{"query":"phone calls","scope":"all","query_terms":["phone","call"],"unmatched_terms":[],"interpretation":"These are matched sources, not a generated answer. Matches may use source text, titles, source addresses, or topic hints. Matching words do not establish an answer. A query with no matches does not prove that an answer is absent from the sources. Read the source and its context before summarizing. If the results do not answer the question, retry with a few specific topic words or browse the sources.","coverage":"lexical_source_matches","total":27,"results":[{"id":"CC-025","kind":"article","title":"How do I prepare myself before a difficult phone call?","url":"https://usedtostutter.com/stuttering-phone-calls","read_url":"https://usedtostutter.com/reader/articles/CC-025.json","matched_terms":["phone","call"],"source_context":{"text":"## When the calls had to get done\n\nOne of the worst times was when we bought our first house. It was our dream house, under contract, and the address began with E. Words beginning with vowels were incredibly difficult for me.\n\nBecause of my wife’s busy work schedule, I was the one who had to make the calls. The mortgage broker. The home insurance broker. The bug spray company. The alarm system company. And on and on.\n\nTime after time, I had to give our new address and my name. I felt humiliated. And there was a tight window to get those calls done because of the closing date. It freakin’ sucked.\n\nStruggling to say that simple address and my name made me determined. That is one of the experiences behind what I share about phone calls.\n\n","citation_url":"https://usedtostutter.com/stuttering-phone-calls#when-the-calls-had-to-get-done","complete_context_unit":true}},{"id":"CC-060","kind":"article","title":"Why could a work call feel harder when other people could hear me?","url":"https://usedtostutter.com/stuttering-when-people-overhear-phone-calls","read_url":"https://usedtostutter.com/reader/articles/CC-060.json","matched_terms":["phone","call"],"source_context":{"text":"## What I wanted to understand about my own speech\n\nI wanted the progress I had made to carry into work and other demanding situations. Some things became easier. Some settings still asked more of me.\n\nI have also explained that my preparation changed over time. I used more of it earlier, then less, and later mainly before the biggest calls. I kept learning what I needed in the setting I was actually facing.\n\n[My phone-call account](/stuttering-phone-calls) describes more of that work. This office memory adds a particular difficulty: I was speaking to someone on the phone while other people around me could hear.\n\n","citation_url":"https://usedtostutter.com/stuttering-when-people-overhear-phone-calls#what-i-wanted-to-understand-about-my-own-speech","complete_context_unit":true}},{"id":"before-you-begin","kind":"book","title":"Before you begin","url":"https://usedtostutter.com/reader/book/editions/corrected-2026-10-04-9e1d376a993f/chapters/before-you-begin","read_url":"https://usedtostutter.com/reader/book/editions/corrected-2026-10-04-9e1d376a993f/chapters/before-you-begin.json","matched_terms":["phone","call"],"source_context":{"text":"SOUND FAMILIAR?\n\nI know what you experience because I lived through it too. Sound familiar?\n\n1. Are you sick and tired of feeling like you are not being heard? Are\n\nyou sick and tired of having people talk over you?\n\n2. Do you hate when people finish your sentences?\n\n3. Do you get tired of non-stutterers thinking getting rid of a stutter is\n\neasy to do?\n\n4. Would you do nearly anything to avoid talking on the phone?\n\n5. Do you think one of the worst feelings in the world is when you\n\nstutter or block on your name, and people laugh at you? People asking you if you forgot your name?\n\n6. Have people made fun of your stutter? Maybe while you were\n\nyounger, in school, or as an adult.\n\n7. Have you ever judged your day by how good or bad your speech was\n\nthat day?\n\n8. Do you feel really frustrated when you say something 100%\n\nperfectly, then someone asks you to repeat yourself?\n\n9. Have you ever stuttered so much you decided to shut up?\n\n10. Have you ever been at a restaurant and ordered food that you could\n\nsay, not what you actually wanted to eat?\n\n11. Have you pretended like you did not know something, or pretended\n\nyou forgot, to avoid stuttering?\n\n12. Can you relate to making a phone call and silently hoping they don't\n\nanswer?\n\n13. Have you ever stuttered so much at a drive-through restaurant that\n\nyou just drove off without your food?","citation_url":"https://usedtostutter.com/reader/book/editions/corrected-2026-10-04-9e1d376a993f/full.html#pdf-page-6","complete_context_unit":true}},{"id":"CC-001","kind":"article","title":"How did I start working on my stuttering?","url":"https://usedtostutter.com/how-to-stop-stuttering","read_url":"https://usedtostutter.com/reader/articles/CC-001.json","matched_terms":["phone","call"],"source_context":{"text":"## There was work before and after the conversation too\n\nI also worked on what I said to myself. I had years of being hard on myself after difficult speech. My early phrase was, “It's too early in the day to hate yourself.” Later, I learned to give an actual small success some room in my head too.