Sarah Johnson explains how a recent NLP course taught her to stand back and analyse her feelings and then start to build lasting fluency.

Last year, I attended Mike Jones' course entitled 10 Steps To Ease In Communication. Held in Southampton, it was a weekend of enlightening and well constructed learning that blended together cognition, NLP and Gestalt therapy. Mike's theory is that we operate from a series of thought patterns that either permit or obstruct what we want to do and say. By changing these, we can change behaviour patterns to best achieve our full potential.

Mike's background is in medicinal chemistry, which is mirrored in his approach and theory. He aims to understand the abnormalities in a behaviour by returning to the original model of its normal functioning, which in my case would be fluency. Believing that everything is run by a 'program' which we can change is an empowering way of viewing any difficulty, and his basic 10 step structure could be modified to tackle a wide range of issues.

His approach differs from physical techniques, insofar as he prefers to retrain the brain - rather than the body - to behave differently. Whilst most of us have used a physical technique - such as easier stammering or costal breathing - to enable easier speech, Mike argues that as stammering is a cognitive based problem it requires a cognitive based solution.

The course focused on witnessing what happens when we block. The thought patterns that perpetuate the behaviour lose their power when viewed objectively, and so in moving from behaviour to witness state (subjective to objective), we were able to analyse our thought processes to the degree where we could begin to rebuild them.

At the core of Mike's work is the concept of 'flow'. This is a term first defined by the psychologist Csikszentmihalyi, (1992) which refers to 'an experience of total involvement in an activity enjoyed for its own sake'. This ability to live - and speak - in the moment is what benefits my speech the most, and is what Mike aims to help us achieve by changing the subconscious patterns so that fluency becomes automatic.

After running us through the 10 steps, Mike invited us up to 'speak in the most satisfying way we could', and feeling brave, I raised a hand. My aim was to say my name, my home town and my occupation in the best way I could. I announced my name and home town but had difficulty with my occupation. Mike took me through the process again, literally walking me back into my witness state, from where I made the conscious choice to once again speak with satisfaction. I managed to do so, which gave me a great feeling of empowerment.

Being able to access my own witness state was a new idea for me, and despite being deceptively simple, it has made an impact. The work from the course is intense, and it takes effort to constantly analyse and reframe your thoughts. But conscious thoughts evolve into subconscious beliefs which create behaviour, and so whilst it's not an overnight answer, I believe it has a real measure of possibility. This is reflected in my own steps towards fluency, which are becoming more confident.

My own experience of cognitive based therapy is not wide. I've tried techniques that focused purely on the physical, and whilst they created a strong, artificial fluency, this was quickly reversed by the pressures of normal life. To create a fluency that lasts involves binding the physical and psychological together to support each other. Mike's course is a brilliant place to start with getting a handle on the latter and with dedication, I believe you can reach a place of much stronger and reliable fluency.

Whilst people who don't stammer barely think about their speech, it's of constant priority to me, and it's that awareness which impedes its natural flow. To transfer this state to another activity, such as walking up the stairs would mean trying to control my hip flexors, the degree to which my knee lifted to take me up to each new step, and the exact angle at which my foot rolled from heel to ball and back again to propel me higher. But no, I simply take the stairs two at a time with no thought. And this is what I believe PWS are looking for in their speech; to lose that painful self-awareness that often compounds a problem best treated by full and selfless participation in life.

1. Mapping Psychology 2, Miel D, Phoenix A and Thomas K, 2002, OU Press

From the Spring 2006 edition of Speaking Out, page 8

'Steps to ease in communication' - 2 day Reprogramming the Stammering Mind workshops by Mike Jones.

See also: NLP page