The Six-Step Reframe for Personal Change

Six-Step Reframe

The six-step reframe first appeared in the NLP book Frogs into Princes (p. 137 – 139) by the cocreators John Grinder and Richard Bandler.

They developed the six-step reframe technique from their study of Milton Erickson (ideomotor signals) and Virginia Satir‘s work with parts.

When we are young, we try out different behaviors and some of them work. We keep the ones that work, even when times change and those responses may not be the most useful ones. Throwing a tantrum at 4 might get us what we want, at 44 it probably won’t work so well.

Behind every behavior is a positive intention – this is one of the basic NLP presuppositions. Motives drive behavior. Our brains do nothing without some (usually unconscious) purpose.

In a nutshell, the six-step reframe is reframing a positive intention behind poor or less desirable behavior.

A signal that you may want to use this process is that too-familiar feeling of being caught on the horns of a dilemma. "Part of me wants to do this, but another part wants to do that, or just isn't sure."

You’ve probably heard this before, and maybe you’ve even said it.

The “part” that’s not sure is usually “not sure” for an important reason.

Six-step reframing is especially effective when examining such internal dialogue and evaluating internal objections and concerns.