Hello, I’m Sevim Yılmaz
All my life I have been on a journey of discovery of my own stuttering. This journey still continues, and I think it will be continuing for my whole life. VOICING brought me beyond stuttering, beyond the known and turned it into a journey of self-discovery. When I looked beyond the physical talking, my inner communication potential was revealed and opened a path to regain my freedom of expression – to speak out fluently again without fear. People who stutter have a bit more difficulties in communication compared to non-stutters. Still, we all have voice and the right to express our own truth. Now I am a guide for those who are curious about this subject and want to go on their own journey. I hope that our journeys will be enriched with your experiences.
Who is Sevim Yılmaz?
Sevim Yılmaz was born in Bulgaria and immigrated to Turkey with her family at the age of 18. The same year, she started her university study in the Department of Electricity and Electronics at the Middle East Technical University, Ankara. After graduating in 1996, she started to work in an international company where she still works. She specialized in Health Informatics and was appointed to many national and international roles.
In 2000 she obtained her Executive MBA master’s degree from Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul. After working for two years in Germany, she continued her working life in Turkey. In 2005 she met Osho teachings. This encounter opened a new chapter in her life. She joined many workshops, seminars and trainings that enriched her awareness, knowledge and contributed further to her personal development.
Although her initial aim was to find a cure for her developmental stuttering that started at age of 5, she found the opportunity to gain a lot of personal awareness and experience about herself and the dynamics of developmental stuttering. These experiences and awareness encouraged her to read and investigate more on relationships, communication, trauma, shock, and inner dynamics of stuttering. As a result, she developed a theory about the causes of stuttering. With the aim to conduct scientific research, in 2016 she started Master’s Degree in Psychology at Uskudar University, Istanbul. In the same year, she joined VOICING Intensive Workshop at Osho Miasto, Italy. It was an incredible 7-days intensive work with such a powerful method which she hasn’t experienced before. Pratibha, the Founder of VOICING, invited her to start the 3-year Voicing Training at Voicing Institute, Switzerland.
Although it was difficult for her to pursue both educations simultaneously while working full time at the same time, her love for learning and eagerness to raise awareness helped her to choose to go for both. It was the right decision! In the first 2-years of the VOICING Training the participants are obliged to deeply experience VOICING on all levels. In the 3rd year the participants are trained to apply VOICING method. During the years, she slowly started to notice that her speaking is getting more and more fluent than before without additional effort in that direction, her communication skills are developing and her inner potential to express her own truth is revealing. The inner dynamics of stuttering appeared more obvious to her and provided additional valuable input for her scientific research. All this brought her to another level of consciousness and knowing of herself.
Compared to others, people with stuttering have a little more difficulties to use their inner communication potential and to gain back their expression freedom
I realized that our communication capacity is innate, and we have the full right to express our own truth. However, for various reasons during the development process our communication potential is suppressed that leads to limiting our communication skills. As my awareness of my inner world increased, I realized my own expression potential and learned new skills of communication which is not based on fear but based on my own dignity. During the VOICING training, I also had the opportunity to notice and observe the dynamics and factors in the formation of stuttering.”
By developing her theory of the dynamics and causes of stuttering, she wrote the psychology master’s thesis on the topic “Comparison of Childhood Traumas in Adults with and without a Speech Disorder (stuttering)”. Her research supported her theory with scientific data. It is very important work to serve as a base for further research in that direction. She successfully completed her Master of Psychology and Voicing Training in 2019. Sevim Yılmaz is the first certified “Voicing Therapist” in Turkey. Beside her current job, she offers individual VOICING sessions and groups. She also offers Voicing sessions to individuals with stuttering, incorporating specifics out of her own experience and knowledge.
All her life she was questioning why she has such difficulties to speak fluently. Now she thinks “Maybe God gave me the stuttering and all the difficulties around it to be able to look at stuttering from a different perspective, learn and provide this knowledge to people with the hope to be light for others as well”. Sevim Yilmaz’s mission is to raise awareness, work intensively and contribute to development of new stuttering treatment methods.
