McGuire Programme
The McGuire Programme is a treatment programme run by stammerers (stutterers) which involves the use of costal breathing (also known as diaphragmatic breathing) to control the condition. It was founded in 1994 by Dave McGuire, himself a person who stammers. The programme's best known graduate to-date is the British singer Gareth Gates who has regularly promoted the course during TV interviews in the UK and Ireland. Also Graeme Duffin, lead guitarist of the band Wet Wet Wet joined the programme with great success. The McGuire Programme is currently active in several, primarily Anglophone, countries around the world.
While this programme boasts high-profile successes such as Gareth Gates, there is, as yet, no cure for stammering and the programme, while effective for many people, does not promote itself as a cure and should not be regarded as one.
A similar breathing technique is also used by the Starfish Project to control stammering.
