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New Ways of Seeing: The Art of Therapeutic Reframing: How to use your words to release your clients from limiting beliefs, including examples from 81 real cases.
Meaning is at the heart of being human. The meaning we attach can terrify or elevate us, and in psychotherapy it's often the meaning our clients have given a life event that is at the root of their problems.Hence why the art of reframing - changing meaning - is central to effective therapy.In New Ways of Seeing, therapist of 20 years Mark Tyrrell gives transcripts of real cases where reframes have been used to release clients from restrictive perspectives. Clients with abusive childhoods who now feel they are damaged goods. Smokers who can't resist 'one more cigarette'. People with self esteem so low they believe they have failed at life. By reading the case studies and absorbing the theoretical framework around reframing, you can experience the shifts in meaning for yourself, enhancing your own ability to deliver carefully crafted reframes that will set your clients free.
203 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 18, 2014
237 people are currently reading
455 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 30, 2021
If you enjoyed this, I highly recommend The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves. Though it's less organized and not particularly definitive, it's a bit more enjoyable.
I read this because I was hoping for a system of metaphors that can be used by psychologists for helping their clients reframe. To some extent, New Ways of Seeing delivered. I wish more was understood about the psychology of reframing, but I do like how Tyrrell emphasizes that reframes need to have both an emotional and intellectual impact in order to be effective. Tyrrell describes reframes as "perspective shakers."
Some of my favourite metaphors:
-Viewing depression like anorexia or an addiction, specifically something separate from the self
-Using language to separate client from their own anger (again, a separate entity).
-Valuing people for what they WILL accomplish, similarly to valuing a plot of land that can support a garden rather than just viewing it as wasted space.
-Looking at the mind as a pool of water, its capacity to reflect distorted by stormy weather. Once the surface is calm, the reflection of reality comes more accurate.
-Clients "digest" criticism from others, as if it were something they swallowed. They can then look at the criticism as lacking nutritional value, and even being harmful. Client can then choose to "chew" on incoming criticism and even spit it out if it doesn't serve them.
There's a useful summary at the end, which I will post here because's it worthwhile keeping this in mind as you go through the examples:
"Good Things to Remember When Doing Therapy
-Maintain good rapport with your clients
-Normalise their situations
-Emphasize that their situations are temporary (if realistic)
-Show that things can be different
-Pay attention to the language and images they use and utilize them yourself.
-Metaphorical reframes are often more powerful than direct reframes, as they bypass potential left-brain, analytical resistance. Because they are not consciously connected to anything the client has just said, they don't seem like contradiction, and they can help maintain rapport. They can be used at any time after the client has expressed limiting ideas.
-Scatter approach: use as many stories, metaphors, reframes, etc, as possible, as you can never know exactly which will 'take'.
-Relax and let your own creativity flourish!"
I read this because I was hoping for a system of metaphors that can be used by psychologists for helping their clients reframe. To some extent, New Ways of Seeing delivered. I wish more was understood about the psychology of reframing, but I do like how Tyrrell emphasizes that reframes need to have both an emotional and intellectual impact in order to be effective. Tyrrell describes reframes as "perspective shakers."
Some of my favourite metaphors:
-Viewing depression like anorexia or an addiction, specifically something separate from the self
-Using language to separate client from their own anger (again, a separate entity).
-Valuing people for what they WILL accomplish, similarly to valuing a plot of land that can support a garden rather than just viewing it as wasted space.
-Looking at the mind as a pool of water, its capacity to reflect distorted by stormy weather. Once the surface is calm, the reflection of reality comes more accurate.
-Clients "digest" criticism from others, as if it were something they swallowed. They can then look at the criticism as lacking nutritional value, and even being harmful. Client can then choose to "chew" on incoming criticism and even spit it out if it doesn't serve them.
There's a useful summary at the end, which I will post here because's it worthwhile keeping this in mind as you go through the examples:
"Good Things to Remember When Doing Therapy
-Maintain good rapport with your clients
-Normalise their situations
-Emphasize that their situations are temporary (if realistic)
-Show that things can be different
-Pay attention to the language and images they use and utilize them yourself.
-Metaphorical reframes are often more powerful than direct reframes, as they bypass potential left-brain, analytical resistance. Because they are not consciously connected to anything the client has just said, they don't seem like contradiction, and they can help maintain rapport. They can be used at any time after the client has expressed limiting ideas.
-Scatter approach: use as many stories, metaphors, reframes, etc, as possible, as you can never know exactly which will 'take'.
-Relax and let your own creativity flourish!"
July 5, 2021
Initially I wasn't sure about reading this book, New Ways of Seeing, because it was specifically written for professional therapists seeking to be more effective in helping their clients. I am not a therapist.
But it didn't take long once I started reading it for the book to prove helpful to me both professionally and personally. It fulfilled the statement printed at the bottom of the front cover: "How to use your words to release clients from limiting beliefs..." But in my case, it started to release me from limiting perspectives and attitudes regarding others.
