In late 2005, one of our facilitators helped us understand why the Lefkoe Belief Process didn’t work with certain people – and how to fix it.

Rodney Daut had been guiding a client through the belief process. He helped the client get in touch with “I’m not good enough.” They found the source events that led to the belief: parents giving criticism. They created alternative interpretations. But when he got to the no-meaning step, something unusual happened.

Rodney asked, “What do you know for sure based on those events?” (a no-meaning question)

The client responded, “I know for sure how I felt.”

He’d never heard a client say that before.

He decided to look at that more closely. Rodney said, “Let’s imagine you’d given those events another interpretation. How does that feel?”

The client said, “It feels better. It feels different.”

The client’s belief was gone.

At first, Rodney thought this was a one-time fluke. However, for about half the beliefs, this client needed these extra questions to eliminate them. He found this with a few other clients, too.

Some who struggled to get rid of beliefs in the past would fly through the process when these questions were added.

Rodney had been studying the NLP distinctions related to how people process information – some use visual language: “I see what you mean.” Others use auditory language: “I hear you.” Others use bodily-kinesthetic words: “That feels right.” So, he dubbed this step the kinesthetic step.

He shared these new questions with Morty.

Morty tried it with some clients and found it worked, especially for those who seemed more feeling-oriented.

Morty wrote about it on his blog back in 2013.

There had always been signs that this process didn’t work for some people, who kept insisting, “I didn’t see (the belief); I felt it.” We just assumed this was just a matter of semantics, and we told clients they must have “seen” the belief and then we went on to the next step of the LBP. By maintaining that they must have seen the belief even when they insisted they didn’t, we were arrogantly assuming we knew better what was going on in their minds than they did. This was a big mistake on our part.

We were greatly humbled by this experience.

When a person said, “I didn’t see it. I felt it,” we really thought that they did see it but just didn’t understand something. Now we say it’s not that THEY didn’t understand something. It’s that WE didn’t understand something.

Since then, we’ve learned a LOT about listening to clients and students.

It’s why when we created our online training program, we made a point of teaching people to try new things and report back on what they’ve learned. We don’t want to create any false sense of absolute certainty that there is just one way to do things.

When a client or student points out something, we pay more attention. We don’t assume we know. We encourage them to experiment and try things out. Our students say this is something unusual they experience in our courses that they haven’t seen anywhere else.

Here’s what one of them had to say:

Something else that’s unique is that the instructors are all open to learning themselves. There’s no “it’s our way, or the highway” here. They encourage you to experiment. They will admit they learned something from a student, and they’re always asking for ways to make the course better. I don’t think I’ve ever seen another course or instructor do that, other than the ubiquitous “What did you think?” at the end.

One thing we’re proud of is the fact that you don’t just learn from us. We learn from you. We create a knowledge-building community in our courses. The daily practice. The daily reporting on what happened. The daily reflection. The detailed feedback, not just “good job.” It all makes a difference.

When you join us, you don’t just join a course. You join a learning community.

You help add to our knowledge, and we help add to yours.

I do hope you join us this year. Because of what we learn every time we teach, each course is better than the last. I look forward to seeing you in the course.

P.S. We hired Rodney Daut, the facilitator who developed the kinesthetic process, to create our online training program. You’ll love what he’s put together for you.