Nick Kemp Blog

The 36 provocative icons allow the therapist to adopt different perceptual positions when working with clients. The key to this approach is to work only “in the here and now” and to make suggestions and observations to the client by “running them up the flagpole and seeing if they salute them.” This produces a wonderfully improvised way of working that is in many ways the total opposite of standard talking therapy, hypnosis and NLP style approaches. The therapist can literally move in any direction at any speed to provoke new and more useful ways of thinking and feeling, from a new and greater perspective, without offering solutions, so that  the response appropriate for the client is literally” called forth” from them .

 Shifting from Disassociated and Associated Positions

Here are some of the phrases that can be used in moving a client’s way of thinking from an associated to disassociated perspective and vice versa

 Disassociated Phrases

• Some people say…
• I heard that…
• Studies have shown…

 Associated Phrases

• Do you consider yourself to be…
• Are you A, B or C?
• How long have you...?

 By using the Provocative Icon System™ in conjunction with these shifts, the client is moved from “a stuck state” when they are often extremely associated, into a new more useful state. Often the conversations that take place can appear to be quite surreal from an external viewpoint, but make perfect sense for the therapist and client.

Also take a look at articles on www.afpt.co.uk