Reverse Meta Model: Nominalizations
Nominalizations The Meta Model teaches us that nominalizations are verbs that have been changed into nouns. In other words, they are a process that has been changed linguistically into a thing. As an example, we hear people speak about their “relationship,” instead of “how they are relating to their partner.” It’s really good to recognize them because clients use them …
Reverse Meta Model: Unspecified Adjectives
Here’s an example of an unspecified adjective: “Feel that special feeling.” “Special?” How specifically is it special? Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Is it special because of it’s rarity? Are you saying “special” because it’s sinfully wonderful but you can’t say that? Especially with the unspecified noun that follows (a nominalization, actually), the speaker is leaving …
Reverse Meta Model: Modal Operators
Modal Operators of Necessity/ Possibility A “Modal Operator” is a word like “should.” As in, “I should lose weight.” If a client uses them with us we might use the meta model to elicit more information. We could ask questions like, “What would happen if you did?” or “What’s been preventing you from losing weight?” People use modal operators all …
Reverse Meta Model: Universal Quantifiers
Universal Quantifiers One of the things we do to make sense of the world is generalize. It makes survival so much easier. However, the process also is limiting to our experience. As an example, if a person meets an aggressive dog and generalizes “all dogs are mean,” they’d miss out on many sweet moments with our canine friends. It might …
Creating our own Reality
Reality – what a concept. A long time ago a friend said “reality is just a crutch for people who can’t handle drugs.” But I think it is more than that. The nature of reality is a fascinating topic that has long captivated the human imagination and could easily take many more pages of writing than anyone would want to …
Download Doug O’Brien’s paper,
“Be your Best with Self Hypnosis”