By Edwin Brand

Hello Will:

My name is Edwin Brand. I received my NLP Practitioners certification from Peter O’Dell during the summer of 2003, and since then, you and I have spoke on the phone at least once. I know that you often post new techniques on your website and I thought you may find this one simple (although not necessarily new) and exciting. This one has to do with switching one word. It is an interesting story as to how I came about this technique and I since then, have incorporated it with some of my clients. First the story:

I have been cross-country skiing for quite some time now, and I still own the original boots and bindings that I purchased over 20 years ago. While out on the trail, I have noticed through the years that no one uses the type of boots and bindings that I have any more. It has indeed made me feel a bit self-conscious, because everyone else seems to have newer/fancier boots and bindings, and mine are bit old-fashioned.

This year, the sole of my old-fashioned boots tore off, and I needed to buy a replacement pair. I thought this would be a great opportunity to upgrade to the newer and fancier style boots. After searching the internet for just the right pair, I found a combo boot/binding that I really liked, and decided on them.

Before making the actual purchase, I was exploring the website and came upon the same boots that I had owned for so many years. The description read “for the cross country PURISTS.”

Suddenly, everything changed. I now wanted to purchase the same old-fashioned boots that caused me to feel self-conscious all these years. It wasn’t until a few moments later that I realized what happened. It was one word that changed my whole outlook on my old-fashioned boots. It did not change the fact that they were old-fashioned, it just gave a new meaning to the term, making “old-fashioned” acceptable. The word was PURIST. It’s nice to feel like a purist.

This experience made me think of ways I could use this technique to help others. It seems to be a very powerful, yet simple technique.

Technique:

1. Ask the client to describe their deficiency or inadequacy.
2. Find the key word that they use in that description.
3. Replace that key word with an alternative word that has a reverse effect from the original word. (It is important at this time to choose a word that will match their submodality. So if they used a “visual” word you must also use a visual word. The same would be true for auditory and kinesthetic.
4. Ask them to repeat their phrase several times, each time, you repeat your revised phrase.
5. After several attempts they will modify their phrase to be the same as yours. (if they have not, simply ask them to).
6. Test for results.