There are six levels, according to Dilts, that affect each one of us. Let’s consider each level in the context of smoking.

The environment is defined as the world around us, including people, places, and situations. This level takes into account how a problem or resource affects and is affected by the external world. For instance, if you stop smoking, how will that affect your relationships, and how will your relationships affect your smoking?

The behavior level includes everything that you do with your physical body, from habits to thinking patterns to body posture.

The capability level involves your assets or limitations in regards to the current issue. An example of this would be the capability of better taste and smell once you’ve stopped smoking. It’s an additional benefit to making the change.

At the belief level, you’re considering how your beliefs will change when your issue is changed. Now that you’ve stopped smoking, do you believe you can overcome challenges in your life? Or, do you now believe that hypnosis really works?

Identity is a belief about self, and this level addresses how your view of yourself changes when the issue is changed. Do you now identify as a nonsmoker? Or, do you see yourself as a healthy person?

At the spiritual level, you’re considering how the change affects or is affected by your life purpose or mission. I also like to think about this in terms of cosmic forces or spiritual beliefs that may come into play with regards to the issue. One possibility here for a former smoker is the desire to pass along a healthy lifestyle to her children. Or, someone may believe that the universe helps those that help themselves.

Here are a few sample questions to get your started. Be aware that it isn’t necessary to have already made the change. You can act “as if” the issue is resolved. This is a very successful technique, and it’s often enough to make the change by itself. With my clients, I commonly use the As If Frame in conjunction with these questions.

• What’s your mission or cause now that you’ve made this change. What is your motivation to change this now?
• Who are you now that you’ve changed this? How do you see yourself now?
• What do you know to be true about making this change? What do you believe now that you’ve overcome this issue?
• What new skills, abilities, or opportunities do you have now that you’ve resolved the issue?
• What will you do differently now that this problem is resolved?
• How will resolving this issue affect the world around you (job, relationships, etc)?

While the logical levels can be used in the information gathering process, I prefer to focus on the desired state with my clients whenever possible. But if you do want to gather information about the problem state, just shift your questions to be in line with the problem.

Learn more about Logical Levels

As you may remember from history class, we tend to organize our memories in a linear format, separating the past from the present and future. Knowing how we organize time is helpful in being sure we are able to function well in modern society.

There are two major timeline distinctions; in-time and through-time. Both orientations are useful, and most individuals oscillate between the two. An in-time timeline is an associated timeline, meaning that the individual is more aware of what they are involved with rather than with the passing of time. A through-time orientation, however, is dissociated and focuses more on time rather than activity. This is the preferred orientation for planning and scheduling, while an in-time timeline is more aligned with getting things done or enjoying the moment.

Besides orientation, timelines are also used by NLP Practitioners to regress clients to root cause events that have created bad habits, limiting beliefs, or harmful emotional patterns. Regressions have been used by hypnotherapists for decades, and they are powerful healing tools. By mentally sliding into the past on your personal timeline, you can more easily recover repressed memories safely. By bringing these events to consciousness, they can be learned from and released.

Timelines can also be used for future progressions, goal setting, and achievement. It is possible to place an outcome on your timeline to ensure success, or you can project yourself past the point of achievement to make any necessary corrections. This is a great tool for decision making, and it often saves a lot of time and money by illuminating potential disruptions to your plans.

However you choose to use them, having the skills to utilize your timelines effectively can help you to heal your past and create your desired future.

Learn more about timelines

Individuals have strategies for their problems and their resources. Most of the time the difference between a problem and solution strategy is one simple step. Therefore, by making small strategy changes you can quickly shift someone’s problem into a strength. For example, I had a client with a smoking problem. He wanted to quit, so I elicited his strategy asking a variety of questions about what triggered his smoking and what got him to stop. I quickly learned that every time he got stressed he would say to himself, “I need a cigarette.” I had him shift that self talk to, “I need to take a break for a minute.” He practiced this new strategy a few times and was able to stop smoking.

What We Do With Strategies

• Elicitation: This process helps you to determine the strategy being used, whether it is a resource or problem strategy.

• Utilization: This is the process of feeding back the strategy information to the person in the sequence in which it was elicited.  This can serve as a model for others wishing to benefit from the design of that strategy.

• Change: You can change a strategy by shifting, removing, or replacing both internal representations or external behaviors in order to get to the desired state.  Change can also be made by accessing and anchoring in new resources or shifting criteria.

