NLP Swish Pattern
The Swish Pattern is a useful technique to help people address an unwanted behavior response to a specific stimulus by changing key submodalities. Compulsive or obsessive behaviors, such as an uncontrollable desire to bite your nails, smoke, eat certain foods, or habits are often linked with a trigger or cue image.
For example, I used this technique with a woman who was a model. For many of her modeling assignments, she would drive from Bend, Oregon to Seattle, WA (minimum 5 hours) and on the way, she would snack on potato chips. First, I confirmed with her that this was an unwanted behavior and also checked that there was no secondary gain. I asked her what she would like to do instead and she said to eat apples. The task was to unlink the initial mental image (thinking of eating potato chips) from the act of eating potato chips and link it to eating an apple.
- Have the person identify a specific behavior that he/she wishes to change and the cue image that starts the process.
- Have the person identify a new self image with the desired behavior(s) that satisfies the positive intent of the undesired behavior. Have him/her generate a picture of this new self-image.
The task now is to link the cue image in step 1 with the new self image in step 2.
- Check the ecology of the new self image and associated behavior(s).
Have the person assess the impact of this new behavior on himself/herself (what will he have to give up or take on), his family, friends, co-workers, community, etc.
- Identify at least two submodalities that reduce the desire for the behavior in step 1 and increase the desire for the new self image in step 2.
Ask the person to get a picture of the behavior in step 1 and then have him/her adjust different submodalities and notice which ones reduce the desire for this behavior. For example, he/she may find that reducing the brightness and defocusing the picture reduces the desire for the behavior in step 1. The submodalities should be those that vary over a continuous range e.g. brightness, size, focus, etc.
Now ask the person to get a picture of the new self-image and behavior (step 2) and notice if the desire for this behavior is increased as the submodalities identified in the previous paragraph are changed in the opposite direction. That is, increasing the brightness and improving the focus makes the new self image in step 2 more compelling.
It is possible to do the Swish Pattern with an auditory or kinesthetic cue. In this case you would use auditory or kinesthetic submodalities. However, the process is easiest if you use a visual cue.
Remember to break state when switching between behaviors.
For the rest of the procedure, I will assume that the critical submodalities are brightness and focus.
- Have your client take the cue picture and make it big, bright and clearly focused. In a corner of this picture (let’s say the lower right hand corner), have your client put a small dark and defocused picture of the new self image and related behavior.
The client should be associated in the cue picture (i.e. cannot see himself in the picture, he is looking through his own eyes), while the picture of the new self image must be dissociated to be motivating and attractive. An associated picture gives your client the feeling that he has already made the change, and therefore it will not be motivating for him.
- Have the person make the cue picture smaller, darker and defocused as the picture of the new self image gets bigger, brighter and focused. Continue until the cue picture is a small dark, defocused picture in the lower right hand corner of a big bright, focused picture of the new self image.
- Have the person take a moment to enjoy this new self-image and the resources that he now has available to him/her.
- Break state. Have him/her repeat steps 5, 6 and 7, but this time have him/her do step 6 faster.
It is important to break state after step 7. We want to create a compelling direction from the cue picture to the new self image. If we did not break state, then we would set up a cycle where the new self-image leads back to the cue picture.
- Have the person repeat steps 5, 6 and 7 until he has done it at least 7 times and step six takes a fraction of a second to complete.
This is why it is called Swish Pattern – in less time than it takes to quickly say swish, the client has completed step 6. Speed is essential in step 6.
- Test and future pace. Have the person think of the cue. Does he now think of the new self image and related behaviors? Great!
Derren Brown Demonstrates Swish Pattern
