1	Chapter 5 The “Power” – “Resource” Matrix
2	Figure 5:1
3	Powerless Facing the World PWS tend to view themselves as incapable of speaking fluently in the world. Most, but not all, have fluency when by themselves, with a pet, or someone they are comfortable with. But in the world, they lose their “power.”
4	The Power Matrix – The sense of power or resourcefulness makes all the difference in the world between living with a weak response style or a weak one. It’s the difference between learned helplessness and learned optimism. A healthy Power Matrix enables us to affect change in our lives.
5	“Am I a ‘Can Do’ Person?” What can I do? What skills and resources can I develop? What abilities, aptitudes and capacities do I have to handle this situation? How can I best develop my potentials? How can I best cope with the world as it is presented to me? Can I master myself, run my own brain, control my own states and plan my future?
6	Intentional/Outcome Frames Can I handle this speech challenge? Can I manage my own mind and emotions around blocking and stuttering? Can I take effective action in the world and be successful with this challenge? What can I do to fix this? How can I control everything? Can I find anyone to assist me in learning how to regain fluency?
7	Attempt to Exercise Power – I am going to try to control this? I am going to try to control every word that comes out of my mouth. I am going to control my behavior rather than my behavior controlling me. I need to change. I must not get back into that old unresourceful and powerless state.
8	Fearing Speaking – How much of your blocking and stuttering is about fearing speaking and not so much about how you talk? The answer will vary among PWS. Go back to when you first started blocking and stuttering. Did you unconsciously think, “I don’t want to express myself for I may be wrong or I may be rejected if I do.”
9	Fearing Speaking Cont. – I believe that early on many block out of fearing what speaking may mean to other people in their lives. Later the stuttering became more pronounced as the person worked so hard to break through the block. With continued hurts and pain around stuttering, all these emotions gestalted and then became associated into the muscles that create the block. This leads to a sense of powerlessness.
10	Table 5:1 The Meaning Table Loss of control Frustration Lack of protection I can’t be enough. I am terrified of ___. I should be doing better. I have to do better. I cannot be resourceful. I have to do something. I have to get it done. I have given my power away. Etc.
11	Modeling Optimism - Seligman Learned Helplessness Personal Pervasive Permanent Learned Optimism Not Personal Not Pervasive Not Permanent
12	Being in “Control” What have we mapped in terms of our abilities, skills, potentials, capabilities, etc.? Does it give us a sense of ability, power and control? Do you have a sense of control in life, power over your own life, your own mind, body and emotions? Do you feel like the driver of your own bus or a passenger in the back going for a ride? How have you mapped your sense of “control?” Did you grow up in an environment that was safe, secure, and that gradually allowed you to take more and more control over your life?
13	Exercise How do you perceive your ability to speak fluently in all situations? Do the pictures, feelings, sounds and the way you talk to yourself about blocking/ stuttering give you a sense of power and control over blocking/ stuttering or do they undermine it? Do you have a sense of control over your life, your own emotions? Do you feel like your are driving your own “speech bus” or do you feel like you are riding in the back seat with someone else at the wheel? What type of environment did you grow up in?
14	Figure 5:2 Scale of Emotions
15	Activating Power Matrix Anything that challenges us activates it. Create meaning frames which will validate the idea of being empowered. Recognize our fallibility – stop focusing on what you can’t do. Focus on what we care about. Let go of past childhood limiting beliefs.
16	Patterns for Re-Claiming Your Power The Stress Fight/ Flight/ Freeze Pattern Meta-Stating Your Power Zone Circle of Excellence Responding to Criticism Meta-Stating Intention Six-Step Reframing Modeling Optimism Meta-Stating Courage The “Excuse Blow-Out” Pattern
17	Figure 5:3 Frozen in the Middle
18	Figure 5:4 Thawing the Freeze
19	Power/ Resource Matrix When one is so inside a block that one has activated the General Arousal Syndrome, one views oneself as totally powerless and un-resourceful. This is state dependency. Such behavior usually requires therapy and a lot of work to overcome. But there is hope, much hope.
20	Learning Management Skills “The time to learn state management skills, of course, is not during the stress storm. Learning navigation skills when a ship is tossing and turning in the open sea in the midst of 40 foot waves is a bit late in the game.” L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.
21	Learning Stress Management The primary secret of stress management for the person is to learn how to avoid sending the “danger” message when we are not facing a physical threat. This takes some doing. It means learning to run our brains and to take charge of higher levels of meanings. It means learning how to stop reacting to non-threatening circumstances. It means learning to respond more realistically.
22	Learning Stress Management It means that the person stops defining speaking as if it is a life threatening event. It means loving and honoring oneself no matter how one speaks. It means learning that speaking is about talking and nothing else. It means letting emotions be just emotions.
23	Stress Fight/Flight/Freeze Pattern Step 1: Recognize the presence of stress. Step 2: Specify your stress strategy.® Step 3: Practice flying into calm. Step 4: Texture your game of flying into a calm. Step 5: Practice accessing your relaxed core state. Step 6: Keep refining and texturing your relaxed core state.