• Installation: When necessary, you can program in a new strategy altogether or install a modified strategy in order to achieve the desired state.  This doesn’t replace the other strategy, yet it offers a new option that may be more desirable if it is easier to run and feels better than the other options.

T.O.T.E. Model of Strategies

This model was first formulated and published in “Plans and the Structure of Behavior” in 1960 by George Miller, Eugene Galanter, and Karl Pribrim.  It is based on computer program sequencing.

Test -> Operate  -> Test -> Exit

The first Test is a Trigger that starts the strategy.  It establishes the criteria, which becomes the standard of comparison for the second Test.  It lets us know when and where to use the strategy. Think of the trigger as the thing that sets the strategy in motion (i.e. feeling stressed triggers smoking or being insulted triggers bad feelings).

The Operation accesses information by remembering, creating, or gathering the information required by the strategy from both the internal and external world.  It’s a series of representations and behaviors that are designed to lead to a particular outcome (i.e. reaching for the cigarette or remembering being insulted in the past).

The second Test is a comparison of an aspect of information with the earlier established criteria.  Simply put, this test is a check point to establish whether or not the strategy is satisfying the criteria it is designed to fulfill (are you more relaxed or still stressed after the cigarette?).

The Exit, or the decision point, is a representation of the results of the test.  If there is a match of criteria (cigarette created relaxation), the strategy exits.  If there is a mismatch (cigarette didn’t ease the stress), the strategy re-cycles or loops until the value is satisfied or something else becomes more important (i.e. getting back to work).

Strategy Elicitation

The main purpose of eliciting a problem strategy is to gather information as to the structure of a person’s present state.  It gives you valuable information as to how the problem is triggered, how it is held in place, and how the criteria is prioritized.

1. Establish rapport
2. Identify problem state and calibrate
3. Associate client into problem state and anchor
4. Using associated language and paying attention to nonverbal communication ask: “How do you know when its time to start…?” “What happens first?” “How do you know when you’re finished?”
5. Backtrack often and re-associate by using anchor to get middle steps
6. Continue until you have the Trigger, Operation, and Test
7. Notate each step in as much detail as possible
8. Test accuracy of the strategy by running through the steps and calibrating response

Elicitation Questions

To associate client into the problem state: “Remember a specific time when you were…Go to that first moment and experience being there.”

Trigger: “How do you know when to begin?”

Operation: “What is the first thing you do?  What is the next thing?  What is the very next?”

Test: “How do you know when you’re done?  What comparisons are made?”

Exit: “What lets you know you have successfully completed…?  How do you know to move on?”

Accessing Cues

Accessing cues give you an understanding of what’s happening at the unconscious level.  They tell you what sensory system a person is accessing, helping you to know where the present state is held and which resources are needed to move them to the desired state.  Eye Accessing is most commonly used in strategy elicitation to determine the internal representations involved in performing the strategy.

While accessing cues vary from person to person, there are some commonalities you should be aware of. If a person is looking up, they are likely accessing visual information. If they are looking to the left or right, they are hearing an internal sound or voice. If they look down, they’re probably having a strong feeling or a conversation with themselves.

So, as you ask the elicitation questions above, watch the eyes to confirm what the person says verbally. This will ensure that you gather the correct strategy, rather than the one the person believes they are running.

Strategy Changes & Installation

To change a strategy, you need to alter the submodalities associated with the trigger representation.  This will affect the resulting feelings and behaviors, and, possibly, the associated beliefs.  This process is called a submodality shift, or Swish Pattern.

Once the change to the strategy has been made, or if you already have a resource strategy available, you may want to install a the new strategy to ensure the change is permanent. This is just like installing a new software program on your computer.  On its own, it doesn’t necessarily overwrite the old strategy; it just adds a new option.  By adding new choices and options, you create greater flexibility of behavior.

To install a new strategy, use a hand-eye lead to install each step of the strategy in the accessing cue location that corresponds with the representational system being utilized. To install a trigger image, hold the eyes up in the appropriate visual quadrant. Or, to install a feeling, hold the eyes down in the kinesthetic quadrant. After you repeat this several times, the individual should be able to carry out the strategy in the real world.

