People use their internal representations of their sensory experiences to create and process meanings. Each of the major sensory systems or modalities has submodalities that influence meaning:
- Visual: Size, distance, brightness, clarity, color, movement, contrast, location, frame, and point of view (especially associated or dissociated)
- Auditory: Volume, tone, pitch, inflection, rhythm, location, rate, and duration
- Kinesthetic: Intensity, quality, movement, direction, speed, location, (especially feelings on the midline of the body and chakra centers), and duration. [The “Kinesthetic Cluster” includes the senses of smell, taste, and touch as well as emotional responses—”feel” is both external and internal.]
People reveal their internal processing through their use of language. When people use the simple tenses (present, past, and future), for example, they are describing a fixed state. If they are describing something they are picturing, the image is “still”: fixed and permanent. The statement, “I am depressed,” indicates that the person has been depressed in the past, is depressed in the present, and will be depressed in the future.
When people use the progressive tenses (verbs with “ing” endings) they are describing something that has movement. Rather than seeing an internal “photograph,” they are describing an internal movie.
Painting pain away is one of the really easy ways to notice how submodalities really are the way we run our brains. When having a person rate pain, have them imagine a color that represents that level. After doing an intervention or treatment, when checking again where on the scale they are experiencing it, first ask if the color has changed.
As you work with your clients and patients, pay attention to the way they describe their problems and the way their descriptions change as you work on or with them. Help them shift their language about problems away from permanent and ongoing to language that sets limits around the problem and allows them to see themselves improving their way into a better future.
Send your questions about how other-than-conscious communication skills can hurt or help your patients and clients to Joel P. Bowman (Joel@SCS-Matters.com) or Debra Basham (Debra@SCS-Matters.com), co-developers of Subtle Communication Systems. We will provide answers to those for you. For more information about Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP), Hypnosis or Hypnotherapy, or about the Imagine Healing Process, visit:http://ImagineHealing.info or http://SurgicalSupport.info.
Healing with Language: Your Key to Effective Mind-Body Communication is available for a limited time for $10 plus $5 shipping within the U.S. For volume orders and overseas shipping, check with Debra. See the Table of Contents and List of Exercises in PDF format for more information about this comprehensive text and training manual.