The Mirror Model - by Philip Harland

"The Mirror Model" by Philip Harland http://www.cleanlanguage.co.uk/Mirrormodel.
html
1 of 13 5/26/2006 4:02 PM
First published in Rapport magazine, Issue 42, Winter 1998
THE 'MIRROR MODEL'
A Guide to Reflective Questioning
by
Philip Harland
"Only reason can convince us of those three fundamental truths
without a recognition of which there can be no effective liberty:
that which we believe is not necessarily true; that which we like is
not necessarily good; and that all questions are open." Clive Bell,
'Civilization'
Introduction
'CONVERSATIONAL CHANGE' is a seminar subject dear to the heart of many who wish to affect or direct others. What do we mean
by 'conversational'? What kind of 'change'? Is it possible for anyone to use the same kind of transformational language as a therapist or
counsellor and get away with it? Which of these questions are open and which are not? (ref. 1)
Most NLP trainings teach the 'Meta-model' of language as a tool for the direct elicitation of specific, high quality information, and the
unspecific 'Milton-model' to communicate indirectly with a person's unconscious resources. These are sophisticated language patterns
for use in structured, largely therapeutic, settings.
Some trainings also teach a conversational reframing model called 'Sleight-of-Mouth'. Robert Dilts developed his dialectical patterns of
guided conversation in 1987 by applying Bandler and Grinder's Meta-model to the dialogues of Plato and Socrates. Many students find
Sleight-of-Mouth hugely complex. They promise themselves they'll get round to it again after their training, and never quite do.
Meanwhile the world is changing. The ancient Greeks may have expected their moral philosophers to have the right answers, but
modern teachers are increasingly required to come up with the right questions. I believe the time has come to up-date our dialectical
approach to conversational change and to work from a less directive, more reflective, model.
'Reflective questioning' is a use of language that respects one of our fundamental freedoms - the right to make our own mistakes. It
neither interprets nor seeks to replace a person's meaning or belief, but rather aims to highlight it. David Grove's 'clean language', as
used in metaphor therapy, is an excellent example (ref. 2). But what we might call the 'Metaphor-model' of language, with its nine
basic questions delivered in a particular rhythm and with a certain syntax, is a highly structured therapeutic technique. Conversational
it isn't.
My aim here is to present a colloquial variant on the metaphor model which organises the principles behind several counselling models
into a simple framework which can be used by anyone anywhere. If NLP is a philosophy of experiential constructivism, the
'Mirror-model' deconstructs experience and reflects it in such a way that it returns ready-reconstructed. Change is inevitable. Read on.
All shall be revealed.
First words
A woman introduces herself at a party. "Hello, I'm Winona." You talk about the weather, you slag off the host ... and you're just about to
take the exchange onto a deeper, more meaningful level when you realize you've forgotten her name. It was only one word. It was only a
few seconds ago. Winifred? Ramona? OK, you weren't listening, you were watching her instead, something about the way she tucked her
hair behind her ears ... but one word? And while you're worrying about that you realize you've missed more information. What did she
say about getting in touch? What exactly? Dammit, it was only a sentence.
Opening statements
In metaphor therapy we pay close attention to the very first thing a client says. Even before they think they've started. After all the client
is demonstrating their pattern to you as they walk through the door - they can't help it. And we pay particularly close attention to their
answer to the first question - typically
What would you like to have happen?
"The Mirror Model" by Philip Harland http://www.cleanlanguage.co.uk/Mirrormodel.html
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Often we write the answer down, verbatim:
I need to change my life.
This first reply will have immense structural significance. Whether it's short, apparently simple and about the way they process, or
whether it's long, rambling and all about what happened at the supermarket. The statement will itself be a metaphor for the client's