By nature I'm a very rational, logical, evidence and fact-oriented person. Although a religious person, I am also a devout adherent to science, empiricism, and critical thinking. A consequence of that personal orientation is that I can be too judgmental of people who think and speak emotionally, non-rationally, and rejecting science and evidence. I can even be dismissive of them as being "stupid" or "fools."
Mark Tyrell adjusted my thinking and attitude about such emotionally-driven people by pointing out early in "New Ways of Seeing" that successful therapy (and I would add, personal relationships) has more to do with Feeling differently than just Thinking differently. "Emotional responses actually Precede thought...After all, emotions are what spur us on to do things in life." By employing what he identifies as "metaphorical reframes," it becomes possible to provide another person with a new frame of reference by using a a metaphor that mirrors the pattern of someone's circumstances but also contains a hopeful element or a "solution" within it.
What that meant for me is that I don't always have to be dismissive, regarding the emotionally oriented person as either stupid or hopeless, nor try to bludgeon them with facts and hard evidence, but to be more sensitive to the circumstances that cause them to feel and speak or act they way they do. It may well be more effective in adjusting another person's thinking and attitudes by offering a story, a joke, or a metaphor out of their own circumstances that "reframes" the situation or disagreement. It is a softer, more sensitive approach than being aggressively confrontational and attacking someone for being "just Wrong!"
One example: I liked his suggestion of the "the mind as a calm pool." He points out that when people are emotionally aroused - again, most often the starting point in a disagreement or confrontation - "it is difficult to see the wider picture, the other person's point of view." The natural inclination for "fight or flight" can result in a posture of angry opposition, or turning one's back and dismissively rejecting the other person. Metaphorically, the mind is like a pool of water. When the situation is "stormy," the the reflection of reality is fragmented and distorted. A reframing has the possibility of calming the surface of the pool, or the interpersonal situation, and reality becomes much more accurately perceived.
I believe I was able to employ Mr. Tyrell's reframing technique in a situation regarding an officer of an organization I belong to. Instead of openly arguing and being confrontational with the opponent (whom I regarded as "thickheaded" and blind to facts), I defused the situation with humor and suggested that the officer and I were actually committed to the same goal - getting the job done well and even with fun, and that as a "team" we could accomplish more that pulling apart in different directions.
I believe that lots of people would find this book helpful. You don't have to be a professional therapist to want to achieve better relationships with other persons.
But it didn't take long once I started reading it for the book to prove helpful to me both professionally and personally. It fulfilled the statement printed at the bottom of the front cover: "How to use your words to release clients from limiting beliefs..." But in my case, it started to release me from limiting perspectives and attitudes regarding others.
By nature I'm a very rational, logical, evidence and fact-oriented person. Although a religious person, I am also a devout adherent to science, empiricism, and critical thinking. A consequence of that personal orientation is that I can be too judgmental of people who think and speak emotionally, non-rationally, and rejecting science and evidence. I can even be dismissive of them as being "stupid" or "fools."
Mark Tyrell adjusted my thinking and attitude about such emotionally-driven people by pointing out early in "New Ways of Seeing" that successful therapy (and I would add, personal relationships) has more to do with Feeling differently than just Thinking differently. "Emotional responses actually Precede thought...After all, emotions are what spur us on to do things in life." By employing what he identifies as "metaphorical reframes," it becomes possible to provide another person with a new frame of reference by using a a metaphor that mirrors the pattern of someone's circumstances but also contains a hopeful element or a "solution" within it.
What that meant for me is that I don't always have to be dismissive, regarding the emotionally oriented person as either stupid or hopeless, nor try to bludgeon them with facts and hard evidence, but to be more sensitive to the circumstances that cause them to feel and speak or act they way they do. It may well be more effective in adjusting another person's thinking and attitudes by offering a story, a joke, or a metaphor out of their own circumstances that "reframes" the situation or disagreement. It is a softer, more sensitive approach than being aggressively confrontational and attacking someone for being "just Wrong!"
One example: I liked his suggestion of the "the mind as a calm pool." He points out that when people are emotionally aroused - again, most often the starting point in a disagreement or confrontation - "it is difficult to see the wider picture, the other person's point of view." The natural inclination for "fight or flight" can result in a posture of angry opposition, or turning one's back and dismissively rejecting the other person. Metaphorically, the mind is like a pool of water. When the situation is "stormy," the the reflection of reality is fragmented and distorted. A reframing has the possibility of calming the surface of the pool, or the interpersonal situation, and reality becomes much more accurately perceived.
I believe I was able to employ Mr. Tyrell's reframing technique in a situation regarding an officer of an organization I belong to. Instead of openly arguing and being confrontational with the opponent (whom I regarded as "thickheaded" and blind to facts), I defused the situation with humor and suggested that the officer and I were actually committed to the same goal - getting the job done well and even with fun, and that as a "team" we could accomplish more that pulling apart in different directions.
I believe that lots of people would find this book helpful. You don't have to be a professional therapist to want to achieve better relationships with other persons.