24	Cognitive Distortions – Personalizing Awfulizing and Catastrophizing Emotionalizing Minimizing or Discounting Maximizing or Exaggerating All or Nothing Thinking Perfectionism
25	Figure 5:5 Building a Core State of Enhanced “Relaxation”
26	Exercise Meta-Stating Your Power Zone This is a pattern for recognizing and owning the very core “powers” or functions of our neuro-linguistic functioning. Doing this establishes the basis for personal empowerment, responsibility and proactivity.
27	1a. Access a full experience of your “Four Core Central Powers”
28	1b. Access Each Power Notice each of these four powers and step into them fully individually. Use your hands to mime out each of these powers in an imaginary “Circle of Power” and influence and responsibility in front of you.
29	2. Access and Amplify the Resource State of Ownership. Has there ever been a time, maybe in childhood, when you said, “Mine!”? Think about such a time and go be there and experience it totally. Feel what it is like when you strongly sense that something is yours, when ever fiber of your being says, “Mine!”
30	3. Access the States of Acceptance & Appreciation of “Mine!” Imagine something that allows you to fully and completely feel a sense of acceptance – When you just welcome and acknowledge it: a rainy day, traffic. Now feel this acceptance about what you own as yours. Recall something that enables you to feel a warm sense of appreciation for something. Feel that appreciation about this sense of ownership.
31	4. Amplify these states until your Neurology radiates. Amplify your sense of ownership, then acceptance, then appreciation and apply them to your power zone. Let your words emerge as you language them effectively. “This is my zone of power. I am totally responsible for my responses of mind, emotion, speech and behavior.”
32	5. Push Away Judgments As you own your own powers, give other people permission to own their own powers without you judging what they may or may not think of you. Visualize yourself pushing them away from stealing your power.
33	6. Run Meta-No/Yes Pattern Say “No” to what others may think, feel, say or behave towards you. Say “Yes” to owning your own thinking feeling, speaking and behaving.
34	7. Future Pace Imagine in the weeks and months to come, moving through the world with this frame of mind about your zone of response… power. How will your life be with you “owning,” “accepting,” and “appreciating” your power zone? How will the lives of those around you be?
35	Four Central Powers Pattern Access a full experience of your “Four Central Powers” – thinking, feeling, speaking and behaving. Access and amplify the resource state of ownership. Access the states of acceptance and appreciation of “mine!” Amplify these states until your neurology radiates. Imagine pushing other people’s judgments on how you speak away from you. Run the Meta-No/ Meta-Yes Pattern on the results. Future pace.
36	Circle of Excellence Identify an excellent state. Imagine a circle on the floor. Fill up the circle with symbolic colors of resourcefulness. Take a meta-position. Step into the circle. Future pace. Break state and test.
37	Responding to Criticism Identify a context of your being criticized or judged (“X”). Identify the meanings of X. We will call it Y. Identify the positive intention. Expand the X = formula.
38	Meta-Stating Intentions Identify a work-related activity that you perform that’s important in your life. How is that activity important to you? Move up the meta-levels ... one at a time. Step into the higher value states of importance so that you feel them fully. Bring the higher states/ frames of mind down and out. Commission your executive mind to take ownership of this. Invite other resources.
39	Meta-Stating Strength, Confidence, Courage, Etc. Access a strength state – a full 3-D movie of a time when you felt very strong. Set this state as your frame-of-reference for the next five minutes. Embed as you hold your strength state. Confirm the embedding of your new strength state in the context of blocking/Stuttering.
40	Six-Step Reframing Pattern Identify the behavior to be dealt with. Establish communication with the part responsible for the pattern. Determine its positive intention. Access your creative part. Future-pace. Do an ecology Check.
41	Modeling “Optimism” Access a state of “not me!” Form a vigorous and robust “me” and connect it to a specific time and place. Access the thoughts (frames of mind) that are implied in this and add resources to those frames of mind that give them more power. Set firmly in place with strong agreement. Cycle through until you sense a strong level of optimism emerging. Test and future pace
42	Figure 5:7 Meta-Stating Courage
43	Meta-Stating Courage Pattern Access some state of thinking-and-feeling in which you fear something that brings on an unresourceful state and you “know” that it isn’t a “reasonable” fear and regarding which you want to respond with courage. Flush out your current mental frames and meta-states about that fear. Design engineer some higher level state, resource, belief, etc. that would allow your state of courage to become highly empowered. Check out the overall configuration that results. Keep recycling through this meta-stating and design engineering process until the gestalt emerges.
44	Table 5:3
45	The “Excuse Blow-Out” Pattern Access a desired outcome. Let the excuse or excuses emerge. Quality control the excuse. Preserve the excuse’s values and benefits. Reject the empty shell of the old worn out excuse. Test. Access your executive decision state.
46	Figure 5:8 The “Excuse Blow-Out” Pattern