“Your son is a born speaker,” a father complimented me after Moishy’s beautiful graduation speech.

A what? A born speaker? My eyes welled with grateful tears. Because just a few months earlier, my son couldn’t utter a single word without stuttering. His speech, not to mention his life, was in shambles.

Moishy began stuttering when he was six years old, due to various emotional triggers. His stutter delivered a bad blow to his confidence and social life. Throughout the years, Moishy worked with various speech therapists at school — but we saw no improvement.

By the time Moishy was twelve, he couldn’t face himself, or his upcoming bar mitzvah. He asked if we could celebrate his bar mitzvah at home to avoid public embarrassment.

It was then that I made a firm decision: the struggle had come to a head, and it was time to tackle this stutter.

A friend recommended Yitzchok Weiss, and with hope in our hearts, we hesitantly booked a session.

Yitzchok took Moishy under his wing. He was more than a stuttering specialist — he became his mentor. Moishy was able to call him for support at any time, and Yitzchok was there for him wholeheartedly.

He proved to Moishy that he had potential, and boosted his confidence, which he was sorely lacking. He put himself on Moishy’s level and connected with him. And with this relationship and understanding, he created an environment for real work and healing.

Yitzchok got to the root of the stutter and began treating it, developing new pathways in Moishy’s brain for proper speech.

After three sessions, I began witnessing the turnaround we were waiting for. Not only did Yitzchok empower him to speak clearly, but he also brought Moishy out of his emotional shell. He helped him believe in himself, face himself, and face his bar mitzvah with confidence. He pumped up Moishy’s motivation and even helped him make a siyum on Seder Kodshim. We watched our parched flower blossom, our hearts filled with overwhelming relief and gratitude.

What strikes me about Yitzchok Weiss’s method is that he doesn’t approach the stutter as a problem that needs fixing. Rather, he approaches it as a learning process. Fixing implies a broken person, whereas a process implies that we can learn and do what we need to to reach our goal.

This mindset made all the difference to Moishy — he was never made to feel like a “problem case.”

It’s two years later, and Moishy is thriving. His stutter is 95% gone, and he’s a confident and well-adjusted teen. The turnaround we witnessed, Bisyata Dishmaya, has transformed every aspect of Moishy’s life.

*Names and identifying details have been changed.