Yoga for Stuttering Unifying the Voice, Breath, Mind & Body to Achieve Fluent Speech

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 Stutteringtakes 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,nadayoga (chanting and vocalization),hathayoga (yoga poses), andrajayoga (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 Stutteringwas 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.

Josephine Mary Balakrishnan has been a speech-language pathologist and public speaking coach for two large urban school districts for thirty years, and has served over two thousand clients in 100+ schools as their primary speech therapist. In the past eight years she developed a special yoga program for people who suffer from stuttering and has helped hundreds of children and adults increase their fluency with this method.

She has a MS in Communicative Disorders and a MA in Speech Communications, and is licensed by the California State Board of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, with credentials in Clinical Rehabilitative Services.

Also a talented visual artist, J.M. Balakrishnan is married to David Balakrishnan, founder of Grammy-award-winning jazz-classical group the Turtle Island String Quartet. They live in Albany, California.