I Have a Voice

so on. They take this on board, assume this information is accurate, and then live as if those self-descriptions are true. In their fear of being judged by others, they are in fact themselves unfairly judging others. The Body-Mind connection
This connection is obvious in the most primitive of all mind-body functions, the fight/flight arousal pattern. You don’t have to be in actual danger to set it off. Simply remember or imagine something fearful and your body will respond by producing adrenalin. We find linguistic evidence of the connection in the expressions: gut feeling, pain in the neck, heartfelt, get things off your chest, and so on.
Those early negative influences concerning the child’s speech become grooved into the child’s muscles and are carried into adulthood. By “grooved into the muscles” I refer to someone’s ability to learn unconsciously; it is as though what we learn literally becomes embodied into our muscle tissue (referred to as muscle memory). For example, if you touch-type, and I ask you where the R key is, how will you locate it? Did your left index finger twitch and move up to the left? That would be an example of “in the muscle” learning.
Because people who stutter tend to feel the fears or anxieties that contribute to their blocking in the muscles that control breathing and speaking, I propose that blocking is similar in structure to panic and anxiety attacks. This means that the treatment could also be similar because emotions have become expressed in the body.
Over the years of doing therapy, I have asked hundreds of clients, “Where in your body do you feel that negative emotion?” Usually the PWS who feels a negative emotion can pinpoint the area of the body where they feel that emotion. There have been very few instances when the person was unable to tell me exactly where they felt it. Check this for yourself. Think of something you fear or recall a recent emotional hurt. Then notice where in your body that emotion finds expression.
For people who block, negative emotions are typically centered within the chest, neck and/or jaw. Ask a person who blocks:
Which emotions have you associated with your blocking?
Where in your body do you feel these emotions?
Where in you body do you feel the fear and anxiety as you anticipate the possibility of blocking?
What do you think about these feelings?
As these feelings diminish, the blocking and stuttering also lessen and the person becomes more fluent.
Not every client accepts that their emotions are created – a product of thought – rather than real. “But, Dr Bob, I ‘feel’ that anxiety in my body and if I feel it, it must be real!” That is the normal response: if I feel it, it is real. For the PWS, the emotions around blocking and stuttering are more real than that for they have the strong physiological response associated with blocking and stuttering. So no wonder many in the speech pathology profession believe that stuttering is a physical problem. It is so real: “Just look at my facial contortions when I block.”
CASE STUDY 2
John Harrison, a person who stuttered and who recovered, is the former editor of the National Stuttering Association’s newsletter, Letting GO. In his article, “Anatomy of a Block” (Harrison, 1999) he exquisitely illustrates how a person feels a total loss of power and resourcefulness especially during blocking. John has graciously given me permission to share his article with you. The first part of his article reproduced here:
One day back in the spring of 1982 I walked into a camera shop on 24th street near where I live in San Francisco to pick up some prints. The clerk, a pretty young girl, was at the other end of the counter, and when I came in, she strolled over to wait on me.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
That question used to throw me into a panic, because I always blocked on my name. Always. But by 1982 stuttering was no longer an issue. I never thought about it. I liked talking to people, and never worried about speech, because my blocks had all but disappeared.
I started to say “Harrison”, and suddenly found myself in a panic. I was locked up and totally blocked. All the old, familiar feelings had come back. I could feel my heart pounding. So I stopped, took a breath, allowed myself to settle down, and, while the woman stared at me, collected myself enough to say “Harrison.”
I walked out of the store with my prints, feeling frazzled and totally mystified. Where in the world had that block come from? Why had I suddenly fallen into the old pattern? Stuttering was the furthest thing from my mind when I walked in. I never thought about stuttering any more, because it never happened, so I knew it wasn’t a fear of stuttering that caused me to block. At that point I did what I had always done in previous years when stuttering was a problem. I began playing the event over and over in my mind, trying to notice as much detail as possible to see if I could spot any clues, something that would explain what was going on.
“Where was the woman when I walked in?” I asked myself.
Let’s see. I pictured the layout of the store. I had come in and stood at the cash register. The woman was at the other end of the counter talking to someone.
“Who was the other person? Anything significant in that?”
It was a guy.
“And what did he look like?” Hmmm. Oh yeah, he was a biker. Tough looking. Had tattoos on his arms and was wearing a Levi’s vest.
“What else did you notice?”
Well, the two of them seemed to like talking to each other. The guy appeared very much taken with the girl.
“How did he seem to you?”
Scary looking. Reminded me of the tough guys on the block when I was a kid. I remember those guys. They lived in the next town. They all had mean looking eyes, and they petrified