I started the information gathering by focusing the possible cause of this incapacity of drawing.

I started working on the logical levels. The problem did not seem to be in the environment. The person had a good relationship with her professor and her own family. The school environment was positive and the instruments she used to use were appropriated.

Neither her behaviour seemed to be a problem. The girl had a good pictorial and drawing technique. During the previous years her work was alright and the problem had appeared only recently. This fact makes me reflect deeply.

Apparently the problem seemed to be a conviction problem. “I’m sure I don’t understand my teacher’s instructions, so I would never improve my way of drawing because I cannot use his valuable piece of advice” she said. An expert in psychology had already confirmed it to her.

But things did not seem to be like that. In the past the person was good at drawing and learnt properly from her previous professors. How could a conviction as strong as that one settle in one year and in a person that was over twenty? When analysing (just to be scrupulous) the time line I did not find anything that could justify this limiting conviction.

I think that in PNL to understand exactly what level (within the Dilts logical levels) the problem is placed is very important. To work quickly on the convictions to solve the person’s problems, as many trainers do, is too easy and simplistic. This would be as if we dismantle the engine of a broken car before controlling if it is out of fuel… Frequently, the problem is not in the conviction level but in a lower one, on the strategies or behaviour so working on the convictions could be ineffective or potentially harmful. This was in fact my client’s case. In fact the limiting conviction (that she could not learn) had not created a problem when drawing; the problem was exactly the opposite one! A problem with the strategies about drawing had caused the limiting conviction of being able to draw. We had to identify the problem with the drawing strategies and solve it; after that the limiting conviction would disappear soon and by itself.

We work hardly on the TOTE, on the intermapping and the contrastive analysis. At the end, we draw the following strategies:

Winning strategy: V – K sees something (a mental or real imagine) and draws it without looking the paper.

Looser strategy: A – K listens to an order (e.g. draw the legs in a straight position!), and draws on the paper without creating a mental imagine first.

It was clear. When talking to the client, I know that the new professor (unlike the previous one) gave the instructions orally without drawing examples on the board as the other teacher used to do in the previous years. The girl listened to her professor without seeing any imagine and without creating a mental imagine (using the looser strategy).

Once I have identified the problem (and without being able to change the teacher’s strategies):

- I installed a new A – V – K strategy in the client. I started from the mental performance by working deeply on the submodalities. So I changed the old imagine (from the looser strategy) for the resulting imagine by using the swish pattern. With this new strategy the client: listens to the professor; creates a mental imagine; and draws taking into account this imagine.

- After the swish I created a future pacing on the Time Line.

- Finally I installed an anchoring connected to this strategy that would switch on at the moment the girl would take the pencil (or brush). The fact of holding the brush would recall automatically a positive state and, most importantly, the strategy A – V – K installed.

- I explained the importance of the homework to the client. This exercises were:

a) Obviously, when she listened to the professor during the lessons she had to imagine a mental picture and then start drawing having this imagine always on her mind.
b) She had to train herself by listening to the radio (she likes very much listening radio): she had to listen to a word or phrase, imagine a mental picture from these words and then draw a draft of this imagine in order to stimulate the installation of the new strategy A – V – K.

There was no need of exercises for the anchoring because it would be switched on automatically.

The results of this work were rapid and positive and the person solved her problems related to the drawing level after a few weeks.

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