to create more opportunity for more people. And for each of us, for me, with myself, for the people that have the privilege to work. And for the people that we serve to believe that there's something better that they can bring out of themselves, that I can bring out of myself and really putting that on, on front stage right out there, um, and creating more opportunities for people.
Uri Schneider: So that's where I come from. That's my mom so far. So good. Just give me a thumbs up if you're with me. Cause little story time. Okay. Like stories are okay. I could be late at night. I don't want to put anyone to sleep, but I thought it would be nice to just open up with this group. I was listening to the meetings earlier and I decided to go a lot less formal, but I think this is really actually the, the (yiddish word) the real stuff.
Uri Schneider: Now, the second thing is you might want to know. Thank you, mark. I appreciate that very much. Um, the second thing that was extremely formative for me, and this will be shorter than the share about my mom. And this is a good takeaway quote too. You know, I believe the problem is that too often we treat problems.
Uri Schneider: What we need to do is treat people, not problem. Um, simple. It's so simple. Treat people not problems. So for me in graduate school, I, my first externship was at the Christopher oddly home for children on their website. It says they care for adolescents with serious emotional needs and developmental disabilities.
Uri Schneider: Now forget about the lingo, whether you like the lingo or not, but picture a place where you basically have the kids that my mom was working with. They're institutionalized. They usually have one or two parents that are both in jail or in and out of jail. Um, you never know what's going to set them off.
Uri Schneider: There were these timeout rooms with like padded walls so that nobody would get killed. And at any moment, someone could just completely lose it. And it, you needed to call in somebody with a bell that could physically restrain some of these. Large strong 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 year old young men and young women, a very, very intense, I don't know how I did it, but I fell in love with these kids, you know, um, I would just like, see the tender kid that just wanted to be loved.
Uri Schneider: Just want it to be seen. Just want it to be heard. And as they say, the kids that need the most love, show it in the most annoying ways. You know, these kids just didn't know any better. They didn't know how to show it, but all they needed was a little bit of attention to be seen, to be heard, to be given a voice.
Uri Schneider: This was my training for trying to be a good therapist and champion for people who stutter. My second externship was at the American Institute for stuttering the late great Catherine Montgomery. Fantastic. Um, the most transformative.
Uri Schneider: Experience for me was when I did the subway challenge. Um, they had this thing called advertising and you would go on the New York city subway and the doors would close and everybody was expected to kind of say, you know, hi, uh, you know, pseudo, stuttering your name through my,
Uri Schneider: mm. My name is my name is
Uri Schneider: my name is Uri in front of the whole subway car, you know? And I, and I, and I, and I, and I really, I did a thick one. Like I didn't, I didn't go easy, like I did in my grad school experience. And I will tell you that obviously I don't stutter. So I don't live with this. This was completely a one-off, but being in a closed subway, As a person that I am, it's not particularly courageous, pretty sensitive, always wondering what other people are thinking.
Uri Schneider: It was, it was, it was a (yiddish word). Keep going back for the Yiddish words. I sweat it. And I didn't get out of that subway car to the same person I went in. I, I held my space with the feeling of all the eyes of every person on that subway car, looking at me like what a wacko, what a weirdo. These were the thoughts that I held my ground with, but I didn't bail out.
Uri Schneider: I did this and I, I, I just think I came out of that subway car again, a much more refined ready empathic therapist than I was when I went in and I credit the American Institute for that among other things. Um, but that was a very formative experience for me. And to see that I could do that. If you asked me beforehand, if I was gonna do it, I would've told you no way.
Uri Schneider: I was gonna bail out but I pushed myself and certainly the social experience of being in a group. It got me over a certain hump and I think that's an important piece as well. The idea of community and groups, very, very important. Cause I couldn't have done that and wouldn't have done that alone. I would have had every excuse not to, and I don't stutter.
Uri Schneider: So all the more so I can only imagine. Um, and my third externship was at a very prestigious hospital in Manhattan, Lenox hill, hospital, Manhattan, eye, and ear throat clinic, which was like where you had the best of the best ENT is dealing with people that had throat cancer, esophageal speech, and all sorts of humps and bumps and a candida.
Uri Schneider: For those that don't know what candida is, feel free to look it up. Uh, not my cup of tea, bodily fluids, not my thing. I'm not the medical SLP. Um, I'll refer those to Steph and others here, but, um, yeah, but, uh, but I felt there was, again, people weren't treated as people, people were treated as problems. You'd read the.
Uri Schneider: You talked to the chart, you talked to the diagnosis, he didn't talk to the people. And that stuck with me. I found that extremely stimulating. I found it extremely cool. It'd be like rubbing shoulders and rubbing elbows with all these Hotsy totsy doctors. But, uh, there was something about the hospital setting, the medical setup didn't didn't work for me.
Uri Schneider: So I tried to take all that wisdom and connections and access to these great minds and bring that into a much more human encounter. And then my first job was at the summit school. I didn't know what I, what I was going to do for my first job. My clinical fellowship was at the summit school, worked with third to eighth graders with scattered learning profiles.
Uri Schneider: If you don't know what a scattered learning profile is, it means that these kids couldn't succeed in a mainstream school, but they also didn't fit in a traditional special ed school. Uh, they were too smart for that, but not able to succeed in the general ed school. So these kids looked like this. Third through eighth grade, some of them were math geniuses with social differences.
Uri Schneider: Others were socially smooth or smooth operators, but dyslexic others were academically solid with an extra dose of impulsivity and creativity. Surprisingly got into trouble with authority quite often. And quite by surprise, I always honored the professional boundaries and appropriateness, but when I left the school, these third graders became eighth graders and these eighth graders became high schoolers.
Uri Schneider: Then they became college students. So one of these third graders, it's now 15 years later, he reaches out to me and he says, can we meet up? So we met up and had a quick slice of pizza on the way to the subway in Manhattan I said, Hey, you know, Gabe, how are you doing? Hopefully he'll be on the podcast soon.
Uri Schneider: So I said Gabe, how are you doing this? he says to me good And he said to me, the following, he said, you know, My parents have resources. Thank God for that. Can you believe I said, hold on a second. He's at NYU, he's crushing it in real estate. He has an undergrad degree and a graduate degree, a wonderful relationship with some of the hopes to maybe marry.
Uri Schneider: He's doing very, very well. And he's a very disciplined, very good employee. And so on. He says to me, can you believe it? Imagine if my parents listened to those people, when I was in second grade that said, I would need to be living in an institution that I would never be able to live independently, that I would never be able to do X, Y, and Z.
Uri Schneider: Can you imagine if my parents listened to them and he was thinking, and he said to me, he says, you know, what about all those kids that don't have parents that were as tough as mine, or as smart as mine, or as privileged as mine, et cetera, et cetera. He's very grateful. But he's thinking about all those people on the other side.
Uri Schneider: And I want all of you to get off tonight thinking about all the people that are not on this call. I want us all to feel good, but if we have any bandwidth, let's think about what about those other millions of people that aren't here. If you don't have that bandwidth, don't make that your (yiddish word) that's another Yiddish word.
Uri Schneider: I'll take it. You know, I'm on it. But if you have any bandwidth, that's, what's, that's, what's really pumping me at night. So that's the background. Okay. Now I want to read you a letter that I think some of the SLPs here may have seen. I don't think most people did. This was a letter I dug up that I wrote in 2016, and I wrote this to our professional.
