Personal Growth or Client Work

Verbal Implication*

by Steve Andreas ©2003  “Every sentence has implications and it is in the implications that the important message is given.” —Milton H. Erickson, M.D.          Implication is one of the most common ways that we unconsciously make meaning out of events in everyday life. A speaker’s statement implies something that the listener infers. Implication was used …

Verbal Implication* Read More »

“Scheduling Unconscious Responses”*

by Steve Andreas ©1998          A number of times in my life I’ve been annoyed by needing to use a bathroom (“number two”) in the middle of the day.  Sometimes this rudely interrupted activities that were a lot more important or fun, and sometimes it involved a frantic search for facilities where they were scarce …

“Scheduling Unconscious Responses”* Read More »

Nonverbal (Contextual) Implication**

Steve Andreas, MA “Every sentence has implications and it is in the implications that the important message is given.” —Milton H. Erickson, M.D.          In a previous article, I described verbal implication as follows: a statement is made that is the opposite of the desired outcome. This statement is made about a different context, which is …

Nonverbal (Contextual) Implication** Read More »

Embedding the Message

by Steve Andreas Presuppositions are messages about the way things are, embedded almost invisibly in a therapist’s language. Because they are not even noticed consciously, these communications have immense power to change a client’s perceptions, expectations and beliefs. Consider this example from the work of Milton Erickson: In the late 1950s, when Erickson was a …

Embedding the Message Read More »

Creating an Intense Response: The Theraputic Trauma

by Steve Andreas, MA ©2004       A woman told Erickson about her eight-year old daughter, Ruth, who hated EVERYBODY:       A very MISERABLE kind of girl. I (Erickson) asked the mother what she thought made the girl hate herself and everybody else.       The mother said, “Her face is a solid freckle. And the kids …

Creating an Intense Response: The Theraputic Trauma Read More »

The Decision Destroyer*

© 2008 Verbatim Transcript of a DVD demonstration by Steve Andreas of “The Decision Destroyer,” a pattern developed by Richard Bandler available on audio as a download, “Decision Destroyer” from Real People Press. This transcript is also included in Counseling and Psychotherapy Transcripts, Client Narratives, and Reference Works, © Sage Publications, Inc., 2007. Used with …

The Decision Destroyer* Read More »

Forgiveness*

by Steve Andreas ©2000  Introduction          A great deal of therapeutic effort goes into struggling with anger and resentment, because this “unfinished business” causes so much difficulty–both for the person who has it and for other family members, friends, and associates.  All of us can think of people who spend much of their time preoccupied …

Forgiveness* Read More »

Aligning Perceptual Positions

by Connirae Andreas, Ph.D. and Tamara Andreas, MM, ©1991 first published in Anchor Point, Feb. 1991 (Vol 5 No 2) – with minor edits April 2006 “Perceptual Positions” has been an important and useful distinction in NLP, one that can be used to enhance our flexibility, wisdom and resourcefulness.  There are three major perceptual positions: …

Aligning Perceptual Positions Read More »

Gaining Additional Perspectives in Relationships*

by Steve and Connirae Andreas ©2000  Introduction              Over 200 years ago, Robert Burns wrote the following (in modern English): Oh, would some power the gift to give us, To see ourselves as others see us! It would from many a blunder free us, And foolish notion.             The ability to experience ourselves as someone else does …

Gaining Additional Perspectives in Relationships* Read More »