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Download Frank Farrelly Interview online! (MP3) |
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Download Frank Farrelly Interview online! (MP3) |
Frank Farrelly, the creator of the field of Provocative Therapy, was born into an Irish American family as the ninth of twelve children. During his workshops he often references his childhood experiences and how these were a key influence on his work.
"I was raised in a never-ending encounter group in the country - you were faced with instantaneous feedback whether you were ready for it or not!"
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He had originally intended to become a priest, but in his
words he “flunked obedience” and instead began his clinical training in the late
1950s, when he worked initially as a social worker and subsequently at Mendota
State Hospital in Madison Wisconsin. During this time he came into contact with
Carl Rogers and was involved in a substantial project working with
schizophrenics.
Dr Graham Dawes comments in his excellent article “The Bermuda Triangle of the Mind”* on the instance when Frank first began to move from the traditional client centred therapeutic approach to what was to eventually evolve into the field of Provocative Therapy.
In the late 1970s the Temple University Psychiatric Department held a conference, 'Analysing the Analyst' where here Frank subsequently gave a number of demonstrations of his work. It was during this period that Dr Richard Bandler and John Grinder began to take great interest in Frank’s work My personal view in having seen both Dr Bandler and Frank up close on a number of occasions, is that provocative therapy is a significant influence on the creation of NLP. |
In 2003 while assisting on one of Richard Bandler’s seminars in London, Richard himself referred to Frank as one of the key influences on the creation of NLP. Many of the delegates present were of course familiar with other such well-known luminaries as Milton Erickson, Virginia Satir, Fritz Pearls and Gregory Bateson, but had not heard of Frank until this point. Richard Bandler memorably commented
“If you think I’m wild, you should meet Frank”.
I made an immediate mental note to seek out as much information on Frank as possible and after a months extensive research I had only located the original Provocative Therapy book and a cassette tape from the 1970s! Apart from this, the only other published book is 'Frannies Welt: Ein Kindheit In Missouri' which is the German translation of “Me and God” As someone who doesn’t speak or understand German, I am fortunate enough to have been given a copy of the original manuscript which of course is in English!
“Me and God” is a fascinating tale of Frank’s upbringing with such wonderful chapter titles as “Never make a real miracle worker angry” and my personal favourite “How I almost lost my soul with a protestant heretic girl one night at a drive in movie” The stories in the book deal with the many complexities of human relationships, a theme which is also apparent in Frank’s one to one interviews which form the basis of his workshops.
My first personal encounter with Frank was during a four day Provocative Therapy Master Class. Those of us in attendance had absolutely no idea of what to expect, and
I was amazed that there were only twenty of us present at this workshop.
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explore each interviewee’s “models and maps of their world” by interacting with
each delegate with a twinkle in the eye and warmth in the heart. Frank
frequently refers to the importance of working from the heart charka in
provocative therapy sessions; describing this process as “the interaction
between two old friends” Frank is a master of building rapport and almost
chameleon like in his ability to engage a wide and diverse spectrum of
individuals. I volunteered for a personal session, initially with a certain
degree of apprehension.
I quickly noticed how Frank works on many levels with extraordinary speed and precision. During this particular session I described a work situation, which had been troubling me in which a business partner had a tendency to procrastinate in making decisions. I noticed during my interactions with Frank that I became increasingly defensive about my situation, insisting that my role in the company afforded me flexibility, which was compensation enough for my other frustrations. All these sessions were recorded and I recently listed back to this tape with some amusement noting how the following comments from Frank, had a profound effect on my perception of the situation.
I have since spoken to many others experienced NLP trainers and therapists including Andrew Austin, Jamie Smart and Sue Knight, all of whom had similar experiences in lightening quick resolutions of what they previously considered to be problems. |
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Anyone seeking out a greater insight into Frank’s work should certainly attend one of his seminars as well as reading Jaap Hollander’s excellent Farrelly Factors**. Jaap describes these as
“39 behaviours, strategic patterns and mental activities that Frank Farrelly, the founder of Provocative Therapy, does, feels and thinks when working with a client”
These were originally defined by Jaap Hollander, Ph.D. with help of Dr. Graham Dawes and René Duba.
These factors are divided into seven main sections as follows
General provocative tools include interrupting the client, mimicking the client, misinterpreting the client’s confusion and ineptly undermining favourable feedback. One of my favourite Farrelly factors under the category of reacting to the client is suggesting that the client do more of the same, think more of the same and feel more of the same! A frequently used question in provocative therapy is “What’s wrong with that?” Such a question can be asked in situations which may to the external observer seem quite bizarre, but to the client such a question shifts the client’s attention into re-examining what they imagine to be a problem.