Uri Schneider: We have a little professional group of people that say I care about stuttering. And I just want to say on behalf of the profession, on the one hand, I want to apologize for all of the hurt and all of the disservice and all of the mistreatment and all of the reckless behavior that people with our credentials have said.
Uri Schneider: Have practiced have imposed on people who stuttering on families, et cetera. And at the same time, I just want to say none of the people in this room who are speech therapists, who don't stutter are doing this out of any other reason than a genuine care and passion and devotion, something in our hearts just pumps to do the work that we do.
Uri Schneider: And we may, may mix steps here and there, but show some grace and just know that our profession has something to offer. And there are hundreds of us that are looking to do good and looking to do right, and looking to be champions. So that doesn't mean we excuse some of the garbage from the past and some of the stuff that is still going on.
Uri Schneider: The Steph said there's more work to be done, but just know, I think it's important that we have this reciprocity of mutual respect and grace, uh, for that. So we have this group, there are about a thousand. SLPs that say, I want to be in this little group, it's through ASHA, through our professional organization.
Uri Schneider: And someone wrote a letter there and they were asking a question saying my patient is in tears. My 16 year old patient isn't tears because therapy's not working. And here's what I wrote back. Ashley, uh, all names have been changed by the way. And any names you hear don't assume it's someone with that name?
Uri Schneider: I tried hard to use names that wouldn't ring, ring a bell, but none of the names here are real. So don't, uh, don't assume that anything and, and there's nothing bad that said about anybody. It's just don't assume anything. Okay. It goes like this. Ashley, I can almost feel your own tears on behalf of your client and what she expressed to you.
Uri Schneider: In my humble opinion, I'll chime in number one, listen to this. Everybody therapy doesn't work. It rarely or never does. I'll get to that in a second, but that means, but therapy doesn't work. Number two, I'll give some specific ideas. Number three, some emotional resonance. So number one, therapy doesn't work.
Uri Schneider: People work, people change. Remember what I said at the beginning, everybody. Right? Don't treat problems, treat people. So also therapy is not the answer. People are the answer. People, people seeking change, people that can be guides and facilitators of change, that stuff can work some therapy out of a book or downloaded off of the internet that doesn't work.
Uri Schneider: If a person finds it valuable and puts it to play and it works for them. Fantastic. But people work and people change. Guess what else? Changes? Stuttering changes too. Sometimes because of the work people do and almost always regardless, or even in. Of the work people do, stuttering changes. So therapy doesn't work.
Uri Schneider: I find a lot of clients and friends, even myself, really feel that once we're in therapy, the therapy will do the work. You know, just being there, having appointments, doing some exercises, the expectation is that the therapist and the therapy will do the work. It should work. And then I'll be all better therapy.
Uri Schneider: Doesn't work, people work. And it's often hard work for people who stutter. And at times the sweat and the pain of the work is more than the sweat and the pain of the status quo and that's hard and that realization and processing it and moving forward with whatever choice, what makes can present with anger, depression, tears, grit, substance abuse.
Uri Schneider: A whole bunch of behaviors that we need to tune into. So it's my belief as professionals. What can we do? We can't cure. We can't fix, we can't make it work. Same way. We can't perform some operation or prescribes a magic pill. We can facilitate support, align, accompany, and courage suggest be a champion problem-solve we can be with them celebrating and even shedding light amplifying their successes.
Uri Schneider: We can be with them in their tears and frustration sometimes cause uncle so-and-so was unkind or classmates were mean or therapy isn't working. Of course we should broaden our own set of skills and resources so we can share the most fitting resources. This includes multiple therapeutic approaches and speech communication skills.
Uri Schneider: You mentioned some easy onset through this person mentioned that, and there are more, what I mean to say parentheses, we need to have a wide tool belt and to know what to lean on. At different times, I was trying not to hit the person over the head. So I was making space for easy onsets. It's not necessarily my go-to it's on my tool belt, but not one that I use in recent memory.
Uri Schneider: Um, in addition to the tools we need to be tuned into would be tools of self-help the use of media. Here are some examples, but not limited to. And again, this is 2016. There's so much more NSA say friends, stutter, social stutter, talk, stuttering is cool movies like transcending stuttering, going with the flow.
Uri Schneider: The way we talk by Mike Turner. This is stuttering by Morgan. Books, like out with it by Katherine Preston, stuttering is cooled by Danieli Rossi. The gift of stuttering so on and so forth. Online videos, people talking about their stuttering, not only the Joe Biden's and Emily Blunt's, this was 2016 who don't appear to stutter anymore, but have videos of young people and adults stutter people like Catherine Preston, Sophie Gustaf's and she gave an acceptance speech.
Uri Schneider: She was a professional golfer, Rebecca Klein, giving her gala speech at the, say a fundraiser, the series, my stutter on say.org. So many more. So those are my suggestions about how therapy doesn't work, people work. That was part one so far. So good. want to hear part two, part two specific ideas. I like so-and-so's reply and I'll add a few of my own.
Uri Schneider: I would caution any quick choice of a program or any one approach per se, that decision should be made after, you know, what's out there. And then you determine what you think is the best fit for this girl at this stage, because what happened was, uh, parentheses. And this, I want to really say strongly, the most upsetting thing that I see in the online forums for stuttering community is therapists or people who stutter or family members taking their experiences.
Uri Schneider: And I'm going to say recklessly projecting that as the right move for someone who's presenting a dilemma or a problem. I don't think it's wrong for anyone to share their experience, but I think, and I know I can tell you that I know that it can be very harmful for the wrong person to go down that door.
Uri Schneider: That path even though it was fantastic for a hundred other people, but it just, it was obvious it wasn't going to be right for the 16 year old girl. Who's not ready to do XYZ. And that 16 year old girl is only going to have more bruises and more pain because her mom got that response on that forum. So I just want to invite everybody to think about how do we create a more tender culture and the way we suggest things or, you know, say it's gotta be this way or never should be that way.
Uri Schneider: Just putting that out there, little provocative, but I feel very strongly about it and I've seen a lot of harm that's come from it. So just sharing that. So even in our professional community,
Uri Schneider: obviously we see the same thing and we need to be more cautious about that. Um, it's as simple as I might suggest that my experience was great XYZ or in my experience that wasn't helpful for XYZ reasons. But too often, too often in the public space and in the private space. And I'm telling you, cause I know this there's a degree of, and it's, it's so ironic there's a degree of even shaming and bullying people who are considering going down a certain path because that's not the path that someone or some group of people don't feel as legitimate or correct.
Uri Schneider: I think we really need to think about even in, especially in the support groups and support spaces, uh, that people are met where they're at with open arms, open ears and twice the listening and half the talking. Um, and the comments can be very supportive, um, with when less is said, okay, I'll get off that.
Uri Schneider: Um, so I gave this person a bunch of suggestions, some of which were mentioned earlier, I'll share this one. I think you'll like. It includes some counseling, whether it's CBT, ART or other alphabet soup, um, is a crucial element. Finding a way to deal with the normal feelings and response to the not normal speech communication experiences.
