Meta Stating a New Semantic Reaction/Behavior toward an Event

Description:

I came across this pattern by coincidence as I was thinking to apply the swish pattern in NLP with a client who had a bad habit and wanted to change it to a new one. As I started the pattern with him, a thought stroke my mind. Would the swish pattern really change this habit effectively? What if I strip out the meanings from the old habit and install them in the new one or to choose suited applicable meanings for the new habit.

With the spirit of curiosity and passion to see if this would work, I suggested for the client to elicit a picture for the old and the new habit. The old one was at the left and was bigger than the new one. The new one was at the right and smaller.

I told my client imagine as if we are pulling out a ball of meaning from the old habit to let this picture shrink or weaken, what would it be?. Then, he answered back it would be “x” meaning. I replied what if we bring this meaning “x” to the new behavior’s picture. Does it fit? Or we need to change the meaning or may be divided to several meanings as it goes to the new picture. Then, my client would apply the new meanings to the new picture.

We kept repeating the pattern of stripping out meanings from the old one and enriching the new picture with appealing and positive meanings until at some point the old picture became like a skeleton then fade out eventually.

Finally, I applied to him the new picture with its enriching meanings after checking the ecology.

After we finished, my client described the process as a transformational experience to him.

The swish pattern works on the sub-modalities in a meta level by editing the movie of the mind to alter a change in a behavior. This pattern works on both the movie of the mind as a representation and the meanings as they resonate inside the neurology of the client.

I also used this pattern with a client who had negative semantic reactions when dealing with a person in her stomach and faster heart beats. After receiving her feedback, she explained that the negative semantic reactions are no longer triggered when dealing with the person.

I think this pattern would also function more effectively than the like/ dislike pattern in NLP because in this pattern we work on editing the movie of the mind and changing the meanings that resonate in the some.

Distinctions:

1. The sub-modalities of a representation as in VAK of an outcome gets richer as we enrich more meanings (semantics) to it and vise versa.
2. You can alter a new semantic reaction to an experience by changing the meanings associated with it or reframing these meanings.
3. Sub-modalities which work on meta levels in NLP when used with meanings (semantics) to alter change in behavior or semantic reaction, create a powerful robust change or a transformation in human behavior.

Caveats:

• The coach or therapist should establish good rapport with the client to run this pattern smoothly.

Elicitation questions:

• How would you like to respond or behave toward this event, person or thing? What is your desired semantic reaction when this happens?

The Pattern:

     1.  Identify the old behavior to be changed and have a VAK representation of it

What is the old behavior that you would like to alter? Do you have a picture for it? Elicit the sub-modalities of the picture in terms of VAK (visual, auditory, kinesthetic)

2.  Identify the new behavior or habit and have a VAK representation of it.

What is the new behavior or habit that you would like to have? Do you have a picture for it? Elicit the sub-modalities of the picture in terms of VAK (visual, auditory, kinesthetic)

3.  Check the ecology

Would this change in behavior or habit serve your life? How will it enhance the quality of your life? What is your intention behind this change?

4.  Strip out the meanings from the old behavior.

Now what meaning (idea, value, importance, pleasure, intention, understanding, decision,…etc.) that we can take off from the old behavior’s picture that would weaken it …and notice how this could make the picture smaller, fader, darker or more distant.

5.  Enrich the new behavior with appealing or positive meanings.

Could we put this meaning (the one stripped out from the old behavior)  into the new picture of the new behavior and makes it richer in terms of its VAK or maybe what other meaning(s) you would like to enrich it with?

6. Repeat Step 4 and 5 until the old behavior’s picture disappear or fade out.

7.  Future pace and Install.        

So as you imagine yourself from this moment forward with these new meanings, how do you see yourself behave toward this event? Are you satisfied with this outcome? Do you want to keep these frames of mind? Are you completely aligned with it?