Sensory Words

The Sensory Based Paraphrase

The neurolinguistic programming movement in counseling popularized a concept referred to as representational systems . Representational systems refer to the sensory system-usually visual, auditory, or kinesthetic-that clients prefer to use to experience the world.

If you listen closely to your clients’ words, you will notice that some clients rely primarily on visually oriented words , others on auditory words , and others on kinesthetic words . Based on NLP research, when interviewers speak through their client’s representational system, empathy, trust, and desire to see the interviewer again are all increased .

Listening closely for your client’s sensory related words is the key to using sensorybased paraphrases. To sensitize yourself to the three representational systems, we recommend doing an individual or in class activity in which you generate as many visual, auditory, and kinesthetic words as you can. Examples of sensory based paraphrases follow, with the sensory words italicized: Client 1: “My goal in therapy is to get to know myself better. I think of therapy as kind of a mirror through which I can seemyself, my strengths, and my weaknesses more clearly.” Interviewer 1: “You’re here because you want to see yourself more clearly and believe therapy can really help you with that.” Client 2: “I just got laid off from my job and I don’t know what to do. My job is so important to me. I feel lost.” Interviewer 2: “Your job has been so important to you, you feel adrift without it.” Analyzing the client’s spontaneous use of sensory words appears to be the most reliable method for evaluating a client’s primary representational system .