Uri Schneider: Being a 16 year old girl who stutters now, again, I'm not calling stuttering, not normal. What I'm trying to say is a typical 16 year old girl. Some of us may have been 16 year old girls. Not me. Some of us may have been 16 year old boys going through anything that's different can be really hard. You don't have to be someone who has anxiety or depression.
Uri Schneider: It doesn't mean you need to see a psychologist. It'd be wonderful. If more speech therapists could talk about feelings could work through feelings, could help people feel okay in their own skin. That's so important. So that was what I was telling this therapist to really learn more about and bring into the therapy, ask this person, her dream.
Uri Schneider: Maybe she could speak it out. Maybe she could write it in a journal that you buy for her. Maybe you could draw a picture. Maybe you could sing or compose a song, whatever it is, just listen really well. And for the last bullet tried to delineate different things. She wishes to do, ask her to make a list.
Uri Schneider: What are some things she would do tomorrow if she didn't stutter and let her flesh out that dream. So it gets past the I won't stutter tomorrow. Okay. And then what might you do? Because the stutter sometimes for some people is this glass wall. It's like the wall in front of the wizard of Oz. And sometimes we just need to take the wall down and see, okay, let's say there is, or isn't the stutter, what's your promised land?
Uri Schneider: What are your dreams? And I think as Parker mantle says, the greatest casualty is not failure, but the dreams that have been stamped out. The thoughts and the imagination that's been dampened and not even given oxygen. Yeah. Um, went through this list. Okay. And then I said, ask, ask the girl, when you have that list, what would be some of the easiest, easiest things on the list will be some of the hardest things on the list.
Uri Schneider: Um, so he gave us this therapist, some ideas, then empathic resonance. I gave the therapist some suggestions, including a talk by David Reznik. Um, on empathic resonance. I suggested events like the NSA. I suggested that, uh, she considered meeting other 16 to 20 year olds, women who stuttered could be very helpful and that professionals can't do it ourselves.
Uri Schneider: Um, I mentioned that I have a 16 year old girl that I know would be a great mentor. I said the 16 year old girls cried many times. Like 20 appointments. She just cried. And it was really hard. I cried too. And later I asked her, in hindsight, after we went through that whole journey together, what would you have liked me to do or to upset?
Uri Schneider: She said you did the right thing. There was nothing that you could say or do that would make me feel better. It was awkward at the moment, but it was the best for me that you just understood me and my stuttering because no one else does. It took her two years. The free, the frequency of therapy was not frequent.
Uri Schneider: She came when she wanted, after the first series of weekly appointments and then the 16 year old princess trapped in the muted mouth of her fear and shame insisted that I make her make a phone call. I said, I promised you at the beginning, I would never ever make you do anything, but I know you can do it.
Uri Schneider: How can i help you and she came to that appointment and she made the phone call. And then after she made that phone call that she chose to make, she raised her hand, both were first in 16 years and then came her AP research project. She chose the topic of stuttering. She presented the topic of stuttering. So I encourage this therapist, just hang in there.
Uri Schneider: It can't hurt by listening and being patient. Other things can be very hurtful. First and foremost, the Hippocratic oath of every person in healthcare is do no harm. Make sure you don't do harm. Don't suggest things that could be harmful. And in the words of the late great Dr. Joel stark, my mentor from Queens college, she said, every person you work with, you got to love them.
Uri Schneider: If you don't love them, get out of there. So care about her and love her up and obviously in an appropriate way, but to really care, sincerely and deeply about every person that you work with. And if you don't have a way to, if you are the person receiving care and you don't feel the person that professional is caring about you, probably something missing, they're probably right.
Uri Schneider: And if you're a professional or if you're a parent, or if you're a teacher, if you're a coach, that's something that is such a, such a key to open up change. Okay. I'm going to save the list of things, of what I was going to say about whatever for the next little segment, but let me just jump to what I said before the problem and a suggestion of a solution and what we can do for Jose and Jose B.
Uri Schneider: Um, the big problem with therapy is that it's too expensive. It's too hard to find good people and it takes too much time. And too often, we're not delivering people what they need when they need it in the right dose. Right? So we need to have something that's a lot more accessible, a lot more affordable, a lot more available in real life.
Uri Schneider: Things that are flexible in the sense that they can be delivered. This person needs a place to just feel like they are okay. And this person is ready for some speech strategies like max was saying over here. Right? So let me show you a visual. This is something also, I haven't shown much. I don't think most of you have seen this.
Uri Schneider: Um, this is what I'm thinking about in lifelong growth. You know, transcending, stuttering. If we know that stuttering sticks around for adults, we know that most kids grow out of it by a certain age, but for many people, if you're 20 and you're stuttering probably going to be stuttering to some degree for some time in the near future and not so near future.
Uri Schneider: So I think the process often looks like this. There's a stage of like exploring, maybe searching. They be consuming free content on social media, on the web. And that's where podcasts and social media and blogs and all the wonderful resources on the internet can be so helpful at this stage. You're not jumping into Facebook groups and interacting, certainly not jumping in and having a podcast.
Uri Schneider: Power to you, you know, mark my, uh, others, you know, just taking in, jumping in on the deep end to start a podcast. Um, I think it's absolutely remarkable. Um, but at this stage, someone is searching. Someone even told me it was a big development for them. When they stopped clearing their browser, they used to clear their browser and they were so ashamed of even searching the word stuttering.
Uri Schneider: It was as if they were looking up something that was completely inappropriate. And then when they stopped clearing their browser, stopped searching and incognito. That was a step. The next step is learning, digging deeper, educating yourself, looking for understanding to answer those questions. Why do I stutter?
Uri Schneider: Is it really because the dog barked at me when I was three years old? Is it really because my mom didn't hold my hand when the teacher was yelling at me or is it something else? Is it psychological? Is it anxiety? Is it, is it psychopharmacological? Is it genetic? Is it behavioral? Is it learned, learning about.
Uri Schneider: And then for some people, they get to a stage where they're ready to like jump in and do work. And the work could look very different for different people. So this might look like speech therapy. This might look like psychotherapy. This might look like some, you know, intensive work with someone that you trust and that, you know, that helps you kind of process and move forward.
Uri Schneider: But it's, it's readiness for change shedding your old shell and growing and expanding your limits and starting to express yourself more fully after that, it's very important and often missed time to sharpen, to refine and solidify whatever those new skills are, whether they are speech skills, whether they are skills of confidence of just being as you are and speaking freely, but feeling yeah, um, I'm moving forward and I'm solidifying my forward steps and I'm not going to fall back as quickly.
Uri Schneider: I'm not going to be as fragile and falling back into what was familiar because for 20 years I did it a certain way. That's a certain level of permanence. I'm going to move. And then putting this knowledge and habits into real life, then you've got to create a way to sustain it. Many of you are probably, I think, knowing some of you in the space, you're at a level where, like you have your mechanisms that you're sustaining this pretty strong state that you're in, whether it's through community, whether it's through hosting a podcast, whatever it is, you develop systems to support and to nurture your life around stuttering and speaking freely and being open.
Uri Schneider: And then just like living the fullest version of you being comfortable in your own skin, whatever that looks like. And then for some of you like the Toms and the Marvins and some others here, you get to a point that's very beautiful where you have the generosity and the bandwidth to give back. It's the most noble thing.