This article is a basic introduction to Frank’s work, so there is not really the room to explain and detail all of Jaap’s “Farrelly Factors”, but I have detailed below examples of ongoing behaviours that a provocative therapist would utilise throughout a client session.
Here the therapist maintains both eye contact and physical contact (repeated
touch, stroking, patting, friendly gentle 'punching', et cetera). He also will
have tendency to lean towards the client.
The therapist will do this most of the time, and especially when the client
seems to want to avoid eye contact because s/he is embarrassed or in a strongly
emotional state.
The therapist speaks in a joking, teasing tone of voice. He or she also may use these three other voice tones:
1. Joking
Here the therapists speaks in a teasing, joking tone of voice.
2. Hypnotic
Often during PT sessions, clients enter states of great confusion, discovering
an inability to access their previously “perceived problem” The therapist would
often then use a hypnotic tone of voice providing positive suggestions, while
matching the client’s breathing
3. Quasi frustrated
This is where the client keeps repeating the same statements, and the therapist
counters by talking in an quasi frustrated tone as if you were saying: "You are
an impossible case for this tired old therapist".
3) Nonverbal Mirroring
I have noticed that Frank frequently mirrors clients in his sessions in his body
language and is a master of creating rapport through pacing and leading
4) The Use of Anecdotes
Frank often uses anecdotes in his client sessions and frequently references
movies and songs (usually from the country and western genre!) During one master
class he even broke into song for a few minutes, producing one of the most
profound client state changes I have ever witnessed!
5) Focussing intently on the Client
The therapist concentrates his or her full attention on the client as if they
were about to explode in some manner. In each PT session the moment when the
client has a profound change of state in relation to the problem is what Frank
describes as “the bingo moment”
6) Not helping the Client!
This is where the therapist makes no effort to assist the client. Frank has
described this as the most difficult behaviour to exhibit during a session.
7) Not keeping track of the Session
Here the therapist deliberately makes irrelevant remarks and fails to keep track
of the client’s responses
8) Being Easily Distracted. Be very Dumb
React in a dissociated, distracted manner to statements the client emphasizes or
presents with emotion. You react especially strongly to statements that seem
important to you but that the client offers in an offhand manner or in a manner
that seems to say 'I don't really want to talk about this now", or "This is not
really important". To statements that the client emphasizes on the other hand,
you have just the opposite response: you repeat them in a listless, bored tone
of voice, you forget them, you ask for irrelevant details (thereby showing you
don't understand them) etcetera. Frank seems to presuppose that the client
cannot learn much from repeating what he already knows. Don't be too smart or
intelligent. The intellectual analysis of the clients problem is only valuable -
according to provocative therapy - if combined with a strong emotional state.
9) Provoking “Appropriate Behaviours”
Keep in mind, that 'provocare' is Latin for 'eliciting'. Provocative therapy is
a good example of the old NLP saying, "the meaning of your communication is the
response you elicit".
Provocative Therapy is an elegant precise and powerful system of change work that incorporates many approaches that a NLP practitioner would recognise These include the reframing of situations, creating deep levels of rapport with clients, pattern interrupts and timeline work. However Provocative Therapy is very much stands on its own as a therapeutic approach. It’s also important to remember that Provocative Therapy predates the creation of NLP by some years!
In a recent NLP practice group I ran an exercise in which I would work with delegates problems switching between the approaches of hypnosis, NLP and PT. In all instances attendees reported that the PT approach had a profound effect in addressing their problem! I would recommend therapists and NLP practitioners alike to investigate Frank’s work as he is in my opinion on of the most original therapists and masters of communication. Remarkably after over 50 years of clinical work, Frank is still running seminars in his 70s and continues to be what Bandler and Grinder famously described in Frogs into Princes as “a really exquisite example of requisite variety."
*The Bermuda Triangle of the mind can be read in full at Frank’s official site www.provocativetherapy.com
** The Farrelly Factors can also be located on Frank’s official website detailed above and on this site here
Nick Kemp is an approved NLP trainer with the Society of NLP, the creator of Human Alchemy ™, co-creator of Meta Education and a spoken word artist, writer and composer. He regularly runs NLP, business and personal development trainings in the UK, as well as his own Human Alchemy seminars. He is in regular contact with Frank Farrelly and is hosting him in the UK in November of this year.An overview of Nick’s work and products can be found at www.nickkemp.com.