underlying pattern. And if it's recorded precisely it will be available as a reference at any time. Half-way through the session you might
want to check the progress of your work against what the client actually said at the start, rather than trying to remember what they said, or
guessing what you believe they may have said. And particularly when you're totally convinced you know what they said. All that stuff
about connections, relationships ... what was it? I need to chain my wife?
Choices
Whatever the context (consulting room, office, bus stop) and whatever the other person's first words ('I can't go on like this', 'The
photocopiers giving me a hard time', 'What lousy weather'), if they seem to have a problem and you want to be helpful, the chances are
that your first interventions will be at a conversational level. Where do you start? You have infinite choice.
Limitations of Sleight-of-Mouth
My approach to teaching conversational change on Organisational Healing's Community NLP trainings had originally been based on the
Sleight-of-Mouth model, Dilts' systematic way of challenging a person's limiting reality in order to facilitate change or to loosen a
neuro-linguistic stuckness. I'd never been entirely comfortable with 'Sleight-of-Mouth'. My own trainers taught the model reluctantly (it
seemed to me), and pleaded for it to be used with a light touch. The name is, of course, a play on 'sleight-of-hand', a phrase I'd always felt
said more about manipulation than manual dexterity. Yet 'sleight-of-hand' derived from the French legerdemain, literally 'light of hand'.
For a while I tried thinking of conversational change as '(S)l(e)ight of Mouth', but this gave only temporary relief.
Dilts' model is based on the Socratic method of leading the listener in a predetermined direction - one determined by the questioner,
whose outcome is to change the listener's perception. The methodology can be very effective for the comprehensive demolition of Cause
and Effect beliefs or Complex Equivalence statements, but I'm not sure if demolition experts are the right people to be designing and
installing new structures.
There was another inhibition. Dilts' 1987 model has 18 categories of challenge with a clever, convoluted diagram of ladders and arrows
and boxes and triangles to show how they all fit together. Not easy to follow. Sid J acobson's 1993 version has an admirable list of 14
'patterns', or "challenges with attitude" as he used to call them, but I could never memorise lists. Hall and Bodenhamer (1997) offer 20
'directionalizations' or 'Mind-Lines', nicely thought out with Out-frames, Re-frames, Pre-frames, Post-frames, De-frames, Counter-frames
and Analagous-frames (are you still with me?). It all seemed rather complex. My students are smart enough, but they're a varied lot -
academics, therapists, hairdressers, rugby players - and what they need is a simple, practical, non-directive guide to conversational change
which they can adapt to everyday use.
Frames
Hall and Bodenhamer's figurative notion of 'framing' appealed to me, so I made the metaphor literal and organised my thinking into 6
visual frames (see below), within which there are various sub-categories. Each of the frames contains a series of Open Questions. If you
want to condense the model further you can forget the sub-categories. But hold on to the colloquial tone of the questioning, which is
simpler than Hall and Bodenhamer's multi-level procedures and kinder (I like to think) than the Socratic method.
Seeking Socrates
Socrates may have tried to influence others for good, but if you've read Plato's account of the old man's methods you'll know that he did it
by leading his pupils up the garden path to the only conclusions possible, his own. Not so much dialogue as dialectic.
Nowadays we say the pupil, not the teacher, knows best. Real change happens at an emotional and deep-structural, not a rational and
intellectual, level - its a uniquely personal, internal experience. If you agree with Charles Faulkner that NLP at its best is an 'experiential
philosophy' (ref. 3), then your role as Neuro-Linguistic Philosopher-facilitator is to keep pace with your pupil-clients as they track their
own experience of already knowing what is good. Good in the sense of useful and valuable uniquely for them.

