Sally (standing up): "I can't stand up, how am I standing?"

Nurse: "Why don't you go and sit down Sally, watch some TV or something?"

Sally (panicked tonality): "I can't stand up, help me to walk, I'm falling off!"

Etc etc.

What I found interesting with Sally's communication was the 'non-mirror image reverse' construct she would use for example when suggested to go and sit down (a 'get out' for the nurse). The client, who is already standing says, "I cannot stand up!" (Ref: Overdurf and Silverthorn "Training Trances", "Dreaming Realities")

A similar dynamic is built into the communication similar to that to my client who discovered that I was reading his thoughts. There, I simply agreed with him and told him that I did indeed possess magical powers. This was a fact that he simply couldn't believe and his interpretation of his experience began to change rapidly. Seizing this momentary disorientation, I secured a satisfactory trance and began my change-work with him.

Sometimes, I use the line, "I understand what you are not saying," as suggested to me by a colleague. I have found that this can sometimes be quite an attention grabber.

For example:

Me: "Hello, Sally"

Sally: "I haven't got a head."

Me: "Ahead of what?"

Sally (confused look) "Have you seen my husband?" (a question she asks repeatedly, to practically everyone, many times over).

Me: "Moonbeams enter my head."

Sally: "You have got the wrong attitude for a psychiatrist." (She knows well that I am not a psychiatrist.)

Me: "I understand what it is that you are not saying."

It is here that the grab occurs. She is already halfway there with her meta-comment about my attitude. Instead of replying with an utterly irrelevant frame that each line possesses no relationship or context to the previous, Sally is pulled completely into the communication paradigm when she then says, "You are confusing me, what are you talking about?"

To which I could always answer, "I am not confusing you, you cannot possibly not know what it is that I am not talking about! Walk away from me, I'm falling! "

Thus, this line spoils her ability to stay negated from the communication. Sally can either say, "But you are confusing me!" or can walk away. Either way, trapped by her own logic, she is compelled to respond on the normal levels of communication that previously she was negating.

Erickson gives the story of the schizophrenic who talked in word salad. He mirrored the word salad back to the client for sometime, thus getting rapport. Tactics like this can be exceptionally effective in enabling establishing communication so that change-work to begin. However, actually being able to do them when the time calls for it can be somewhat tricky. In psychiatric settings, more often than not, the behaviour of the other 'mental health professionals' can make this difficult. Another thing that makes it tricky is just the ability to be able to think of these things at the right moment. Practice helps somewhat. I have practised these things with friends where one pretends to be a patient they know, and the other tries to outfox them. Another 'game' is to have one