I Have a Voice

by Bob G Bodenhamer

  I have put the psychosomatic symptoms in italics. If you were to move the expression of those emotions to those areas of the body which control speaking then you have blocking. The structure is the same; the expressions are different. Reframe or heal the emotions and the physical expression disappears.

  Beyond Stammering: The McGuire Programme For Getting Good At The Sport of Speaking

  The McGuire Program for people who stutter is one of the better known methodologies for gaining more fluency. It has wide acceptance and is used extensively. This program as well recognizes the psychological issues surrounding blocking and stuttering. In Part One “How to Get It” (McGuire, 2002: 7–8) the author lists the following objectives for their participants:

  Physically: the objective is to speak powerfully from the thorax by retraining your costal diaphragm.

  Mentally: there are six objectives:

  To understand the dynamics of stammering.

  To counteract the tendency to “hold-back” and use avoidance mechanisms.

  To deal with the fear through concentration and non-avoidance techniques.

  To accept yourself as a recovering stammerer until you have proven yourself “a fluent speaker with occasional reminders of your past affliction”.

  To develop an assertive attitude to attack your remaining feared situations.

  To understand the process of relapse and how to counteract it.

  Note that in step 3 he addresses the ever present fear that stutterers live with. In my work I have discovered that the PWS demonstrates what is almost a universal fear of what others may think of them because they stutter. Objective 4 addresses the fundamental issue of self-esteem. I believe this is paramount and that is why this work has covered it thoroughly. Finally in Objective 5 McGuire points out the need for the PWS to become assertive – to exercise their own power rather than giving it away.

  Summary

  It is becoming increasingly recognized that blocking and stuttering are primarily learned behaviors – a view supported by Carl Scott, John Harrison, Dave Elman and a growing body of health professionals. John Harrison states that the problem is much more cognitive then physical. Other researchers agree with this conclusion. For example, the linguist Wendell Johnson, who wrote a series of books and articles on Stuttering between 1928 and 1972; the hypnotherapist Dave Elman, (Elman, 1964), the psychologist Dave McGuire and his colleagues (McGuire et al, 2002) also suggest that stuttering is a learned behavior.

  Appendix B

  A Case Study

  by Linda Rounds

  with Bob G. Bodenhamer

  This case study first appeared in the National Stuttering Association’s newsletter Letting Go.

  Imagine with me, if you will, that it is tomorrow morning and like all other mornings you wake up to face another day as a person who stutters. You begin your normal morning routine that in all appearances resembles any non-stuttering persons morning routine. In fact the only difference in your routine and a non-stutters routine is what is occurring in your mind. While the person who does not stutter is worrying about what to wear and if they are having a bad hair day, you are scanning ahead in your mind at what speaking threats might be awaiting you. You immediately feel anxious and fearful and begin to plan out how you can avoid threatening situations. The day plays out as you expected … you were able to avoid some situations, others you were not. By the time you arrive home at night you are emotionally drained and have expended all your energy trying to keep your stuttering problem at a minimum or at best, hidden all together. But what if on this particular evening when you arrive home something new happens and you are handed the emotional tools to immediately control the stuttering? Too good to be true? Another empty promise? Not so fast, it really happened.

  I began stuttering at the age of five; by the age of seven I was proficient at stuttering. I was fully equipped with every emotion and belief necessary to be good at stuttering. I carried those emotions and beliefs with me everywhere I went, even as I proceeded into adulthood. During my childhood school years once a week, instead of being allowed to go outside to play at recess time, I was often whisked away to speech therapy. In high school my well-meaning teachers felt I would overcome stuttering by providing me ample speaking opportunities in front of the class. Then as a young adult I enlisted in the Army for four years to help pay for my college education. The Army recruiter promised that the Army could help me overcome stuttering, what he didn’t tell me was that their technique was to scare the stuttering right out of me. None of these methods were very helpful.

  When I was 19 years old I made the most meaningful decision of my life. No, I am not talking about marriage, although that is very meaningful. I am talking about the decision to become a Christian. From that point on my perspective of life and the world did a 180-degree turn. However, becoming a Christian did not end my stuttering and the disappointment I felt over God’s seeming lack of concern about my speech problem was no small matter through the years. But I will revisit that issue a little further down.

  Now, you would think that most people who stutter would avoid professions that require a lot of speaking. This is probably true, however, for some unknown reason, 12 years ago I was drawn to a profession that not only required a lot of speaking but also a lot of public speaking. In actuality, it is due to the dynamics of my profession that set me on a relentless path to overcome stuttering.