The aim of open questioning is to reflect, expand and shift a person's internal process
without interpretation or suggestion from the questioner.
Exercise steps
What follows is a sequential exercise for learning the SIX OPEN QUESTION FRAMES - not an end in itself, let me hasten to remind
you, but a way of familiarising yourself with the idea of reflective questioning so that you can adapt the methodology to your own needs.
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The disposition and content of the frames has been influenced by my work in Grovian metaphor, which itself provides a marvellous
model from which to facilitate a client without interpretation or suggestion from the therapist. However the Grovian process has a
deliberately ritualistic structure designed to help client and therapist communicate with the unconscious at a symbolic level, and that's
hardly the stuff of conversation. Indeed metaphor therapy works best when it's not conversational.
Yet 'clean language' adapts exquisitely to any human endeavour, and some of the open questions in the frames come directly from the
Grovian model. Others come from a variety of sources (ref. 4). You may have favourites of your own. If you don't find them here, please
let me know.
I use the word 'client' throughout to represent anyone that you - therapist, manager or colleague - may have cause to support or reflect on
their voyage of re-discovery.
a. Listen carefully to the clients statement of their problem or limiting belief.
b. Repeat it back to them.
Don't paraphrase it. And you kind of feel the need to change some things about your life. Use their exact words. If it's too long, repeat a
part (usually the last part, because that's usually the most significant). This is not to give you time to think, though it does. It is to
acknowledge the client without elaboration. Quite a rare event, for any of us. We're more used to responses like I know just what you
mean, when the speaker has no idea what we mean, and might equally have said You just reminded me of something about myself.
The chances are that both you and the client will find simple repetition a positive experience. Often a client won't realise what they have
said until they hear you say it. You might not realise what they have said until you repeat it. It's not only an affirming thing to do, it's an
essential precursor to working effectively together.
c. Help the client clarify the statement. Write it down:
I need to change my life.
Recording the statement helps in three ways. 1. It's captured for all seasons - no guesses, disputes or post-suppositions later. 2. The words
exist not only in time but in space - a visual aid for your study of their structure. 3. The speaker is more likely to regard the statement
dispassionately, as something 'outside' them - even more so if you allow them to see the statement - therefore challenge is more likely to
be experienced as a co-operative venture.
Before we go any further let's put aside this idea of challenge. A relic from our combative past. I shall henceforth trust you to work
'cleanly' with your client, shunning bias, opinion and suggestion, however nobly intended, your higher purpose being to help unfold what
the client already knows as you both connect to the greater good. Reminding yourself that the client is the expert in their own perceptions.
The only expert.
d. Add inverted commas
"I need to change my life."
There's a poem by Emily Dickinson:
A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to live
That day.
While training in metaphor process I found myself using inverted commas to help a client's words stand out more in my notes. This
simple act made a surprising difference. The words took on a life of their own. My client had not made a random selection of words from
an infinite set of trivial possibilities, but conscious and unconscious choices which had deep structural, symbolic and systemic
significance - of course. I already knew this at some level, but had thought no more about it. Inverted commas became my assistants,
discreetly reminding me of something I had neglected. I began to take opening statements more seriously.
If you happen to have an emotional attachment to the speaker you'll find that concentrating on their exact words, separating these from
their tone of voice and treating the words as a quotation (i.e. this is just what one person said), will help unhook you from unhelpful
emotional responses - feeling blamed, for example, or fearful. Not an ideal place from which to ask, or hear the answers to, open
questions.
e. Deconstruct
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An optional entertainment for those who like the full Monty. The rest can skip along to 'Draw a frame around the statement'.
One of the fundamental tenets of Neuro-Linguistic Programming is that our utterances represent the partial, socially derived, heavily
filtered, generalised, deleted, distorted, symbolic, verbal expression ('surface structure') of a complete sensory representation of our
experience ('deep structure') (ref. 5).
When David Grove taught me to deconstruct a client's often quite complex surface-structure statements (they're not all as succinct as 'I
need to change my life', you may not be surprised to hear), I started playing with three sets of inverted commas - one for my
deconstruction of the Perceiver, another for my perception of the Perceived and another for the bit In-Between (ref. 6).
"I" "need to change" "my life."
Perceiver Perceived
In-Between
Crudely put, the perceiver is normally The One Who Wants or Doesn't Want, the perceived is What They Want or Don't Want, and
in-between is the Way To Get It or What's Stopping Them.
Write out your deconstructions. With practice you can do it mentally, but it's a good discipline for complex statements and a useful check
on over-confidence. Even apparently straight forward statements such as "I need to change my life" are ripe with distinctions.
Deconstructing the 'Perceiver' ("I") is an indicator that "I" can be questioned and developed quite separately from the 'Perceived' ("my
life") and the In-Between ("need to change"). The three elements of this statement are distinct surface-structure codings for different,
complex, deep-structure representations of your client's experience.
You can further deconstruct the In-Between. "Need to change" is a common phrase and in the flow of ordinary conversation or reading
you could be forgiven for assuming it's one idea. But stop the flow for a moment.
Check 'need' within yourself.
What's your experience of your need for a cup of tea, say? Right now. Compare that to your need to 'phone J ustin or Melissa. I'll go
out on a limb here and guess you had two quite different experiences of 'need'. (If you know J ustin and Melissa you may well have
had three.)
Thus your client's "need" in:
"I" "need" "to change" "my life."
may look and sound familiar, but you can bet it has a meaning unique to your client and at this stage you would be foolish to make any
assumptions whatsoever about it.
The same goes for "to change". A couple of almost inseparable syllables. Pull 'em apart:
"I" "need" "to" "change" "my life."
The word "to" can now be seen as evidence of a certain need in your client in their relationship to "change" that is almost certainly
different from the need that would be expressed in a statement such as "I need change in my life".
Why deconstruct the 'Perceiver', by the way? Isn't the Perceiver always 'I'? Well, yes and no. There's no 'I' in the statement "Things have
to change", for example. And yet there is - it's just that it's been deleted by the speaker and you may have to rummage around a bit to
retrieve it. Your client might actually be saying "I can't change things".
When you find the 'I' don't assume it's the only one.
For example, I (surface-structure symbol for a deep-structure representation of my complete experience of a present me writing this)
remember about a year ago (a past me has been deleted here) working with a client of mine (a relational me, situation-specific), when I
(a part of me) discovered that my client could identify at least four 'I's in her metaphor - one behind watching her have the experience,
one seeing through her eyes, one in a cloud hovering overhead and another stuck in a tunnel below. Which of those 'I's (eyes) did she
mean when she said "I see myself..."?
Etcetera. You can go on. Whether you're in conversation or process you'll have to make choices about where to concentrate your
attention. To help you make them, next:
f. Draw a frame around the
statement.

