Swish Pattern: Top Ten Tips

The Neuro Linguistic Prgramming (NLP) swish pattern is key to much of the change work that we do here at the International Center for Positive Change and Hypnosis here in New York. That is why we are happy to give 10 tips for using the pattern for coaching, personal growth and self improvement.
These are tips that we stress in out NLP practitioner training in New York, NY.

➢Tip 1: Make sure the change is ecological

If the change the client consciously wants to make is not ecological to them then they will not support the change and any work we do with them has a good chance of being ineffective. Check ecology before attempting to make a change using the swish pattern.

➢Tip 2: Find the Trigger

The trigger (or synesthesia) is the visual (or sometimes auditory) stimulus that makes the client want to engage in the unwanted behavior. Let’s take a specific example of a client who wants to quit smoking. The trigger might be a picture of the client reaching for a cigarette.

➢Tip 3: Make the Trigger picture associated

The purpose of the nlp swish pattern is to trigger the resource state when the client is about to engage in the unwanted behavior. Therefore we want the swish to trigger as the client sees the trigger, which they will do (through their external senses, ie their eyes and ears) in an associated state. Hence the first swish picture should be associated.

➢Tip 4: Find a resource

The resource in the swish will generally be the idea of how the client wants to be when they have left the problem far behind. Ask the client to make a picture of themselves as they will be when they no longer have the problem. This will be the resource.

➢Tip 5: Make the resource “bigger” than the unwanted behavior

If the resource state does not create a state that is more compelling for the client than the problem does (ie than the problem brings them pleasure) then the nlp swish pattern is unlikely to work. The way to determine the strength of the emotional response is to calibrate the client’s response to the present problem state and the resource state.

➢Tip 6: Make the resource picture dissociated

The reason for making the resource state dissociated is that as a dissociated picture it draws the client toward it. If the picture is associated, then the client may feel that they already have the benefits of the resource and the state may be less attractive.

➢Tip 7: Find the driving submodality

Find out which submodalities drive the strength of the client’s emotional response to the problem state and or the resource state. Let us suppose it is the closeness or distance of the picture ie that the picture loses emotional impact as it is moved further away and increases as it is moved closer.

➢Tip 8: Using the driving submodality to drive the swish

If distance is the driving submodality, then we should use that to drive the swish. In this case we would begin with the associated problem picture close, and the dissociated resource picture is far away and hence small. Then rush the resouce picture close while the problem picture moves far away.

➢Tip 9: Make the swish fast and furious

The faster we do the swish pattern, the better the pattern will work.

➢Tip 10: Generalize and Test

As always we generalize the change to all the contexts we can find where the client has experienced the problem, and test extensively.

We teach the above in our NLP Practitioner trainings in New York.