Pacing & Leading
Pacing and Leading is a term from Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). NLP is a collection of communication techniques and methods for changing mental processes in people. The termPacing and Leading means something like: Pacing and leading. (Source: wikipedia)
Pacing:
In pacing (english: pacing) the person who wants to lead consciously adapts their behavior to the behavior of the person being led. This is an attempt to gain the trust of the person. This could take place (according to NLP) at the following levels:
- Body language: Aligning posture, gestures and breathing rate
- Facial expressions: Aligning facial expressions
- Voice: Adjusting the pitch, volume and speed of speech
- Language: Use of similar words
According to the views of NLP, once “trust” has been established, people are said to be in rapport. NLP understands “rapport” to mean that the body language, facial expressions and voice of the people involved are very similar and that the people therefore unconsciously trust each other.
Leading:
In the context of NLP, the person who has gained the “trust” of a person through pacing can move on to leading (english: leading) .
What does that mean for us?
Our work is very much based on the trust of our test person towards us. Accordingly, we should use this knowledge.
Not only during the first telephone conversation and/or anamnesis interview, but also during the hypnosis session.
- Speak the obvious.
(You sit here and listen to my voice) - Match the subject’s breathing to yours and then guide them to calm breathing
- Concentrate on an irrefutable element (true) outside of attention.
- Direct attention to external noises: “You hear noises around you…”
- Then continue with a non-consensual reality
“Observe … what you think, feel, live…
Thought, sensation, emotion…
in your head, in your body…” - Use ambiguous language with an illogical link
in the same sentence or in the same sentence sequence
“You sit in your chair, listening to the sounds around you,
perhaps watching your hand as it moves in
this room and perhaps already have the solution to the problem…”