Out of the box thinking is thinking outside your frame

What frame do you live in and how do you frame the world? Perhaps good to think about following this article.

In 2000, I was driving away from Melbourne, Australia with a friend from Eindhoven. We had three other passengers with us, one Australian and two English. We were coming from Mildura, the grape capital of Australia. Because we had worked there in the blood heat for a few weeks. We were the stars at the local pub The Star Bar, and they called us the gun pickers, because we brought in by far the most grapes with our team.

Police Magnet

You should know that the guy from Eindhoven was quite a bit unusual... But then again, kind seeks kind, eh! We were pretty good buddies because of that.

He had come up with the masterful plan to turn our blue Ford Falcon into a real Cop magnet, or police magnet. He then airbrushed all the flames on it. It worked fine, because we were stopped at least 15 times in six months. We were in Melbourne and again it happened there and that's where I learned something about framing, the mental box you can be in.

Indeed, we had a small ball of weed with us and since we were in a foreign country, panic struck a bit.

Those guys in the back of the car were freaking out. "Hide the drugs! Said 1. "Hide the drugs, they can't find anything man, we'll be stuck here soon!

The weed had to be hidden, even if it was only just enough for 1 joint.

The police got out and with their hands on their revolvers they snuck closer. We had to get out, trunk open. I asked "are you sure?" because I knew that somewhere at the bottom of the trunk was some moldy bread.

We always had the idea that car was eating things. If you threw something in the back there it disappeared into "the pool of destruction." So we had to empty the trunk and I refused at one point because I didn't know what kind of stuff we would encounter.

Then they asked if we had any drugs on us, and I showed them the little ball of weed. They asked if that was all, and when I said “yes,” they burst out laughing.

'We really thought you guys were going to commit a robbery or something. Blue car, flames on it, two guys with long hair in the front, sunglasses. At a minimum, we thought we'd find a few kilos of heroin here or a mess of weapons.'

They were expecting something totally different, which is why we were able to move on.

They actually thought we were armed robbers carrying heroin, but we were just ordinary backpackers. Then there was that mystery of the trunk. This led to a shift in their perception, allowing us to get away easily with that small amount of weed. This could have ended very differently if they had come up with a different frame for us—rather than the “robbers” frame.

The power of a frame really cannot be underestimated.

You have several frames you might say.

Powerframe: the box of power

A power frame, a very authoritarian frame. This is used by people who use their authority to get their way. A hypnotist does have a power frame in the sense that you do what the hypnotist says.

Or perhaps someone else who you perceive as authoritarian, such as your boss or other people. They use that frame to get their way. They can make you feel very small or perhaps inferior, or make you feel something else entirely.

The bottom line is that it is a kind of game of frames. Who has the frame?

The person with the frame has the power in communication.

There is always someone who has the frame. With friends it goes back and forth, there's really no power frame there at all. So it's not always bad if someone has the frame.

But my hiring manager could do this very well. He immediately said what wasn't right and how he wanted some. He had a very strong powerframe. He was used to people doing exactly what he said.

To the point where it occurred to me that this is how this guy does and this is a game of framing. Then I started giving power frames back. Then I said after he said everything "Well, we're going to do that later, we're going to do this first. This is important first" I suddenly grabbed the frame.

You can tell then that he had that feeling of "I'm the boss here, you're just hiring, so we're going to do it this way."

But if I kept playing the game I just succeeded in getting him to do what I wanted. Purely because I was playing the game of framing. Not that that made me feel more or less, certainly not. But just because it was a game. And that's how you can think of it, as a game that people play.

Framing with business

Also, if you have an appointment to get an assignment with the company. Then when they say at the reception desk "Take a seat, just wait a minute" that is a powerframe of the company.

Imagine you have an appointment at 3 o'clock and after 5 past 3 he is still not there and you keep sitting there. Then you are in that person's powerframe. If you get up right then and say he should come you change the frame, the receptionist can then object to that.

Then you say "Okay then I'll leave now and he can call me when he does keep his appointment, but then I won't come here anymore he just comes to me. A deal is a deal and that's not how I treat people. So he can call, but he will come to my office". So you have the power frame. Within 10 minutes the man was downstairs.

