This one should be pretty easy. Two of my friends bite their nails when they are nervous.

If I understand well from what I have learned on my training and from what I have read on forums I should deal with nervousness and habit it self.

I should elicit the strategy for nail biting. In their cases it could be something like they get nervous, they their hand and then they start to bit their nails. This could be done by swish pattern for example.

Next step would be help them with their nervousness. I should use meta model to find when they are nervous and how specifically they got nervous yes? I will elicit their strategy for that and I could mess with that by changing submodalities or using collapsing anchors?

How about that they probably(didn't asked them yet) don't bite their nails every time they are nervous?

Michael Neil talked about this on his show the other day. He used a 6 step reframe. Seems a straightforward way of going about it.

Interesting because Michael does a lot of work with Richard Bandler and Richard doesn't teach 6 step reframe anymore, he says it was only introduced to get round the ban on hypnosis in certain states.

Once, I was assisting on a training event and I was going to be demonstrating a Swish, so I asked around for people who might have some habit they want to change. A nail biter came up. Thing is, he didn't believe he could change. So I decided that the week before the demonstration, I'd see him privately and just build the belief that he could change.

So the day of the demonstration came and he came up to me before the start of the session and said, "err, I've got a problem". I said, "What?". He said, "I don't bite my nails any more."

Now, I never got to do the swish. Not with him. Never had to. Somehow, giving him the belief that it could change was the only blocker he needed cleared and he was able to go all of the rest of the way by himself.

Now, that's not to say that's "the procedure" for curing nail biting. It's a comment on the fact there isn't a canned procedure and things don't always happen according to the text book.

Anyway, swish and 6-step re-framing do both fall into this kind of area.

Cheers

Stephen, you are completaly right there isn't canned procedure and thats why I am asking. There could be many reasons why and how my friends is bitting his nails. What I found was that he bites them when he is nervous I should deal with that too no?

I might address the behavior itself, and any beliefs (way to put yourself out of work, Stephen!), and identity, if that comes up ("I'm a nail biter"). 6 step reframing usually works a treat at the behavior level, as does a swish, to make the old trigger a new anchor for being calm, relaxed, and comfortable. You might never have to think about WHY he does it at all.

How about that they probably(didn't asked them yet) don't bite their nails every time they are nervous?

I have read somewhere about Bandler using Swish pattern to help with nail-biting problem. Could be worthwhile to try it out.

Vivek.

One of my friends asked me what he should do to stop biting his nails. I immediately told him that if it was any help, I could chop off his finger tips and took out my cigar cutter and grabbed one of his fingers and pulled it into the cutter. Besides, do you know that people don't wash their hands when they do stuff and they touch everything with those hands. And we touch those things - door knobs, elevator buttons, staircase railings, et al. Do we really want to bite the nails off the hands that we have touched everywhere? I guess the revulsion of these reminders was grotesque enough for him. He hasn't chewed his finger nails - at least not in front of me ever since.

Regards,

- Anil