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I began drawing frames when I wanted to locate client statements more easily in my notes. The frame gave me another perspective. There
was additional information there, symbolised by the space surrounding the statement.
David Grove used to draw 3-dimensional boxes around his deconstructions. I give mine a shadow effect. Do whatever helps. I think of a
client's statement as the label on a container. The label is a summary of the contents. The container contains 'inside information'.
And as you and the client are about to embark on conversational 'reframing', you will have the first frame as a literal and figurative
frame-of-reference against which to check subsequent reframes.
Serious deconstructors, of course, will
wish to draw three (or more) frames:
"I"
"need to
change"
"my life"

Perceiver Perceiver
In-Between

For the sake of simplicity here we'll stick to one. Next:
g. Label the frame 'Present'.
To represent the client's present frame
of mind. And only now you have
come this far in your understanding of
the client's process may you intervene.
"I need to change my
life."
1. PRESENT

Interventions
With a sense of the neuro-linguistic structure of human communication, you will appreciate that any verbal intervention at the level of
surface-structure may have powerful echoes throughout the system. It may result in a change to the clients deep-structure representation
of a problem, which in turn may prompt the client to feel better or worse about their situation. At the very least it will enable more
information to rise to the surface.
Shifts
As new information feeds back into the system, the system moves on. It cannot stay the same. J ack Stewart, discussing how we determine
who we are, observes that "Constant updating and effective tracking are prerequisites for the highest levels of our functioning as creative
human beings."(ref. 7)
In relation to metaphor process Tompkins and Lawley say, "Through a heightened awareness of our own patterns new levels of
complexity emerge. In other words, the system starts to self-correct." (ref. 8)
Of purposeful dialogue Faulkner has said, "If you can reflect a clients problem undistorted, the client is relieved of the responsibility of
holding it alone. The problem shifts and the system will spontaneously re-organize." (ref. 9)
There's a common thread of quality here: effective tracking ... heightened awareness ... undistorted reflection. The value to your client of
having their process reflected without distortion, enabling them to track their patterns with heightened awareness, will depend on your
skill and sensitivity. Your leger-de-main, or lightness of touch. If you're clumsy the client's experience may be less valuable.
Questions
There is an infinite number of ways of questioning what someone says. As you explore a particular statement with open questions within
limited frames not every question or frame will seem equally appropriate. The point of the exercise is to familiarize yourself with a
discipline that usefully limits your choices and stays respectful of the client's unique process. Rapport is important. Your voice tone in
particular. Curiosity without disquiet.
First examine the statement from within the Present frame using the categories below. The sample questions apply to "I need to change
my life" and are meant to be illustrative, not definitive.
SPECIFICALLYs
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William Blake said 'To generalize is to be an idiot', but don't quote this to your client unless you've trained in Provocative Therapy.
We all over-generalize.
How specifically do you need to change your life?
What specifically do you need to change?
And more specifically?
WHAT KIND OFs
What kind of change?
What kind of need?
'What kind of..?' is a beautiful question, classically 'clean'. It helps the client return to their deep-structure representations with
minimal interference. You can use the question time and again for any part of the statement, but as this is a conversational model
you risk straining your credibility if you ask too many.

