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РусскийExercises on Submodalities (SM)
The effect of submodalities can only truly be understood through practice. Please carry out these exercises if you want to learn more about submodalities.
The following exercises serve as essential preliminary steps for the successful application of other submodality techniques.
1. Identifying Submodalities
- Person A enters a positive state. Person B elicits the submodalities using the SM checklist and notes them down. Break state.
- A then recalls a less pleasant state they would like to relieve later. B also elicits the SM here and records them. Break state.
- B ensures that A returns to a good state. Then compare the SM of the pleasant and unpleasant states. What key differences become visible?
Tips for Eliciting Submodalities
When helping A recall the experience, you might ask questions such as:
Visual:
What do you see? Do you see yourself, or are you part of the scene (associated/dissociated)?
If dissociated: Is it more like a picture or a movie?
If a picture: Is it framed or unframed? Close or distant? etc.
Auditory:
What do you hear?
Are they voices, sounds, tones, or silence?
If a voice: Where does it come from? Is it high or low? etc.
Kinesthetic:
If associated: What body sensations are connected with this experience? Where in the body do you feel them? Do they have a temperature?
If yes: warm or cool? etc.
If dissociated: Does the person in that image also have bodily sensations connected to the experience?
If yes: Where in the body do you feel them? etc.
Important: Distinguish clearly between physical sensations (= kinesthetic) and emotions (= meta-feelings)! Meta-feelings are evaluative emotions combining information from all senses. Kinesthetic sensations are purely physical, such as warmth in the chest. Meta-feelings are used in SM work only as a check for the effect of specific submodalities (= reactions to the sensory representation of an experience).
2. Identifying “Critical Submodalities” and Intensifying a Positive Experience
A recalls the positive experience from the previous exercise.
► Exercise: Now, change the SM of this state one at a time and observe the following:
Does the meta-feeling change?
If yes: Does it move toward K– or K++ (worse or better)?
Do other submodalities change automatically as well?
If yes: You have found a critical submodality!
C notes the results.
Return the SM to the original position and change the next one.
Once you have identified the person’s critical submodalities, take those that led to K++ and modify them again. How has A’s experience intensified now?
3. Identifying “Critical Submodalities” and Weakening an Unpleasant Experience
A recalls the unpleasant state from the first exercise.
Now change the SM of this state one at a time and observe:
Does the meta-feeling change?
If yes: Toward K– or K++?
Do other submodalities shift automatically as well?
If yes: You’ve found a critical submodality!
C records the results.
Return the SM to the starting position and alter the next one.
After identifying the person’s critical submodalities, take those that led to neutral or positive changes (K neutral or K+) and adjust them. How has A’s experience changed now? Remember to consider ecology.