To Block or to Speak Fluently How to

To “Block” or to “Speak Fluently” “How to do What When” “Stuttering is not about speech. ” “Stuttering/ fluency are about what ‘meaning’ the PWS consciously or unconsciously places on a certain context. ” © 2009 Renewing Your Mind International, Inc.

© 2009 Renewing Your Mind International, Inc.

Two Royal Roads to State Control © 2009 Renewing Your Mind International, Inc.

NLP as Mind-Body States • When we process information we create mind-body “states. ” • These states are our experiences, feelings, moods, attitudes, dispositions, etc. • Sensory Rep System + Linguistic System + Physiology = States © 2009 Renewing Your Mind International, Inc.

The following Neuro-Science Information Comes From Norman Doidge, M. D. The Brain that Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science. (2007). New York: Viking Penguin, pp. 196204. Chapter 8 - "Imagination: How Thinking Makes It So". © 2009 Renewing Your Mind International, Inc.

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation • Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is part of Harvard • • • Medical School. The experiments happened here. “Alvaro Pascual-Leone is chief of the center, and his experiments have shown that we can change our brain anatomy simply by using our imaginations. “He has just put a paddle-shaped machine on the left side of my head. “The device emits transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS, and can influence my behavior. © 2009 Renewing Your Mind International, Inc.

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation • Wilder Penfield had to open the skull surgically and insert his electric probe in the brain to stimulate the motor or sensory cortex. • “When Pascual-Leone turns on the machine and makes my finger move, I experience exactly what Penfield's patients did when he cut open their skulls and prodded them with large electrodes. ” © 2009 Renewing Your Mind International, Inc.

Short Term/ Long Term Learning • The cramming for a test (short term learning) strengthens existing neuronal connections and unmasks buried pathways. • The slower, more permanent long term learning changes suggest the formation of brand-new structures, probably the sprouting of new neuronal connections and synapses. © 2009 Renewing Your Mind International, Inc.

Short Term/ Long Term Learning • After a brief period of practice, as when we cram for a • • • test, it is relatively easy to improve because we are likely strengthening existing synaptic connections. But we quickly forget what we have crammed ─ because these are easy come, easy-go neuronal connections and are rapidly reversed. Maintaining improvement and making a skill permanent require the slow steady work that probably forms new connections. The difference is probably why some people, who seem slow to pick up a skill, may nevertheless learn it better than their "quick study“ friends. © 2009 Renewing Your Mind International, Inc.

Piano Lessons: • Pascual-Leone taught two groups of people, who • had never studied piano, a sequence of notes showing them which fingers to move and letting them hear the notes as they were played. Then members of one group, the 'mental practice' group, sat in front of an electric piano keyboard, two hours a day, for five days, and imagined both playing the sequence and hearing it played. © 2009 Renewing Your Mind International, Inc.

Piano Lessons: • A second 'physical practice' group actually played the music two hours a day for five days. • Both groups had their brains mapped before the experiment, each day during it, and afterward. • Then both groups were asked to play the sequence, and a computer measured the accuracy of their performances. © 2009 Renewing Your Mind International, Inc.

Piano Lessons: • "Pascual-Leone found that both groups learned to play the sequence, and both showed similar brain map changes. • Remarkably, mental practice alone produced the same physical changes in the motor system as actually playing the piece. © 2009 Renewing Your Mind International, Inc.

Practice makes Perfect. • "The level of improvement at five days in the • mental practice group, however substantial, was not as great as in those who did physical practice. But when the mental practice group finished its mental training and was given a single two-hour physical practice session, its overall performance improved to the level of the physical practice group's performance at five days. © 2009 Renewing Your Mind International, Inc.

Don’t underestimate the Power of your Imagination. • Clearly mental practice is an effective way to • • prepare for learning a physical skill with minimal physical practice. We all do what scientists call mental practice or mental rehearsing when we memorize answers for a test, learn lines for a play or rehearse any kind of performance or presentation. But because few of us do it systematically, we underestimate its effectiveness. © 2009 Renewing Your Mind International, Inc.

Becoming an expert. • "One reason we can change our brains simply by imagining is that, from a neuroscientific point of view, imagining an act and doing it are not as different as they sound. • In both cases, the very same neural networks are activated. © 2009 Renewing Your Mind International, Inc.

Becoming an expert. • When people close their eyes and visualize a simple object, such as the letter a, the primary visual cortex lights up, just as it would if the subjects were actually looking at the letter a. • Brain scans show that in action and imagination many of the same parts of the brain are activated. That is why visualizing can improve performance. © 2009 Renewing Your Mind International, Inc.

Why all this Neuro-Science stuff? • Since your fears and anxieties are very well installed due both to high emotions and much repetition… • How does this information encourage you to imagine & rehearse fluent strategies of thinking? © 2009 Renewing Your Mind International, Inc.

The “Plasticity” of our Neural Networks • The word Neuro-Science now uses in reference to the brain’s ability to learn is “plasticity”. • The brain is not made of concrete. • The brain is moldable. • You can teach old dogs new tricks. • And a PWS can learn to be fluent. © 2009 Renewing Your Mind International, Inc.

Suggested Pattern for Rehearsal 1. The fear & anxiety about stuttering pops into your mind. Feel it! 2. Say to the fear & anxiety, “No, I know how to speak fluently. ” 3. Recall your fluent state of mind (be in it). 4. Say to yourself, “Yes, I know how to speak fluently!” © 2009 Renewing Your Mind International, Inc.

Associated/ Dissociated • Associated – You do not see yourself in the picture – you • • • are “inside” the state experiencing it fully. Dissociated – You do see yourself in the picture – you are “outside” the experience. Stepping aside (Going Meta) from memories, etc. we adopt different perspectives. We don’t “literally” step outside. We are referring to our “felt senses”, which is a product of our thinking. Meta-Levels positions gives us psychological distance. © 2009 Renewing Your Mind International, Inc.

Perceptual Positions 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Self – from your own body Other – from “inside” the other person Meta / Dissociated – “Outside” both System – from the larger system and contexts Universal – The “Universe” – “God” © 2009 Renewing Your Mind International, Inc.

Inside your “higher self” Outside both Perceptual Positions Inside the company In “self” In

The Drop-Down Through Pattern 1. Identify the experience and emotion you want to 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. transform. Step into that experience. Drop-down through the experience. Experience “nothing”. (Most reach a point where they have no thoughts or feelings. Some, however, just transition over into the positive. ) Associate (be in it) into your resource state (5 th Position) and apply that resource state to each problem state. Test. © 2009 Renewing Your Mind International, Inc.

How to contact Bobby G. Bodenhamer 1516 Cecelia Dr. Gastonia, NC 28054 704. 864. 3585 704. 864. 1545 (Fax) bobbybodenhamer@yahoo. com www. masteringstuttering. com www. renewingyourmind. com www. neurosemantics. com © 2009 Renewing Your Mind International, Inc.