What sort of change?
What do you mean by change?
are alternatives. 'What sort of..?' and 'What do you mean by..?' can be used for any part of the statement. Or

How change?
In what way change?
'How..?' and 'In what way...?' are not generally suited to nouns (nominalisations are a special case), but can help mobilise most
other parts of speech, particularly verbs.
PARTs
Usually only a part of the situation is a problem, though applying 'part' to the Perceiver may be taken as an invitation to construct a
metaphorical part of themselves, which may not be appropriate. Faulkner uses 'aspect' - general enough for many, if not for the
highly visual. 'Element', 'component', 'particular' (used as a noun) may be OK depending on the context.

What part of your life needs to change?
What aspect of you needs to change in order for your life to change the way you want?
What is the smallest change you could make that would improve your life?
SYNONYMs
Prudent use of synonyms may help the client open up present content into immediate Context (frame no. 2). The least reflective
category of the lot, but it's not the same as paraphrasing the client, or loosely substituting a word of your own for one of theirs. (All
too common, even among therapists.) Your tone of voice is crucial - hint only at your ignorance and desire for clarification as you
prompt a search around a selected word in the statement.

You want to change your life...?
You seek to change your life...?
You need to vary your life...?
To alter your life?
Offering a couple of variations with an open-ended inflection or gesture will help the client continue to scan their own data base
for the pertinent word and prompt a concomitant deep-structure search for the experience the word symbolizes. Thus the quest
might extend into frame no. 2.
h. Draw a Context Frame around
the Present Frame.

1. PRESENT

2. CONTEXT
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Representing immediate context. Question the statement using these categories:
HOW DO YOU KNOWs
Could be a Present frame question too. The frames are not meant to be mutually exclusive.

How do you know you need to change your life?
How would you know if you didn't?
The client may see the answer, a voice may tell them, they may have a feeling ... As you track their visual / auditory / kinesthetic
experience of knowing you'll find more avenues opening.
WHAT ELSEs
The system always knows more than it first lets on.
What else is there about changing your life?
Is there anything else?
What's another aspect of this?
CONNECTIONs
There are always connections to other things in the client's life and to the greater scheme of things.
What's related to your need to change your life?
How would you experience changing your life in relation to your family / work / community etc.?
What connections are there between (any / all elements)?
And a gentle prompt which allows the possibility of a connection between elements without presupposing one:
What kind of change (i.e. new or present element) when you've already won the Lottery and had the operation (i.e. other
known elements)?
i. Add a 'Past' Frame.
3. PAST

"I need to change my life"
1. PRESENT

2. CONTEXT

PROMPTs
What could have prompted your need to change your life?
Rather than 'caused'. Some people use the word 'cause' to mean a negative- (or positive-) impact external event for which they have
no responsibility and over which they have no control. A belief in cause-and-effect relationships supposes some kind of
hierarchical logic to the universe, in which orders get passed down the line in a causal chain of command. I prefer the word
'prompt', in the sense of a neutral, even benign, instigation from within the system of which the client is a part, for which the client
has as much responsibility as anyone else, and in which the client's thoughts and behaviour have influence. As in "Whispering
Angels prompt her golden dreams." (Alexander Pope)
JUST BEFOREs
The present problem is almost certainly part of a pattern - a repeated sequence of similar events with a recognisable past and a
predictable future. The moment a client recognizes a pattern they're half-way to changing it.
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What happened just before you needed to change your life?
And what happened just before that?
j. Add a 'Future' Frame.
3. PAST