  Previous treatment

  Before I go on to how I moved from stuttering to stability, I think it is note worthy to mention that I have tried some of the more popular treatments for stuttering with minimal success. After becoming very disenchanted (and thousands of dollars poorer), I began doing research on my own to see if I could discover the key to unlocking the mystery behind my stuttering. You see, I have always been bothered by the theories that stuttering is caused by a physical defect in the speaking mechanism and/or brain. It made me feel dis-empowered, like my only hope was to wait until they invented a magic pill that would cure stuttering. It also did not take rocket science to figure out that my speech mechanisms were in good working order since even my most difficult words could be spoken fluently in certain situations. And then there was that ever-present anxiety that always preceded the stuttering. Hmmm, I wonder what would happen if there were no anxiety?

  This is where the story gets really interesting. One day I was surfing around on the National Stuttering Association’s website when I spotted the book How to Conquer Your Fears of Speaking Before People by John C. Harrison. I ordered the book and when it arrived I immediately began devouring its contents. The first part of the book talked about specific techniques that people who stutter could use to be an effective public speaker. While this portion of the book was good, it was the second portion that was like breathing a breath of fresh air.

  The second part included John’s feelings about stuttering which included an overall sense that if you are trying to solve a problem without making headway chances are that you are trying to solve the wrong problem. His book indicated that he felt many stuttering treatments are not inclusive enough to fully describe the full dynamics of what drives stuttering. Basically, that a paradigm shift in the way we view stuttering is needed.

  In his book, John states:

  “If stuttering were simply a problem with the mechanics of speech, we’d stutter all the time, even when we were alone. Rather, it seems to be an interactive system involving a number of different components, only one of which is physical. It is the way these components interact that creates a self-reinforcing system.”

  John goes on to describe what he has termed The Stuttering Hexagon. The Hexagon is composed of six points that include: physical behaviors, emotions, perceptions, beliefs, intentions, and physiological responses. On the Hexagon every point is connected to every other point. Concerning all points being connected John states:

  “This means that each element is influenced, either positively or negatively, by what’s happening at the othe
r locations on the Stuttering Hexagon. In other words, your emotions will influence your behaviors, perceptions, beliefs, unconscious programs and physiological responses.”

  For the remainder of the second part of the book Harrison explains each of the six points on the Hexagon in detail and how they interrelate with one another. If a person who stutters has previously been working on changing their debilitating beliefs and has been successful but still carries negative emotions from past childhood traumas or hurts those emotions will have a negative affect on the remaining points on the Hexagon and throw the entire system off leaving the person still vulnerable to stuttering. So each point must be effectively dealt with. He also contends that to make the stuttering disappear you can’t focus on solving it – you must focus on dissolving it. In other words, to remove the problem you must alter its structure.

  John’s Stuttering Hexagon was the most accurate description of the mystery behind stuttering that I had read to date. And the fact that after 25 or 30 years of stuttering he was able to defeat it himself, gave me the final boost that I needed to know that I too, could overcome stuttering.

  As excellent as John’s book was it was never intended to be a therapy program or provide techniques for becoming more fluent. So, at the end of the book I was left with the question, “How do I get all of the points on the Hexagon positively biased?” Little did I know that shortly I would discover the answer: Neuro-Semantics.

  Throughout his book John recommends several other books, including Awaken the Giant Within by Anthony Robbins. ’That book was my first introduction to Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). Eventually this book led me to The User’s Manual for the Brain, which is a comprehensive manual covering the NLP Practitioner course and is written by Bob G. Bodenhamer, and L. Michael Hall, the co-founders of Neuro-Semantics (NS).

  As I was reading the books on NLP I became very excited about the potential of these techniques being effective tools in getting the Stuttering Hexagon to be positively biased as it related to my inability to speak fluently. Practicing some of the techniques in Awaken the Giant Within proved to be mildly helpful. But I remained hopeful that this could ultimately be the mechanism that would throw me into speech stability. I felt that if I could just work with someone trained in Neuro-Linguistic Programming that they might be able to walk me through the techniques that would prove most effective for people who stutter.

  My opportunity presented itself when midway through The User’s Manual for the Brain the authors indicated a website address for Neuro-Semantics (www.neurosemantics.com). The next day I visited the sight and discovered that they provided private consultations. BINGO!!!!!! Because of my Christian beliefs I chose to email Bob Bodenhamer. I knew through reading his book that he held the same Christian values that I did so I felt an element of trust in contacting him. Later I discovered that L. Michael Hall, held the same beliefs also.

  When I received an email back from Bob indicating his willingness to work with me I was ecstatic! He indicated that he indeed had limited experience with four or five clients who stuttered but had obtained successful outcome utilizing the skills of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Neuro-Semantics (NS). Bob also felt that he stood a real chance of helping me over the phone, which alleviated the necessity of me flying to North Carolina to meet with him. We set up the first phone consultation for the following Friday.

  So the big question you may be asking is, “What are Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Neuro-Semantics (NS)?” NLP is a model that helps you take charge of your own thinking by developing effective strategies and representing your experiences in an effective manner. Neuro-Semantics incorporates higher level “meanings” into the structure of subjectivity. Our “states” involve the primary level neuro-linguistic thoughts-and-feelings in response to something out there in the world. That defines a Primary State. A Meta-State involves more. It involves our thoughts-feeling about our thoughts, emotions, states, memories, imaginations, concepts, and so on. It involves our meta-responses to previous responses. (Fearing the fear of stuttering).

