The Wheel Exercise

I was introduced to this technique earlier in the year, since then I have used it with many clients, helping them see what area(s) of their life is not in balance.


You first draw a circle (wheel) and ask the client what they feel is important in their life at the moment? Employment, Family, Health, Money, Friends, Having Fun, etc
Ask they give you their answers you add them to the wheel (with every answer being a spoke -The Wheel will then look like a pie chart)


With each answer (Employment, as an example) you ask them to scale how happy they currently are with this element on a scale of 1-10 (1 being the lowest – the centre of the wheel and 10 being the highest - the outer edge of the wheel)


Ask the client why they are at that particular number on the scale (The number is not important, as all clients see a scale numbers as different values-some people would never give themselves a ten even if everything was perfect)


Once they give you an answer, ask “anything else” they will often give you two more answers.
Then ask, “What do you need to do to be the next number up the scale?” Clients will often give you (and themselves) 3 new steps or actions to complete. This can be a real eye opener for the client.


Do this for all the “spokes” elements of the Wheel-you may want to re-word the question for the different spokes to ensure the session does not become repetitive.


You and hopefully the clients will often notice a Patten emerging from this exercise and often a priority action or actions will come from this-something the client needs to do first to move forward.


You can also join all the figures on the scale up to visual show the client which areas of the client’s life are positive and which areas the clients would like to improve.


This is a great exercise to start with a new client, as it looks at the clients strengths, areas of development and the client will give themselves Actions to complete. As a coach you can use this exercise to plan what you sessions/coaching techniques would help move your client forward.


You can also use this exercise on one element of their life (Employment as an example) and break the chosen subject down into smaller sections.

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Integrating Conflicting Parts – The Visual Squash Technique

At this month’s NLP Practice Group, we practiced the Parts Integration Technique. As with most NLP techniques there are several versions of this exercise. The practice group member’s first read the technique then practised the technique without using a script allowing us to use our knowledge, imagination and response from the “client” to complete the exercise. This worked well and the flow of the technique was a lot smoother then when following a script.

Integrating Conflicting Parts – The Visual Squash Technique

At some point in our lives we will inevitably run into times when 'part' of us wants to do one thing and another ‘part’ of us wants to do something else. For example: ‘’Part of me wants to be super fit and healthy, but then another part of me wants the pleasure of eating sugary, calorie rich junk food’’. Whether it's a bad habit or an important decision you or your client is wanting to get to grips with, it is the inner conflict being experienced that prevents us from acting the right way.

In principle, the Visual Squash technique involves identifying the parts involved with the conflict and discovering their common intention before having the parts integrated. It is useful to talk to each part and have them acknowledge that each part had a positive intention for the other and that their conflict is stopping both parts from achieving their common purpose.

1. Identify two parts of yourself that may be in conflict.

2. Ask the problem part to come out and stand on one hand or to your side.

3. Imagine the part as a person or object and see what the person/object looks like, sounds like, and (what feelings and thoughts that person has) or (the weight and texture of the object)

4. Ask the second part to come out and stand on the other hand/side.

5. Imagine the second part as a person or object and see what the person/object looks like, sounds like, and (what feelings and thoughts that person has) or (the weight and texture of the object)

6. Starting with the first part, ask each part, ‘what is your positive intention and purpose?’ Keep repeating the question until both parts intentions are fully understood. Recognise that both parts are trying to help you.

7. Ask each part individually what resources it has that would benefit the shared goal of helping you. Is there anything useful about part one that will help part two? And vice versa?

8. Recognise whether there is a persuasion to one part more than the other. Does one part have better resources to achieve the shared goal of helping you with the support of the second part?

9. Bring both your hands together and fully integrate the parts and their positive resources…

December 2009 - Last Practice session of the Year

Hi all,

The last NLP practice group in 2009 will be held on Wednesday 9th December. As requested by several members, we will be practicing the "Parts Integrated" technique.

As always the NLP Practice Group sessions are open to anyone interested in NLP, we have a mixture of NLP Practitioners, Master Practitioners and none NLP-ers who use the practice group sessions to improve their NLP techniques and knowledge.

Everyone is welcome, many people come alone, as the group members are all friendly and approachable.

The practice group will continue as normal in the new year, with the first 2010 NLP practice Group session on Wednesday 13/01/2010.

Finally, we recently wrote an article on gaining rapport-one of the members added a great link to the Coaching Leaders Blog (on the comments section of the article) and an article on "What classic NLP doesn't tell you about rapport"

If you have not already-check out the Coaching Leaders Website and Blog on www.manchesternlp.com for a large amount of varied NLP information.

We look forward to seeing you all at the next NLP Practice Group Session

Chris and Sandie