Learn more about Strategies

Have you ever gone to a museum and compared an actual Monet to a print in the gift shop? Which had more emotional impact? If you’re like most people, you preferred the original painting. It has more texture, more vibrant color, a more interesting frame, and more dimension. These qualities are known as visual submodalities.

One way to think about submodalities is as the individual elements that make up the sensory information we receive from the world. Therefore, there are visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory, and gustatory submodalities. Pictures can be big or small, bright or dull. Sounds can be loud or soft, near or far. Feelings can be intense or mild, moving or still. And while there are dozens more submodality distinctions within each sensory system, you are likely to be able to come up with a few on your own.

The most important thing to know about submodalities is that they are the coding for how you feel about a particular piece of stimuli. A very large spider running towards you is likely to produce a different feeling than a very small spider running away from you, right? And a loud sound right next to your ear is going to produce a different feeling from a quiet one across the room.

But, how does this apply to NLP? By changing the submodalities of a “negative” stimulus, you can reduce the amount of negative emotion you have about it. The reverse is also true. You can amplify the positive emotions surrounding a particular positive experience. This can help you to get over fears and phobias, or it can help you fall in love with your partner all over again.

Not everyone experiences submodalities in the same way. Some people respond more to big pictures, while others are more affected by the brightness or contrast of an image. For some, volume makes a difference, but for others it is the location of a sound that has the most affect. The only way to know what your submodality drivers are is to play with them, being aware of how your feelings change as you manipulate each submodality.

Learn more about submodalities

The concept of anchoring is simple- if you’ve experienced something once you can access and utilize that experience to improve your current circumstances. Let me share an example. If you remember learning to ride a bike and can access the feelings of confidence and excitement you had then, you can apply those feelings to making cold calls, writing a book, or even learning something new. You have the ability to be confident and excited, no matter the context.

Anchoring can also be used to provide counter examples for unpleasant situations. Consider someone with a phobia. By accessing and anchoring three or four contexts in which he feels safe and comfortable, those examples can be applied to the phobic situation, thereby lessening the negative charge. This “tricks” the mind into recognizing that fear is not the only possible response.

Setting anchors is extremely simple. The easiest method is to use either a touch or gesture. Once the emotional state or resourceful context has been accessed, link it to touching a particular spot on the arm or to a specific hand movement. After repeating this a couple of times, if you keep touching that spot or making the same gesture while considering the problematic situation the intensity of the problem will greatly diminish.

Learn more about anchoring

Rapport is defined as being “of one mind.”  You can have rapport with others or between your conscious and unconscious minds.  Rapport with others is dependent upon appreciating and understanding another person’s model of the world, or their map of reality, and communicating that understanding to them in such a way that trust is established.  I personally believe rapport is essential in every communication (with others and within the self), because it creates a state of oneness and empathy that is difficult to get any other way.

Rapport generates the following meaning for another person:

• You know, respect, and appreciate them and their world.
• You value what they value.
• You are like them and can be trusted.

When you don’t have rapport, the meaning given to the communication is:

• You don’t understand them or value what they value.
• You aren’t interested in them.
• You can’t be trusted with their well-being.

When you are in rapport, you feel a sense of:

• Speaking the same language.
• Being on the same wavelength.
• Respect, appreciation, credibility and trust.
• Openness and liking.

Having rapport gives you the opportunity to share another person’s experience.  It also provides increased sensory awareness and the opportunity to lead the interaction in a positive direction.

“To act like one is to be one.” Lao Tzu

Rapport is gained by a process called pacing and leading.  Pacing refers to experiencing another person’s reality by matching or mirroring their external behavior, internal states and representations in as many ways as possible.  Leading means guiding an individual to another state or thought once rapport is established. Matching and Mirroring nonverbal communication (like breathing at the same rate) increases understanding and appreciation.  Research into mirror neurons has demonstrated that mirroring someone else’s body language lights up the mirror neurons four times more strongly that basic matching.  You may also be interested to know that according to Marianne LaFrance (1982), when an observer sees two people mirroring, they regard them as having more closeness than when they simply match.

Once you have paced successfully and established rapport, you can learn a great deal of information relating to an individual’s reality, as well as your own.  Rapport makes it possible to lead another personal into new experiences, like more positive states of being.  Through rapport you can also lead someone into a buying state, a place of openness to new ideas, or even into love.

• Pace, Pace, Pace —> Lead

Learn more about rapport