1. PRESENT

2. CONTEXT

4. FUTURE

EFFECTs
What would be the effect of changing your life?
When you have changed your life then what happens?
And what happens next?
Questions with intrinsic value, and in the context of those in Present and Past frames may help the client recognise a pattern-over-time to
the problem.
k. Add a 'Higher' Frame.
Viewing the problem from a Higher, or
Meta-, frame may reduce or nullify the
importance of the problem or indicate where a
solution may be found. The arrows indicate an
escape from the Present while the question is
considered, then a return to implement the
shift. Remember the further questions - What
Else? Anything Else? We always have an
awareness of more than we can express in a
given moment.

5. HIGHER
| |
3. PAST

| |
1. PRESENT

2. CONTEXT

4. FUTURE

IMPORTANCEs
What is important for you about changing your life?
What is more important for you than that?
(An elision point into Core Transformation if you want to move from conversation into process (ref. 10).)
MEANINGs
What is the meaning of your need to change your life?
What else could it mean?
Note this is the 'significance' sense of 'mean' rather than the definition sense of 'What do you mean by...'? in the Present frame.
PURPOSEs
What would be your purpose in changing your life?
What other purpose could there be?
LEADING QUESTIONs
What needs to happen for you to change your life?
What makes it possible for / enables you to change your life?
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What determines when you change your life?
Majestic questions, not strictly reflective, but you may ask them in all innocence. They might be asked in any frame, but because
of their potential power I locate them here.
l. Finally add a 'Metaphor' Frame.
Be creative. Relate a story or an
analogy that opens up the frame.
Constructing a genuinely therapeutic
metaphor, however, requires great skill
and practice. It must relate to your
client in every particular (ref. 11). If
you need to construct an outcome for
your client (to which the metaphor
leads), the outcome cannot be truly
reflective. Even if the client has
articulated an outcome for themselves
you cannot be certain that your
metaphor will lead them there if the
elements in the metaphor are not
client-generated.
5. HIGHER

3. PAST

1. PRESENT

2. CONTEXT

4. FUTURE

_____
_____
_____

6. METAPHOR

For example, in response to 'I need to change my life' you might come up with "A Mesopotamian philosopher said 'You cannot step twice
into the same river '- our lives by their nature are in constant flux" and think that sounded general enough for anyone to relate to, but if
your client happened to have an unfortunate personal association with rivers, water and stepping the intervention might not be helpful. Or
you can be really creative and help the client find their own metaphor. You can do this in three ways:
(i) Wait for the client to come up with one spontaneously - 'It's like needing to change a car tyre', 'It's an all-consuming need'.
(ii) Ask directly: "What is a metaphor that symbolises the change you need?"
(iii) Elicit a metaphor indirectly: "That's a need to change your life like what?" Then ask: "What kind of (part or whole of
metaphor) is that?" or "Is there anything else about (part or whole of metaphor)?" And if you find that metaphor work turns you
on, get some training in Symbolic Modelling (ref. 12) and have an option of moving into full metaphor process.
The 'Mirror-model' in relation to existing NLP language models
How does 'reflective questioning' fit with what we already know? The prime use of the Meta model is to clarify meaning and gather
high-quality information; that of the Milton model to communicate with a clients unconscious resources; Sleight-of-Mouth to reframe
limiting beliefs; and the Metaphor model to transform at a symbolic level.
The open questions of the 'Mirror' model would place it somewhere between the measured interventions of Sleight-of- Mouth and the
wholly client-generated Metaphor.
The aim of open questioning is to reflect, expand and shift a person's internal process
without interpretation or suggestion from the questioner.
If the Meta-model relates largely to Environmental and Behavioural levels of human experience, the Milton model to Skills and Abilities,
and Sleight-of-Mouth to Beliefs and Values, this model - which is about reflecting others as they know themselves - would overlap with
Metaphor at Identity level and with Sleight-of-Mouth at Beliefs level. These are notional simplifications. (See figure 1, which develops
my diagram in Rapport 41) (ref. 13):

