Reframing

Definition of Reframing

The term "Reframing", mistakenly often also written as "Refraiming" is derived from the English word "Frame", which means "frame". Reframing (re-interpretation) literally means giving things a new frame.

The meaning of an event, statement, behavior, belief Statement of faith The trigger or stimulus has its meaning depending on the context in which we place it, the frame we give it. Frame is the frame. Reframing means constructing a new frame, giving a new meaning. A picture can look entirely different and have a different effect when placed in a new frame. When a problem is reframed, the same event gets a new meaning: New reactions and new behavior become possible. Reframing refers to the process of reinterpretation, taking on a new perspective, a new way of perception, a new interpretation.

What is Reframing? Explained by Stephan Landsiedel

Assumptions

When reframing, the following assumptions are made:

• Every behavior is in some sense meaningful. Each behavior is assigned a
• meaning. Behind every behavior lies a
• positive intention .

Quotes on the topic of Reframing

"It's not things themselves that trouble us, but rather our interpretation of the meaning of these events that determines our reaction."
- Marcus Aurelius

"Always look at the bright side of things - and if they have no bright side, then polish the dark one until it shines."
- Nikolaus Enkelmann

A Reframing Story

The Farmer and the Horse (Taken from the book "Reframing" by Bandler/Grinder)

An ancient Chinese tale tells of a farmer in a poor village community who was thought to be lucky because he owned a horse that he used for plowing and transporting goods. One day, his horse ran away. All his neighbors were shocked, but the farmer said only, "Who knows what good it will do?" A few days later, the horse returned with two wild horses. The neighbors were all delighted at his good fortune, but the farmer said again, "Who knows what good it will do?" The next day, the farmer's son tried to ride one of the wild horses and was thrown off and broke his leg. The neighbors sent him their condolences for this misfortune, but the farmer said once more, "Who knows what good it will do?"

A week later, recruitment officers came to the village to take young men into the army. They didn't want the farmer's son because he had a broken leg. When the neighbors told him how lucky he was, the farmer replied: "Who knows what good it will do.".

Reframings appear in.

• in jokes: Almost every joke works by reframing events and suddenly and drastically changing them. In jokes, you take an object or situation and suddenly put it into a different context or give it a different meaning. Example: What do Alexander the Great and Smokey the Bear have in common?
• Fables and stories: e.g. Pinocchio (the long nose is first negative because he lies - but in the whale, it allows him to escape, because it closes his mouth).
• Creative processes: An unusual event is seen in a new context and suddenly a great invention emerges:
  
  A man wakes up at night and feels the sharp end of an old rusty spring from his mattress poking into his back. What possible use could an old mattress spring have? (Besides keeping him awake.) He reinterpreted it as a stylish egg cup and founded a successful company based on this idea.
  
  A friend of physicist Donald Glaser pointed to a glass of beer and joked: "Why don't they use that to catch subatomic particles?" Glaser looked at the bubbles forming in the beer and went back to his laboratory to invent the "bubble chamber", similar to Wilson's cloud chamber, to determine the path of charged particles in high-energy experiments.
  
  For a sawmill, wood shavings are waste - for a plywood factory, they're raw material. The meaning of wood shavings is the same (coarse wood dust that forms when cutting boards and logs) but the context is different.

Types of Reframing:

We distinguish between. two. types of reframing.

• Contextual reframing:

  

  Reframing of unwanted behavior into a suitable context and finding new, suitable behavior for the previous "problem context".
  
  "Example: A father calls his daughter stubborn. The therapist says: Imagine your daughter is being harassed by a man. Wouldn't it be useful if she were then stubborn?"
  
  The therapeutic purpose of this intervention is to help the father develop a positive feeling for the rejected property.
  
  Context reframings are indicated when in the client's linguistic representation of the problem a comparison appears that has the form: "I am too X" or "He/she is too X". In this case, there is a Generalization beforehand, because the rejected property is considered wrong in all conceivable contexts. By finding a context where the property is suitable and useful, the therapist reverses the generalization and replaces it with a context-dependent statement." (from "The NLP Dictionary" by Ötsch/Stahl)
  
  Reframe: Find a context where X is useful.

• Meaning reframing (=content reframing):

  Finding a "more suitable" meaning for the behavior experienced as problematic = another perspective on the same phenomenon.
  
  Example: A mother gets annoyed with her children's footprints on the carpet. "Footprints on the carpet" have for her the meaning: "Nobody respects me." A new meaning could be: "Footprints on the carpet" have the meaning: "Loving people are in the house."
  
  Meaning reframing is used when in the client's linguistic model an expression appears that has the form of a complex equivalence: "I feel x, if y happens" - can be represented as: "x means I must feel y." (from: The NLP Dictionary by Ötsch/Stahl)
  
  Reframe: "How about Y now meaning Z?"

  

Separation of intention and behavior

This is an important NLP principle. Often, an intention can be very positive and good, but the behavior intended to achieve it may not be. We can appreciate the positive intention and replace the behavior.

At the heart of reframing lies the distinction between behavior and intention: between what one actually does and what one tries to achieve through this behavior.

Examples:

The way to get rid of unwanted behavior is not to try to stop it with willpower. This guarantees that it will persist, because you give it attention and energy. Find a better way to achieve your intention, one that fits better with your overall personality. You don't destroy the gas lamps before installing electricity, unless you want to sit in the dark.

(from Neurolinguistisches Programmieren: "Successful Communication and Personal Development" by Joseph O´Connor and John Seymour)

Learn more about Reframing in the online seminar recording with our trainer Joerg-Friedrich Gampper.