And the magic happens!

Last 3 years for me have been nothing short of a miracle. I found about TISA in January 2009; started a SHG immediately; had our first SHG meeting in March 2009; organized regular meetings; organized a communication workshop in July 2009; applied for a 6 month sabbatical immediately and got it approved immediately; worked with TISA for 6 months;went back to my job and felt same frustrations; left my job; struggled with starting my IT venture. While it was looking like I was not making any progress but there was something going on in my life which was healing from Inside : Meeting other pws

Even though it make look like "I wasting my time" because I had no results to "show" but being an active member of a SHG provided me emotional support, helped build my social skills, gave me opportunity to just be myself and see that its OK to be me and helped me improve my communication skills too. It was empowering in a very unique way and brought a sense of peace. It felt so great to have so many friends to hangout with, to go out on lunch with. SHG taught me much more than fluency- it taught me how to live. The best thing was that I was in charge through out the process and it helped me build confidence in myself that yes, I too can work things out on my own and with help from others! If you are willing to be comfortable with those feelings of "not knowing" and uncertainty, SHG is for you too. And if you can find a good speech therapist, that will be like icing on the cake!