Types of Reframing

There are two types of reframing:

A. Context Reframing: Placing an unwanted behavior into a suitable context and finding a new, appropriate behavior for the previous "problem context."


"An example: A father calls his daughter stubborn. The therapist says: Imagine your daughter is being harassed by a man. Wouldn't it be very useful if she were then stubborn?" The therapeutic purpose of this intervention is to help the father develop a positive feeling for the rejected trait.




Context reframings are indicated when the client's linguistic representation of the problem includes a comparison that takes the form of: "I am too X" or "He/she is too X." In this case, there is a generalization, as the rejected trait is considered wrong in all conceivable contexts. By finding a context in which the trait is appropriate and useful, the therapist retracts the generalization and replaces it with a context-related "statement."

B. Meaning Reframing (= Content Reframing): Finding a "more appropriate" meaning for the behavior experienced as problematic = a different perspective on the same phenomenon.

Example: A mother is annoyed by her children's footprints on the carpet. Footprints on the carpet mean to her: "No one respects me." A new meaning could be: Footprints on the carpet mean: "Loved ones are in the house."
Meaning reframing is used when a statement appears in the client's linguistic model that takes the form of a complex equivalence: "I feel x when y happens" → can be mapped to: "x means that I must feel y."

In NLP, there is also the useful assumption that we consist of many sub-personalities that live together under the same skin in forced kinship. Each part tries to achieve its own goal. The more these parts can be connected and work together in harmony, the happier the person will be. However, there are often conflicts between the parts, even though each part has a positive intention.

Example: Smoking is bad for the body, but it relaxes you, occupies your hands, and maintains friendships with others. Quitting smoking without considering these other needs leaves a vacuum. To quote Mark Twain: "Quitting smoking is easy. I do it every day." Instead of giving up habits with willpower, we want to find a way to appreciate the partially inappropriate behavior.


When the client has a symptom or behavior that they would like to turn off their awareness of, e.g., smoking, nail-biting, compulsive washing, unwanted feelings, outbursts of anger, concentration difficulties, depressive states, etc., it is advisable to apply the Six-Step Reframing. However, it must be ensured that the positive intention behind the original behavior is guaranteed by a new behavior that is just as good or better, just as easy or easier, just as safe or safer, and just as effective or even more effective than the problem behavior.

Phases of the Six-Step Reframing:

1. Identify the pattern (X) that needs to be changed: I want to stop X, but I can't. I want to do Y, but something is holding me back.

2. Establish communication with the part that is responsible for the pattern. Will the part of me that prompts me to X communicate with me consciously? Pay attention to everything - feelings, images, smells, sounds - that happens internally in response to this question. Establish the "yes/no" meaning of the signal. Let clarity, volume, or intensity increase for yes and decrease for no.

3. Separate the behavior, the pattern X, from the positive intention of the part responsible for X. The unwanted behavior is just one way to achieve a certain positive function. Ask the part responsible for X: Would you be willing to let me know consciously what you are trying to do with the pattern X? If you get a yes answer, ask the part to share its intention. If you get a no answer, continue with the unconscious reframing, with the premise of a positive intention. Is this intention acceptable to consciousness? Do you want to have a part that performs this function? Ask the part responsible for X: If there were ways to perform your positive function just as well or better than with the help of X, would you be interested in trying them out?

4. Access a creative part and bring forth new behaviors to exercise the positive function. Make experiences of creativity accessible and anchor them or ask: Are you aware of having a creative part? Let the part responsible for X communicate its positive function to the creative part, allow the creative part to come up with further possibilities for exercising this function, and let the part that was responsible for X choose three of these possibilities that are at least as good as X or better. Have it send a yes signal each time it selects such an alternative.

5. Ask the part: Are you willing to take responsibility for using the three new alternatives in the appropriate context? This also ensures a bridge into the future. Additionally, you can ask the part on an unconscious level to identify the sensory cues that trigger the new choices, to fully experience what it is like when these sensory cues effortlessly and automatically bring about one of the new choices.

6. Ecological check: Does any of my parts have any objections to the three new alternatives? If there is a yes response, go back up to step 2.