Uri Schneider: It's the most fulfilling thing. They get to a place where you feel pretty solid that you have something to offer and you take the time and the resources to share and help others in their journey. Finding their way across the bridge, just like you did. And I think that's, that's the process. So for these different things, you need to hit different types of experiences at different times.
Uri Schneider: And so I close with this just to show you, but I promise to be like this, uh, reveal over here. So let me see if I can share the right, uh, Google sheet. Yeah. Okay. So here we are. So I'm going to show you, so this is the transcending stuttering podcast. I'm actually going to go through in a moment after we finish this segment, this is the transcending stuttering community, and I want to invite you to it's free.
Uri Schneider: And, um, maybe again, maybe one of my friends here could put in the link. It's transcending x.com. Um, and it's free to join the community. And this community is like a small Facebook group, but it's not Facebook. And it's just very supportive and you'll see Jennifer Scharf. Who's here in the room with us tonight.
Uri Schneider: I want to thank Jennifer. Jennifer is an amazing woman she's also a mom. She's also a person who stutters and she's also a speech language pathologist, and she's facilitating this community and stoking it with these beautiful things. This weekly wonder, reflect and share what's the best phrase or expression you've used or seen others use to open up about stuttering.
Uri Schneider: And, um, and here you have comments from Steven Green, from Ireland and Carl coffee from Kentucky. Beautiful. And it's just filled with, you'll see other people here that you recognize here. I put together songs, a grateful dead songs, Phish songs, I think, uh, mark, you might like that. Check those out. I enjoyed some of yours.
Uri Schneider: Um, so this is a community. The community is a piece of the puzzle and the other parts of the puzzle. You can see here on the website. I'm just going to show you this. The key is on the homepage. It's very easy. You just go to the top, you go to join community. It's free people go beyond words. Discover how you can too.
Uri Schneider: You click here on people. And you'll come into this free community. The pieces are, I think, community. So I just showed you the community. Many of you know, the podcast, I'm going to show you the toolbox, which has not been released yet. The events every month we have events. Uh, often one is a professional led event and one is led by a person who stutters and those are open events.
Uri Schneider: Um, we've got these masterclasses and workshops related to the events. We've also got an online course, max, I'm thinking of you. So for people around the world that want to access something wholesome, that touches on a lot of different parts of the stuttering experience. I do have this online course, an ebook that's universally affordable, and if anyone needs help, it can be made affordable even more so.
Uri Schneider: And we also do professional training, the transcending stuttering cohorts. My vision is that people can come in at the level they're ready. So if you're not ready to be engaged in a community, Consume podcasts. If you're ready for community, you've got community. If you're ready for a toolbox, I'm going to show you what that looks like.
Uri Schneider: So you can do these different things. And then along that process of change, you can come back to reinforce and solidify oneself using these different tools. So let me show you, and this will be my finishing piece. I'm just going to show you the, um, the toolbox. I am incredibly excited and, uh, it's just released.
Uri Schneider: So if you join the community, you're going to get access to it for free. And I'm looking for beta testers also to build it out a little bit. So here we go. And I want to thank Jessica was here. Jessica was really with me kind of volunteer voluntarily, kind of brainstorming this together and contributing the initial tools.
Uri Schneider: So just tell me if you can see it. Um, yes. Okay. I'm gonna assume. Yes. Cause I'm having trouble getting both screens. This opens on mobile and on your computer. You'll notice there's a section here for SLPs. There's a section here. People who stutter self guided. And it's basically a curated think of it as like the stuttering homepage.
Uri Schneider: How many of you know, the stuttering homepage? It's like a stuttering homepage, 2.0, so you would go here to self guided. You'll get to ask yourself, what age am I looking for? So let's say I'm an adult. Forgive some of the quirks. You'll now be able to look and see, okay, I'm an adult. Am I looking for things on self-acceptance on self adjustment, max, that might be for you like techniques, tools, skills self-advocacy, or self knowledge.
Uri Schneider: Am I looking for books, PDFs, podcasts, research, all these things, and you'll know what's free. What's not, it's not my content. I'm trying to organize the internet so that people who stutter and speech pathologist and families can access great information. And then these are like sub themes. So I think, you know, um, just picking up.
Uri Schneider: Maya, uh, and political activism and spoken word and writing and creative expression, mark, I know is a, is a musical mind and a musical spirit, et cetera. So you'll be able to look for these different tags. That'll tell you these different sub themes. Okay. So let's say for example, an adult is looking for self-acceptance materials.
Uri Schneider: Here's an entire bookshelf, a virtual bookshelf, and then you can open any of these. Um, so like this is for kids that shouldn't be here, but these are books. These are podcasts, these are websites. Some of them are free. Some of them need to be bought, but you have a full collection here of different things.
Uri Schneider: So if we go to, you know, um, the calm app, for example, you'll see that it's a paid app. You got the link to it. You can see what ages it's good for. You could see that it's good for clinicians to tap into. It's also good for self-help and you can just take advantage of this, and this can become a place where you can have a repository to look for the different tools that you might be looking for.
Uri Schneider: People in Africa are super excited about this. We've run groups for people in Africa and all they want is like free content that they could consume on their own time. That doesn't take a lot of bandwidth and doesn't require time and somebody's money and so on and so forth. So creating a free dynamic, growing community-driven repository of tools and resources that people can search is going to dramatically change the game and level the field, and then having these complimentary layers of community of monthly events and so on creates new opportunities that didn't exist before.
Uri Schneider: On top of the existing, incredible activities that I mentioned earlier today of organizations like the stuttering foundation now. So stuttering association and so many others. Including the world's stuttering network. So in closing, just to finish my remarks on this, I will say that, uh, sorry, I just got to go back to a screen.
Uri Schneider: So, um, Jessica, do you mind just telling me, did you put in the link for the transcending x.com in the chat? Are you able to do that? Does that already get up there? Awesome. Whoever did it, Steph, thank you. I just wanted to make sure that it was there just as like a, a point of reference. Again, I would be extremely honored and delighted to get your feedback about the podcast, about which episode you liked about what isn't good, what you'd like to hear better.
Uri Schneider: And if you feel so inclined, subscribing and dropping your views is super helpful. But at the end of the day, if I can help any one of you, who's here and feels like there's something that I can share. Um, this is not a commercial plug. This is part of my passion. And likewise, if you feel you have something to contribute, I would love for you to join our community.
Uri Schneider: Likewise, if you know, people that are looking for opportunities free, no strings attached, the community will always be free. Um, there will be a part of it that will have a membership piece to it, but the idea of cultivating a community with these kinds of ethos and this kind of vibe is something that I'm committed to for the long haul.
Uri Schneider: And I'm looking for partners and people that want to grow that community. Tom is a mentor in the community. Tricia is a part of the community. Uh, others are as well. We have a beautiful team and we can only do it together. So follow transcending, X dot, uh, transcending x.com. And we separated the social handle, transcending X separate from Schneider speech.
Uri Schneider: But in the end of the day, like I said, there's millions of people waiting for an opportunity. So I think that's the question we have to ask ourselves as we leave. How do we open door a and door B for more people and just make those doors within reach and show them what's on the other side and let everyone choose what's right for them.
Uri Schneider: I will close my remarks there and, uh, take questions. I can certainly hang out. I have another whole little 10 point piece, which I can do quickly, but I'll pause there for this moment.