figure 1: A contextual Metaphor for NLP Language Models
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figure 2: In summary: 6 Conversational Reframes.
X =the clients exact words.
1. PRESENT FRAME
SPECIFICALLYs
What X (part of statement) specifically?
What specifically about X? And more specifically?
WHAT KIND OFs
What kind of X (part or whole of statement)?
What do you mean by X?
How / In what way X (verb in statement)?
PARTs
What part/aspect/element of X (is relevant)?
What's the smallest change you could make that would improve the whole
situation?
SYNONYMs
Prompt a search around a selected word

2. CONTEXT FRAME
HOW DO YOU KNOWs
How do you know that X (whole or part of statement) is true?
What is your V-A-K experience of knowing?
How would you know if X were not true?
WHAT ELSEs
What else is there about X? Is there anything else?
What's another aspect of X?
CONNECTIONs
What is related to X?
How do you experience X in relation to family / work / community / etc.?
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What connections are there between (some or all answers)?
What kind of X (new element), when Y and Z (existing elements)?

3. PAST FRAME
PROMPTs
What could have prompted X?
J UST BEFOREs
What happened just before X?
And just before that?

4. FUTURE FRAME
EFFECTs
What would be the effect of X?
When X, then what happens?
And what happens next?

5. HIGHER FRAME
IMPORTANCEs
What is important for you about X?
What is more important for you than that?
PURPOSEs
What would be your purpose in X?
What else?
MEANINGs
What is the meaning of X for you?
What else could 'X' mean?
LEADING QUESTIONs
What needs to happen for X?
What enables / makes possible X?
What determines when you X?

6. METAPHOR FRAME
Relate a story or analogy that opens up the frame.
Alternatively use the clients own metaphor or help them find one:
What metaphor for you symbolises X?
That's an X like what?
Then ask the metaphor:
What kind of (part or whole) is that?
Is there anything else about (part or whole)?

Connections
Imagine the 6 frames in figure 2 interconnected:

