Understanding Advanced Hypnotic Language Patterns E-Book

John Burton

• Herausgeber: Crown House Publishing
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 419

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2007

Beschreibung

This book dissects and describes the conceptual ingredients that construct hypnotic language. Clinical case examples and dozens of hypnotic language scripts are provided to illustrate the identified principles.

Leseprobe

Understanding Advanced Hypnotic Language Patterns

A Comprehensive Guide

John Burton, EdD

Contents

Title Page

Acknowledgments

Introduction Hypnotic Language: A Cognitive–Developmental Approach

Chapter 1 Categorizing Data: The Continuum of Awareness

Chapter 2 Gestalt Categories of Framing

Chapter 3 Cognitive Styles Identified by Piaget

Chapter 4 Hypnotic Language Scripts Addressing Emotional States

Chapter 5 Hypnotic Language Scripts Addressing Perception

Chapter 6 Hypnotic Language Scripts Addressing Time

Chapter 7 Hypnotic Language Scripts Addressing Behavior

Chapter 8 Hypnotic Language Script Addressing Smoking Cessation

Appendix The Milton Model: Hypnotic Language Patterns

Bibliography

Index

Copyright

Acknowledgments

There are many people I want to thank for contributing to this material and eventual book. I thank my clients for their courage to change themselves and their lives. I appreciate their trust in me to assist in this effort. I also want to thank Crown House Publishing and the staff for their willingness to publish my manuscript and the skillful editors who helped me present this material in a more effective manner. Thanks to Steve Lankton for his skill and generosity. Many thanks also to friends and colleagues who contributed their awareness, support, and encouragement.

Through this process of conducting therapy, promoting change in others, and the materials and tools utilized, there is a theme of trust. Yes, trust of client toward therapist, and in addition, trust of therapist in self, and then, trust of client in self. This overriding theme of trust grants access to and use of higher levels of self. Thus, I express appreciation for the powers of trust and what this grants as we gain the resources and resulting experiences we most deeply desire. Lastly and most deeply I express appreciation for the One who makes all things possible.

John Burton

Introduction

Hypnotic Language: A Cognitive–Developmental Approach

In this work, we will explore hypnotic language through several perspectives. The primary emphasis will come from a cognitive point of view. This cognitive view includes thinking styles and human development levels, as well as levels of perception. And just what is hypnotic language, you may ask. Hypnotic language involves structuring sentences in such a way as to invite the reader or listener into a trance state. Here we will define a trance state as being a heightened state of focus or concentration on a single item or group of like items to the exclusion of all other items.

The principal purpose of hypnotic language, according to this work, is to assist clients into a trance for the purposes of examining the contents of a particular focus, allowing the clients to then adjust the contents, meaning, and influence in their life. The development and study of hypnotic language stems primarily from the work of Milton Erickson, MD. My hope is that this present work will add to the understanding of the structure and therapeutic applications of hypnotic language.

Hypnotic language could be thought of as taking three general forms. The first form addresses the cognitive aspects of a person’s experience. This includes rather directly accessing cognitive styles, including the developmental and perceptual ingredients that create one’s experience. In essence, this form of hypnotic language attempts to restructure an individual’s experience and the meaning attached to the experience. Addressing cognitive aspects of one’s experience amounts to reframing by dismantling and reconstructing the ingredients making up the frame that sets the experience.

The second form of hypnotic language might be thought of as metaphorical forms of communicating with the unconscious mind. This communication is offered to the client while they are in a more formal trance. The method of change here occurs through helping the client recategorize experiences. This also becomes reframing. But a different path to reframing is taken in this second form. While the cognitive approach addresses the parts that make up the frame, the metaphorical path works by addressing the frame as a whole, and then moving the contents into another frame to create new meaning.

By way of a metaphor to distinguish between these two hypnotic language forms: sometimes people remodel their house, giving it a whole new feel, whilst sometimes in order to give it a whole new feel, people move their entire house to a new location.

A third type of hypnotic language works by bringing a needed but missing resource to the situation, bringing the mountain to Mohammed, so to speak. This third style of hypnotic language assists personal change by introducing awareness of new resources into an existing frame. Once introduced and integrated, the new resource then creates a whole new frame and eventually a different emotional-behavioral outcome. The avenue for introducing this new resource is also a metaphorical one, presented while the client is in some degree of trance.

The first section of this book presents a model that describes how we cognitively process information. We’ll use this model to explain the layers and stages of information processing. This four-tier hierarchy of information processing will also serve to identify the cognitive targets of hypnotic language.