Uri Schneider: Tom, did you want to just tell me if I have more time? Like, do you guys want to hang out in here the quick top 10 from the podcast? Should I do that and then open it up for Q and a stuff? Or do you want me to just wrap it up here? Feedback? I mean, obviously you can leave. Thank you, Patty. I appreciate it.
Uri Schneider: I'm not coughing rights. I may as well get in some more birds. Um, is anybody want me to just like stop? Cause you want to have some other conversations. I'm happy.
Uri Schneider: Okay. So Jennifer is saying, thank you. And good night. I'm gonna, I'm gonna carry on. Okay. And then those of you that are leaving great. I'm gonna make this one much shorter, much, much shorter. And then, uh, I'll share Jennifer's comments cause she actually shared them in writing ahead of time. Um, Jen, so you'll sort of be with us even if you have to go.
Uri Schneider: Um, yeah, but great. So these comments are a little less baked out. Um, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna just share with you my, my takeaways from the podcast. And, um, it's been a really interesting ride. It's been the honest truth is it's exhausting and the honest truth is I love it. I love it. So if anyone's thinking of doing a podcast, don't do it.
Uri Schneider: If you're not ready to be exhausted, Don't do it. If you're thinking it's going to get listened to right away, don't do it. If you have some ulterior motives, you've got to just love it. And so here we are at episode 72, like I said, I looked forward to recording and we sort of have a rhythm in terms of processing it at this point, we've kind of honed in on it used to be on Facebook.
Uri Schneider: And now what we do is we record it on zoom. And so we do have it on YouTube. If you want to see the video, we do have it on every podcast platform. You can imagine there's one place. We can post it, that it goes everywhere. Or if you're so inclined, you can go to the website, transcending x.com/podcast, all 72 episodes right there at your fingertips.
Uri Schneider: Um, I would say the following here are my takeaways. Number one, everything that I tell people who stutter, I feel for myself, I try to put myself. In the same edge of my comfort zone and a little bit out of my comfort zone, the same way I'm encouraging other people to do the same and the same truth that if you want to talk more, if you have more to say, if you're holding back more than you want to, one of the best things to do is find opportunities to talk more.
Uri Schneider: I think Robert you're big on that. And I think Wendy, I think you guys have that program. Am I getting it right Robert? Yes. Yeah. So I think all these opportunities that may not be speech therapy or stuttering specific, but certainly if they're informed and attuned to that, you know, Toastmasters, I know Tom is big on all these things are wonderful opportunities to get out there and develop the craft, but also have opportunities to just kind of walk the walk, talk the talk, and, uh, enjoy communicating again and discover your voice and give air to all those words.
Uri Schneider: So for me, there's so much I've wanted to do. There's so much I've wanted to share. And I had so much fear of sharing my voice. I had so many reasons to hold back and I know for some of you, it might be like, how could that be? He doesn't stutter. Why, why would he hold back? And, um, and I think it's helpful for me to share very truly, yes, I don't stutter.
Uri Schneider: And yet I'm a scaredy cat. I'm worried what people will think. I've got that perfectionism thing going on. And I enjoy talking. I'm good at it, but my psyche, my temperament makes it that it wasn't easy, but it got easier as I started to keep doing it. And, um, so I would encourage anybody to just, it's a very, I'm walking the walk and I just, I feel like I'm a better therapist.
Uri Schneider: So for those of you that are guides and therapists who don't stutter, I think it's so valuable to do things that put us in the shoes of the same things we're encouraging others to do. And vice versa for us to encourage people to do things like this, to find more opportunities to talk. That's the most important thing, Wendy, I'm going to circle back if that's okay.
Uri Schneider: I just want to make sure I zip through this. Um, and the other thing that's happened for me is I've seen different layers, different. I'm sure some of you raise your hand. If you agree there, you hit a breakthrough and then you think that's the peak. And then all of a sudden you realize, whoa, there's a whole nother peak that it's not that it was a false peak.
Uri Schneider: It was a peak, but there was another layer. And if you look at that, not as overwhelming, but as wow, I thought this was a huge breakthrough. I can't wait for the next one. And then in hindsight, some of us that have more years. And I'm speaking again, collectively, because there are people here that I look up to in years, and there are people here that are younger than me, but you can have a breakthrough and then have another breakthrough.
Uri Schneider: So like I've seen different layers of myself getting more comfortable reaching levels of insight and levels of confidence emerge in ways that I didn't think were possible. And then that became possible and a whole nother frontier became visible. So I just want to encourage people that are on the journey to just know it's never ending.
Uri Schneider: That's the beautiful thing. And I think it's very much like climbing Mount Everest. When you climb on average, you get to base camp, you got to spend a little time there to acclimate to the oxygen. You can't just race up to the second base. Then you take the second base. Sometimes the weather doesn't cooperate.
Uri Schneider: Sometimes you get setbacks, you run out of food. You don't have good footing. You go back, but you don't go back to the place you started. You go back to base camp. You've now solidified base camp. That's your. You're waiting to get the next one. The next one, you get that, then you take the next level, but you don't go back to base camp.
Uri Schneider: You would just fall back to that next camp. So I think that's the way to look about the stuttering journey that there will be ups and downs, but the idea is to make sure that you climb and grow in a way that feels solid to you. That's going to look different for different people, but don't try to take the whole thing in one day.
Uri Schneider: That's a setup for a dramatic rollercoaster that you might not be set up for. On the other hand, don't think that just because you've had the first breakthrough, like that's it, if you so choose, you should just know. There's always another chapter to be written. As long as we wake up today, as long as we wake up tomorrow, we got another day to add another beautiful page and it can be another rendition.
Uri Schneider: Another variation on a theme of what was yesterday, or it could be the first day of the next chapter of the next project. I'm just getting more comfortable in some new things. So for me, that's been my experience and I'm just sharing that because I think it resonates with stuttering therapy.
Uri Schneider: Now I'll share a couple of insights about stuttering and then I will truly open it up for the back and forth. I appreciate those of you that are here. What do we know? So these were some deep thoughts, I think, um, irrefutable and, uh, just basic truths. And I think it's a nice way to round out this beautiful day, um, with the world stuttering network.
Uri Schneider: So again, thank you very much to Tom Shorstein, to Tricia Edinger, to Marvin and the whole team for making this happen and for giving me space. I feel very privileged and delighted to be a part of it. And, um, it's, it's no small feat and it's really hats off to you. So thank you. And for all of you listening, thank you for having me here are the bullet points and about.
Uri Schneider: Number one, stuttering is what it is. Interruptions in the flow of speech. Stuttering can become much more. It could become a communication disorder. Stuttering can develop with layers of anticipation and fear hiding and avoidance, but it doesn't always and. It doesn't have to. And if it does, there's no reason to feel bad about that.
Uri Schneider: That is common. It's also possible to stutter and be an exceptional communicator, to be a people person who loves to talk, who loves people, who people are drawn to, who people enjoy listening to, whether you stutter or not. You can be an exceptional communicator, a people person who loves to talk, who loves people and people are drawn to you and enjoy listening to you.
Uri Schneider: And if that's hard to hear, just keep playing it back on loop and then let me know in 10 years if you get there. But I think there are others in this room that can validate that it's possible. You point, number two, you, whoever you again, irrefutable truths catch me if you think not. So you are more than just a stutterer.
