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National Stuttering Association

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A promotional graphic featuring a book titled "Stuttering: from Shame and Anxiety to Confident Authenticity" by Hanan Hurwitz. On the left is a monochrome photo of the author, and the top banner reads "Writer's Wisdom: Hanan Hurwitz" against a backdrop of illustrated books.

We are always eager to support members of the NSA on their career journeys. This month, we want to highlight the incredible accomplishment of Hanan Hurwitz , a person who stutters, business owner, former Chairperson of the Israeli Stuttering Association, and now a new author! Hanan published his first book, Stuttering: From Shame and Anxiety to Confident Authenticity.

We grabbed a quick interview with Hanan to share deeper insights into his writing process and what he hopes people take away from this book.

What made you want to write this book?

“With my stuttering and my overall experience of stuttering, I have been through quite a number of challenges in my life. It is difficult for me to explain my deep fear and trauma of stuttering, or, more precisely, the trauma of the struggle with stuttering. I often have flashbacks to situations where I was not able to get a word out, and anxiety that I will face such situations again. I know that my experience is not unique to me and is shared by most other people who stutter. I feel fortunate to have survived and even to have thrived, thanks to the NSA, to the teachings of Brené Brown, and thanks to many others.

A man with glasses, wearing a blue shirt, stands against a purple background featuring a quote: "I found out that the path to such surviving and thriving is not by avoiding stuttering, not by forcibly modifying the way I create sound, but rather by acceptance of my stuttering and by enhancing my knowledge about stuttering." - Hanan Hurwitz.

I have a strong desire to share what I have learned with other people who might be going through struggles and suffering similar to mine. I am certainly not claiming to have all the answers, but I know what helped me. The possibility of my experience being helpful to someone else is a very powerful motivation for me to share the attitudes and philosophies that helped and continue to help me.”

What did you learn from writing this book?

“Writing the book helped me clarify my thoughts and deepen some of my learning. This applies to all the topics that I write about, from stigma and shame through to mindfulness. I learned more about those attitudes and philosophies that have been helpful to me, and they have thereby become even more helpful to me. Perhaps the most significant philosophies for me, about which I learned more during the writing of the book, are the Buddhist teaching of the Four Noble Truths and the accompanying Eightfold Path that Leads us out of Suffering. It is important to understand that Buddhist philosophy is not connected to religion in any way. It is a way of living. Mindfulness is not something we do, it is the way we live.”

What do you want people who stutter to take away from reading this book?

“I would like people who stutter to know that they, that we, are not defective. We are different. Stuttering is a completely normal way of talking for us.”

Text on a white background reads: "I would like people to realize that the problem is not stuttering; the problem is stigma, and what the societal stigma has caused us to think and believe about stuttering, and about ourselves.

Yes, the experience of stuttering can be very difficult. I know this, and I lived this for most of my life. However, the difficulty of the experience of stuttering is, I believe, compounded by us when we struggle against our stuttering, when we try to hide and otherwise avoid our stuttering. This hiding of stuttering makes us hide ourselves. This is suffering. When we choose acceptance and openness instead of hiding, when we choose community instead of isolation, we become free to become the people that we want to be. I hope that I have adequately explained this, and I hope that people can learn this. 

Moreover, I hope that people take away that we can and should continue the discussions about stuttering, as it is so very complex. I hope more and more people attend conferences and learn to talk about their thoughts, perceptions, beliefs, and traumas. 

Stuttering: From Shame and Anxiety to Confident Authenticity, the No.1 new release in Communicative Disorders in Special Ed, is available to purchase or download on Amazon. Congratulations Hanan! We will always be rooting for you.

 

Buy Stuttering: From Shame and Anxiety to Confident Authenticity on Amazon

Cover of "Stuttering: from Shame and Anxiety to Confident Authenticity" by Hanan Hurwitz. The background is blue with the title and author's name in yellow and white text. There is an image of a speech bubble made up of puzzle pieces at the bottom.