Now we will move to describing the four-tier structure involved in cognitive processing of information. These four tiers will be discussed in more detail in subsequent chapters. But for now, here is a general thumbnail sketch of each tier and its role. The first tier of this four-tier system comes into play when we experience a stimulus. Initially, we receive information through one or more of our five senses. This information may come from observing or interacting with external sources. We may also receive information through internal sources such as bodily sensations. This information received from one or more of our senses sends signals to our brain and the information is subjected to the dynamics of the first tier of the hierarchy.

The first tier of the information-processing system is referred to here as the continuum of awareness. The continuum of awareness consists of levels of awareness based on the amount of comparative information we use when assessing a stimulus. This continuum determines the general frame size we notice. This general frame is made up of the available information to use when comparing, contrasting, and then processing the new stimulus into a meaningful subset of a whole.

The second tier of this meaning-making process involves putting the sorted information together into some organized meaning in relation to other parts, somewhat like assembling a jigsaw puzzle. Frames or categories of information are created here. I use the terms frames and categories as having the same meaning in this work. This information-assembling process involves Gestalt psychology categories of frame making or categorizing information. We assemble initially random pieces of information into some meaningful, relatively sensible whole by using the parts of the puzzle. It is interesting to note that the available parts of the puzzle stem from the level of awareness within the continuum of awareness, and the perceptual-cognitive level of development used when sorting the information. This meaning-making event is an interaction effect between the perceptual-cognitive level of development and Gestalt framing mechanisms.

The third tier consists of processes that attempt to make more personal meaning of the information received through our senses (Keagan, 1983). This process consists of sorting the received information through one of several perceptual and cognitive levels of development (Piaget, 1965). To a great extent, the perceptual-cognitive level through which the information is sorted determines its potential meaning in our lives. This potential meaning ranges from self-limiting beliefs to unlimited possibilities for success. Once the information received gets identified, a function of our perceptual-cognitive-developmental level, we send the labeled pieces to the next tier of the hierarchy for further meaningful assembly.

To give an example that may help solidify these first three levels of perceptual-cognitive development concepts, imagine walking into a clothing store. You decide to sort through the collection of clothing for red shirts. You filter out all other shirts as well as all other clothing. But you could then decide you want to sort for the whole range of reds from pink to maroon. Perhaps you then decide to sort for all light-colored shirts and then all shirts. And since you are in the clothing store anyway, you then decide to open up your perception to notice all clothing, then to what other clothing exists, not just in this store, but in other stores, and even what has yet to be designed and created. With this last level of awareness, you reach the apex of perceptual-cognitive development that contains all possibilities, known or otherwise.

One could easily make the argument that the second and third processing factors, perceptual and cognitive principles, exist at the same level of the hierarchy. But I would suggest that we first must sort sensory information depending on our perceptual level since the perceptual level determines what and how much we can notice. We then make use of this perceptually influenced material with our cognitive and meaning-making skills to weave it into some sort of meaningful frame. In another analogy, you might think of this whole multilevel process as resembling collecting numbers. The perceptual level determines which numbers we notice. The Gestalt framing process then adds up these numbers to find the sum total. The cognitive sorting process then sorts to determine the meaning of this sum total to self, others, and life. This last step comes into being as a consequence of available ingredients. It seems we feel compelled to organize and make meaning of our experiences in life. Even if the information is disparate, we force fit the information into some category.

In this model, the fourth and highest level of information processing really exists as a sort of two-headed being. Depending on how we approach and utilize this duo, it can be a two-headed monster or a two-headed omnipotent ruler. The two heads—for better or worse—that I refer to here are states of emotion and personal beliefs. States of emotion and personal beliefs exist in an inseparable form, somewhat like mind-body. They agree with or mirror each other, as these two forces naturally reflect one another.

States of emotion and beliefs have a significant effect on how we process information. These two variables, states and beliefs, operate as self-sustaining entities. Like politicians, once a state or belief is in place it does all it can to stay there. States and beliefs tend to function as self-fulfilling prophecies. We usually filter the information we find within the general frame, assemble it, and then add meaning in accordance with the state of our emotions and beliefs. This alliance between the four tiers creates a sort of meta-Gestalt all its own and can be very difficult to separate back into parts that can be interpreted and utilized independently.

This unique interpretation of the parts within the meta-gestalt can allow freedom through new awareness, gestalts, meanings, states, and beliefs. Interestingly, we do the same process in reverse to the existing information in the meta-gestalt to disassemble it as we did to assemble it. In other words, we no longer permit the meta-gestalt to exist separate from the larger whole. We create this return to the whole by drawing on an expanded continuum of awareness, “gestalting” cognitive processing, as well as beliefs and states of emotion. Once returned to the whole, a whole new meaning can evolve that more effectively serves one’s highest purpose. Hypnotic language is one of the ways of undoing and re-creating the meaning-making process, ending up with more effective life choices.

