Effective speaking is so much more than not stammering. In his keynote address to the BSA conference in September 2002, John Harrison discussed his holistic approach to stammering recovery.

John Harrison

Stammering had a big impact on the first half of John Harrison's life. Like the ancient Greek philosopher whose whole life was spent trying to unravel a mystery, John's "compulsive nature", as he puts it, drew him into a deep understanding of his own stammering. The process helped him develop a broad view of the nature and treatment of stammering summed up in a model he has developed, called the 'stammering hexagon'.

Many people try to understand why they stammer and find ways to reduce it. John credits his recovery to his combination of two perspectives - understanding the nature of his stammering, and finding out why he sometimes did not stammer, then recreating the conditions that allowed him effortless fluency. Blocking was the result of personal inhibitions, rather than the cause. "When I say I recovered I mean the impulse to block has disappeared," he says.

"I discovered my speech was about my comfort in communicating with other people - it involved all of me, how I felt and thought in the presence of other people".

This discovery was a long process. It really began with an effortlessly fluent teenage holiday (only to return to stammering at home), and matured years later in the sometimes intense but enjoyable atmosphere of a therapy group. Between lay years of reflection, frustration and a dawning self-awareness.

"I and many other people I have spoken to believe stammering has been incorrectly characterised," John said. "It was more than just a speech problem for me. The problem lay in my relationship with the people I was speaking to. I had a problem with the experience of communicating with others and it manifested itself in my speech. I was afraid of experiencing the excitement of being me - I was holding myself back and a part of that is that I was always trying to please people. I was a shy quiet kid who held himself back, which became a role I got locked into."

John often emphasised that his stammering was a problem with the experience of speaking. "What really frustrated me when I was young was that one moment I was fluent and the next moment I was in class having all these speech blocks while talking to the same kids."

From an early age, John spent a long time analysing what happened when he blocked, and then working out how to unblock. It was a long process that happened over many years through college, employment and marriage.

"More than anything I observed the areas around my stammering. The ability to observe is absolutely critical if you want to change in any way. I realised the days I was having difficulty [with my speech] were the days I was holding in my feelings, and the good days were happening when I was able to be more expressive - more me.

I was encouraged to make these observations because I was never trying to control my speech. It was amazing what I discovered just by keeping a broad focus. If you want to get over the problem you need to start observing and broadening your focus. It really helps to know what you are doing when you stammer and to relax the muscles that are tightening".

By experimenting, he found some of the main approaches used in speech therapy: releasing a small amount of air before he spoke was the 'airflow technique'; repeating a word on which he had just stammered was the Van Riper cancellation technique; taking a deep supported breath was the basis of the costal breathing technique.

After moving to California at 25 John began a new life - an essential American experience of defining oneself in the world by moving away from familiarity and family.

Public speaking through the Toastmasters clubs was also a formative experience. "Having lived through the worst possible speaking experience in a safe environment gave me the confidence that I could live through other similar experiences," he says.

John said that what really unlocked his tendency to hold back was his involvement in encounter groups. Interacting with hundreds of people over three years in a close setting was a character building experience. "Self discovery and changing how I thought played a big part in my recovery from stammering" he said. "Stuttering was the result of improving self-esteem, self-expression, anger management, self assertion, reducing perfectionism, not always trying to please others, or be overly sensitive, and getting in touch with my values."

John's book How to conquer your fears of speaking before people, reviewed here, is available from the BSA lending library or for sale from the BSA shop.

From the Winter 2002 edition of Speaking Out

Internet links:
Full text of John Harrison's 2002 keynote speech, on the Stuttering Homepage.
How We Developed An Incorrect Picture of Stuttering - keynote speech for World Congress for People Who Stutter in Perth, Australia, February 2004 - on the Stuttering Homepage.
How Your Expectations Can Sink Your Ship (2006)
The Feeling of Fluency (2005)
The Stuttering Homepage also has many more articles by John Harrison.
Neuro-Semantics of Stuttering - Yahoo discussion group strongly supporting John's 'Stuttering Hexagon' theory. See also our NLP page for more on Neuro-Semantics.

See also (on BSA website):
John Harrison - true understanding before true recovery - summary of conference calls with John in 2005
Stuttering is not just a speech problem - by Alan Badmington deals amongst other things with John Harrison's "Stuttering Hexagon".