Context Reframe
- Context Reframe
Context Reframing in NLP is giving another meaning to a statement by changing the context.
For instance, an elderly woman who complains of the mess her grandchildren make, may be persuaded that the mess means they love being with her.
If the unconscious mind likes the alternative statement, it will literally change the way it is held in the deeper mind and therefore chemicals that go with it!
Bandler & Grinder identify two forms of reframing: meaning and context. Context reframing takes an undesired attribute and finds a different situation where it would be valuable. Reframing can also be used to describe changing the context or representation of a problem.
With a context reframe a person takes the disliked behaviour and asks, "Where could this behaviour be useful?" or "In what other context would this particular behaviour be of value?"
A context reframe leaves the meaning of a behaviour the same and shows how it could be a useful response in a different context.For example:
A: "I procrastinate all the time; I just can't get things done."
B: "That's a great skill to have; especially when you apply it to overeating - just put off having that second helping. Lucky you."A context reframe is useful for statements such as: ‘I am too pushy.’ or ‘I wish I did not focus on what could go wrong.’ In this type of situation, your client has assumed that this type of behaviour has no value. You job is to discover when it is of value by asking yourself the question ‘When or where would this behaviour be useful or viewed as a resource?’ A possible reframe might be: ‘Isn’t that a great skill to have when you need to get things done or to avoid potential problems?’ Once you have your client more resourceful, you can then assist him to discover behaviours that may be more appropriate in other situations.
Reframing - Virginia Satir
A classic example of a reframe by Virginia Satir concerns a father who complains at the stubbornness of his daughter. This results in a double reframe, in which Satir points out two things to the father:
1.There are situations where she will need stubbornness, to protect herself or achieve something. Reframing switches to a context that makes the stubbornness relevant.
2.It is from the father himself that she has learned to be stubborn. By forcing the father to equate his own stubbornness with hers, this creates a context in which he either has to recognize the value of her stubbornness, or deny the value of his own.Reframing - Milton Erikson
One of the common challenges of family therapy is to help the parents to let their children go. Independence is of course a negative goal. The parents have to gradually stop supporting their children, and the children have to gradually stop relying on their parents.
Milton Erikson often used the approach of creating an alternative goal for the parents: of preparing themselves to be grandparents. In a typical case, a young woman consulted him; her parents had used their life savings to build an extension to their house, where she was to live, when she got married (At this time, she was away at college, and had no steady boyfriend.) Erikson met the parents, and congratulated them for their willingness to participate so actively in the rearing of their (hypothetical) grandchildren, having babies crying through the night, toddlers crawling through the living rooms, toys strewn across the house, babysitting. He thus created a powerful positive image of the joys of grandparenthood; yet for some reason, the couple decided to rent the extra rooms out to mature lodgers instead, and save the money to support their grandchildren’s education. When the daughter subsequently got married, she lived in a city some distance away with husband and baby, and the grandparents visited frequently, but not too frequently.Why does this example count as reframing, rather than replacement? The alternative goal created by Erikson was not an alternative activity for the parents; it was an alternative description of the same activity. This alternative description enabled the parents to rethink their goals for themselves.