Examining the influence of states and beliefs further, if a person experiences a state of sadness, he almost certainly also holds a correspondingly gloomy belief about self, life, or others. Conversely, if a person believes that she is competent, her state will reflect this belief, and she will exhibit confidence, or some state similar to confidence. If the two factors, emotions and beliefs, are at odds, this results in a form of cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957), treated as an internal conflict between emotional states, beliefs, and values.

Chapter 1

Categorizing Data: The Continuum of Awareness

This chapter concerns how we categorize information in our lives and will serve as a more general template through which to view hypnotic language and cognitive processes. The continuum of awareness, as referenced here, represents the first of the four tiers within the information-processing system. Whether we receive information from the environment through our senses or we just experience from within, we naturally categorize the information we notice. When categorizing information, we seem to draw from a pre-existing category based on similarities between the new information and the existing category. We then place the “new” experience within the closest matching category.

Categorizing is all about comparing pieces of information and their details. We compare the information on which we focus to other known information in order to determine in which category the information belongs. This begs the question of what will we do with truly new or unique information that does not relate to other already known information. Here we may delete, distort, or generalize to force fit an item into an old category or seize the opportunity for a unique experience.

I suggest that fear limits anyone’s openness to truly new experiences. By doing what Gestalt psychology calls simplifying, we think we better protect ourselves by deleting, distorting, and generalizing new experiences so that they resemble familiar ones. But excluding the uniqueness of experiences actually endangers us more instead of protecting us. By noticing uniqueness we find more possibilities and opportunities for solutions and effective self-directing. In other words, fear may lead us to a closed-minded style of thinking that limits awareness of choice, making our fears come true. Part of the challenge to overcoming this limiting fear is bypassing conscious efforts at categorizing.

In some sense, hypnotic language attempts to defy conscious mind categorizing, giving the information within the hypnotic language uniqueness, and thus promoting new awareness and new responses to life. Focusing further on language, there seems to be some interesting parallels between language and other concepts. First, language appears to be the result of a deductive process. We begin with a general concept or idea about something. We then find and use words that we hope describe this idea, just as I am doing here.

When attempting to communicate, I reduce my ideas to a sequence of words that attempt to convey these ideas as well as my abilities permit. Yet these words come from a larger pool of words, a dictionary of sorts. We use words to describe other words, involved in a rather circular process so long as we use words. When we just think, feel, and then experience, we can leave words behind and simply experience. But to describe what we experience, we resort to words, actually reducing the experience by categorizing through words. Essentially, words can become a vehicle transporting us to a place of unmediated experience, which can allow more creative, resourceful living.

At the same time that all words stem from a common, all-inclusive word pool, words also resemble numbers in some ways. Years ago, I used to think of the number zero as actually being the circle, O. Later I came to realize that the circle is not zero; the line is a circle. The zero is the content of the circle, the nothing. (Bear with me, as there is a method to this apparent madness.) All numbers, then, are essentially units away from this zero, this nothing. A positive 12 is 12 units away from zero. A negative 424 is this many units away from zero in the other direction. Just as words use other words to describe them, numbers use a common reference, zero. Words and numbers both come from a common pool.

Words use other words to describe a concept. We use a part of the whole of all words to describe another part of the whole of all words. We may also then use a part, words, to describe a larger concept, a metaphor, for example. We may also use words to refer to the entirety of all concepts, the one or the whole, in some philosophical sense. This highest level of awareness perhaps consists of all resources in their yet to be activated or utilized forms. These concepts or resources reside in the whole and resemble the entire raw number system that can be utilized as we most resourcefully desire. Let us not get bogged down in this philosophical discussion.

My point is that numbers and language have a common structure. Each derives from a common source, and this common source is both nothing and everything at the same time: It contains all possibilities and resources. By utilizing hypnotic language, a person can access this unstructured whole, which then permits creation of a more beneficial structure for living. Generally, hypnotic language represents just one of many vehicles through which one can increase awareness and reap the benefits this brings to life.

This introduction to words, numbers, and the concept of a sliding scale, from singular awareness to awareness of a whole, now leads us to what I refer to as the continuum of awareness. The process of change that can occur through hypnotic language will then be demonstrated within this awareness continuum. As previously stated, how we categorize data will serve as this book’s larger framework or template through which to view an individual’s thinking process and to assess their potential well-being. I suggest that these ways of categorizing data comprise general levels of perception and that the level of perception from which we experience life actually determines our experience of life.

