2. Human beings rely on language to share experience. For the most part, the
sentences we form are unconscious productions. We often limit ourselves through
the language we use, and distort immediate perception from our deeper reality.
The NLP Meta Model, is an effective model for dealing with distortions in everyday
language, to help people have richer experience in language and an enhanced
internal personal experience. In this presentation, I will present an overview of the
three categories distortion, deletion and generalisation and describe five meta
model patterns in the distortion category.
3. The Universal Model Process has within it 3 elements:
- Distortion - The process of representing parts of the model
differently than how they were originally represented e.g
process to event
- Generalisation - The way a specific experience (or number of
experiences) is mapped to represent the complete category of
which it is a member
- Deletion - Where portions of the mental map are omitted and
do not appear in the verbal expression
4. Meta Model Distortions
Mind Reading: - Claiming to know the thoughts, feelings, intentions,
meanings, motivations, or other internal processes of another person - with
no basis in reasonable, logical grounds for interpretation or direct, sensory
observation.
Examples
‘I know you don’t like me?’
‘I know you are curious’
‘I know you are sad?’
There is an obvious distortion in the sentences above as the speaker has no
evidence in deep structure for the statement. To challenge the coach asks
the speaker to specify their evidence for the hallucination
Challenge: ‘How do you know I am ...”
5. Lost Performative
Value judgement where the performer of the judgement is not stated. The
speaker expresses the statement as a generalisation true for the world.
(Good/bad etc)
Examples
“It’s bad to be inconsistent’
‘It’s rude to be loud’
‘It’s good to be timely’
The distortion, has no evidence, it’s frequently based on family or cultural
filter. To break the distortion the NLP Practitioner asks the speaker to specify
evidence for their statement
Challenge: According to whom? “Who says so?“ “How do you know?”
6. Cause Effect Pattern:
The implication or direct claim that one thing causes, or is caused by, another when
there is no well-formed logical support or demonstrable, sensory-based evidence
to support a causal connection.
Examples
‘You make me sad?’
‘People talking at once causes me anxiety?
Cause – effect can only exist in mechanical systems, there is no cause effect in
biological system. There is nothing anyone or anything can do to affect your
internal state, the distortion here is, it’s our response to the external stimuli, not
the stimuli itself. The meta Model challenge is designed for the speaker to access
resources and have a different response, and thus choice.
Challenge: “How specifically does people talking at once ‘cause’ you to choose
anxiety ?”
Or offer a counter example
7. Complex Equivalence Pattern
Statements where complex situations, ideas, objects or their meanings
are equated as synonymous.
Examples
‘You always yell at me means you don’t like me’
He’s a man, he is lucky
The statements above are highly distorted the speaker is creating
meaning by linking two unrelated components. The meta model
question is designed to break the equivalence and recover choice.
“How specifically does my yelling mean I don’t like you?”
“Has someone ever yelled at someone you liked?
8. Presuppositions:
Presuppositions are the linguistic equivalent of assumptions. To make sense of a sentence
the listener and/or speaker accept the presuppositions/assumptions as being true.
Presuppositions are the distorted assumptions inherent in natural language.
Examples
“If My husband knew how much I suffered he wouldn’t act that way”
Presuppositions in the sentence
She suffers
Her husband acts in some way
Her husband does not know she suffers
You can use any Meta Model pattern to challenge the distortions that are present
assumptions in language .
How do you choose to suffer? Recovers choice.
How specifically is he acting? Specifies the verb.
How do you know he doesn’t know? Challenges the mind read
9. Meta Model improves our ability to
- Better understand people and what's behind their problem behaviours
- Identify how best to motivate colleagues and customers
- Communicate clearly and unambiguously
- Coach people in finding their own solutions to difficult situations.
