When I first saw Frank Farrelly working I was mystified and fascinated by what I saw and it took me a great deal of time to grasp the sophistication and elegance of his work. When working with a provocative approach, the practitioner’s role is to provoke or stimulate new ways of thinking and feeling for the client. This is done in a conversation manner ‘as if talking to an old friend” with the same kind of affection that would be reserved for such interactions. In recent times some have sought to use the term “provocative” as “aggressive” but this is a far cry from the spirit of both PT and PCW. Here the practitioner needs to have a great deal of flexibility and to be able to respond in a multitude of different ways often in an improvised manner. This is a very different way of working and the results can be astounding. These interactions don’t occur in the logical, digital and sequential manner many therapists adopt and NLPers often find they can’t fit this approach into their pre existing therapeutic frameworks. I have some sympathy for such folks as I tried to do just this in early years! Dr Graham Dawes best described this style of approach as “sophisticated simplicity” and wrote a wonderful article “The Bermuda Triangle of the Mind” See http://www.provocativetherapy.info/articles/2009/10/a-bermuda-triangle-of-the-mind.htm

Many clients I see in private practice have had longstanding problems that have not been usefully addressed using analytical approaches. As my good friend and Andrew T Austin commented all too often “client progress” is measured only by how the client “feels”. This is in my view not the best yardstick for judging effective and integrated change.  In many NLP courses I attended in days gone by, the mantra of “feel good for no reason” was regularly chanted and although there’s many good reasons to improve a person’s emotional well being, this alone is a very limited way to gauge useful progress. Changing a person’s emotional state doesn’t always result in a useful integrated behavioural change that improves their quality of life. Some talk therapy and NLP approaches can seek to interact with client in what I would call “a disassociated manner” sometimes with the idea of not influencing the client at all, yet still expecting useful change to occur. This may seem a contradiction (which of course it is) and its fair to say that in all forms of communication influence takes place as the very nature of communication requires interaction between two parties. My personal view is that Frank Farrelly was decades ahead of his time and a major influence on the creators of NLP. Back in 1960s and 1970s Frank was very controversial and even today many find his work extremely challenging.

One of the many reasons I like using a provocative approach is that it’s an honest, open, down to earth, jargon free way of interacting. Yes this can result in the client experiencing all manner of emotional shifts, but in my experience not engaging the client in honest and open discussion can be far more destructive. Many clients I see in private practice have previously spent years in therapy and spent hours talking about the issue without any actual useful change. In PCW and PT the practitioner doesn’t adopt the stereotypical therapist role where the therapist often takes on a superior professional role but instead talks to the client on an equal basis. Some more intellectual therapists shudder at such an idea, (which is entirely their right) but my experience this provocative style of working is that is a wonderfully eloquent and accelerated way of genuinely help others. Of course learning these skills requires more than a weekend course or a week long workshop! In 2012 I will be running a number of practice groups for those who have studied with me to date as well as offering courses in the UK, USA, Europe and Asia. Although requests for international events is at an all time high, my intention is to always maintain seeing private clients as this is where I really learn about how to best use this approach. Seeing private clients also keeps a trainer grounded and focused on what works in real life which can be very different to the theory of what is sometimes taught in workshops. 

I feel very privileged to be one of the few people who has both studied with Frank and crucially had hundreds of hours with him on a one to one basis. These insights have been invaluable in creating the first stage of the PCW process and the Provocative Icon System in particular has made it far easier to teach others how to adopt the numerous provocative stances essential in PT and PCW. In January 2012

see http://davidkey.com/newsite/provocative_change_works/