The ideas presented here about perception are reminiscent of Victor Frankl’s (1973) existentially based Logotherapy. It is my belief that what we experience in life results from our perceptual position along an ever-increasing awareness scale. Experience inside our self stems from what we are able to perceive, either within or outside the self. This perception then determines the proportion of the whole of which we are aware and largely dictates response options. We often make the mistake of believing the level of perception from which we live is the only one in existence. This leads to emotional, behavioral, and physical problems.

I also suggest that problems stem from and are a byproduct of our level of perception, not the result of an event that “happens” to us. We may say that we experience emotional hurt as the result of some event. I will offer a process definition of emotional hurt. I propose that emotional hurt is a process whereby one withholds from oneself a beneficial resource-state in response to an event. This state could be joy, assertiveness, determination, or some state that permits effective, satisfying living. It is the withholding of the resource that brings the sense of hurt rather than the actual event. For example, we experience emotional hurt in response to withholding of joy from the self. This accidental self-denial of a resource stems from the belief formed at a particular perceptual position (Burton, 2003). Therefore, emotional hurt results from one’s perceptual position, occurring solely within the individual. Ultimately therapy—whether hypnotherapy or any effective therapy—aims to elevate the perceptual position of the client and allow recategorizing of information from a hurtful category to a benign or resourceful category.

Since categorizing information involves comparing at least two pieces of information, the size of the comparison chunk—quality—and the number of chunks—quantity—play a significant role in determining how we categorize data. The quality of a comparison determines its significance, whether it is minor or major and just how many instances of this experience exist in this category. The more emotionally charged the category and/or the more examples of the category, the more power it exerts in categorizing new information. The quantity of information chunks determines how many different pieces of information we use when comparing new to existing information. When we just look at similarities, we limit the effectiveness of our categorizing. In looking at differences and parts of the whole, we find their independent uniqueness and perhaps more effective uses in new experiences.

This categorizing process largely determines our emotional states and the noticed response options. I emphasize “noticed response options”. All response options exist simultaneously; we just notice the ones corresponding to our level of awareness. You can equate level of awareness with the term perception, since our level of awareness determines what and how we perceive. In cognitive psychology, the premise is that our thoughts determine our emotions. I would modify this by stating that our perceptual position determines our thoughts. Therefore, our perceptual position determines our emotions.

Here is a simple example of perceptual position or perceptual level and its influence on our thoughts and emotions. If we see the color red and then just compare it to blue, we may say that red is not blue and blue is not red. But we leave out the roughly seven million colors that our eyes can perceive. If I want to paint my living room, I may only notice two options, blue and red. Maybe I’m frustrated because I feel restricted. Maybe later I notice the color yellow and expand my options, but remain unaware of the wide range resulting from these primary colors. When I finally become aware of the full spectrum of colors, and thus of potential choice, maybe I will likely feel a sense of freedom and excitement about this and the spectrum of choices I now recognize.

Any given perceptual level generally determines what we notice, available response options, and then, to some extent, the general range of consequences on our lives. I suggest that the therapeutic premise within counseling is that, by increasing awareness, we may then utilize a larger category of data when examining a specific element in life. Acknowledging this larger—hopefully largest—category of data as a comparison base naturally leads us to more available meanings, response options, and more beneficial life consequences.

Using the largest comparison base—all the colors of the spectrum, for example, to assess a specific element in life, living room color—may not seem especially significant. Still, this comparison of a single to the all-encompassing whole changes everything in its wake. It results in a potentially immediate shift in the meaning-making process, beliefs, and chosen states of emotion. In simple terms, you could call this expanding awareness gaining a better perspective.

I refer to the range of category size as the continuum of awareness. The continuum of awareness ranges from an all-or-nothing category to the infinite, all-inclusive whole. To represent the categories of the continuum, I borrowed the statistical categories of nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio data. The essence of this continuum is that the larger the comparison group we use when assessing a single item of information, the greater our awareness, the more numerous our response options, and the greater our effectiveness in decision making.

Before going further, I’ll cite a simple example using these four categories of data. We’ll use a discussion between a teenager and his parents negotiating how late he can stay out with his friends. This boy, James, wants to stay out until midnight on Friday. His mother says no, he can stay out only until 10 o’clock. James says that his friend Richard gets to stay out until 1 a.m. This allows only one other comparison. His mother says that Richard may stay out until 1 a.m., but some children stay out until 9 p.m., while others stay out all night, and still others are not allowed to go out with their friends at all on Friday nights. This expanded awareness modifies the mentality-emotionality of James, leading to resolution.

We started with either/or, midnight, or 10 p.m., and then considered more and more possibilities until a whole range of possibilities came into awareness. This process of expanding awareness from either/or to the whole range of possibilities represents the process, influence, and benefits of using the continuum of awareness. Each successively larger category of awareness modifies our thinking, feeling, and decision making for the better.

