Hausdörfer Stuttering Therapy
Thinking differently about stuttering!
How it works
Freeing yourself from stuttering is changing your mindset. With Hausdörfer’s approach, you will work less and have more energy left. We use three important aspects. These are not difficult and within reach.
Focus on voice
The Hausdörfer method teaches you how to focus on your voice consciously. This is a natural tool as every baby learns to talk this way.
Letting go
Stuttering is not bad. It does not mean that you are less if you stutter. We help you to free yourself from your thoughts about your speech. To let go of your ideas about speech as well as the opinions of others.
I can
During the foundation course, you gain the confidence that you can speak. We will teach you how to direct your voice. That you can shape and direct your voice in any way. And that you can talk without difficulty: Free from stuttering.
The starting point of the Hausdörfer method
The Hausdörfer method is unique in the world. Unlike other stuttering therapies, we do not see stuttering as a physical abnormality. Someone who stutters speaks fluently to a dog or a baby or if no one is nearby. Most stutterers also have no problems when they sing. That shows that physically, there is nothing wrong, but that something else is going on.
Recent scientific studies show that the tendency for stuttering must be sought more widely than just speech-motor processes. Temperament and cognitive-emotional development of the child plays an important role in learning, maintaining and possibly worsening stuttering.
Stuttering is a result of anxiety and fear
The stuttering therapy of the Hausdörfer Institute is in line with these findings. Our method is based on the idea that stuttering results from accumulated anxiety, fear and uncertainty in speaking. By thinking “I can’t” and confirming it again and again, stuttering is maintained.
Our method restores confidence in speech
The Hausdörfer method assumes that stuttering is not caused by a physical defect or dysfunction. We see stuttering as the unconscious, unhandy control of speech through fear and/or tension when speaking. Our stutter therapy is aimed at the natural control of speech and the removal of speaking voltage. This restores confidence in speaking.
Everyone can be free from stuttering
Unlike other therapies, we do not pay attention to breathing when speaking. After all, this is an autonomous function that nobody has to think about. Forming mouth positions also deserves no attention because every stutterer already forms them flawlessly when speaking well, for example, when talking to a dog or baby. Almost every person can make (fluent) speech sounds from birth. Because our natural speech is nothing other than the forming of this unshaped speech sound into intelligible speech sounds, every person can speak naturally. Even those who have been stuttering for a lifetime!
The Founder: Oscar Hausdörfer (1864-1951)
Hausdörfer therapy is based on the life work of the German pharmacist Oscar Hausdörfer. Until the age of twenty, Hausdörfer was a severe stutterer who managed to free himself (and many others) from stuttering. In 1894, he gave himself a birthday gift by setting up his “Speech Institute.” He then devoted the rest of his life to helping stuttering children and adults. Because of its simplicity, his approach is powerful and effective.
The method was forgotten
Oscar Hausdörfer died on December 12, 1951, at the age of 87. After his death, his daughter Erna continued his life’s work for a few years. However, after Erna Hausdörfer passed away in 1975, the method was forgotten for several years. In 1982, a former student of Hausdörfer, Roswitha Schöttke, picked up the thread again. During a self-help congress at the Bundevereinigung in Münster, she talked about her experiences with the Hausdörfer method that freed her from stuttering.
A success in The Netherlands
In 1984 Dutchman Jan Heuvel followed a workshop by Schöttke during a stuttering convention in Cologne, Germany. Jan was a severe stutterer up until that moment. He had already completed many therapies to get rid of stuttering. Due to the Hausdörfer method, Jan becomes free of stuttering at the age of twenty -five. He became so enthusiastic about the method that he decided to help as many other stutterers as possible. In 1988 he therefore introduced the Hausdörfer method in the Netherlands. The method has now freed hundreds of people from stuttering, from very young to the elderly.
In Canada since 2000
Robin Timmerman is a therapist at the Hausdörfer Institute in Canada. He followed Hausdörfer therapy in the Netherlands in 1999. The Canadian institute receives input and guidance from Jan Heuvel at the institute in the Netherlands. We hope that we can help you or your loved one also to become free from stuttering.