Its some weeks now since I attended the Frank Farrelly Provocative
Therapy Master Class and I have had a chance to listen back to the
session I had with him as well as noting some more observations from
attending the seminar.
Observations on listening to the Master Class Sessions
As I have already mentioned in the review of the Master Class, Frank
has an extraordinary ability of changing a person’s internal
maps, in such a way that they can’t recreate the same “problem”
as they once previously imagined it! In my case the session revolved
around a business situation and I noticed that with both myself and
other delegates, Frank would suggest a strong image in the first few
moments of the interview which would then elicit a whole range of
responses. In my session he effectively reframed the situation in
such a manner that I was forced to reassess the situation and realise
that my difficulty had been with my habitual emotional response to
the scenario in question. A key part of our exchange is detailed below
where you can see that Frank brilliantly identifies the heart of the
relationship and by the time he utters the phrase “Well that’s
wonderful” my previous take on the situation is completely scrambled!
Frank “Well whose company is it?”
Nick “Both”
Frank “Well who got there the firstest with the mostest?”
Nick “Well that would be him”
Frank “Him? So you’re both equal? So who is more
equal than whom?
Nick “well if that depends on ability…”
Frank “Oh fuck ability! It depends on who gets his
way most frequently
Nick “Its about even”
Frank “Well who gets whom to do more work than whom?”
Nick “Well I don’t know. We do different things
in the company”
Frank “Yeah yeah, yeah who gets to do more work than
whom?
Nick “I get to do more work”
Frank “Well that’s wonderful! Who gets to say
how do we split the money that whom earns when who is not there? Or
is it 50/50?”
Nick “It’s not strictly 50/50, because he works
less hours than I do, so proportionally he gets more than I would
get”
Frank “Alright, say suppose he works 45% of the time
and you work 55% or whatever…but he doesn’t just get 55%,
he gets more! Well clever him, he’s got a sucker on the string!
Nick “Well I have the benefit of having whatever flexibility
I want which allows me to do other things
Frank “Alright, flexibility costs
Nick “Yeah”
Frank “Yeah, ok so while you’re paying for flexibility,
he gets paid for procrastination! Tell him congratulations from me
for finding a sucker like you!”
Nick “Well yeah, I’ll pass that on!”
Creating timelines to shift internal maps
Another factor that I noticed with “my NLP
head” is how Frank explores the timeline in each particular
session. I didn’t notice this at first, but after watching a
few sessions with other delegates, I noticed a pattern emerge. Typically
he would ask a person’s age or how long they had been in this
particular situation. In my case he asked when I had joined the company
and how long I thought I would remain there. This strategy is another
way in which the client reframes their situation. When he suggested
that I would be in the same business for many more years he successfully
provoked a reaction that polarised me into more urgent action about
the situation.
Frank – “Well, you’ve been partners in
business for how many years?”
Nick – “Seven years!”
Frank – “Seven years! God almighty, do you think
that if you could have looked and seen if you could have thought it
back then, you could have tolerated something like this for seven
years?”
Frank – “Say no”
Nick – “no”
Frank – “How many more multiples of seven years
will you be in this?
The phrase “multiples of seven” really hit home and it
was of course far more powerful expressed in this manner, than simply
as “how much longer?”
Polarising the situation into a digital choice
Another strategy I began to detect was Frank’s
ability to polarise the client into making a straight “digital
choice” between two options. When one delegate comments on how
to avoid failure patterns Frank immediately suggests that in life
there are the two camps of “winners and losers” Despite
the client’s frustration in trying to suggest that this is a
very black and white way of viewing the situation, Frank steadfastly
refuses to budge and once again forces the client into reframing the
subject matter. This over simplification also tends to introduce greater
and absurdity into the situation, especially when Frank is completely
congruent in presenting this view, so the client begins to reassess
their own perceptions.
Voice tone and rhythm
The tone and rhythm of the therapist is especially
powerful in building “the safe bubble”. This “safe
bubble” allows all manner of interaction to take place between
the client and the therapist, which could otherwise be viewed by the
client as being threatening. My advice to anyone wishing to discover
more about Provocative Therapy is to work with an experienced therapist,
as the actual experience of PT is far more revealing that reading
material about PT or even watching a session. Frank is excellent at
pacing his clients and quite brilliant at “analogue marking”
with voice tone. As an established creator of audio material I am
always acutely aware of how presenters use voice and rhythm to generate
state changes and Frank certainly has an extensive range which he
uses with precision when interacting with clients. I suspect much
of this is done unconsciously on his part and during the sessions
I witnessed he seemed genuinely surprised by some of the detail the
“NLPers” fedback when asked for their observations and
comments!
Using Provocative Therapy approaches in
my NLP practice group
Recently in one of the regular NLP practice groups
I run, I asked for members to identify a problem that I would then
address by using NLP, Hypnosis and Provocative therapy in succession,
allowing ten minutes for each approach. I would then ask for feedback
from the individual and the group on what they noticed from each section
and in particular which element generated the most useful change in
perception. When one member suggested that she had no confidence in
speaking on stage I made a number of absurd suggestions including
the idea that she could hire a body double” to present on her
behalf!
To date I have noticed some extraordinary state changes
using these provocative therapy tools and what impresses me the most
is the speed at which some of these occur! I have also found that
the PT skills usefully compliment my NLP and hypnosis approaches in
business trainings as well as individual client sessions.
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