The Four Categories of Awareness

1. Nominal information exists here in terms of all or nothing, the presence or absence of a trait—pregnant or not, for example. Nominal data equate to nominalizing information. This is a labeling process. Look for what and how a person labels self, others, events, or life. What group do they use for comparison purposes? Symptoms experienced as a result of relying on nominal data include anxiety and depression, as well as anger and hopelessness. A host of physical problems, including high blood pressure, headaches, and irritable bowel syndrome, may also result from living life from the level of nominal data level of awareness only. You may think this notion of physical symptoms resulting from how we categorize data a bit of a stretch. But how we categorize data largely determines our view of the world, then the choices we think we can make, and thus influences our physical state. Think about someone who you know who experiences physical symptoms such as headaches, high blood pressure, or irritable bowel syndrome. Notice this individual’s thinking style and how they categorize data. The mentality resulting from all-or-nothing thinking, reliance on nominal data, constricts a person mentally and physically, I believe. The physical conditions identified above may stem from some sort of physical constricting process, mirroring mental constriction. It often appears true that people who utilize nominal data find themselves in an ego-defensive position as they take events personally, egocentricity running their life’s show. As an example of nominal data in daily living, consider a woman who is interviewing for a job as an entry-level marketer for a large company. She is offered the job and can either accept it or turn it down. There are no other options at the moment within this frame. We will follow this woman and her roles within this company as an ongoing example of categories of data.

2. Ordinal information. Such data receive a simple rank order without reference to the distance between items. There is no zero in this category of data. A frame is set by ordinal data and information must come from within this frame. Ordinal data are displayed when ranking the order of participants in a race. This one is better than that one, but no reference is made to how much better; it is quantity without quality. Ranking the finishing order of the horses in a race is yet another example of ordinal data. There is a first and second place, along with third; the remaining participants are ranked as to their order of finish—hence ordinal data. Receiving letter grades for school courses also represents original data. If you come up with two response options to a situation, each supposedly within the framework of a particular desired outcome, you have framed the situation with ordinal data. In psychotherapy, double binds exemplify ordinal data. Speaking to a child about getting himself cleaned up, you ask, “Would you rather take a bath or a shower?” Now I’ll provide an example of ordinal data in action, using the woman who accepted the job as entry-level marketer. Let’s first point out that ordinal data are quite restrictive. The ideas or options for a given situation must reside within the ordinal frame category. Our example: This woman now works at a large company as a marketer. She started at the entry level and moved up to junior level marketer, then to a senior marketing position. She is now being offered the position of Director of Marketing. The framework of this ordinal data is the category of marketing positions within the company. She can keep her current job role or accept a potentially better job as marketing director. But each job is within the frame and no zero—a job outside the marketing department—exists as an option. We’ll follow-up on this example in the next category of data to see how interval data expand possibilities. Ordinal data leave many blanks between each item in a given list and ranking. In some ways, ordinal data simply organize nominal data, leaving out fluidity and flexibility. Ordinal data restrict the range of response options to just a single category. This single category of data can also play out in self-limiting ways. If we have already decided that we will fail at an opportunity, all resources become subjected to the overall category called “ways to fail”. In other words, ordinal data may represent a belief about self, life, or others; we then select the option that self-fulfills this prophecy. In some ways you might think of ordinal data as representing small picture thinking. The category is selected first and then the application is made rather than assessing the big picture and then choosing the appropriate category. With ordinal data we decide the category and how we will measure the elements within it and then work within these parameters. This concept sounds restrictive, doesn’t it? It can be if it does not first result from examining the whole or the big picture. In other words, if you begin a project by deciding you must incorporate some particular element, then you are using nominal data; the tail is wagging the dog. If you decide that you know of some variation of this particular element that is better than the initial one, yet still an example of the item, that is ordinal thinking. Change comes to ordinal data and ordinal thinking by shifting and generalizing one’s focus. If you first decide what outcome you want, then any and all similar functioning elements become known and available for use. For example, I want to hang a painting on my wall. I have the picture hanger with the nail ready to go. But I do not have a tool to drive the nail into the wall. If I believe I must use a hammer, then I restrict myself to ordinal data. I believe I must find a hammer of some sort to use. But thinking outside the ordinal box I can then find any item that is solid and heavy enough to serve the purpose of driving the nail into the wall. If I get even further outside the ordinal box, I find that any solid object with a flat surface bigger than the nail head can be used to simply push the nail through the sheetrock. I have used many items over the years, including the flat edge of a car key, to push nails into sheetrock. By focusing on the general function desired, numerous items become available that effectively perform the function.

