I Have a Voice

takes time for the body to readjust to cognitive changes.
Because blocking and stuttering are learned behaviors, they can be unlearned. A practical way of doing this is through the use of cognitive (thinking) techniques such as those of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Neuro-Semantics®, both of which are primarily cognitive therapies. This book includes those processes which I have used successfully with clients who suffered from anxiety and panic disorders. These two methodologies provide ways of working to change blocking and stuttering behaviours by altering the way someone thinks.
By changing the thinking-and-feeling components of experience you can effect change in the messages that the body-mind sends to refresh and reinforce the neural pathways. This offers hope for recovery and transformation. It is therefore not surprising that in the past three decades the many forms of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) have been instrumental in creating the most significant changes. The Neuro-Semantics model has enabled us to pioneer faster and more streamlined ways of getting to the source of the problem – the cognitive frames that determine experience.
The aim is to remove the debilitating meaning of particular people and events so that they no longer fear them, but act fluently and confidently. Changing the PWS’s cognitive frames necessitates helping them reframe all those unconscious hurts and fears around stuttering (see Chapter Five). It’s not that the PWS has to be super-aware of their behavior. On the contrary, they eventually become totally bored with or indifferent to that dysfunctional behavior so that they ignore it, let it go, and do something more interesting. They establish and maintain good relationships with others; they communicate by paying more attention to the other person. This is, after all, what makes life worth living.

Chapter Two Learning to Think Differently
If blocking is primarily cognitive rather than physiological, then it seems sensible to find ways of resolving this problem through cognitive means. This means that the PWS needs to change the way they think about themselves, how they relate to others, and how they fulfil their needs. Until they change how they think about stuttering, their physiology will stay the same.
A key change comes from acknowledging that you have control over what you think. Once you accept that the cause of the blocking lies in the way you think, this offers you the means to solve your problems. It also stops the foolishness of believing other people control your mind without your permission. When the PWS is able to say Yes to the belief: “No one can make me believe or feel anything that I choose not to believe or feel” and incorporate it into their model of the world, the fear of what other people may think of them disappears. Once that belief about other people causing them to stutter is out of the way the PWS realizes that they have to take responsibility for creating their own stuttering. Then there is no reason for the stuttering to persist.
Although changing your thinking can sometimes happen quickly, it is more often the case that it takes time, especially if the PWS is adjusting their responses to childhood hurts which have been very well learned. Your role is to help them build the necessary skills step by step: undoing old thought patterns and learning new ones so that the old fears and other negative emotions around blocking diminish. For a start, the PWS must stop telling themselves negative stories and instead learn how to access resource states and apply them when needed.
All the change patterns and processes in this book are intended to enable you to assist the PWS to find their own resources which will enable them to function well. One byproduct of working with PWS to access the numerous resources they already have available within themselves, is that they also become more attuned to the present. Once the PWS can give a great big No to those old childhood limiting beliefs and a great big Yes to their present adult resources they will be moving rapidly towards increasing fluency. Having changed the meaning of those situations which used to lead to blocking, they learn to interpret their experience in more flexible ways, and have more effective strategies for getting what they want. Indeed, this is true for all therapy. Meaning
In order to operate in the world you need to make meaning of your experience. A meaningful experience is one that provides an opportunity for taking action. It doesn’t mean that you will be successful, only that you have a strategy for intervention. People are happy when they can interpret a situation and know what to do. Because any situation can be interpreted in a number of ways, it matters how people interpret what is happening because the meaning they give it determines what they will actually do.
The word “meaning” comes from an Old High German word meaning “to hold in mind”. Because much of what we hold in mind is linguistic, it matters how we use language, how we talk to ourselves, because the meanings are in the form of stories about how to do things and “what happens next”. These stories create our model of the world, hold everything in place (at least temporarily), and thus influence the whole body-mind system. The PWS has meanings which hold blocking and stuttering in place. Once those particular meanings are removed or changed, other strategies or stories – resources – become available, and the blocking and stuttering behaviors lose their power and disappear.
Every visual image, sound, feeling, smell, taste and word has associations for us. Every experience leads to a composite of meanings and mind-body states. Over the years we learn to associate particular experiences with certain body-mind states, both pleasurable and inhibitory. For example, a favorite meal may not only stimulate appetite, but also remind you of pleasant memories of previous meals in good company in beautiful surroundings. Alternatively, people may avoid situations when something unpleasant occurred because that triggers upsetting memories.
However, some common situations cannot be avoided because