One of the recurrent themes in any excellent NLP Practitioner course , or great application of therapy is to create the context for your own or your clients beneficial change. Another description for this is Reframing. Reframing is about changing how experiences are being perceived.
This clearly dovetails into the concepts of Description, Interpretation and Evaluation, three of the most important distinctions you can make, now,
One of the most thought provoking and exceptional people of the 21st century is Robert Anton Wilson. Bob Wilson has written many many books on many many varied subjects. One particularly excellent book ‘Quantum Psychology‘ gives us a wonderful example of these types of so very necessary distinctions.
The example cited comes in the form of the work of Albert Ellis. Here are two examples of less than positive and enabling statements about a persons ‘reality’. In NLP terms a seemingly impoverished model of the world, in every day language an interpretation of actuality.
- My boss is a male chauvinist drunk, and this is making me sick.
- My secretary is an incompetent, whining bitch, and I have no choice but to fire her.
By simply reformulating the verbal description, the complex equivalents and cause effects diffuse, some generalisations, distortions and deletions are alleviated BUT even more importantly the distinctions between descriptions, evaluations and interpretations become clearer.
- I perceive my boss as a male chauvinist drunk, and right now I do not ( or will not ) perceive or remember anything else about him, and framing my experience this way, ignoring other factors, makes me feel unwell.
- I perceive my secretary as an incompetent, whining bitch, and right now I do not ( or will not ) perceive or remember anything else about her, and framing my experience this way, ignoring other factors, inclines me to make the choice of firing her.
All NLP and therapy is essentially reframing. This is just yet another way to make it so.
nigel hetherington
Communicating Excellence
Excellence in Neuro Linguistic Programming and Hypnotherapy