You come across cases like this more often, such as in the book Pitch Anything. This is a lot about framing. Powerframes and timeframes.

Therapy and Frames

When we look in therapy or communication, we look at it as separate from power frames or time frames. If I explain a technique or if you believe in a certain course of action or in a certain way of thinking, you are so framed. You then have evidence for that, but it remains a frame it remains a box.

People often talk about thinking “out of the box,” but it’s really more about thinking “out of the frame.” That’s actually quite difficult, because you tend to find evidence that supports your own frame. You could also call it a “belief,” but I prefer the term “framing.”

Suppose you are experiencing a problem, you say it originated somewhere.

To do this, we use regression. Regression involves going back to the moment when the issue arose, and then resolving it there.

That all sounds very logical, but I frame you now in the idea that it originated somewhere and we can only solve it there. Because you are suffering from something now because it happened in the past.

But is that really the case? We can argue about that, but the fact is mostly that people find this a very logical idea. Of course it originated somewhere and we go back in time.

But I can also say, the frame: Everything is now.

It doesn't matter where it comes from, because it's bothering you now, and now we're solving it.

That's also a frame and it's also true. It's both true you might say.

Then there are other frames, such as that the problem is already solved. It's already gone. It's a little harder to believe that, but if I go all the way out and question it. At some point then you think it's gone. Because there was nothing even there, you were doing something but there was nothing there. We analyzed the problem to pieces.

That’s a framework that works; past lives is another framework that works. Future lives, on the other hand, is a completely different framework and a bit harder to believe. Because what are you supposed to do with that?

For example, another frame is:

• It all comes down to thought.
• Everything comes from what you visualize.
• Everything comes from wrong nutrition.

Your frame is what you believe

What you believe in terms of the frame is true, because you will find evidence for it. Everything I just listed can be true, if I make you believe in the frame. That is the art of therapy.

We can’t necessarily say that hypnotherapy is the best therapy out there—though, of course, it is. You could also say that EMDR is the best. Or that EFT is the best, or that cognitive behavioral therapy is the best.

But that’s not relevant, because what matters is what your client believes. If someone has depression and believes it can be resolved through Freudian psychoanalysis, there’s a very good chance it will happen because they believe in that framework.

Does it become harder for clients to believe in hypnotherapy or hypnosis, but it does exist. It is also scientifically proven, but then people still have to believe it.

I sometimes post ads on the Internet about hypnosis. I state that it is scientifically proven and provide a link to scientific evidence and even then sometimes people respond with "It's not. Then it's even proven! But if you don't believe it then you just don't believe it. Even if you come up with lots of evidence. Until you believe it, and then you find evidence for your belief. Even if that evidence is not even scientifically proven.

What frame do you want to be in?

So that framing is super important. What can you do with that?

You may wonder what frame you are trapping yourself in. Which box you are in. For example, the girl who is not allowed to show herself or the boy who just has to keep his mouth shut. All frames, all rules, and people may want to keep you in them too.

So think about which frame you actually want to be in.

Also listen to this podcast:

Hypnosis and framing

If you give hypnotherapy you are, as you have noticed, a lot about framing. Most treatments last 3 sessions. In the^1st session, as a hypnotherapist, you determine the frame the client is using to look at their problem. This can help you determine if regression is a helpful technique or just the frame that everything is now and you are going to solve it now.

In the^2nd session, you get to work on solving the problem, such as by framing regression. By helping your client to look at the problem out of the box, a lot can already happen to solve the problem.

In the^3rd session, you check that your client has managed to hold the new frame. That he has not started thinking after the last session and thus "recalled" his problem, but that the belief that helps him to live problem-free is still right there.

Want to learn more about hypnosis and framing? Then come to the free online master class on hypnosis .

Would you like to immerse yourself in the world of hypnosis and its possibilities for a few days? Then come attend a seminar.

Would you like to get started right away to help people with their problems? Then sign up for one of the courses offered by the Hypnosis Institute of the Netherlands.