\n\n[The way I prepared](/confidence-before-speaking), the thoughts I carried, the things I read and the conversations themselves all became part of the work. I would take an idea into a classroom, a job, a phone call or a social situation, see what happened, and keep refining it.\n\nThat is where my account begins: one difference I could notice, one person I could approach, and a lot still to learn. I'm sharing what worked for me because I would have loved that explanation when I was struggling. I don't know whether another person's experience will be the same. [The fuller approach](/craig-coffee-approach) explains the other parts of my own work.\n\n","citation_url":"https://usedtostutter.com/how-to-stop-stuttering#there-was-work-before-and-after-the-conversation-too","complete_context_unit":true}},{"id":"CC-002","kind":"article","title":"How can I prepare without scripting every word?","url":"https://usedtostutter.com/preparing-without-scripting","read_url":"https://usedtostutter.com/reader/articles/CC-002.json","matched_terms":["phone","call"],"source_context":{"text":"## A required script came up in the group conversation\n\nCrimson told me about a fellow officer who stuttered. The officer had gone over the standardized field sobriety test script repeatedly. I asked whether that preparation helped him. I was told that it did.\n\nI liked that example. I told Crimson we were talking for the first time and could still learn from what he shared. He knew an officer who had found something useful for a nerve-racking part of his job. I connected that with my belief that confidence can be learned.\n\nCrimson also said the officer had recorded himself reading wording he needed to communicate at work. He kept the recording on his phone and played it when it was needed. Crimson thought that was something he could use too.\n\nI told him, “So that was a great story Crimson.” We were discussing required wording in his colleague's work. The everyday conversations I demonstrate ask me to respond to another person as the exchange develops.\n\n","citation_url":"https://usedtostutter.com/preparing-without-scripting#a-required-script-came-up-in-the-group-conversation","complete_context_unit":true}},{"id":"CC-016","kind":"article","title":"What counts as a small speaking success?","url":"https://usedtostutter.com/small-speaking-successes","read_url":"https://usedtostutter.com/reader/articles/CC-016.json","matched_terms":["phone","call"],"source_context":{"text":"## What kind of moment do I mean?\n\nI gave examples: saying what you needed to say, giving your phone number, saying your address, or getting through a name. I even included an example where there was still a stutter and something to feel good about. I was asking you to find something small you could be excited about.\n\nThose examples were there to help you remember your own moment. Then the next question was: how did you talk to yourself when it was done? If there was something positive in that self-talk, you could bring it back intentionally.\n\n","citation_url":"https://usedtostutter.com/small-speaking-successes#what-kind-of-moment-do-i-mean","complete_context_unit":true}},{"id":"CC-027","kind":"article","title":"What happened when my practice did not work?","url":"https://usedtostutter.com/when-stuttering-practice-goes-badly","read_url":"https://usedtostutter.com/reader/articles/CC-027.json","matched_terms":["phone","call"],"source_context":{"text":"## When preparation felt like another expectation\n\nIn the telephone discussion, one participant worried that building himself up would make a disappointing call feel worse. I responded strongly about expecting to be hurt and let down.\n\nAnother part of that discussion concerned a caller who said successive calls became more comfortable even though the first one felt hard. He had mostly been going in cold. I wanted him to try changing how he felt before the first call.\n\nThose concerns came from different people. One was worried about the pressure of preparing; the other described becoming more comfortable over successive calls. I suggested changing how he felt before the first call. The conversation gives us his earlier experience and my suggestion. It gives no later result for that suggestion and no complete answer to the first person's concern.\n\n","citation_url":"https://usedtostutter.com/when-stuttering-practice-goes-badly#when-preparation-felt-like-another-expectation","complete_context_unit":true}},{"id":"CC-030","kind":"article","title":"What does fluency mean to me?","url":"https://usedtostutter.com/what-fluency-means","read_url":"https://usedtostutter.com/reader/articles/CC-030.json","matched_terms":["phone","call"],"source_context":{"text":"## Being able to express myself\n\nWhen I explained [word substitution](/word-substitution-and-stuttering), I said that saying what I wanted did not always have to mean saying the exact word. I had to be able to express myself.\n\nI described a phone example where another word let me finish the sentence and get the whole thought out. Being able to say what I meant was the point of that example. I wanted to keep talking.\n\n","citation_url":"https://usedtostutter.com/what-fluency-means#being-able-to-express-myself","complete_context_unit":true}}]}