My introduction to Verbal Judo took place in 1996. I was involved in a committee to reduce patient to staff assaults and reduce the patient seclusion and restraint hours at the hospital. I was also completing the Colorado Department of Human Services Master Instructor course.

The final for the instructor course had two parts. One, research and complete a lesson plan, including goals and objectives, on a subject not well known to our organization, and two, deliver a fifty minute presentation on the subject.

My friends at the local sheriff’s office had recently been trained in Verbal Judo. This sounded like the perfect subject. Before Verbal Judo, I was the type of officer, who when told by a citizen, “I’m a taxpayer, you can’t talk to me like that” my response was to take a nickel out of my pocket, hand it to them, and say, “here, you’ve been reimbursed.” Not ever having been trained on how to respond appropriately to verbal abuse or resistance, I realized that I was probably not the only person at the Colorado Mental Health Institute who would benefit from Verbal Judo training.

I borrowed Dr. Thompson’s video training tapes and Gentle Art of Persuasion book. Therein was the answer, not only to my own inability to respond appropriately to verbal abuse and resistance, but also the basis for my final for the Master Instructor course. After presenting the information for the class, I presented the same information to the committee. As a result, the Colorado Mental Health Institute, made Verbal Judo training mandatory for all staff. That requirement remains in effect today.

The benefits: Reduced complaints from patients; fewer staff assaults; reduced hours of patient seclusion and restraint; demonstrated professionalism and respect for all; and most importantly a safer environment.

Verbal Judo is an essential skill set for the working street cop. It completes the balanced package of necessary survival skills for officers who are required to have a continuum of expertise in resolving confrontational situations.

Officers without these skills are as deficient in their overall survival training as any officer that does not know how to use their weapon appropriately.

I am an enormous fan of Dr. George Thompson’s Verbal Judo program.  We know that frightened human beings are no longer rational.  As fear-induced, anger-induced or hormonal-induced heart rate goes up, vasoconstriction sets in.  As the blood drains from the face, the blood also drains from the forebrain, and the midbrain (the part of the brain that is the same as your dog) takes over.  The reason why you can’t have an argument or a rational discussion with a frightened or angry person is because there’s nobody home!  You’re trying to argue with their ‘dog’ thru the mail slot.

There are several ways to calm down a frightened person, but one of the most effective is to ‘talk’ them down. And Verbal Judo is a scientific, proven method to ‘talk’ someone down.  Proven across the decades, getting the ‘acid test’ daily in police agencies world-wide, Verbal Judo is one of the most well demonstrated, effective, and useful tools that can go in any police officer’s tool box.