Yoga for Stuttering: Unifying the Voice, Breath, Mind & Body to Achieve Fluent Speech [Paperback]

J.M. Balakrishnan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 7, 2009

Stuttering, caused by a disorder in the brain’s right hemisphere, can limit one’s life in a variety of ways, from job choices and advancement to social and romantic opportunities. Typical remedies emphasizing antidepressants and electronic devices have had mixed results at best.

Yoga for Stuttering takes a fresh approach based on ancient methods. Author J.M. Balakrishnan combines an understanding of the neurological aspects of stuttering with yoga methods long used in India for remediation to form a new, natural method for improving vocal fluency. The book presents three related branches of yoga and their accompanying practices, nada yoga (chanting and vocalization), hatha yoga (yoga poses), and raja yoga (guided meditations), providing the reader with sets of voice, breathing, and physical exercises to help relax the body and mind, relieve chronic tension, and achieve fluent speech. The book features photos and illustrations to make the method easy to follow, and no prior knowledge of yoga is required. Yoga for Stuttering was created to meet the needs of those who have not obtained relief through traditional methods and is aimed at both speech pathologists and individuals looking for a holistic, drug-free approach to the condition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“J. M. Balakrishnan combines and bridges different traditions. This will help people.”
—June Peterson, CCC, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Speech and Language Pathologist

“I found this book fascinating, linking two bodies of research, Western science and Eastern philosophy. This book will be a resource for people who stutter and their families, and allows them to have a new insight into this difficult problem.”
—Daniel J. Thwaites, MD, Modesto, California

“I greatly believe that a combination of eastern and western therapies works … this different process changes the way those who stutter think.”
—Adriana Faiman, MSW, founder and director of bilingual school Escuela del Sol, Palo Alto, California.

About the Author

J. M. Balakrishnan has graduate degrees in Speech Communications and Speech Pathology as well as a law degree. She is a national award-winning public speaker and debater. She has served as San Francisco State University’s public speaking coach and has taught Speech and Debate at UC Berkeley Extension, San Francisco State University, Pennsylvania State University, and Diablo Valley College. She has also been a debate coach for Piedmont High School and Berkeley High School in the San Francisco Bay area.

Ms. Balakrishnan holds a MS in Communicative Disorders, and she is certified by the American Speech and Hearing Association and licensed by the State of California to practice as a speech-language pathologist. After working with over two thousand students in the public school system, she created the Yoga for Stuttering program for people who stutter, who have not been helped by traditional means. She presently maintains a private practice in the San Francisco Bay area.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: North Atlantic Books; 1 edition (April 7, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556437684
• ISBN-13: 978-1556437687
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 0.4 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #544,354 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not Very Helpful, May 23, 2010

By 

Jeff Klayman (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Yoga for Stuttering: Unifying the Voice, Breath, Mind & Body to Achieve Fluent Speech (Paperback)

I ordered this book with great expectations and was profoundly disappointed in the results. Ms. Balakrishnan obviously has the credentials as a licensed speech pathologist and clinician to know very well the subject she talks about. But, after a promising introduction in which she gives several anecdotal synopses of stutterers she has treated using Yoga combined with other therapies, the book becomes simply a very rudimentary primer on Yoga (and a not very good one, at that). A few basic asanas and breathing exercises having nothing directly related to the complex phenomenon that is stuttering, do not make for anything worthwhile therapeutically to any moderate or severe stutterer. Ms. Balakrishnan includes in the subtitle to her book "Unifying the voice, breath.....to Achieve Fluent Speech"! Really? FLUENT SPEECH? She offers nothing to back up such an extravagant claim. Clearly, YOGA is good for everyone and can contribute to anyone's overall well-being, both physically and spiritually. But the author is peddling her book as something more: as a potential "cure" for stuttering and I for one, am not buying this inflated claim. As someone who has tried ALL the remedies out there, I know full well the daunting challenge anyone has when attempting to find an effective treatment for stuttering: the "cure" word should never be mentioned, as there appears to be none. Certainly the book is worth perusing for a few moments in a bookstore, but I doubt any stutterer would gain any real benefit from the meager exercises and suggestions contained within. The author's heart is in the right place. What is needed is something more than this scant volume provides to the millions of people suffering from the baffling disorder that is chronic adult stuttering.

Nice try-but no cigar: far from it.

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Refreshing Approach, July 25, 2009

By 

Alta V. Walters "avw" (Two Rock, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Yoga for Stuttering: Unifying the Voice, Breath, Mind & Body to Achieve Fluent Speech (Paperback)

What a refreshing approach. This results-based and sensitive therapeutic system empowers the student to proceed at a pace set at his/her own comfort and suggests workable, personal and flexible objectives. Its east-meets-west approach is a refreshing alternative to traditional therapies that too often reinforce the very pressures that trigger stuttering."