What We Gain By Stuttering Freely at the 2016 FRIENDS Convention (Ep. 588)

stuttering, StutterTalk
Chris Constantino and Mary McLoughlin at FRIENDS

Mary McLoughlin joins Chris Constantino at the 2016 annual convention of FRIENDS: The National Association of Young People Who Stutter to discuss the power of vulnerability, what we gain by stuttering freely and how stuttering leads to intimate and meaningful relationships with other people. Ms. McLoughlin explains that she keeps returning to FRIENDS conventions because “I couldn’t be in better company.”

Other topics include the value of stuttered communication, stuttering freely and openly, meeting people who stutter with confidence and positivity, taking ownership of stuttering, how stuttering voices create spaces for intimacy and vulnerability, using voluntary stuttering to ground communication and much more.

The FRIENDS conference takes place July 28-30 in Columbus, Ohio.

Mary McLoughlin is from Long Island, New York and will be a student at the University of Dayton starting this fall. She plans on majoring in English. This is her third FRIENDS conference.

Christopher Constantino is a person who stutters, a StutterTalk host and a PhD student in Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Memphis. Chris is doing his clinical fellowship in the Shelby County Schools in Memphis and is conducting a research study to understand and contextualize the experiences of passing as fluent for people who covertly stutter.