We have a used a strategy similar to this one to help people who want to learn to draw. The outcome of the strategy is that you don't end up having to "draw" anything, but rather you trace it. The strategy, simple and easy, begins as the client either looks at the object he wants to draw or imagines a scene he would like to draw until he can close his eyes and still see it clearly. He is then to open his eyes and look at the drawing paper until he can imagine the picture right on the paper. Then taking his pen, pencil or brush, he is to simply "trace" the image he sees there.
6.22 Rehearsing Accessing Cues.
Another method of rehearsal (used extensively in the case of the "dyslexic" child) is the rehearsal of specific accessing cues. Since accessing cues are the primary method we use for naturally accessing our representational systems, this is an extremely effective installation method. This particular method also has an advantage in that accessing cues can be rehearsed and installed as a sequence without the client having to be conscious of representational content — the person's full conscious attention can be directed to the details of where to put his head and eyes, where and how fast to breathe, how to posture his body, etc. For this reason the rehearsing of only accessing cues, for strategy installation, can serve as a very powerful covert tactic. The individual simply rehearses the appropriate sequence of accessing cues which will lead automatically to the representational systems required for the strategy. The programmer tunes only the client's body — but still elicits the desired representational sequence. When the individual has learned the sequence to the point that it is automatic, the eye movements, postures, gestures, breathing rates and other behaviors that he has learned will automatically access the designed sequence of representational systems.
A client who has had no experience with NLP, will have no conscious understanding of what is occurring but may be very surprised and pleased when he finds that his behavior begins to change radically.
One way to keep this process even more covert (or when one is in situations where it is not appropriate to verbally instruct someone through the various accessing cues) is to lead the eyes of the subject to the appropriate accessing positions with hand gestures, or by leading them to the appropriate positions with one's own eye movements.
6.23 Rehearsing Synesthesia Patterns.
Rehearsing synesthesia patterns is another powerful method of installing sequences of representational system activity that is independent of specific content. For many people, certain synesthesia patterns will be unfamiliar and underdeveloped, and they may experience difficulty in making the transition from one certain type of representational system to another. Practicing synesthesia patterns, independent of specific content, will increase the ease of access and the the "representational vocabulary" (the discriminative capabilities) of particular individuals with underdeveloped systems.
If the programmer wanted to install a strategy that followed the sequence Aid →Ke →Ait →Vi, he would instruct the client, starting with any particular portion of an internal dialogue, to generate seven tactile body sensations or movements. The instructions might go: "As you listen carefully to those words in your head, pay attention to what body sensations come from them. When you have identified one set of feelings, listen to the words again and allow another feeling to emerge from the words. Keep doing this until you have come up with seven different feelings. " The client is then instructed to pick the feeling that is most appropriate to the words being pronounced internally, and from that feeling he is to generate seven sounds that are not words. For example: "Get in touch with that feeling and allow it to turn into a sound." Have him repeat the process until he has generated seven sounds. Next, have him choose the sound most appropriate to the feelings it was derived from and instruct him to generate seven internal visual images from that sound.
Visually, we can represent this process in the following manner:
The synesthesia process may be greatly facilitated by teaching the individual to overlap accessing cues. For example, taking a deep breath in the abdominal area while looking up and to the left would help to produce a V→K overlap (or fuzzy function). Looking down and right, defocusing one's eyes and breathing high and shallow in the chest will facilitate K→V overlap. Looking up and right and touching one's face or chin would promote Vc →Aid synesthesia.
Have the individual repeat the process until the transitions become smooth and easy.
Within the process of installing any particular strategy, of course, the programmer will want to use combinations of both anchoring and rehearsal techniques. Some steps will be more appropriately anchored in, while others should be rehearsed to help make the transitions smoother. For instance, the programmer may want to have the individual rehearse a synesthesia pattern that is difficult for him, but then choose to anchor the next step on to the synesthesia. The programmer will most often want to establish anchors for each step and fire them off as the individual rehearses.
6.3 Interrupting Strategies.
Installing a new strategy requires that you make it as available in context as an existing one. As we said at the beginning of the chapter, this can generally be accomplished with ease through timing — firing of the anchor(s) you have established for the new sequence at the appropriate time in the existing sequence — or by conditioning the new sequence via repeated rehearsal. If the new strategy you have designed is sufficiently adaptive it should reinforce and perpetuate itself naturally.
Sometimes, however, the existing strategy will have a particularly well-beaten path and will be unusually ingrained. If the outcome of the strategy interferes with what you are attempting to accomplish and is producing behaviors that are counterproductive to the achievement of the meta-outcomes of the client (such as the depressive strategies we discussed in the design chapter), it will be to the client's benefit for you to interrupt the existing strategy.
There are three basic ways to interrupt a strategy: (1) through overload, (2) by diversion and (3) by "spinning out" the strategy.
6.31 Interruption By Overload.
Overloading occurs when more information is being poured into a strategy or strategy step than it can handle. Overloading happens naturally in many everyday experiences — for example, when a person in a noisy place "can't hear himself think," or when a person feels so good (or bad) that he doesn't know what to do or say (this is often called "being overcome by emotion"). Other natural interruptions are situations like being overwhelmed by beauty or practically "knocked out" by some smell or fragrance.
The behavioral result of overloading, as with any of the interruption phenomena, is that person's strategy is stopped from completing its cycle. When a strategy is interrupted completely, the individual is left without a next step in behavior (in a sort of behavioral "limbo," or what is sometimes known as "somnambulistic trance" —see Patterns II) and is prone to jump for whatever next step is offered to him by the situation. That is, they display a strong tendency to respond to whatever anchor for response is provided by the situation. This is a phenomenon that you can easily take advantage of to install a strategy, if you time your anchors right.