Hi Kevin,

This will be brief--otherwise it could get way too long!

CBT says that it is the combination of 'events' and our 'thinking' in response to events, that creates our emotional responses and subsequent behaviours.

CBT initiates change by having the client notice their thinking, write it down on paper, evaluate its utility in regards to the situation, create new, more useful thoughts, and then replace the old thoughts with the new, creating new more useful emotional and behavioural outcomes. For quite a large proportion of clients (my guess--about 75%) this process works well and is fairly easy to learn.

In NLP terms, the CBT change process has elements of disassociation, sub-modality change, and major modality change built in. Since the originators (and most of the practitioners), were very competent in auditory processes, the change is mostly framed in terms of auditory (self-talk, assertions, etc.). There is a dearth of visualisation processes, and kinaesthetic processes are only referenced in terms of emotional or behavioural outcomes--rarely in terms of processing.

For those clients who do not have a facility in auditory, the failure rate is very high.

The modality, sub-modality, and disassociative parts of the change process seem to be either accidental or un-noticed. In my experience they are never explored but are only a part of the basic pattern.

I am currently attempting to put together a workshop (or workshop series) that teaches experienced CBT therapists to pay attention to the un-explored change categories, and to expand the basic CBT process in two directions--
1. More direct use of modality, sub-modality, and disassociation as deliberate tools.
2. Include change processes, namely visual and kinaesthetic, for those clients who do not routinely use the auditory channel with any skill or facility.

I'm finding it quite challenging, and a lot more complex than I had expected. I originally just translated the CBT process into a V and K pattern, but found that CBT therapists had difficulties without a larger grounding in NLP.

I hope this answers your question.

I'd be happy to entertain more questions--they help me clarify my thinking. And of course direct help is always welcome!

Greg