Award Recipients

The board has chosen Bobby Bodenhamer, D. Min. to receive the 2022 J.R. Lunan Fluency Freedom Award. This award is in recognition of his decades of work using Neuro Linguistic Programming and other non-invasive techniques to help people who stutter find a cure for their ailment. And also to recognize him as one of the early proponents that stuttering is a cognitive, not a physical problem and in many cases resembles a mini panic attack.  We at the Theta Research Institute believe, as he does, that stuttering can be curable and is not a lifelong sentence to struggle or live in silence. The J.R. Lunan Fluency Freedom Award recognizes and rewards those who believe the same and who provide solid proof using applied research, especially when it includes using hypnosis, self-hypnosis, NLP, auto-suggestion, or other non-invasive mind-control techniques. We believe Dr. Bodenhamer is a pioneer and leader in this space and applauds his work with the dozens of people who formerly stuttered and now have been set free. For more information about Dr. Bodenhamer's work please visit the website Mastering Stuttering and Blocking and refer to his book I Have a Voice: How to Stop Stuttering which is also available on Amazon.

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In receiving this award Dr. Bodenhamer wrote the following summation:
 

Sometimes the PWS (People Who Stutter) is fluent and sometimes the PWS stutters. What creates the difference? I firmly believe that If it were a physical causation, the PWS would stutterer all the time.  “All meaning is context dependent” so says Alfred Korzybski in his classic work “Science and Sanity.”

The PWS when confronted with a threatening situation will trigger anxiety and fear. The meaning of the anxiety and fear he puts on this context triggers his stuttering strategy for speaking. On the other hand, the meaning that he places on being in a non-threatening context triggers his fluent strategy for speaking. 

Thus, the PWS has two strategies for speaking: fluency and stuttering. The meaning, anxiety or no anxiety, determines whether or not the PWS speaks fluently or stutters. Yes, in structure this is what happens. In essence the trigger for stuttering is quite simple.

Now, there is another component involved that must be addressed. What is behind the anxiety? This is where the rubber meets the road! An example could be that when the child is not allowed to speak. This is especially true when the father yells at the child “to shut up.” year after year the child experiences this from the father. So the child will place such a meaning as “When I am around authority figures, I am not worthy to share my thoughts.” Or, “speaking to an authority figure means pain.” The child desperately wants to speak. Indeed, sometimes the situation requires that the PWS speak,  such as when at a job interview. Such situations lead to an awful case of anxiety and fear. These meanings trigger the stuttering strategy for speaking.

Regrettably, the childhood trauma can be very well learned and difficult to change. Yet working with a well qualified NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) therapist, a qualified hypnotist, a Cognitive Behavior Therapist (CBT), a Neurosemantist (NS) or all four can prove helpful. Some will gain fluency with a few therapy sessions. Others will require many sessions and a great deal of practicing the exercises the therapist provides. 

This is true for the NLP and NS therapist will provide you with many strategies to practice. These strategies are tailored made for your needs.Yes, commit yourself to doing much practicing. Purchase a copy of my book, “I have a voice: how to stop stuttering.” This book provides several strategies for eliminating or at least decreasing the fear and anxiety that drive stuttering. Be prepared to learn how to manage your own life rather than allowing your stuttering manage you. 

In addition, the Speech Patholigist may be helpful. They can teach you the physical structure of speaking. To some PWS, understanding the physiology of their stuttering could be crucial. My experience teaches me that the cognitive approach will provide the greater results.

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This award includes a cash grant and is named after John Russell Lunan a Canadian accountant who passed away in 2013 at the age of 91, stuttered every day of his life, and in the latter years believed stuttering was caused by an early-onset anxiety response and not a physical defect. He never found a cure for himself but if he had met Dr. Bodenhamer, it is almost certain he would have. He would have been proud of his work and his dedication to the plight of people who stutter.

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The Theta Research Institute is a Canadian corporation that works on a not-for-profit basis finding new ways to control speech anxiety and relies on funding for the awards from its benefactors. In 2022 we would like to thank  Klug Financial Insights Inc. who is funding this award.