John Harrison

Summary of telephone self-help group conference calls in which John Harrison was guest speaker - April & August 2005.

John Harrison was an early member of the National Stuttering Association in the US and had a career in advertising. He developed a model for understanding and overcoming stammering called the 'stuttering hexagon', and has written the book How to Conquer your Fears of Speaking Before People.

JH: Stammering is a mushy word that actually describes two things; the speech, and the effort to get around the problem. The 'stuttering hexagon' is a model for relating six main areas of ourselves: emotions, perceptions, beliefs, intentions, physiological responses and behaviours. These are constantly interacting with one another and making major changes all around the system is needed.

How can you change the components once you have recognised them?

JH: First, ask yourself how you can ever know what other people are thinking. Other people's reactions are determined by how you react. If you don't appear concerned, chances are, they won't either. You need to create positive experiences by finding situations that have both risk and safety.

What do you advise for people who haven't been helped by speech therapy?

JH: My view is that traditional speech therapy has been going in the wrong direction - at least if it says that 'you have to learn to control your speech'. Speech should be about spontaneous communication. Therapy that helps you become more aware of what you are doing so you can develop alternate ways of expressing yourself that are more natural to you, are really good.

Comment: If you have a really severe stammer and the words don't come at all, you need to use some sort of technique so that it is not such a terrible struggle to get the words out.

My stammer largely consists of the silent blocks. Is perception the key to the hexagon?

JH: Look at the concept of who you are. The problem can start anywhere in the system. If you want to change the speech, you have to change the system. Change your beliefs BEFORE you change your perceptions. In that order.

At what stage did you find that you recovered? Was it a single moment?

JH: There was no exact date or time. As I became more expressive, more comfortable with what I felt, I changed my perceptions of situations. The speech block is a reaction to the fight or flight response. To get over a fear, expose yourself a little bit to the fear. What does not kill you will make you stronger. Slowly, I had more experiences where I did not block than when I did block.

Did you have a relapse?

JH: When problems came up, I focused on the components of the system, rather than getting tunnel vision on my speech. I looked at how I was feeling and tried to understand what was going wrong. And it is ok to have a blip - we're not perfect.

You spent a lot of time working with drug addicts. How much of a role did that play in your recovery?

JH: A lot, although better speech was a byproduct. The program was designed to get in touch with yourself. We used a process to manipulate people into telling the truth, which helped me to open up. I was so afraid of engaging with people because I did not know how to. I played a very active role and learnt a great deal.

Can we ever call ourselves recovered stammerers, even with tricks?

JH: The moment you start to think about fluency you're in trouble. If you think it's important to be fluent, then you think how people view you is more important than what you plan to say. If you truly want to get through this problem, you need to transcend this problem and see speech as just one part.

You need to trust yourself to speak. We give out our power to other people by basing our feelings and action on what they say and how they respond when we speak. When you change that relationship with people you begin to feel more in control of who you are and what you are doing.

More information: The nature and nurture of stammering and the links at the end of that article.

From the Autumn 2005 edition of Speaking Out

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