ABSTRACT
In general doctors are very poor at providing adequate explanation and planning for their patients. A patient's beliefs about their illness may leave them woefully impoverished. It is not much use channelling information through a patient's limiting belief set. It is important that, having elicited valuable information about beliefs and expectations, people structure the explanations in a way that allows to help the patients to get out of their self-imposed straitjackets. The caveat is that for the reframe to be successful, it is usually best to help the patient to find a counter-example in their own experience. When patients make changes there is a noticeable physiological shift – often a deeper breath, a facial flush, an obvious yes-set, or a change in eye accessing. The experts in the field of communication say that matching the pattern to fit the patient gets the best results.
