In September 2003, Mike Jones led a 1 day workshop on NLP, with 18 people exploring this approach to dealing with stammering. Can it really work?

The three A's of NLP Awareness (about what to focus on) Attitude (supporting 'reprogramming' of mind-body processes) and Action (implementing the skills of 'reprogramming').

NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) is not a 'cure' for stammering or even a stammering therapy. It offers a state-of-the-art toolkit to re-work the mind-body processes that make up what we call stammering. It is not some easy 'one stop' technique but used for continuing development.

Every behaviour stems from a 'state' or 'frame of mind'. The majority of people who 'stammer' sometimes find themselves in 'states' in which they do not stammer! If those states could be 'captured' and used in other situations then stammering would likely be absent. This is the experience of those who have overcome stammering ('naturally' or through particular therapies).

States can be 'modelled' using the approach of NLP to unveil what they are 'made of'. Could you, right now, produce at will the state of seriousness? I think you can - but HOW did you do it? How about joviality or enthusiasm? What about 'resignation to your lot in life'? Such states come and go naturally but also, and very importantly, we do have the ability to switch them on at will. If we say we can't, what we really mean is, 'I can, but something stops me in this situation at this moment in time'.

There lies the clue as to what makes up 'states'. We can ask 'what is it in that situation that means I can't be jovial'? The answer might be: 'I'm not that kind of person' - which unveils a 'program' about self-identity. Or perhaps the answer is 'Well I could be, I usually am - but not when he's here!' This thought uncovers a 'program' involving a particular way of thinking about that 'he'. The major NLP principle is that once we know the structure of the 'program' that stops us entering a desired state, that program can be altered and 'reprogrammed' in a variety of ways (e.g. repetition), to become the standard.

One (hungry?) participant reported after the workshop: "It gave me a great deal of food for thought". Another attendee reported 1 week after the workshop: "The seminar for me, focused the need to be aware of what state you are in, and as well as the strategies for changing the un-resourceful ones."

'Program your Life' is one of an ongoing series of intermittent workshops that make up the 'Reprogramming the Stammering Mind' approach. Courses will be on the BSA website at:
www.stammering.org/events.html

From the Winter 2003 edition of Speaking Out