5. HIGHER
| |
12 of 13 5/26/2006 4:02 PM
3. PAST

| |
"X X X"
1. PRESENT

2. CONTEXT

4. FUTURE

_____
_____
_____

6. METAPHOR

figure 3: A framework for reflective questioning
Conclusions
Figure 3 represents a framework for conversational change to honour the individual's natural inclination towards individuation. The
frames contain a set of open questions which aim to reflect, expand and shift a person's internal process without interpretation or
suggestion from the questioner.
Reflective questioning has much in common with the clean language of metaphor process. As a conversational procedure it is unlikely to
be directly transformative in the same way that the symbolic Metaphor or the hypnotic Milton models of language are designed to be, but
in J ames Lawley's words, could
"effectively assist someone to completely reorganise their cognitive / conceptual structure, with the ripple effect of influencing
'deeper 'organising metaphors, embodied experience and neuro-chemical processes." (ref. 14)
Help someone be more themselves, in fact. If the journey of the soul has an archetypal route each individual has their own itinerary. You
might reflect on that.
1998 Philip Harland
With acknowledgements to: Robert Dilts (Sleight-of-Mouth and Logical Levels), J o Cooper & Peter Seal (Centre NLP), Sid J acobson
(South Central Institute of NLP), L Michael Hall & Bobby G Bodenhamer (Mind-Lines), David Grove (Clean Language and Metaphor
Process), Penny Tompkins and J ames Lawley (Symbolic Modelling), J ack Stewart (Organisational Healing), Charles Faulkner (Reaching
The Edge of The Map).
Thanks to J ames Lawley for his creative comments on the manuscript.
Refernces:
The first 2 questions are open, the last 2 are not. 1.
Metaphor therapy as originated by David Grove and further developed by Penny Tompkins and J ames Lawley. The therapist works
with client-generated metaphor using a precise model of clean language questioning to help the client (a) define (b) evolve and (c)
transform their problem state.
2.
Charles Faulkner, originator of Perceptual Cybernetics and Living Myths & Metaphors, in conversation (J uly 1998). 3.
Sources for some of the questions include David Grove, Charles Faulkner, David Gordon and Graham Dawes, J ames Lawley. 4.
See Richard Bandler and J ohn Grinder The Structure of Magic Volume 1 (1975). I have added symbolic to their analysis of surface
structure as a further reminder that words represent so much more than themselves. On deep structure, there's some debate about
whether we hold within ourselves a complete representation of our experience. Hall and Bodenhamer reckon that while much of
what we experience is represented in deep structure, not everything is (Which Unconscious Mind? Rapport, 41, Autumn 1998). So
you may wish to interpret 'complete' to mean 'full as encoded'.
5.
David Grove used to teach Observer and Observed. Tompkins and Lawley use Perceiver and Perceived, which I prefer. Perceiver
presupposes the client is involved with, rather than detached from, their metaphor. Which is normally (if not inevitably) the case.
6.
J ack Stewart, Modelling Special Talent, Community NLP seminar, Warrington (October 1998). 7.
Penny Tompkins and J ames Lawley, Symbolic Modelling Rapport, 38 (Winter 1997). 8.
Reaching the Edge of the Map, ANLP Conference seminar, London (J uly 1998). Charles Faulkner discussed some of the limiting
assumptions of NLP and compared them to more open assumptions, in particular the premise that truth is context dependent. There
9.
13 of 13 5/26/2006 4:02 PM
is no answer, only better questions.
Core Transformation Process developed by Connirae Andreas, NLP Comprehensive (1995). Repetition of the key question "What
is more important for you than that?" eventually brings the client to a sense of a core state of their being, which they then learn to
access at will.
10.
For a practical - and poetic - guide to constructing analogies read David Gordon, Therapeutic Metaphors, Meta Publications (1978). 11.
Check with The Developing Company (see below). 12.
Philip Harland, A contextual metaphor for NLP language models, Rapport, 41 (Autumn 1998). 13.
Personal communication (August 1998). 14.
For information on Organisational Healing's Community NLP trainings visit www.organisationalhealing.org
Philip Harland is a psychotherapist, writer and trainer.
Philip has an active private practice and limited time, but tries to respond to all feedback on his articles and to genuine requests for
information, and if unable to help personally will refer you to colleagues or other agencies.
To contact Philip either write to 40 Palace Road London N8 8QP England or fax (UK) 020 8340 2534 or email
philipharland@blueyonder.co.uk
Other articles on this site by Philip Harland:
Supermodel: A contextual metaphor for NLP language models
Persist with Clean Language Parts 1, 2 & 3
Possession and Desire - a three part paper about addictions:
Part 1 - 'Violent Pleasures'
Part 2 - 'Limit of Desires'
Part 3 - 'The Physician's Provider'
Compulsion - a seven session client case study
Resolving Problem Patterns: Part 1 and Part 2
A Moment in Metaphor
Reflections on the Mirror Model: Part 1 and Part 2
How the Brain Feels:
Part 1 - Arousal
Part 2 - Sensation
Part 3 - Construction
Rapport Magazine can be obtained from the Association for NLP (UK)
All information on this web site (unless otherwise stated) is copyright 1997-2001 Penny Tompkins and J ames Lawley of The Developing Company. All
rights reserved. You may reproduce and disseminate any of our copyrighted information for personal use only providing the original source is clearly
identified. If you wish to use the material for any other reason please contact:
Penny Tompkins and James Lawley
@
The Developing Company
Tel/Fax in UK: 0845 3 31 35 31 * International Tel/Fax: +44 845 3 31 35 31
email: info@cleanlanguage.co.uk
Thank you for your interest in this web site: www.cleanlanguage.co.uk
Return to: Site Index
First published on this site 4 J une 1999. Last modified 14.12.01 +

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