Summary of a telephone self-help group conference call in which Bob Bodenhamer was guest speaker - March 2005.

Neurosemantics is a model for examining and changing the thoughts and feelings that can trigger stammering. While there are no regular courses in the UK, further reading and contacts are given at the end.

What is Neurosemantics?

It is a type of therapy that helps us to understand our conscious and unconscious patterns of thinking, the reasons for it, the resulting effects, and suggests how to change the 'thinking cycle'. It is based on NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming).

How is Bob Bodenhamer involved?

Bob is an NLP therapist, minister of religion and writer in the US. He became involved in therapy for stammering when someone referred his young son who stammered, and Bob was able to help the boy's fluency using NLP. He then decided to focus a lot more on the relationship between stammering and NLP.

Why is it important to understand the roots of stammering?

Bob: The key is that stammering does not have a 'physical' basis, but a cognitive one. We 'create' stammering inside our head. But the effects of this 'creation' can and do affect us physically. In other words, when we stammer, we express it in our muscles relating to speech. Muscles get locked and stammering occurs. Fear and anxiety around speaking becomes the primary consideration rather than the message itself, and the strength of feeling expresses itself as a physical reaction.

John Harrison's thinking and his 'stammering hexagon' is key to my own and many others on the subject - that our thought patterns are what drives stammering.

This explanation doesn't apply to very young children who struggle to speak

Bob: I agree. Initially there could be a physical element to stammering; there could be a pre-disposition to stammer.

I'm interested in the 'relationships effect' of stammering - the fear of what other people will think of me.

Bob: Yes that is totally understandable. A key part of NLP-driven therapy is 'dissociational thinking'; to understand what is happening and to consciously change the negative thinking 'habit'.

At this point Bob asked the group: 'When you stammer - how old do you feel?'

In all of us the age seemed universally a young pre-adult age. (Richard Cave)

Bob: In NLP therapy, the roots of the issue are almost always in childhood. To deal with those roots of the issue is to deal with some very emotional, and quite painful areas. But they must be addressed. Understanding how you feel when you stammer is important. In NLP we talk about 'growing up' your thinking and to start valuing yourself as an adult.

There is a neurological link between fearing a stammer will occur, and the stammer actually occurring. This explains how we can actually 'feel' emotions through neurotransmitters. Candace Pert in her book Molecules of Emotion explains that our emotions are communicated from our brain to our bodies through these neuro-transmitters. Consider a panic-attack. Two-thirds of this extremely uncomfortable situation is driven by physical effects generated by feelings.

What does this mean in practice?

The physical impact of strong emotion explains why some situations are harder for fluent speech than others. Imagine you feel really great. In this situation what would you do about stammering? Would you learn how to do it so well? The learning is that there are triggers to make us stammer and we have learnt those triggers fluently. We will probably always know how to stammer - NOW our challenge is to learn how to not run those triggers.

How do you benchmark the success of NLP as a stammering therapy in the short and long term?

Bob: I have a large number of testimonials - unsolicited but very welcome. If there was an independent study set up to compare the relative short and long-term benefits of stammering therapy on an objective basis, I would be delighted to participate.

Further resources
1. Our NLP web page
2. Mastering Blocking & Stuttering: A Cognitive Approach to Achieving Fluency Crown House, 2004, £25. See book review. Available from the BSA library.

From the Summer 2005 edition of Speaking Out

See also:
Adult therapy and courses
Telephone self-help group