Living effectively with stuttering: Narratives from voices of past and present as client-based evidence

This study explored how people who stutter define and experience recovery, aiming to understand what it means to "live effectively with stuttering" and to evaluate personal narratives as client-based evidence. Using narrative inquiry and thematic analysis, 30 publicly available recovery narratives from SLPs who stutter were analyzed. Narratives were drawn from ASHA convention panels (1996-2019) and examined holistically to identify shared themes and insights. Six themes captured the core dimensions of recovery: (1) the emotional and cognitive work of acceptance, (2) claiming voice through disclosure and visibility, (3) the lifelong and nonlinear nature of living with stuttering, (4) challenging dominant fluency-centered paradigms, (5) the healing power of relationships, and (6) therapy as a co-narrative process. Participants emphasized identity, resilience, and communicative agency over fluency. For this population, living effectively with stuttering was defined not by producing fluency, but by empowerment, authenticity, and connection. These narratives support a paradigm shift toward narrative-informed, client-centered therapy that values lived experience as valid clinical evidence.