Grab the Mic: Prathusha's Mission to Empower Stutterers

Prathusha Ravi has a mission: to help every person she coaches overcome their stuttering and want to “grab the microphone.” She knows firsthand how monumental that step can be. By age six, the Düsseldorf, Germany-based internal auditor for Ernst & Young had already experienced the trauma of losing her father in an accident. Her stuttering didn’t appear until fourth grade. She recalls the first moment vividly: while trying to say her friend Kokila’s name, she became blocked on the first consonant. A classmate teased her, imitating her in front of everyone. “It’s etched so deeply in my mind that I still can’t forget it,” she said.

A Defining Moment

Around the same time, her mother remarried. “My stepfather was very strict,” Ravi explained. “It wasn’t a supportive environment. If I needed to ask him a question, the fear itself was so overwhelming that I’d rather stutter than ask. It was very hard.”

Despite being a bright student, she felt incapacitated in class when she knew the answers but couldn’t speak. As her stepfather became increasingly abusive, she had no space to address her stutter. That changed when he passed away in 2016. “After that, my entire environment changed. I became calmer and more relaxed,” she said.

Seeking a Cure

At age 20, Ravi began seeking treatment. She found a local speech therapist who focused on breathing and mouth exercises—like speaking while holding pebbles in her mouth or exhaling while talking. “It didn’t work when I was anxious,” she said. Eventually, she realized, “If breathing is involuntary, then speaking should be involuntary too.” Traditional therapies didn’t address the mental and emotional aspects of stuttering, which often exacerbated the problem. Searching online for solutions, she discovered the neuroscience method through the World Stop Stuttering Association (WSSA). “The tagline, ‘If you can say one word anywhere, anytime, you can say any word anywhere, anytime,’ completely sold me,” she said. A random Facebook message to Lee Lovett led to a free session, and within a week, she began seeing real progress.

Welcome Help

Ravi was impressed that Lovett himself is an ex-stutterer who cured his own speech. Unlike traditional therapy, Lovett’s approach addressed the root causes of stuttering through personalized techniques called “crutches,” designed to help students work around and eventually overcome their stuttering. The neuroscience method also emphasizes mind training—daily positive affirmations that help students stay on track and shed the baggage of a lifetime of stuttering. Students benefit further from group sessions like crutch practice and the weekly Speech Anxiety Masters (SAM) meetings, where stutterers from around the world support one another and witness each other’s progress.

The Joy of Coaching

Seeing recovered stutterers succeed and then helping others led Ravi to become a WSSA coach herself. “Every time a student comes back and says, ‘Oh my God, I used that crutch and it really worked,’ it makes me incredibly happy,” she said. “Changing even one person’s life is the biggest motivation to keep going.” Today, Ravi serves as WSSA’s coaches examiner chair and vice chair of SAM. “My goal is to make my students say, ‘Give me that mic. I want to talk,’” she said. “We are living proof that this method works. If we can do it, you can too.”