This Exercise can be used to help you
understand how you often say one thing with your body and
another thing with your words; one thing with your heart
and another thing with your rational mind. You can also
use this exercise to help you better understand what you
really want and/or believe in.
Get together in groups of three: The Interviewer, the Client,
and an Observer.
The Observer is to act as the Interviewer's colleague, and
in particular is to note whether or not each question gets
answered "correctly" by the Client. When a question
does not get answered correctly, the Observer and or the Interviewer
make suggestions for corrections.
Preparatory Stage
1. The Client carefully considers
an aspiration that they have been feeling stuck about. Don't
pick something that you are totally stuck on, and at the same
time please do not choose an aspiration that isn't really
all that important. Choose something that is rather important
to you. The Client is to state their aspiration in a clear
short sentence. "I want a better paying job." Or
"I want to get married." Or ... … .
The Interviewer is to make sure that the sentence is short
and concise. This is important.
The Interviewer writes down the aspiration.
2. On a scale of one to ten,
the Client rates how likely it is that s/he will achieve their
goal. A score of 10 means s/he feels attaining the goal is
100% likely. A scale of 1 means the person feels like s/he
almost certainly will not achieve the goal. For the sake of
this exercise, please do not pick an aspiration that is an
8-10 to start out with. Better to pick something in the 3-7
range.
3. The Interview asks a series
of questions that are meant to elicit info about potentially
important elements of the Client's life. The Interviewer should
note and ask twelve basic questions. Each question is to have
a "Yes" or "No" answer. The Interviewer
writes down these answers in a simple format.
Possible questions:
"Is your name X?" "Are you a female?"
"Are you married?" "Do you like your job?"
"Do you have children?" "Is you favorite hobby
golf?" "Is your favorite food fried grasshoppers?"
"Are you a dentist?"
4. After asking the twelve
questions, the Interviewer, along with the Observer divides
the twelve questions into two groups of six questions each.
At the bottom of each group of six questions the Interviewer
adds a seventh question, which is repeated verbatim in both
groups. The seventh question is:
"Do you feel like you are likely to achieve your aspiration
of … … …?"
Level One task:
5. The Client is SLOWLY asked
the first group of six questions + one.
The Client's method of answering:
The Client is to answer "truthfully" with their
head, shaking "Yes" or "No", while giving
the opposite answer with their verbal "Yes" or "No".
So if I was being interviewed and I was asked, "Is your
name Charlie?" I would shake my head "Yes",
as I verbally answer "No." If I was asked if I was
a woman, I would shake my head "No" while saying
"Yes." It is important, as much as possible, to
shake the head and give the answer at the same time, OR lead
a bit with your somatic answer.
Level Two task:
6. The Client is now SLOWLY
asked the second set of six questions + one.
This time the Client's method of answering is the opposite
of what was just done.
The client is to answer "truthfully" with their
words, and the opposite with the shaking of their head.
So if I was being interviewed, "Is your name Charlie?"
I would say "Yes" as I shook my head "No."
If I was asked if I was a woman, I would say "No"
as I shook my head "Yes." It is important, as much
as possible, to shake the head and give the answer at the
same time.
Level Three Task:
7. All three members sit and
breathe for about three minutes. No talking, just sitting
and breathing.
Level Four task:
8. The Client thinks about
their aspiration again.
And once again the Client rates how likely it is that s/he
will accomplish their aspiration.
Debrief:
- Which task (words correct and body incorrect or vice versa)
did the Client find hardest to do?
- Which individual questions were most difficult to answer?
- Did the Client's feeling of how likely s/he was to achieve
their aspiration change?
- Did this kind of process create confusion for the Client?
- Is the feeling the Client had doing this exercise at all
like the feelings they have when they answer questions that
they are uncertain about?
- Would the Interviewer and or the Observer like to share
anything about what they noticed and learned?
Practices
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