NLP: Frank Farrelly’s Model

There is a simple, well-defined strategy that leverages our natural tendency to hallucinate; epistemologically, it is relatively sound and resembles gentle provocation. This particular system of objections was systematically developed by Frank Farrelly, a talented figure in NLP. As an introduction to this technique, we offer the following story.

In the late 1970s, John Grinder and Richard Bandler were invited as speakers to the “Frontiers of Psychiatry” forum, organized by Temple University in Philadelphia. They took this opportunity to suggest that the forum director invite Frank Farrelly to work on stage with a real client in front of the 300 psychiatrists attending the conference. By agreement, immediately after Farrelly’s session, Bandler and Grinder were to present a clear explanation of the main parts of his work—that is, to model Frank’s behavior by identifying his patterns.

Bandler and Grinder were already familiar with the way Farrelly formed verbal patterns, as described in his highly instructive and entertaining book, “Provocative Therapy.” They had good reason to believe they would also find a number of superior forms in his nonverbal behavior, which they had already coded in their previous research.

Frank’s demonstration was outstanding. To give readers an idea of his verbal work and an example of the hallucination strategy for making language more specific, here are a few dialogues between Farrelly and his client.

During the first few minutes, there was a relatively content-free conversation (during which, as was clear, Frank completely captured both the conscious and subconscious attention of his client—what is usually called rapport—mainly using the mirroring strategy coded in NLP). Then the following dialogue took place:

• Frank: Okay, so what can I do for you?
• Client: Well, what bothers me is my relationship with my wife.
• Frank: Yes, yes, I know what you mean—the limited sexual positions in bed.
• Client (surprised, with a pause): No, I mean I just don’t feel as close to her as I used to.
• Frank: Yes, I get it. You both can’t do it like you used to.
• Client (again surprised, with a pause): No, that’s not it—it’s like we just don’t talk about things anymore.
• Frank: So, you’re not talking about how to do it differently.
• Client (again surprised, with a pause): No, I mean we don’t talk about how we’re raising the kids, or what we’ll do when we retire… (continues listing topics).

Farrelly’s strategy for uncovering specific information, as demonstrated in this example, can be explained as follows.

Frank Farrelly’s Model for Uncovering Specifics in Language

1. Establish rapport.
2. Listen to the client’s wishes.
3. Choose a noun or verb—a term that holds a key position in the sentence, at a high enough logical level that it covers a wide range of specific experiences.
4. Deliberately invent an interpretation—that is, vividly hallucinate a specific and provocative situation related to something the client might find completely unfounded or even highly unlikely. In his work, Frank (in this and other cases) especially preferred to use sexual content for this, though any provocative misinterpretation would work.
5. Present this highly specific misinterpretation to the client in such a convincing way that it seems you know exactly what they’re talking about.
6. Carefully listen to the client’s corrective response, which your interpretation provokes.
7. Repeat steps 2–7 until the client (in frustration) provides you with the specific information you need to choose the appropriate and effective intervention.

Farrelly’s strategy can be summed up simply: connect with the client and pick an important noun or verb from their speech—some vague term that could mean many things in the client’s experience. From there, choose an extremely specific and provocative interpretation that you believe is completely unrelated, and present it to the client as convincingly as if you truly believe it. Listen to their response and repeat this cycle until you get all the specific information you need.