The use of SOLA speech time compression/expansion in the present invention method as a means to alter a speaker's talking rate by adjusting the speech rate at which people hear their own voice. A person speaks at a certain comfort rate, which is established and maintained by their own auditory system's capability to hear their own voice as they speak i.e., it is a self-auditory feedback mechanism. Changing the rate (112) at which a talker hears their own voice (130, 2012, 2024) will accordingly change their talking rate. This effect is achieved in this invention by employing a real time processing method (110, 402-416, FIG. 10) that temporarily adjusts the speech rate in an effort to impose this psychoacoustic condition which coerces the speaker into changing their talking rate. This invention permits users to adjust the comfort rate at which they normally speak (124) or to adjust the rate at which others speak to them through the use of a speech processing device or system.