c) You can circumvent the individual's present strategy that has left her indecisive and access some possible resource strategies such as: 1) Change the strategy she is using now, which involves testing the material to find what might be wrong or what is missing, to a strategy that operates to generate and test possible ways of solving the dilemma. The new strategy could be elicited by asking questions like "How would you know if this proposal were sufficiently complete and appropriate to provide a clear understanding and to get the results that are important for this decision?" Or "What specifically do (you, I, we) need to do in order to get the information needed to make this proposal complete and appropriate?" 2) Elicit a reference experience from the past through transderivational search in which the individual has already employed a strategy that assisted them in breaking through to make a decision in a situation similar to the one now being faced: "Has there ever been a time when you were faced with a difficult decision such as this before, when after getting stuck you were able to come up with just the right answer — one that allowed you to make the most appropriate decision, getting results that were completely satisfactory to everyone involved?" Through each of these two possible options you will elicit another sequence of representations, or strategy, that the administrator may employ as a resource to help her achieve the outcome desired. As the individual presents you, through her behavior, with the sequential steps, you would again identify the representational form of the strategy. (Techniques for the resourceful utilization of these strategies will be presented in the remaining sections of this book.)

For instance, in response to the question in (2) above, the administrator might answer:

"Well (head and eyes orient down and to the right, takes a deep breath) I remember one time I was feeling so stuck I was just about ready to totally give up and suddenly (eyes dart to level and left position) … I remembered something someone told me once about trusting your intuitions and I began to get the feeling that all I had to do was wait and the answer would come … and sure enough in a matter of moments (eyes shift up and left) I flashed on a great solution."

Analysis: Here the person starts out negatively describing an intense kinesthetic sensation that resulted from the testing of previous operations.(Kⁱ_- )

Predicate: "I was feeling so stuck …"

Accessing cue: Head and eyes down and to the right. Takes a deep breath.

Analysis: When the feelings reach a certain level of intensity, however, she has a polarity response auditorily, by remembering something positive someone has told her. <A^r_d>

Predicate: "I remembered someone told me”

Accessing cue: Eyes level and to the left.

Analysis: A congruent kinesthetic response follows the auditory digital memory. (Kⁱ₊)

Predicate: "began to get the feeling …"

Accessing cue:

Analysis: And a congruent visual response is accessed by the positive feelings. (Vⁱ)

Predicate: "I flashed …"

Accessing cue: Eyes up and left.

We would notate this resource strategy as:

Note that we have not specified whether the visual image was one that she constructed or remembered, even though she accessed up and left with her eyes. This is because in our ongoing context, the administrator is remembering the situation and may be accessing a constructed image that was made back then.

Also notice that the steps in this strategy offer a different sequence of representational systems than her previous decision strategy.

The specific utilization of strategies and resources will be covered explicitly in the next section of this book.

Taking our full toolbox of elicitation procedures, let's move quickly through another example.

EXAMPLE B

Consider the following statement, perhaps made by a client, associate, or friend of yours, that is trying to make some change in his life or behavior that is important for him, but who is experiencing difficulty in acquiring the motivation necessary to implement the change:

"I know that I should do it (head and eyes are oriented down and left then shift over to the right) … and I really feel that it's the right thing to do, but… (reaches up and begins rubbing eyes) at the same time I keep looking at all the times I've tried before (stops rubbing, opens eyes, looking up and to left but head remaining down) and haven't been able to … (sighing) it's really a struggle."

Here we are confronted with a case of a multi–representational test:

Analysis: The person begins with an internal dialogue (Aⁱ_d), probably telling them to do the behavior in question.

Predicate: "I know that …" (unspecified)

Accessing cue: Head and eyes down and left.

Analysis: This statement initiates a set of congruent internal feelings. (Kⁱ₊)

Predicate: "I really feel that”

Accessing cue: Head and eyes down and to the right.

Analysis: These feelings, however, begin to overlap onto a polarity response that occurs visually. (Kⁱ₊/V^r_-)

Predicate: "at the same I keep looking …"

Accessing cue: Overlap of cues: (K) head down and right —rubs eyes and looks up and left. (Vⁱ)

Analysis: The incongruence between these two representations is represented kinesthetically. (Kⁱ)

Predicate: "struggle"

Accessing cue: Sighs (a deep breath).

We can show this strategy as the following steps:

Another way to notate it might be:

Both of these show that there are two responses to the verbal proposal of the behavior. The final kinesthetic response is about the conflict of the two responses preceding it.

Again, you have a number of options available for eliciting resources for the person:

a. You can elicit a congruent visual representation of making the proposed behavioral change to help reinforce the positive pole of the conflict by asking, "What would it look like if you could do it?" Getting congruent representations of an outcome in all representational systems is a very important and powerful resource in assisting people to attain that outcome because (1) it will reduce the probability of a polarity representation if all systems contain a congruent representation that can be accessed by the individual, and (2) it assures that no important information that is necessary for tests or operations involved in securing the outcome is left out of the strategy.

In fact, one elicitation procedure that we often employ and offer to you as a useful tool is that of eliciting a full 4–tuple as a reference structure for each step in the three point process of:

|PRESENT STATE| + [RESOURCES|→|OUTCOME / DESIRED STATE|