Milton Erickson used to use behavioral metaphors as a means of priming clients for change. One example that I can think of is in a book by Jeffrey Zeig during a teaching seminar Erickson pulled out a pencil with a little head on it with long purple hair and he held it between his hands. He said to the group people come to me looking like this and then they leave looking like this (as he began to rub his hands together and the head began spinning in circles).
Robert Dilts or John Grinder I can’t remember which one of the two said it but one of them said that when they went to visit Erickson that he had a topsy tervy book. It was a book that you could look at holding it one way and it looked one way and then when you flipped it upside down the image would shift and he would have people look at this book as he talk of how things sometimes look one way and other times shift in perspective.
One time when priming someone to do go into a trance as part of an induction Erickson asked a client to take a paper and a pen and to write their name. So they did it. He then asked them to write their name backwards. So they after some effort did that too. He then asked them to write it upside down. They did that. He then had them do the all the same tasks with their opposite hand. All those tasks were about preparing the client to do something different.
This is a common pattern throughout Erickson’s work. To use behavioral actions as behavioral metaphors for what he is priming his clients to do. Danie Beaulieu is an interesting woman that I had the opportunity to meet at Steve Andreas’ AMT 2010. She does impact therapy so she is not really a NLP’er however she is one of the most elegant people that I have ever come across at creating these types of behavioral metaphors when working with clients. I would recommend everyone look closely at her work and the work of Erickson further to see what gems they can gleam.
Robert Dilts or John Grinder I can’t remember which one of the two said it but one of them said that when they went to visit Erickson that he had a topsy tervy book. It was a book that you could look at holding it one way and it looked one way and then when you flipped it upside down the image would shift and he would have people look at this book as he talk of how things sometimes look one way and other times shift in perspective.
One time when priming someone to do go into a trance as part of an induction Erickson asked a client to take a paper and a pen and to write their name. So they did it. He then asked them to write their name backwards. So they after some effort did that too. He then asked them to write it upside down. They did that. He then had them do the all the same tasks with their opposite hand. All those tasks were about preparing the client to do something different.
This is a common pattern throughout Erickson’s work. To use behavioral actions as behavioral metaphors for what he is priming his clients to do. Danie Beaulieu is an interesting woman that I had the opportunity to meet at Steve Andreas’ AMT 2010. She does impact therapy so she is not really a NLP’er however she is one of the most elegant people that I have ever come across at creating these types of behavioral metaphors when working with clients. I would recommend everyone look closely at her work and the work of Erickson further to see what gems they can gleam.
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