Uri Schneider: If I were to ask you, tell me five things about yourself. Stuttering might be one. know. What those five things are. When you walk into an interview, when you walk into a meeting, when you walk into a social situation, think about what are the other aspects of who you are and what are the other attributes, characteristics, accomplishments, identities, whatever they might be.
Uri Schneider: You are more than just a stutterer
Uri Schneider: point number three, this is a powerful one taught by a Holocaust survivor who survived two years as a child running through the forest with the partisan resistance. Living and foraging on the forest floor. This was someone who grew up in a town and they escaped with their parents and survive two years and she would give speeches afterwards.
Uri Schneider: And she would say the following you are capable of more than you realize. All of us are capable of more than we realize. We think we have a ceiling. And that was the exercise we did at the beginning of the first session. Raise your hand. Now, raise it a little higher. We all can push just a little bit further.
Uri Schneider: We're capable of more than we realize whether we stutter or not. Next point number four, no one can tell you what the next chapter of your life will look like. They cannot promise you and tell you you will stutter nor can they promise you or tell you you won't. No one can tell you and predict with certainty the next chapter of your own life.
Uri Schneider: It's a powerful stutter talk podcast with someone with the same last name as me, the great my father, Dr. Phil Schneider on the magic eight ball and danger of the magic eight ball telling people the future. Number five, this is what I was saying earlier about SLPs number five, good people can be guides, allies and friends on the path that you walk.
Uri Schneider: They can support you. Encourage you, stoke your imagination, plan for success and create nets of safety to fall into. You can have a professional speech, language pathologist. You could have a friend, you could have a support group. You can have a psychologist, but there are people you don't have to do it alone.
Uri Schneider: And you deserve to have good people on the path with you. Number six, this is the four-part framework that I've taught. You know what I'm going to do. Number 10 and then come back to these. So number six, just changing the order. Imagine a family vacation at the pool. We have four children. Thank God you go away for three days, you rent the place with a pool.
Uri Schneider: You're so excited. They won the scaredy cat kid. Doesn't want to go in the pool. Okay. You give them a little time. They two, he's still tiptoeing around the pool. Okay. It's day three. We got half the day gone, Natalie. Thank you so much. That two minutes. I'll get the punchline there for you if you want.
Uri Schneider: Otherwise. No problem. Um, the kid is tiptoeing around the pool. It's day three, you got four hours left at this beautiful place with a pool. What do you do? So this kid, do you push them in the pool? Like he just needs to be pushed. Do you say, Hey buddy, I'm going to hold your hand. We'll jump in together.
Uri Schneider: Nothing's going to happen. I won't leave you. I'm gonna hold you. Or do you just kind of say. And his dandy old time depends on the kid. Doesn't it? There's no right way. I got four kids. I can tell you, at least I got two different types in that group. One type would respond well to me saying, listen, I see you want to go in and I see you're not ready.
Uri Schneider: I'm going to let you decide when you're ready and I will not push you. And I will not bother you because I know that if I do, you're going to reset the clock you need. Another three days. I know another kid is going to say to me, daddy, just hold my hand. Just, can we go in together? You hold my hand. And as long as I know you're holding me, it's going to be great, but I can't go in alone.
Uri Schneider: I'm too scared. And then you have another kid that I, my kids, but there are people out there that are like, I just need you to shove me off the diving board. You know, just, just shove me. And I just need that. So what I want to say that is in stuttering, it's very similar. I would invite each of us. Uh, for ourselves and if we are guides or in the position of helping others to consider the way we engage, people should match what they're ready for and what they want.
Uri Schneider: And to really respect those differences as legitimate, and to really make sure that we check in before we push anybody. And at the same time, not hesitate to invite. Would you like me to hold your hand? Would you like me to give you a push? Because some people don't want to tip toe around and they don't want to waste the vacation and waste these meetings and waste these opportunities.
Uri Schneider: So I liked the idea of inviting people. How can I show up for you? I can be very patient and very supportive. Uh, I can also be more encouraging and, uh, maybe even a little bit of a coach, a little bit of a nudge if that's what you'd like, but I want to show up in the way that works for you. And the same person might say two different things on two different days.
Uri Schneider: And I think for us ourselves to recognize some days we're feeling a little bit more adventurous, a little bit more precocious. Other days, we're feeling a little bit more down and need to take it a little bit different pace. Let's honor that and recognize that that's kind of what I did also at the beginning of the first session and for my last four points, point number seven, self knowledge, which is one of the pillars I believe for transcending stuttering, the framework, self knowledge, you as a person who stutters deserve to learn and understand more about stuttering point number eight, self adjustment, you deserve to know what makes you stutter more or less.
Uri Schneider: It always surprises me. People who stutter had been setting for a long time. Don't always know the answer to the following question. What makes you stutter more? What makes you stutter less? What you do with that is a choice, but I think it behooves all of us to at least know if we think of stuttering similar to an allergy, Just to know what are some of the triggers and what are some of the things similar to my cough?
Uri Schneider: You know, there are things I know would exacerbate my cough, make it bigger and more disruptive when I don't want it to be interrupting me as much right now. And I may choose to use that knowledge to my employ that. On the other hand, there are things I know that are beyond my control, and I need to own that as well.
Uri Schneider: Um, so knowing what makes things, and then you have a choice you've presented now the door, a door B to explore how you want to serve the stuttering, you know, how you want to ride those waves, same as before, differently than before differently in different situations. Okay. Point number nine self-acceptance we all know it, but it deserves saying, and I think this frame is helpful.
Uri Schneider: You deserve to learn skills of self care, to be able to love yourself, to be able to like yourself to go to feel good and okay in your own skin. Just like we learned physical first aid, we treat a child, had to treat, a wound, physical wounds. We need to learn how to do emotional first aid, how to help ourselves independently when no one else is around and how to leverage a global community of people who stutter local chapters groups, people with similar cross sectional identities, um, and perhaps online communities, perhaps a therapist, perhaps a guide, perhaps a peer peers and mentors.
Uri Schneider: And then the last point is self-advocacy, which really wraps it nicely with national stuttering awareness week. Self-advocacy means you deserve to learn how you want to do self-advocacy for yourself at, in your family, at school and work in the community. And it should be if you want, it should be when you want.
Uri Schneider: And it should be how you choose. Can look different for different people. If they could do it themselves, they can enlist a parent. They can enlist a friend to speak up for them, but it should be coming from the person who stutters again, person centered to choose that that's an option. I can ask my mom to write a letter to the teacher.
Uri Schneider: I can ask my mom not to tell the teacher. I can write a letter that I'm never going to send to the teacher and see what I want to do with it. Later I could call the teacher. There's so many different ways to do it, but it should be something that at least is on the table as a choice. And then it becomes a choice for the future as well.
Uri Schneider: It becomes something that I can choose. Don't embarrass me. Don't say anything to my teacher. And then two years later, it's like, do you remember that idea? We talked about talking to the teacher. I thought it was crazy. Then I think that'd be perfect this year. Yeah. So planting seeds for the future. And similarly for listening to me now, there may be things here that resonated for today, where there may be things that hopefully are seeds.
