Reframing: key tips for successful reframing
You look at the world and events in your life in a certain way. The way you look at it can sometimes be problematic. This can cause all kinds of problems, such as with yourself. You may suffer from low self-esteem because you don't give yourself the pluses you do deserve
You may also experience problems in your social world. Certain interpretations can cause you to become angry due to misunderstanding, and you communicate this. This in turn can cause follow-up problems.
Reframing those issues can cause you to resolve those issues with yourself or even those around you, by being able to communicate lovingly and understandingly again (unless your environment is just really jerky, but then someone helping you will agree).
For parents, reframing can, for example, help them set better boundaries for their children and be less overprotective when they tend to be so. In addition, this can also help reduce parents’ fears—or the impact that their personal history may have on their behavior—and minimize its influence on their parenting[1].
In chronic pain, reframing can even help you cope better with the pain[2]. Hypnosis also helps with chronic pain, and reframing is often a part of overall treatment.
Reframing makes you think, listen and a situation may even feel different. You do this by reframing. You can do this in three ways, namely:
Three ways of reframing
1 Changing the context
Imagine doing something that you find a problem. Then you can say, "In what context would this behavior work very well?"
For example, procrastination—what would be a good thing to put off? Like getting angry at someone or eating a piece of chocolate cake. Or putting off smoking for the rest of your life, so you don’t smoke.
So that question helps you put the behavior in a different context. That way it doesn't become such a problem anymore. Because you look at it differently, it can also solve something that way.
2 Content
Then ask yourself, "What could this also mean?" For example, you may think something means one thing, but it means another.
A couple is having couples therapy and the husband goes on a rant about shopping. "Shop in store out, beautiful dresses, but after 1.5 hours I'm done with it. So that she is beautiful in a dress comes out tired at some point and then she is not happy about that. Whereas if I need to buy something I go into a store, pick a pair of pants and it fits then I buy it, done. Can't she make a choice faster? It drives me absolutely nuts."
The therapist says, "So she takes a very long time to make a choice? Isn't it beautiful then that when you look at all the men in the world that she chose you? That she made an informed choice to be in a relationship with you?"
Yeah, the guy had never looked at it that way.
That way you look at what you think it means (she is indecisive), to what it really means (she makes informed decisions).
3 Word
You can also use the term “reframing.” For example, I had a client who suffered from emetophobia—the fear of vomiting and feeling nauseous. He called me to say he was scheduled to receive chemotherapy in a few days and was afraid of vomiting and feeling nauseous. So he wanted a session.
He didn't really think the cancer was a problem; he had had and overcome that before and he knew that was okay.
But that nausea, he was dreading it terribly.
I did find this very special, because in my worldview cancer is a lot worse than nausea anyway.
So we did a session and started reframing the word. Chemotherapy means nausea, we reframed this to life water. That chemo is life water and it makes you completely clean inside. I also never called it chemo again, just life water.
I used the word all the time during the session. When he got the chemo he sent me a message "the water of life is flowing." He didn't get nauseous anymore, nothing at all.
With the re-approximation of the word and the new associations we had attached to it, he was no longer bothered by anything.
Rethinking to reframe
This reframing is very much like reverse thinking.
We have also done the Rethink Game to make it easier to look at a problem differently. The game also includes many questions to deal with a problem in a different way.
So, are you a coach or do you help people? Take advantage of reframing and changing your mindset.
Be sure to listen to this podcast as well:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/195236/1352299-hoe-kan-je-het-nu-anders-bekijken-allemaal
Have a connection with your client first
There are factors that do contribute to the success of reframing, such as humor and a good client connection. That connection is also needed initially to properly understand the worldview your client has. Indeed, this understanding allows you to reframe it in such a way that your client also understands you[3].
Before helping a client, it’s always helpful in any situation to establish rapport with the person you’re helping. How this feels and how to achieve it is something you’ll learn during the training at the Hypnosis Institute of the Netherlands. You’ll also learn how to decline to work with someone if rapport cannot be established.
Part of problem reframing
Sometimes you can't reframe the whole problem. People can also get stuck in strategies that previously helped them deal with problems well, but no longer do.
In this case, for example, you can break down the problem into pieces and reframe part of the problem to get people "out of" the strategy that is now not working well for them[4].
Naming the paradox of the problem
Naming paradoxes, contradictions, is a form of therapy that can also help people see problems in a different way[5]. For example, the way to overcome a problem, such as a fear, is to undergo what you fear.
- How bad is the problem really?
- Does the world end if you fail a test?
- Does stuttering during a presentation put a damper on your life?
- See what happens with a particular fear.
The great thing about hypnotherapy is that you can use guided visualization to overcome your anxiety. During the guided visualization, your reaction to the problem can be reframed. You stutter and instead of feelings of embarrassment, you actually get feelings of calmness and that you can just get on with your presentation.
This also ensures that when you do find yourself in that unwanted situation, you know how to deal with it. This alone can reduce anxiety.
NLP and reframing
Reframing, and seeing if everything works out, with techniques of NLP is also gaining interest with science. When reframing problems, you can use techniques of neuro-linguistic programming. Signals that people's eyes give off, about understanding, for example, even have similarities with knowledge now also gained from neuroscience[6].
Humor and reframing
Humor is also incredibly important to establish a good rapport between therapist and client and to ensure that treatment goes well. Research shows that the effect is even greater with serious illnesses[7], such as that man who had a fear of nausea and vomiting. Even while with serious illnesses there is less humor in the sessions.
You’ll learn how NLP, humor, rapport, and reframing work in a hypnosis session through the Hypnosis Institute of the Netherlands’ training programs. The courses are offered in Wormerveer, Zwolle, and online.
Want to know if you can manage to get someone into hypnosis at all? Then come to one of the hypnosis playshops. The playshops are held in Wormerveer and in Zwolle.
In addition, you can see a demonstration of a hypnosis session at a seminar and learn how to make people feel good with hypnosis.
[1] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0312407X.2015.1069865
[2] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00325481.2019.1574403
[3] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01926187.2012.755393
[4] https://helda.helsinki.fi/bitstream/handle/10138/22824/seeingth.pdf ( p. 89)
[5] https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1986-17832-001
[6] https://jep.ro/images/pdf/cuprins_reviste/79_art_3.pdf
[7] https://psychotherapy.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.psychotherapy.20180021