Help with reframing

Teaching Perspective

Reframing is a perspective which gives the individual more possibilities of choice. Its roots can be found in NLP (neuro linguistic programming) and aims at widening a person’s point of view.

Usually people move from a “problem frame”, in other words they approach the problem saying: “I don’t think I have the same passion for my job…”, “I can’t do this…” etc. The objective of “reframing” is to pass from a problem “frame” to a “solution” or “result”.

In the scene, Mirco is a blind boy who starts off with a “problem frame”. He refuses to accept his handicap and continues to repeat: “I can see”.

The teacher, by applying reframing, rather than contradicting his point of view, moves his attention to other senses: “I know you can see… (one of the requirements of this technique is to copy the feelings of the other speaker) …I can see too, but that’s not enough for me! …When you see a flower, don’t you get the urge to inhale its fragrance, to smell it? ..Or the snow… when the snow falls, don’t you just feel like stepping on it? Everything so white. Don’t you want to touch it? Don’t you want to see it melt in your hands?”

In the meanwhile, the teacher has moved Mirco’s focus onto other senses and continues: “when great musicians play: they close their eyes, do you know why? To hear the music more intensely, because in that way the music transforms, it becomes bigger, the notes more intense, as if the music was a physical sensation. You have five senses, Mirko. Why do you want to use just one?” In following his objective, the teacher does not put the belief of the child into question, but simply broadens his horizons so that he uses his other senses too.

This scene offers an excellent example of multisensorial communication.