Journey to the Stutterverse with Stephen Greene!

Culture editor Addy Blocksidge catches up with Stephen Greene, creator of The Stutterverse.

“Stuttering has as much value as fluent speech”

In order to make this an authentic representation of a person who stutters, Stephen’s words have been transcribed with 100% accuracy.

Addy: Tell us about you! Where are you from and what have you been up to most recently?


Stephen: Ok so, my name is Stephen Greene and I am from Dublin. I’ve been living down in Waterford since 2007. I worked in the intellectual disability sector for twenty odd years but now I’m in a role in youth justice as a youth justice worker. Lately I’ve just been working and living!


Addy: Tell us how you got into social care and youth justice?


Stephen: Oh that’s interesting yeah. I worked various different jobs when I left school but there was nothing that really grabbed me as such. I remember I was training as an audio visual en-en-engineer at the time and my heart wasn’t totally in the job. I had a sister working in St Michael’s House which is an intellectual disability a-a-association up in Dublin. My sister said that she thought I would be good in-in a social care job and asked would I volunteer with them and see if something comes from it. So I started volunteering at St Michael’s House and then I heard of a course that was coming up. It was a FETAC level 5 in d-d-disability and co-community skills. So that was my pathway into social care at the time.


Addy: Ok, so going back then, when did you first realise that you had a stutter and do you remember how that felt?


Stephen: Yes so I suppose my first memory is my mam bringing me to speech therapy when I was about five. I don’t really remember the speech therapy s-sessions as such but I have this memory of walking across the bridge with my mother and holding her hand. It probably felt great because I had two other sisters at the time so this was my time to spend just with my mother. I suppose my first real memory of my stutter would have been in school and having to say ‘anseo’ in the morning which is how we say ‘here’ in Irish. I would have always got stuck on that. That was my first feeling of being different to everyone else in the class.


Addy: Do you remember any other challenges or barriers experienced in school or subsequently when studying at college?


Stephen: Yeah look I suppose I was quite lucky in school that I had a really good group of friends so I never really had the bullying side of things but I had that feeling of being different to everyone else when I struggled to read out in-in class. It’s even the a-aa-ant-ticipation of your struggle then as well. So I would even be counting the students that were a-a-ahead of me during the reading. I suppose my struggle seemed to get worse the older that I was getting then. Obviously you’re trying to form your i-d-d-dentity as a t–t-t-teenager and so on. I was struggling, because not only was I trying to hide my s-s-stutter but that ended up hiding a lot of the other sides of me too. And I couldn’t really see beyond the struggle with the sssstutter. So when I should have been looking forward to finishing school and heading off to college, all I could think was that nobody is going to want to hire somebody that can’t speak. And how am I going to manage if I have to stand up i-in college and give a presentation? So I decided not to go to college at that stage o-of my life anyway.


Addy: You felt limited?


Stephen: Kinda yeah because I couldn’t see beyond the struggle I was having at the time.


Addy: And when did you decide to go to college?


Stephen: So I was working in social care at the time. I had done a FETAC level 5 or 6 with St Michael’s House and that got me into social care. Once I had my foot in the door there I was able to do all of the in-in-in-internal training that was happening. And I was getting on really in the job then as well. So then I had the opportunity to actually go to college relatively recently. I kept putting it off because I kinda still had those doubts whether or not I could manage working full-time as well as doing my d-d-degree. But I did take that step in 2015.


Addy: When you finally started studying for your degree, were you more confident?


Stephen: Yeah, because of where I was at on the journey with my stuttering, I was a lot more comfortable then so I didn’t really have that much fear about showing up as a person who sssstutters. So I didn’t have that struggle that I would have had when I was younger. I was maybe un-unsure whether I could do it aca-academically because I am quite lazy at times! But once I got stuck into it, it was actually fine. The college work was actually working out fine and even just getting the chance to meet my fellow students was easier because I was a lot more comfortable in my own skin at that stage.


Addy: So going into your career thus far, how has your experience been in terms of work? What influence has your stutter had on working in social care?