Uri Schneider: That may be something you can revisit in the future. These are some of my top 10 takeaways from podcasting. I am certain that just a few podcasts later, I'm going to have a whole lot more. Um, and I look forward again to your feedback and your participation in the conversation. It really fuels the growth.
Uri Schneider: And like I said, the learning process. So I want to thank each and every one of you, uh, for showing up.
Speaker 2: Well, if I could just jump in, I was really touched. I mean, that was an amazing presentation overall URI, just really, you know, and, and also I'm getting my, my own voice saying highly skilled ODR. I shouldn't speak up, you know, but kind of like. Sure. I shouldn't say what you're going to say. Um, I really loved what you said about, um, people talking and you made a point and it's been in my space and even giving presentations today.
Speaker 2: Like I can be fluent here and I've got no problem speaking up here, but then asked me to make a phone call to a client in work, asked me to imagine where I'll be in five years. And I just, it just all descends into kind of murkiness and fear and did, and I just really love what you said, how I actually love, how, how you sat up.
Speaker 2: And I love that you pointed it out, that you know what people can be. People who have a stutter can be fluent in so many ways. And then in others, they're absolutely taken out and the self knowledge, knowing yourself on your own stutter, first of all, and all you could talk about mine because we've become best friends and I can see it, but I'm still a little bit stuck.
Speaker 2: And I, and the other thing. Giving back. Um, recently I've become maybe slightly aware that everything I've done is for me. I have to sell my book. Here's our course, I've got to do it. And I do it because I feel I'm in a space of, I haven't earned enough. I haven't done enough yet
Speaker 2: and I find it very hard for people to say, oh, but there's so much out there. It's like, well, I'm kind of having trouble making rent and I'm trying to find a whole new path of work and I've no idea what to do. So you telling me it's out there and I can't pay my rent and I get stuck in that gap. And I just love that you also brought that up and I'm seeing it in so many ways.
Speaker 2: Everyone keeps saying, give back to others, educate others, be of service to others. And I just really love that. You're saying the same thing too. And, um, I, I find, find myself being. Humbled and being told to stop speaking in my head and go, people are telling you the same thing, take a breath stop and just see what opens up.
Speaker 2: And I just really loved that. I loved, well, I didn't love it cause I've heard it again. So I'm like, okay, there's something here to look at, but I just really appreciate it. And as someone who doesn't have us to have a stutter or to have that commitment, just really great. So thank you really. It's quite is what I'm trying to say is thank you for all of those shares.
Speaker 2: I've been really touched and it's giving me stuff to really look out. So thank you.
Uri Schneider: Thank you. If you think I stayed up to hear my own voice, I didn't and even Wendy's feedback, I didn't, you know, it's, it's really for, for the people here that, uh, that does it for me. Um, yeah. I also was careful to say Robert, that, uh, There's also giving the self, you know, when you're pushing the book or you feel like you're pushing yourself to do a therapist or a coach or a friend in the community told you to do you're doing it for them, you know, also gotta make sure it's nice to like, be kind and tender with yourself and generous with yourself.
Uri Schneider: Yeah. But definitely there were times in the transcending stuttering process and Tom could tell you, like, I would start pulling my hair out. Like, where is everybody? Or, you know, how is this going to be sustainable? But, um, I have to gauge like, what's my bandwidth. And so if you have the bandwidth giving is definitely the richest, the richest thing anyone could possibly do writing a check to charity, giving out money, giving out time, giving out experience, giving it is the richest activity a person can do.
Uri Schneider: And it comes back so powerfully emotional. Spiritually economically, et cetera. But, um, but only if you have that bandwidth, because you got to fill up your bucket first, you got, you know, put on your own oxygen mask first, if you have the bandwidth and then, then that's a beautiful thing. And, um, that's great.
Speaker 2: Yeah. No, and that's really great to add because that's not added it's, you know what I mean? I've found it to be a total missing and I gave a talk earlier about becoming my own best friend, because that is where there is a lack and I'm going to grow with, but I really appreciated that, that you did say give back according to your bond, bandwidth.
Speaker 2: Lovely. Really? So thank you. ,
Uri Schneider: Patty. I know you came up here i'd love to hear you.
patty: Yeah. Um, I was on, um, no video and no. Uh, and on mute when Tom was asking people how they came to the stuttering um, com community. And even though I've been in it a bit, I don't feel like I've really joined until the WSM was formed. And you pulled, you lit, literally pulled me in through, through the SLP group.
patty: Yeah.
Uri Schneider: I knew who I needed to make it successful. You got to get the right people in on the, on the first floor.
patty: Yuri I'd like to, um, well first I really want to say thank you for starting with Storytime, Natalie. I don't know where there, maybe you didn't plan that, but I think it was just so nice that you shared a little bit of that about yourself and to help us understand sort of the mosaic of experiences and influences that have led you to this point.
patty: So it's was really, I don't know. I thought that was really powerful. And thank you for opening up in that way. And I'm going to, I don't know that there's a way to answer this question. Maybe I would, I'd be very curious just to hear your thoughts. Cause I was. I really appreciated the jury. Like the, the, kind of just the, the stages of the journey that you shared from starting with Explorer.
Uri Schneider: I thought that was a thought.
patty: That was really interesting. And then what you shared about, um, the person that you had interacted with, who initially wasn't even able to, who was clearing their browser data, because it didn't even want to know that they were searching the term stuttering.
patty: Like, I think that that was just, that was really moving just to help understand sort of the level of what we're working with. And as you mentioned, all the millions of people who aren't here, like, right. Like I'm wondering if maybe because I think we know they want to be here, but what is that? Like, maybe we need to go find them, you know?
patty: And so I'm wondering, like, do you think that a lot of the people. Are they still sort of in that Explorer phase and like, you know, like they're not just.
Uri Schneider: There's research, there's research on, on voice therapy. Um, that says why to, why is it? They said, I think I kinda know the numbers by heart. So, uh, yeah, 84% of educators have voice issues to the point that they have to lose a day of work every year because they lost their voice.
Uri Schneider: So educators are losing their voice all over the place. And yet this is the number I'm not remembering. I think it's 14% get voice therapy.
Uri Schneider: So the researchers were looking at well, why is that? In other words, it's a very significant group of people that are having a very significant impact on their vocation and probably trickles into their life. It's probably there more, these are people that are getting force. If you're getting Horace, you got laryngitis, things like that.
Uri Schneider: And the answers were a number one. Most educators have a family member who's had failed voice therapy. So there's no faith in it. Number two, these are people that don't have a lot of time to spare. So like when the voice therapist at the hospital says, sure, can you come in at 10? I teach? Do you have anything after five?
Uri Schneider: No, the hospital's closed schedule three. Oh, why don't you go private? Yeah. Money. So, so faith that it's going to be helpful availability at times that I can do so scarcity of time, which is a reality. It's like the only true scarcity and three is money. So I think it could be the people. Um, first of all, I don't think of all the millions of people.
Uri Schneider: I don't think most of them even know anything exists. Number two, I don't think they have a lot of faith that either have had failed experience that. Or they know people that have had failed experience or they've got it to Facebook groups that tell them everything's a failure. Um, you know, um, again, I'm not trying to be snarky.
Uri Schneider: I'm just saying there's a certain like gravitational pull towards hard time and the hard time deserves space and deserves air. It needs to be aired out, but it's important that people also feel a hope. We can't stamp out people's hope like people without hope, it's bad news. And there is hope to be had.
