“Future Pacing”

by Dr. Alexander R. Lees

Over the years I have heard many people say that they’ve attended a workshop or seminar and it was great. They felt energized, excited and were eager to try the new skills they had learned. They were motivated! Many people have also said the same thing about seeing a therapist. They say the session was terrific and they felt better, but a few days later, things were back to the way they were before the session. What happened to those feelings they experienced while at the workshop, or in the therapist’s office? How come they can’t put into practise what they learned at the workshop or in the therapy session?

After becoming aware of this, and wanting to do something to change it, I remembered an NLP technique that would do the trick. I think one of the reasons people weren’t taking the new learning or skills into the “real world” was because the workshop presenter, or therapist, had not future paced the learning or experience adequately.

In other words, the person wasn’t able to take the learning out of the seminar and into their every day lives. The same can be said for the therapist. The person’s issue was cleared in the office, but somehow it didn’t translate or transport into their daily living experience.

So, what is future pacing? This is the concept of contextualization. It is not all that unusual for something learned in one place, or location (context) to be “unavailable” in another (context). This is where future pacing comes in. Future pacing provides a “bridge” from one context to another.

A simple futurepace can be done by simply saying to the client, “Now, can you imagine the next time you are in that situation, and realizing this resource is available to you.”

The word pattern used to create the bridge can vary, the point is to assist the client in using their imagination to contextualize the changework or resource technique to when and where they want it available to them.

Developing the art of future pacing is but one more tool to add to your growing therapeutic toolbox, not to mention that using it not only adds elegance to your work, it will be much appreciated by those you offer assistance to.

And, yes, you may even find situations, events or circumstances where future pacing to be a good thing... one excellent example is taking the learning out of a book or seminar, and having it available when you need it. Now, I’d like you to imagine the next time, in some other context, where the use of future pacing and remembering to use it, would be useful for you!