When in a relaxed state such as hypnosis it is easier to start re-programming the sub-conscious mind. This can be done by direct suggestion, but the most powerful way is to use visualization. So I help clients find ways of visualizing what they want for themselves. Visualizing themselves relaxed and confident and at ease in all speaking situations.

But first therapy is directed at helping the client get to know more about themselves, and I use a combination of personal construct psychology and hypnosis to achieve this. Regression in hypnosis is a very powerful way of helping clients get to know themselves, but some clients are not prepared to be regressed, and some young clients, I feel, are not mature enough to cope with regression, as the experience can be very powerful and traumatic. However, clients who do experience regression gain a great deal of insight into why they are as they are. I find that when dealing with clients who have voice problems there is often suppressed trauma that needs releasing and this allow maximum change to take place. However, I do not find this generally true for clients who have fluency problems. Even if suppressed trauma is released, and often there appears to be none, it does not cause any change in fluency. However, regression always enables learning to take place, and encourages a letting go of outdated beliefs that stop growth taking place.

I call this stage of therapy an 'emptying out' time, allowing clients to let go of old thought patterns and conditioning that may have been appropriate once i.e. when they were younger, but is now inappropriate. When the emptying out stage is over, then the building up stage of therapy begins. This includes confidence building, helping clients realise their own strengths and building on them, helping clients like themselves, and be aware of their own individuality and also encouraging clients to enjoy and feel relaxed about communicating. Feeling relaxed about communicating enables clients to choose whether, in some situations, it is appropriate to use a technique. For example, it may be appropriate in some meetings to use a technique for a limited period of time, but be quite safe to resume normal non-fluency, which is probably less tiring, at the end of the meeting.

The work that is done in the clinic has to be followed up daily at home and clients are helped to do this in whatever ways are appropriate. Initially they are given a confidence building tape to listen to daily at home. But I also teach self-hypnosis and visualization, as it is better if the client can be responsible for their own re-reprogramming. Some clients find this type of commitment difficult to achieve and rely mainly on tapes but that is their choice.

To reinforce this I also offer clients three subliminal tapes that have been designed and made by a colleague and myself. The first one is aimed at helping clients feel relaxed, peaceful and calm, and was originally designed for a child, so is very gently. The second one is to increase confidence and help clients feel good about themselves, and the last one is aimed at encouraging a relaxed and positive attitude towards speech and to becoming as fluent as possible. However, these tapes have to be offered to clients very cautiously and only when therapy is well advanced otherwise they can be counter-productive. if the tapes are given out too soon the sub-conscious mind could be receiving conflicting messages and the client would feel extremely uncomfortable. When the tapes are used cautiously as part of an overall programme they are extremely powerful and encourage maximum change to take place.

Obviously this is very much an overview of the therapy that I do and it is individually tailored to each client. Some clients take a great deal of time at the emptying-out stage and need relatively little at the building up stage. Others are very quickly through the emptying-out stage but need a great deal of support in learning to accept and like themselves. Some clients, who from a listeners point of view have only a mild dysfluency, need a great deal of help at this stage and it takes a lot of time for them to accept themselves just as they are.

With young stammerers, under fourteen, I use a story-telling technique helping them at an early age to be aware of the positive things in their lives and how to use them to feel confident and safe inside themselves, helping them at an early age to be positive thinkers.

I am learning constantly from my clients and always looking for more ways of helping change to occur. But I stress I do not offer a 'cure' for stammering. I offer a chance for clients to grow and be the individual they were born to be, a chance for clients to accept, approve of and like themselves.

From the Winter 1991 issue of 'Speaking Out'

See also:
Hypnotherapy index page, which includes links to useful oganisations.