The new newsletter of the (US-based) Prison Math Project is now published, featuring my ‘Learn Your Way’ column as a contributing writer-educator. In this column I discuss the nature and value of ‘self-talk‘ as a potent form of personal coaching.

I first learned of self-talk through the book, The Inner Game of Tennis by counselor-author-and-tennis coach Timothy Galwey In this book, I learned that what I thought was a personal quirk – my own self-talk, which I thought was an aberration and something I dismissed as best I could – was common to all people. Timothy Galway revealed how self-talk can be transformed from self-criticizing to a helpful kind of self-coaching and I found the activities he recommended very therapeutic.

Next, I read Beyond Hypnosis by Dr. Lee Pulos, a Vancouver-based psychiatrist who used self-talk as a cornerstone of his counselling and empowerment work. In fact Lee brought this practice into his work as a pioneering counsellor with elite athletes and professional sports teams. I met Lee several times and considered him a mentor. He even wrote a stirring commendation for my book, ‘Learn Your Way!’ in 2012. Lee passed away at age 94 in 2022.

Using positive self-talk continues to be an important technique I use, daily, and I highly recommend it. As I express in my column, empowering self-talk can be applied to help overcome many learning difficulties.

The PMP newsletter has a goal of publishing about three times per year and circulates (as permitted and available) to interested subscribers – inmates and administrators – of the US penal system. 

I’ve attached the first page of my column; the complete column may be viewed by accessing issue #7 of the PMP newsletter (link here, and scroll down to the Newspaper archives); my column appears on pp 7-8.