Stephen: Look when I started working in social care I probably would have tried to hide my stutter a lot more whereas over the last ten or fifteen years I’m probably a lot more open about it. So I can maybe see what I’ve gained from being a person who stutters and how you can bring that to your work. I suppose there’s a certain level of authenticity where if you can show up and show a side of you or an i-identity that has probably been sss-ssstigmatised in the past and maybe still is to a certain d-d-degree…. if you can show up and show that, I think the people that you work with will kinda feed off that level of authenticity that you have then. And I think there are other qualities that I bring, maybe a level of patience that I maybe wouldn’t have if I didn’t have a stutter and a certain level of empathy for maybe challenges that people have. If I didn’t stutter, I’m not sure I’d have those things.


Addy: So tell us about The Stutterverse?! How did that come about?


Stephen: I’ve been involved in stuttering su-su-support since 2005 with the Irish Stammering Association. I started off attending their support groups and then I just found that so valuable that I had a space where I could go to meet other people who ss-sss-stuttered and just share that common ec-ec-experiences that we have. Through going to that group I took more of an active role with the Irish Stammering AA-Association. I became a faa-faacilitator to the support groups and I was also the chair of the Irish Stammering AA-Association. So The Stutterverse came about in I think the end of 2021 or start of 2022 when I saw a space on-on-online for me to kinda share my ec-ec-experience as a person who ssstutters, but also to show what is happening in the world of sstuttering at the moment. So I share my ec-experience, I also share some of the latest re-research that is out there. So The Stutterverse is an online stuttering ad-advocacy platform which I own.


Addy: It’s a cool name…


Stephen: Yeah, it is pretty cool. I think the origin of the name happened because I saw a lot of articles and ads at the time for the Metaverse, the Mark Zuck-Zuckerburg thing. And I was thinking wouldn’t it be cool if we had a kinda stutterverse where people can go and talk about anything ssstuttering and to just show that you can stutter and still lead a happy and positive life.



Addy: Do you have any wisdom to share with others that might be having similar experiences as you, and also any advice for anybody speaking with somebody that has a stutter?


Stephen: Yeah ok. So even though there is a lot of common stuff, the journey with stuttering is such an individualised ec-ec-experience. What I would say is, if you are struggling with the physical side of ssstuttering or the emotional side or the i-identity side, su-pports ar-are out there so reach out to the Irish Stammering AA-A-Association. They have groups that meet on-on-online and you can log on, you can talk to other people who sstutter. So the community is out there and the more you try to fight against your ssstuttering, the more struggle that you might see. I know the biggest thing for me was just trying to let it happen and not fight against it and I’ve definitely seen how that has had a positive impact on my life.


With regard to somebody who is speaking to a person who stutters, I think it’s the same as how we treat anyone else really. So say if you’re speaking to somebody that doesn’t stutter, you aren’t going to jump in and finish their sentence. So if you’re not doing it for somebody that doesn’t stutter, you shouldn’t really do it for somebody who ssstutters. And also, at the point of stuttering you don’t have to give them that look. While it might be a little strange if it is the first time you’ve met somebody that ssstutters but I know from several people that I know that we have all seen that look that people give us. It’s says ‘Ok, what the heck is going on here??’. So it’s just being in consonance and acknowledging that, Ok this person is speaking a little bit differently to me, but stuttering has as much value as fluent speech.


Addy: Any nuggets of knowledge that you would give to somebody at the beginning of their social care career journey?


Stephen: I think social care is really built on several pillars. Authenticity is a really big one I think. Just be real and show your true self, people will feed off that. I think it’s about re-relationship building, it’s massive in social care so that there is a level of trust there. It’s also all about em-em-empowerment as well. So you aren’t there to do the thing for the individual, you’re there to empower the individual to do stuff for themselves.


Addy: Lastly, I know that you’re a very talented musician…what is your favourite song of all-time?


Stephen: My favourite song of all-time…that’s a tough one. I do like most of the songs on the Arcade Fire album. I’ll go with Wake Up by Arcade Fire!

To find out more about The Stutterverse please visit the Instagram and website below:

Instagram: @the_stutterverse

By Addy Blocksidge (Culture Editor)