3. Interval information. In this category, the trait is present in each item, is ranked, and the distance or degree of the trait between each item is noted—hence interval data. A zero exists here but has no meaning beyond the absence of the trait. Weight and time are examples of interval data. You can possess more time but there is only so much time you can have. Weightless is the least we can weigh. Test scores, 0–100, and humidity, 0–100, are also examples of interval data. Language using interval data does not manifest itself in the true form of a double bind. It may resemble what could be called a triple bind, with the zero, an absence of trait-behavior, taking the form of an undesirable outcome. Speaking to the child about cleaning himself up, you say: “Would you rather take a bath of shower, or just stay dirty, and have the other kids wonder why you smell funny?” Let’s return to the example of the woman working as a marketer. With ordinal data she was faced with choosing a job within the marketing department. Now, with interval data, jobs outside the marketing department come into awareness as a zero—no marketing role exists. Maybe these jobs outside the marketing department exist in this same company, perhaps within the human resource department, the advertising department, or some other section of the company. She can rank order the marketing jobs, senior versus director, and then include other job opportunities outside of marketing. Yes, the larger frame of jobs within the company still rules but the options expand to jobs outside the marketing department. In displays of self-limiting interval data, you may still hold the belief that you will fail at some task but now, with interval data, there exist an increased number of ways of failing, such as doing nothing at all toward a task, rather than actively behaving in ways that bring about failure. It is also interesting to note that temperature is not on the interval data scale. While absolute zero exists, –459° Fahrenheit (–273° Celsius), the other extreme, heat, is not really known, perhaps not even measurable. With temperature there is a range and zero has meaning; it is not the absence of the quality measured, which is temperature in this case. By now you may be asking yourself, why are we being given this information? I present this information about temperature and other ways of measuring to begin expanding awareness not only of this category’s limits but also to begin pondering what resides beyond these limits, thus leading to open-ended ratio data.

4. Ratio information. Here we confront the most complex data. Here an identified trait is present and ranked, with a relationship between items noted. This category adds the dimension of a true zero that has meaning. Examples include the number system, plus and minus infinity. The place of pure potentiality, the totality of everything in the universe makes up this category of data. Let’s look at the woman in the marketing position within the large company from a ratio data perspective. She first took the job offer rather than turn it down as an example of nominal data. She was then offered a job promotion from a senior marketing position to that of Director of Marketing, as an example of ordinal data. She subsequently realized other employment possibilities existed within the company, such as human resources or advertising, representing interval data. Now, thinking more deeply, she becomes aware that her true desire is to own and run a bakery and catering business. She has stepped out of interval data and into ratio data by considering data possibilities outside the narrow confines of the first three data frames. She opens herself up to broader, more free-ranging alternatives that permit more satisfying choices and solutions by entering the ratio level of awareness. There are several significant influences arising from these four categories of data and how we use them. These ever-expanding categories, from nominal through ratio data, form a sort of funnel shape, representing our degree of awareness (see Figure 1:1). At the lower end of the funnel, the narrowest portion, we find our most narrow awareness, nominal data, followed by ordinal, interval, and ratio, in ascending order.

Figure1:1The Continuum of Awareness

As stated earlier, it seems that the general purpose of counseling or psychotherapy is to help move a person’s awareness from a narrower to a broader perspective. The purpose of such movement is to help the client become aware of different perceptions, beliefs, resource states, and options. With such awareness they will be enabled to make constructive and effective choices to achieve personal goals. The general goal for making use of this continuum is learning how to live at the top and just visit the bottom while taking action. The lowest level exists just as the point of implementation of personal action plans. Many people live at the lower level and only occasionally visit the upper level. Ideally, we reverse this, living at the upper level and only visiting the lower. The lower level is fraught with confusing illusions due to constricted perception. When we visit the lower level, we need to carry with us a clear blueprint of overall awareness, so that we do not come to believe in and be entrapped at the lower level.

Going Up?

Our response to circumstances stems from the perceptual level on which we operate. The lower levels are noisier, asking for more attention to countless distracting details. As a result, we often feel drawn down to them and act from there, but this is restrictive and often not effective. It often seems our first response to distress is to dive to a lower level of perception, believing there we get a closer look and maybe construct a better defense. Unfortunately, this lower level increases our distress and decreases our effectiveness in responding. The more effective response will likely mean rising above the level of the distress, finding a broader awareness, and a more effective, less distressed response. The moral here is to do the opposite of what is first noticed: go up the perceptual ladder, not down, leaving the emotionally noisy lower basement and ascending to the tower and observe more and better, choosing a more effective response and utilizing foresight, patience, and flexibility.

