Frank Farrelly created Provocative Therapy in 1963, a decade before the emergence of NLP n both co creators mentioned him as an infuence.

Provocative Therapy is still relatively new to most talk therapists and many NLP practitioners and trainers are unaware that “provocative” does not mean “aggressive” when interacting with clients. Provocative comes from the Latin “pro vocare” which means “to call forth” or stimulate change in client behaviour. This approach requires a great deal of skill, training and awareness on behalf of the therapist. There are no certifications in Provocative Therapy and training requires real application and skill. Throwing items at a client or aggravating a client to the extent that they want to punch the therapist is a very far cry from the sophistication of Farrelly’s work that has been admired by many other therapists and thinkers including Spurgeon English and Carl Whittaker. Anyone claiming “to be inspired” by Farrelly’s work and behaving in this manner’ in my view totally misses the true heart of the provocative approach which is a real shame for both themselves and their clients. Frank also has very little time for such types who choose to bluntly respond in this attention seeking manner rather than communicating “with a twinkle in the eye and as if talking to an old and valued friend” which of course is quite different to one NLPers commenting in delighting to "piss the client off" I have mostly given up in engaging with such bonehead nonsense as in most instances such individuals don't see real clients and instead spend hours posting on online nlp forums!

Since 2004 I have been fortunate enough to have spent hundreds of hours in person with him as well as co presenting his work in the UK and creating the official archive for his work. I have the original hand written transcript for his original book of the same name and I remain amazed at how he has refined and developed his work over many decades. I have made sure that there is also for the first time DVD footage of Frank working in recent times. This material has been released for serious therapists interested in provocative style work and these DVDs show what cannot be grasped purely from written text.

At the point of writing I have just completed four workshops and a television appearance in India with Andrew T Austin. One of the main subjects discussed during our visit to psychotherapy clinics for these presentations was this issue of proper professional duty of care towards clients and the unfortunate emergence of what I call “Frankenstein type approaches” in recent times. Dr Frankenstein of course created a monster from a combination of different human parts with disastrous results.

These Frankenstein approaches are created when a therapist takes a few established well known therapeutic approaches and provides his “instant mix solution” which is now proclaimed as groundbreaking new work. The Frankenstein approach is not the same as those therapists who seek to create new models for therapy rather than a loose collection of ideas like so many poorly written self published e books that are available online these days. The many pitfalls of such thinking are obvious to those who read such material.

With such I set up The Association for Provocative Therapy (AFPT) a number of years ago with Frank Farrelly’s endorsement to ensure that Provocative Therapy continues to be represented in an ethical and professional manner where the therapist behaves responsibility with clients. Only a fool would mistake aggression as a tool for producing useful therapeutic change.  Frank Farrelly is eighty years old this year and still teaching across the globe. Both I and many professional therapists are keen that his work is not confused with Frankenstein camp followers.  It’s crucial to us that genuine warmth and spirit of professional Provocative work preserved for those who value true study and professional standards in therapeutic change.

Copyright Nick Kemp Feb 2011

www.nickkemp.com