The stuttering Brain blog has done a commendable work in exposing and explaining how scoundrels use web to cheat PWS. Very interesting modus operandi. TISA wrote about this website some time back:

http://t-tisa.blogspot.com/2009/07/kill-kill-your-stutter.html (July 17, 2009)

http://t-tisa.blogspot.com/2009/07/37-mgic-figure.html (July 20, 2009)

http://t-tisa.blogspot.com/2009/07/if-you-are-young-and-desperate.html (July 18,2009)

But Stuttering Brain has done a beautiful job of explaining how they (trickster) actually do it:

http://thestutteringbrain.blogspot.com/2010/07/thats-how-you-scam-people.html

But there is another side to the story; What about others who are proviing paid therapy? are they totally blameless? all of them? I found some responses at the above blog, which is worth sahring here, because they are so thought provoking:

A victim of traditional therapy... said...

Tom - I don't disagree with your view of Killyourstutter.
The responses from the above professionals are most interesting in light of the strong possibility that their therapy programs have as well victimized PWS and their families at a much greater cost than Killyourstutter.

Free advice to the "professionals" - Get the plank out of your eyes before you start hunting out others.
PWS need to get actively involved in policing the professionals. The professionals have mucked it up already.

Another response:

Anonymous said...

I agree with "A victim of traditional therapy." I don't think it is complaining of professionals taking advantage of PWS. Just a statement of fact: The current state of professional "Therapy" - overwhelmingly - is FAILURE. The Internet cures are not coming out of the woodwork because of the success of professional therapy!!! Just ask those who are silent because of stuttering and the "professional therapy" they have been through...oops, I guess don't cauz they ain't talking.

The development of self help groups for we who stutter are ample evidence regarding the FAILURE of professional therapy and therapists. ANY SELF HELP organization for those of us who stutter and their families is MILLIONS times better than the professional therapy offered today. Trusting John Harrison or many other pws for real insight into stuttering before trusting any of the "professionals" makes a ton of sense.

ABSOLUTELY Sites like killyourstutter need to be taken down; but don't kid yourself. ASHA and the other professional groups fail miserably at policing themselves. All one has to do is look at the performance of public school therapists and the pitiful state of therapy in the schools with kids who stutter and their parents.

ASHA - a comedy of epic proportions when it comes to ethics and stuttering. Heck, I heard at the NSA conference that SLP's don't even have to take a course in stuttering to administer therapy for kids who stutter in the schools. (Maybe alert parents to this fact.)

killyourstutter? Professionals with no course work doing therapy?

Get real - Both need be taken out.."

My opinion: like in every other field in today's world, we the stammerers must become better informed and smart consumers- and SELF RELIANT. We must.