I’ll use a brief example of hypnotic language to illustrate the levels of data and how they manifest in words. This example displays the dynamics of each level and is intended to give you a feel for the influence of gradually expanding your awareness. I used this relaxation language pattern with a client who described his thoughts as racing. I asked him which one (of his thoughts) was winning, to inject some humor and loosen his state of anxiety. I then went on to use the car and driving theme as an entry into the language pattern below. I indicate where the particular continuum-data categories begin by using parentheses.

(Nominal level) Have you ever been riding in a car—who knows where you were exactly, but you were a passenger in the car, maybe in the front seat—and you were just looking out the window down at the roadside, watching the edge of the road as you passed along? You noticed how incredibly fast the road passed beneath you, how landmark after landmark flew by. It seemed extremely fast. (Ordinal level) Then maybe you decided to look just a bit further off the road, maybe to a front yard as you passed by. And then the next front yard as you passed, noticing that the yards passed by more slowly, it took longer for them to go by or really for you to go by them. (Interval level) And then maybe you decided to look even further off the roadside and notice the houses, or beyond these, behind the houses. And you noticed how much more slowly these passed, or you actually passed them. This seems much slower and (Ratio level) then you decided to look even further off in the distance, perhaps to the uttermost edge of the horizon or maybe up at a cloud in the sky, way off in the distance. You know how clouds can sometimes appear in the shape of something else familiar, like a dog or a boat or something else? And you can stare at a cloud way off in the distance, not really knowing quite what shape it is taking but also noticing that it seems to be completely still, not moving at all, and how paradoxical this stillness feels. You know you are moving and yet at the same time completely still, completely still as you fix your eyes upon this cloud that remains in constant view, knowing that there are other clouds in other places that are in constant view as well, appearing completely still. And now a soft, still, calm feeling steals down inside and you find you may absorb this feeling, just like a soft absorbent cloud within you that soaks up the feeling, saturating your very being with this comforting, floating, calm, deeply relaxing sensation. As you let go, you realize this is everywhere.

To provide a simple example to illustrate the categories of data in our thinking processes, consider a person who wants to travel from her home to a different city. With nominal data, she would likely form the conviction that she must use a particular road from home to this other city. Now her options are restricted. If the road is blocked she is stuck, with no alternatives.

But when this same woman decides she just wants to reach this other city, she then becomes aware of alternative routes to the same end. By starting with a general goal, more choices become available. Now she can choose from a variety of paths to reach this city. More than that: if she just wants to reach her destination by driving or otherwise, she can now consider alternative modes of transportation. Notice the multi-layered options that come into awareness, paths as well as means to the same goal. Use of higher awareness naturally leads to mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility. This flexibility is one hallmark of personal well-being. In simpler terms, you could say that starting with the big picture about a situation allows greater insight and awareness of solutions. This perspective also represents a difference between micro- and macro-management.

Now let’s examine the structure of a sentence in more detail. By evaluating each word in a sentence, you can identify what level of awareness the speaker is drawing from. Consider the following. A client states, “I’m always late for everything.” What categories is this person utilizing in making this statement? First, we need to identify the players in this statement. Not that we’re going to engage in a grammar lesson, but we do need to be aware of the crucial, meaningful parts of this statement.

Certain parts of any sentence actively display the way someone categorizes data. If you think about the subject, object, verb, adjectives, and nouns within any given sentence, you find that each represents a particular category of awareness. Yes, just about every word in a sentence represents some level of awareness. This seems true because all words ultimately stem from the pool of all words, but at each successively higher level of awareness the pool of available words expands. The result is that the words chosen to construct a sentence reveal the level of awareness, and thus the possibilities within the perceptual framework expressed in the sentence.

In the statement about being late for everything, the parts representing awareness categories include “I”, “always”, “late”, and “everything”. This actually then provides four opportunities for intervention. Let’s look at each of these elements, one at a time, taking it through the full continuum of awareness.

By using the personal pronoun “I”, a singular person is selected from the whole population and also from the huge number of various categories contained within the population. To which aspect of his I, or self, is he referring? What aspects-qualities of his I is he leaving out? The word “always” functions as a behavioral measurement, since always implies various ways of showing up late in the all-nothing category of always late. The only alternative to the nominal “always late” would be represented as never late. The word “late” is a category on a time continuum. Utilizing the time continuum to consider other possible scenarios can loosen perception. The use of the word “everything” is another all-nothing category regarding the events in his life. Surely exceptions exist to this everything belief.

We could create a sort of “awareness expander” with words. Before you expressed anything like the following, though, you would need to be sure to have established rapport and a trusting relationship with your client so that he would know how to receive and interpret your words. Also, offer this particular pattern in a tongue-in-cheek style or one of wry wit.

