Source: Richard Bandler

Identify the unresourceful state and its most influential stimuli.

Break state.

Anchor resourceful states and stack them.

Role playing of the unresourceful states.

Trigger the stacked anchors.

Continue until no abreaction is present.

Future pace the resourceful states.

To put it another way, a threshold is the line that separates two states of mind: bearable and unbearable. Occasionally, in order to change a behavior, it is necessary to simultaneously induce triggers and resourceful states while ensuring that the resourceful states prevail in each “threshold battle.”

This is a pattern that will allow you to do just that. In this situation, there are two practitioners and one client. There are a lot of things that can go wrong when a friend or coworker is helping you do this pattern on a client. You can pay attention to your client’s strong emotional reactions while firing anchors, and your coworker will act out the triggers of bad behavior while you are doing the pattern.

Step 1: Identify the un-resourceful state and its most influential stimuli. #

You should work with your client ahead of time to recognize exactly the series of events that take place right before they find themselves already engaged in the undesired behaviors or states. When questioning your client on internal events, make note of their eye accessing cues. Your colleague will need those to induce the states later on. In addition, write down verbal communication scripts if they are important for the induction of the undesired states. For example, if your client has presented a problem of non-proportional or inappropriate anger towards his son, check if it’s something that the son is saying verbally and write it down. If hearing the words, “Dad, are we there yet?!?!” is a trigger, note the tonality, but also the syntax of the words themselves, digitally. Focus on one habitual state or behavior, not more.

Step 2: Break state. #

Ask your client some neutral questions to break the state. Ask them to walk around for a bit or do any other physical movement to forget about step 1.

Step 3: Anchor and stack resourceful states. #

Now work with your client and anchor as many resourceful states as possible. As a starting point, consider the problem state— What could be a good, contradicting state to the negative one? Include comforting states such as “composure” or “gratitude.” Stack anchors by using one master anchor for each of the positive states. Stacking anchors simply means that you anchor the same way while inducing different states each time. What happens is that eventually, when you fire the master anchor, your client gets a rush of all the positive states “stacked” on that trigger. Be careful when you choose the location and manner of the master anchor. You want to make sure that this is not something that can cause an inner conflict later on in the session. Do not use popular anchoring locations such as the back of the hand, the shoulder, or the knee. These are known in Neuro Linguistic Programming, but you never know what has happened in your client’s life and body until you meet you. Anchor the master trigger where you are certain there is no chance of disturbance by any other internal process. Test the stacked anchors a few times by firing a master anchor, breaking state, and repeating. This is a step you do not want to hurry up and take. Work slowly and thoroughly, maintaining a high level of sensory acuity and taking note of every abreaction you get from your client. If the reaction appears when you fire the master anchor, you should exercise extra caution. It’s possible that you were too careless when selecting the master anchor. An abreaction at this stage indicates that the master anchor is also causing some conflict in your client’s relationship. When this occurs, return to step 2, stay there for a while, talk with your client about anything other than the subject of the session, and then return to this step and complete it again if necessary. Do not worry; even the best NLP practitioners get these challenges, and as a flexibility test, you should welcome these challenges and work through them. You’d be a much better change-maker because of such incidents.

Step 4: Role playing the unresourceful states. #

Allow your colleague to step in and work with your client to recreate the scenarios that hold the triggers for the unresourceful states and behaviors. Give your colleague the eye accessing cues worksheet and any other useful information that could be used in the role-playing.

Step 5: Trigger the stacked anchors. #

As your colleague keeps the role-playing going with your client, fire the anchors! Do exactly what you did at the end of step 3, when you tested the stacked anchors, and fire them all. Stay focused and maintain sensory acuity because this is a hard and long process for all of you.

Step 6: Continue until there is no reaction to the treatment. #

Abbreactions are those minute, unconscious “hiccups” that alert you as a practitioner that your client is having an emotional reaction to whatever is going on in the session at that particular point in the session. There is a threshold point when you don’t see these “abreactions.” This means your client has reached this point, and his mind is now fully focused on responding to events in a positive way with resourceful states instead of the negative behaviors and states that used to set them off in the first place.

Step 7: Pace the resourceful states in the future. #

First and foremost, break state. Let your client rest for a few minutes, and then fire the anchors again and Future Pace for upcoming opportunities.