A Pragmatic Guide To Communication & Change.pdf - NLP Info Centre

techniques to study. For example, the more traditional psychotherapies rely
heavily on the client's ability to digitalize - to talk aboutand to visualize various
experiences. Some of the humanistic approaches, on the other hand, identifying
feelings or emotions as the medium through which to achieve change. These are
functional differences, differences which, on the positive side, enable individuals
with different models of the world to seek out and work within a system that best
suits their own.
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speak to a person using his own "language," you heighten the sense of rapport between
you and pave the way for the trust that is so important to any close relationship.- , Another
way to think about predicate preference is to imagine how a blind person might perceive
an elephant in comparison to a sighted person. You can be sure that their linguistic
descriptions would demonstrate the differences.
Even though a person demonstrates a preference for one of the representational systems,
it does not mean that he does not use the other systems too. On the contrary, we all use all
of the systems all of the time. It has been my observation, however, that whether out of
habit, in response to stressful situations, or in other areas of interaction, people tend to
depend on their preferred system, the system in which they can make the most
distinctions about the world. It also appears that, in some people, this system changes
depending on the specific situation confronting them.
her, trying to visualize where he had seen an escape route. In his frenzy, he never even
felt the touch nor did lie hear the words from behind him!
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Stress
Fire engines clanged and wailed in the streets below, and people screamed unintelligible
words from the buildings across the boulevard. The smell of smoke was getting more
intense - that was probably what woke him up. Fire!
The image of burning buildings, flaming stairwells, and smoke-clogged hallways set him
into a panic. lie ran into the main hallway and started choking from the smoke he thought
he could see there. Ile began looking frantically for a way out, trying to visualize where
the fire escapes were.
Someone came up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder, saying, "Everyone's
gone down the back way. Follow me.!" Then he ran off, leading the way, assuming he
was being followed. But the panic-struck man didn't turn and follow. lie was still busy
trying to remem
Often people under stress will turn to the representational system they trust the most.
They may even delete other systems from their conscious awareness, thereby limiting
their ability to respond. It is tragic because during just those times they need all the
sensory input and all the awareness they can get! People coming into therapy who are
under great stress in their lives are often extremely limited in their awareness of their
problems and in their choices concerning how to behave. It is possible they are blocked
by their inability to create new choices or to even perceive alternatives because the
choices and perceptions lie outside the range of the system into which they have retreated.
The language of the representation systems can work for you in two ways. Besides
indicating how a person is making sense of his experience, it can also provide an
extremely effective method for gaining rapport with that person. This can be
demonstrated by using the following illustration of a married couple who have come for