Addressing the belief that one is always late for everything might sound like this:

So you think that you are always late for everything? Well, just what is late? I mean, is it 5 seconds, 5 minutes, 14 minutes, or 38 minutes? Is on time only the precise fleeting second when you said you’d be there? But then you might end up generously saying that anything that is the exact fleeting second of the designated arrival time andanythingearlier is considered on time. However, what about those folks that have this need to be early, I mean really early, like 20 to 30 minutes early? Then there are those folks that camp out somewhere, perhaps two to three days in advance, to get tickets for some big event. And are you the only one who is ever late? Aren’t there degrees of lateness and varying numbers of people who are late? Do you know some people who may be late sometimes and other people who are even later than you are? Are these people late for being late? Further, I bet you’re always on time to go to the bathroom, at least since you learned how. [The last sentence is optional; to be used only if you know enough about the person to be sure it won’t offend. The purpose is to connect this individual to at least one process in which he recognizes andcomplies with a good sense of timing.]

Once we strip away the presented concern, we may actually get down to the real issue this person wants to resolve that manifests itself in tardiness. Notice how we simply apply a stretch to awareness, expanding the category to include more possibilities.

The following offers a practical example of these categories of data or the continuum of awareness. It is drawn from the case of a client I worked with in the past. A woman, we’ll call her Susan, came in for counseling because she was struggling with a limiting conviction that “everybody tells me it (her life) will never work.” Each word in this sentence, with the possible exception of “will”, represents some category of data and thus a perceptual level and resultant style of thinking. Yet even the word “will” represents a nominal point of view. “Will” suggests certainty rather than possibility. If we substitute the word might or could, we open up more uncertainty about the believed outcome—and thus at least an ordinal, if not an interval perspective, as other possibilities are considered.

We explored various aspects of this woman’s beliefs, style of living, and general history. In collecting details, she cited five people who had consistently put her down, including her mother who is now deceased, rendering maternal pronouncements part of the dead hand of the past. Once Susan described the sources of her distress and began experiencing the sadness associated with this limiting belief, I analyzed her language pattern to help her shift awareness.

To address this limiting belief, I said:

This everybody collection that so consistently tells you every time that it will never work—your life, not theirs—may lead you to think you’re no good. But what if these words are not sound? Just who is this everybody anyway, five people? How many of the Chinese are in on this opinion? What about the Russians and people living in the Middle East, not to mention your next door neighbor or the other people living in your town, your county, your state, and your country? So this group of five [at this point I hold up five fingers on one hand] that you think speaks for everyone actually leaves out a billion or so people. These five represent a billion or more? Everybody [emphasizing the five fingers]…always…tells me it will never work out!

At this point Susan begins laughing out loud and I repeat the final statement again, very slowly and deliberately. After I finish, she responds, “Now I can’t think about that [her belief] without laughing.” Susan went on to identify a more realistic and resourceful belief that allowed her to embrace the parts of her life that she felt were satisfying and to build on these for future satisfaction.

Below I identify several questions to consider when working with clients. These questions can help you identify the level of awareness represented by the client’s words and lead to identifying opportunities for expanding the client’s awareness.

Theme: Identifying how someone categorizes the information or data presented.

Questions to ask:

1. What are the personal pronoun and data chunk size variables within the person’s statement?

2. What category of data does the current statement exemplify?

3. What labels are used and to whom or what are they applied?

4. What would be a statement fitting into the next lower category of data? For example, if an individual displays ordinal data, what would a nominal data statement about the same information sound like?

5. If the person makes a ordinal statement, how would an interval statement sound?

6. What would a statement about the same information sound like using the ratio category of data?

7. What new perceptions come into view using larger categories of data?

8. What potential solutions can now be recognized?

9. What effect could such new statements and awareness have on the underlying limiting beliefs of a client and what might a new belief sound like?

Additional question: Is perfectionism the superimposition of nominal data on an otherwise naturally existing range of achievement levels? Perfectionism presupposes an end point exists for any given category and that this end point can be reached. It seems that perfectionism attempts to impose nominal data upon ratio data. They just won’t fit. But a perfectionist presupposes they do or will fit, thus driving himself into a frenzy trying to make this happen. Presuppositions can restrict us or free us to varying degrees, depending on the size of the frame presented within the presupposition.

Chapter 2

Gestalt Categories of Framing

This next section presents the second tier that makes up our information-processing system. The second tier consists of how we go about organizing the information within our awareness into a meaningful whole. We tend to treat stimuli that come into our awareness as separate from the larger, all-inclusive whole of existing