Uri Schneider: Uh, Natalie, the only answer I could say is we got to spread the word. We've got to spread the word. I think a lot of people are not interested in support. I think people that are in a painful spot are not looking for a circle of support. They're looking for like a radical shift of change. And there are too many people that are able to promise that recklessly as well.
Uri Schneider: And I'm not even talking about the snake oil piece of it. I'm talking about like, Getting those expectations up, maybe going for it, or maybe feeling crushed. You can't even get for it cause you can't afford it or you can't do it. But like the promise that there's someone out there that can cure me, why would I go to a support group?
Uri Schneider: Why would I go to someone that doesn't promise the cure? Like I'm asked that all the time, right? What are the outcomes? What can you promise me? So I'll just share this story and then John, you're next? Um, I get a call from a guy the very, um, again, I'm going to be super open, a very ethnic name. This way I can be open without even sharing my bias, a very ethnic name.
Uri Schneider: And I have to say I, we tried calling him back. No answer check on the second time he picks up the phone. He says, I'm busy. Call me back later. Okay. Send him an email, said, Hey, do you want to schedule a call? Anybody could schedule a call. Happy to take 10 minutes. Let's schedule it. Doesn't click. But he seems adamant that he really wants to talk and he really wants.
Uri Schneider: But based on the behavior and his name, I kind of thought maybe he's not looking for the private practice. Maybe the free community would be more fitting for him. I call him back at third time, he answers the phone. I made a video of this, but I haven't shared it yet. It's too good because it comes back to the kid who thought he was searching for like pornography when he used the word stuttering.
Uri Schneider: It's the same guy. Um, one second.
Uri Schneider: So this guy says to me, um, oh, hi. Oh, it's you okay. He spoke a beautiful English, beautiful English. And he says to me, um, yeah, when I get into high pressure situations, I just can't hold it together. And I've been doing fine my whole career, but now I got a promotion and it's much more front-facing and leadership and this and that.
Uri Schneider: And he says, I said, do you mind telling me like where you work? And he tells me he works at one of the top, top, top law firms in New York city. Again, I'm de-identifying. More than you even know. So top, top law firm. So I said, oh,
Uri Schneider: he says, um, can you help me? What would be the outcomes? So I said outcomes. Okay. So one, I hope that whatever degree you don't feel comfortable when leading up for a presentation or during a presentation or after a presentation, I would like that one outcome would be, you'd feel a lot more comfortable.
Uri Schneider: You might have like 80% right now, 80% worry about your words coming out. I'd like to think we could get to the point. That'd be like 20% and you'd have 80% free to actually think about what it is you want to say. What's your purpose? What's your message. What's your content? Why are you there? What do they need to hear from you?
Uri Schneider: As opposed to kind of like 80% self editing, self worrying? Self-monitoring let's just get that in proportion. Let's like give that like 20%. I said, and the other piece would be like, I think objectively outcome, you're going to be a more polished communicator. You know, I think you probably have a lot in you already that we can unlock and you can leverage and see the strengths you have in your nonverbal communication, in your content and your delivery and everything.
Uri Schneider: And maybe learn a few new skills that could Polish up things that you wish to Polish up. But I think, uh, I'm not promising to take the stuttering away, but I think we can, we can like reduce the amount of, of concern, worry in the anticipation delivery and post communication situations and objectively be a better communicator.
Uri Schneider: He said, I think it's the first one I really need. I think everything will follow that. I was pretty shocked. So then he asked me for references. So I gave him the name of another person with the same ethnic type of name. Who's like a cardiologist at NIH. And then I said, oh, we hung up. And then in the community.
Uri Schneider: I reached out to the young man who told me that story about clearing his browser privately. And I said, listen, do you remember when you told me you were so nervous about your first day at the job, guess where he works? The same law firm. He was going to that firm and he felt pretty confident, pretty comfortable in his stutter, but he said, I don't know.
Uri Schneider: Or do you think that like, really, like I have a stutter is a pretty big firm. You think like, I I'm accepting it. Maybe the team will accepted, but like there's no way I'm going to be able to like Excel in this company. I said, listen, would you mind being a buddy for this guy? Cause he's looking for someone a little further along in the journey.
Uri Schneider: I think you have a lot to offer him. And he's like, uh, you know, partner track at the firm who knows maybe your stutter might be like a door opener, you know? He's like, yeah. I love talking to people who stutter. That'd be great. So it comes full circle from being in the library and clearing your browser.
Uri Schneider: To getting to the point. I love talking to people who stutter. I was like, there's nothing greater than like talking to my people. And, and it's a two-way street. This young man, a newbie at the firm has something to offer this senior person. And the senior person sure has something offered to him and they come from completely different worlds.
Uri Schneider: There's too much noise. Like if everybody goes back into the silos after COVID, it's like a missed opportunity, there was an opportunity. To leverage what happened during COVID is this, this meeting right here, the global connectivity of the stuttering community became tighter than ever.
Uri Schneider: And the good guys and the good stuff rises to the top. And there's such a generosity of benevolence. Like let's, let's, let's do things together. And the more we do together, the more it's going to benefit those millions of people that are looking for the help. And then the people that are ready for engaging in therapy.
Uri Schneider: We can, we can put out options for things like that, like subsidized stuff. So I did a group. Robert, you could consider this. I did a group in Ghana, the transcending stuttering. I did an eight hour group. It's the same exact group I would do for people paying full fee in Africa. Economics are different. It was $1 per person.
Uri Schneider: It was just a token antying in that there was some transaction that says I want to be here. And for these people literally dialing in from Hudson Shannon's. Running out of internet in the middle of the call messaging, can you, can you, can you refill my internet? And that was the next problem we had to solve, but there's a way to do this.
Uri Schneider: That could make such a difference. And so the, and self-help organizations could partner with people like Robert people like me, others who have that generosity, you have that bandwidth to do something like that. Internet's very doable. And you create the course coupled with live meetings, coupled with ebook, coupled with giving them the tools to support themselves.
Uri Schneider: That's a sustainable model. That's what I'm looking to build on that. I didn't talk about AI, but...
Uri Schneider: I'm even using one of them right now. Like for myself, it would sit on top of like an act type of modality of therapy. They would literally be responsive. So if I said, Hey, I'm having a tough time. I'm like drowning and anxiety leading up to this presentation at work today.
Uri Schneider: I could use some encouragement and, and the bot would write back. Like I hear you sounds really tough. Would, would you like to hear about this or would you like to hear about this?
Uri Schneider: You know, so it, and that becomes super affordable because it's automated. It would never be able to be a standalone, but it would be affordable and reachable in people's own time. It would be individualized. It wouldn't be a drip if you know that. It would be like responsive to the person's requests and responses to getting to know the person, learning the person.
Uri Schneider: And there'd be real people behind it. That's the next iteration. I think 10 years from now, zoom is going to be a whole different experience. We have a whole 3d, I'm going to smell you. I'm going to touch you. You know, you're gonna smell me and touch me for better for worse. Um, and I think, uh, also AI is, is going to replace so much, uh, so much yet human beings and meetings like this will still be the premium, you know, we'll still need to be a part of the delivery of care, but thankfully, and also scarily, the right people have to step into that space.