Mind Adventures 4 (NLP): Spatial Facilitation
Day 4 of Neurolinguistic Programming GradDip Part 2, Unit on Advanced Modelling
Thoughts and insights
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I finally discovered my flow in coaching.
While I’ve been enjoying being the client, I’ve been excited about getting my hands on doing the facilitation myself. After all, personal development is the secondary outcome of this Advanced Modelling. The primary outcome is to learn new patterns through modelling Penny and James.
There are two types of approach: first is sit-down, second is spatial. The spatial approach helps to map externally people’s internal representations.
“Write or draw what you want to work with or want to have happen.”
In this context, the client comes up with something he wants to change. My client used coloured pens, represented what he wanted to work with on a flipchart. I asked him exactly where he wanted it posted, in relation to where he is.
“Is there anything else about that?” Sometimes, clients go back to the drawing board and add something.
“Find a space that knows something about that.” From here, the exploration starts. Essentially, the client owns the whole process. I found myself placing my whole attention to the client — to every gesture, words, breathing, etc. As he laid out one space after another in the room, exploring the internal landscapes in those space which I know nothing about, I notice changes in my client’s physiology. My questions encourage him to explore. he shares his metaphors, without me knowing exactly what he means by those. I know for sure he knows his world, he knows what those mean for him. I don’t have to know.
Finally, he reaches a point where he was ready as I calibrated the changes happening to him, and the spaces he’s explored. I urged him to go back to the original space where he started, in relation to what he wanted to be represented on the flipchart. He was ready. He smiled. Gave me an acknowledging look indicating his session is complete for him.
It was simple. I asked James “Is that it? It seems so simple.”
He replied.”The simpler it is, the more the client gets to explore the complications of his world. The more complexity you provide, the more his attention is directed to solving that complexity, instead of turning his attention to himself, his world.”
The failure of modern day therapy is that it gets the client to focus on the problem as framed by psychologists/psychotherapists — instead of acknowledging that everybody has their own model of the world including the resources one requires to make that model work.
(Blog reposted from old defunct site www.rainbowfire.blogspirit.com)