  Bob sums up one of the major concepts of NLP/NS in his statement, “In NLP/NS we hold the belief that each person has all the resources that they need in order to “fix” any cognitive (thinking) based problem they may have.”

  I don’t know about you but that is music to my ears.

  It is important to understand that the person utilizes their own resources to bring about change. Everybody, regardless of his or her station in life, operates from a belief system. This belief system is what we utilize to determine our self-esteem, our personal limitations, our viewpoint on the meaning of life, how others view us, what we can and cannot accomplish in life, and every other judgment we make about ourselves, others and the world we live in. There are as many belief systems as there are people. In assisting individuals to overcome cognitive problems, Neuro-Semantics first attempts to discover the person’s unique belief system and then utilizes it to bring about change.

  With that being explained let me move on to tell you about our first phone session together and the day I was handed the emotional tools to immediately control stuttering.

  The first tool was actually given to me by Bob through an email he sent me on the day I requested consultation with him. He had already determined that I held a strong Christian belief system and therefore he used that system to bring about change in how I perceived things relating to stuttering. He said, “… I do believe that there is a great chance of taking care of this through phone consultations and email. For what will happen when your fear, anxiety and/or phobia comes into the presence of God?” When I first read that email my initial response was shock. Then laughter as I immediately envisioned a picture of three teeny, tiny men called Fear, Anxiety, and Phobia shrinking back and cowering in the awesome presence of God. Bob had effectively used my belief in God to reframe my thoughts of fear, anxiety, and phobia by forcing them together knowing full well that my beliefs would not allow the two to reside together.

  A note on resources

  In NLP/NS we hold the belief that each person has the resources they need for their own healing. We also believe in utilizing each individual’s resources. We do not judge the resources, we use them. This subject found her highest resources in her Christian faith. I have learned over the years that a person’s religious beliefs usually provide very effective resources, and that when they are applied to the problem state, the person experiences healing. However, even those people who do not hold any religious beliefs already have sufficient and appropriate resources to overcome any cognitively-based problem they may have. It is the nature of every human being to have the potential for healing themselves.

  The consultation

  Then came the phone consultation. After a brief period of getting acquainted Bob zeroed in on the feeling of anxiety that was so familiar to me, and to so many other people who stutter. He utilized a technique called “The Drop Down Through Technique” (see Chapter 5) which had its foundation in the works of Alfred Korzybski in his classic work Science and Sanity. From that work Tad James of Advanced Neuro-Dynamics devised the current “Drop Down Through Technique” and later it was revised by Bob and Michael by adding additional resources to it from Neuro-Semantics. The technique is designed to address unconscious thoughts like those that drive stuttering. The following transcript is taken from the therapy notes of Bob Bodenhamer:

  In our first phone conversation I (Bob) associated the client into her anxiety which simply means I had her really feel the anxiety. She had a “heavy and tightening” feeling in her stomach, a feeling she described as “holding back.” Now move that up to the muscles that control the vocal cords and you have stuttering.

  From her position of experiencing this “heavy and tightening” feeling in her stomach I asked her to drop down through that feeling. “What do you feel underneath that feeling?”

  “I feel fear. Fear is there!” (Note that here we have a thought of fear, which ties right in
to anxiety.)

  “Drop down through the fear. What do you feel under the fear?”

  “Nothing. I don’t feel anything.”

  “Good. Now, just imagine yourself opening up the ‘nothingness.’ And drop down through and out the other side of the nothingness?”

  “I see people. It is a little bit scary. They are watching me. They are expecting me to say something.”

  “Yes. And what does that mean to you?”

  “Well, I have a sense of wanting to go away and hide.”

  “OK. That makes a lot of sense to someone who tends to stutter when she speaks to a group of people. Now, just drop down through that thought-feeling. What do you feel below that?”

  “Ummh. I feel safe. I feel pretty safe now.”

  “You are doing really great now. That is good and it is going to get better. Now just drop down through the feeling of being safe and what or who is underneath that?”

  “I feel contentment. I feel alone but safe.”

  “Now just drop down through that feeling of contentment and safety. What or whom do you feel below that?”

  “Warmth. Total acceptance! I feel total acceptance. There is no judgment here. I see a yellow light.”

  “Great. Is the light really bright?”

  “Yes, it is. It is very bright.”

  “Yes, I know it is very bright. And Who said, “He is the light of the world?”

  “Jesus.”

  “That is right and He is there isn’t He?”

  “Yes, it is God. He is the Bright Light.”

  “Very good and just be right there with God in the presence of warmth and total acceptance. Now, what happens to the anxiety in the presence of God?”

  “It is gone.”