One of the things about being effective in belief change is the way you interject and weaken undesired mental images and strengthen desired images in people’s minds.
For instance, someone may have a very firm belief (maybe even paranoia) that someone is plotting against them in the office (lol — well who isn’t). In this case, you can basically do a number of things to weaken those mental images.
One way is to use a simple pattern interrupt. If you are adept enough, you can weave this in smoothly without causing a serious break in rapport. Another way that is common is to offer counter examples within your conversation itself. The targeted undesired belief can then be diminished greatly.
Of course, don’t just stop there! You’ll want to suggest possible new beliefs to have! This is where your ability to use submodalities will come in handy. Make sure you build images in your mind and intensify them powerfully. All it takes is for you to calibrate and observe physiological cues in the client.
Once you’ve gotten the desired belief intensified, walk through a future pace so that the behaviors congruent with the belief will be reinforced.
This is just one method for changing beliefs. After all, many psychological elements can control our beliefs. Happy experimenting!