April 24, 2021
I am not a Therapist by profession, but have learned metaphors over time.
Mark Tyrell is a Fantastic Therapist, in this book he shows how subtle metaphors can bypass the neurotic conscious mind. He reframes things from a different perspective in therapy with his clients, and they are able to unconsciously move past. or ameliorate the sticking point.
Some of my favorite metaphors were the : The Oak Tree standing tall in the forest while the storms buffet it, the monkey swinging through the forest, looking for a string, The Merry-Go-round used to reacquire momentum in life, and many others. I like how he elicits the fact that emotional content,
is in many situations more powerful than just rational thinking. A bitter pill may be swallowed, or a difficult situation may be assimilated when embedded within a story.
I think this is what James Allen was trying to do in "As a Man Thinketh" a book with great metaphors, but giving too much weight to thought alone.
Too much "conscious effort" defeats your efforts
"The Joy that comes to the gods, and those who imitate them is unbroken and never ceases" Seneca Epistles
Mark Tyrell is a Fantastic Therapist, in this book he shows how subtle metaphors can bypass the neurotic conscious mind. He reframes things from a different perspective in therapy with his clients, and they are able to unconsciously move past. or ameliorate the sticking point.
Some of my favorite metaphors were the : The Oak Tree standing tall in the forest while the storms buffet it, the monkey swinging through the forest, looking for a string, The Merry-Go-round used to reacquire momentum in life, and many others. I like how he elicits the fact that emotional content,
is in many situations more powerful than just rational thinking. A bitter pill may be swallowed, or a difficult situation may be assimilated when embedded within a story.
I think this is what James Allen was trying to do in "As a Man Thinketh" a book with great metaphors, but giving too much weight to thought alone.
Too much "conscious effort" defeats your efforts
"The Joy that comes to the gods, and those who imitate them is unbroken and never ceases" Seneca Epistles
June 22, 2015
This book will be useful for:
-therapists
-teachers/counselors
-parents
-(to a lesser extent) people struggling with personal issues
Mark Tyrell is a hypno-therapist who runs the HypnosisDownloads Web site with Roger Elliott - which I highly recommend.
The book is a collection of short examples of how a problem can be reframed in a way that matches the knowledge, experience, and state of the person suffering the problem.
I love how the therapist refrains from judgement statements (EX Smoking is stupid, wrong etc.) and leads the client to reach those conclusions on his/her own. My experience is that walls and defenses go up immediately when an individual feels criticized - even if they actually want help with a problem.
I think that this could be very effective with students, my own children, and even myself!
-therapists
-teachers/counselors
-parents
-(to a lesser extent) people struggling with personal issues
Mark Tyrell is a hypno-therapist who runs the HypnosisDownloads Web site with Roger Elliott - which I highly recommend.
The book is a collection of short examples of how a problem can be reframed in a way that matches the knowledge, experience, and state of the person suffering the problem.
I love how the therapist refrains from judgement statements (EX Smoking is stupid, wrong etc.) and leads the client to reach those conclusions on his/her own. My experience is that walls and defenses go up immediately when an individual feels criticized - even if they actually want help with a problem.
I think that this could be very effective with students, my own children, and even myself!
October 14, 2015
A fantastically well written and detailed look at reframing,,or finding other ways to see a situation,to enable flexible thinking and ultimately better outcomes.
Too often we are stuck with our blinkers on seeing a situation in our lives in only one way. The techniques in this book will help you and your clients remove those blinkers.
Buy the Tales of the Dervishes as recommended by the authors as a great accompaniment and reference for story telling ideas.
Too often we are stuck with our blinkers on seeing a situation in our lives in only one way. The techniques in this book will help you and your clients remove those blinkers.
Buy the Tales of the Dervishes as recommended by the authors as a great accompaniment and reference for story telling ideas.
February 27, 2019
Brilliant books filled with dozens of examples of reframing. Definitely something that will benefit both the novice and the expert and anyone in between, even if you're not involved in therapy it is still a useful gem for influencing people to feel better or see things from a more empowering perspective. Will definitely be rereading this in the near future.
December 25, 2017
A Worthwhile Read
There's a lot of food for thought in the case examples and metaphors used. Reframing is a communication skill that should be taught to many.
There's a lot of food for thought in the case examples and metaphors used. Reframing is a communication skill that should be taught to many.
January 9, 2020
Long list of scenerios with possible reframes. Mostly presenting metaphors in the person's own language.
April 22, 2021
Really useful resource in giving concrete examples of how reframing is used in practise with clients. I like how this isn’t just theory but explains clearly what it looks like in the therapy room.
July 12, 2023
New Ways of Seeing is a great book that teaches therapists and people how to help others with their problems. It talks about using words to help clients change their negative beliefs. The book gives 81 real examples that show how this works. It made me think differently and feel more positive. The book is easy to understand and has lots of practical advice. It's a must-read for anyone who wants to help others and make a positive difference in their lives. I really liked it and recommend it.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews