9 Steps to Establish Rapport & Ecology for Working Together

By Allen C. Sargent

The following is a process called The Hemispheric Eye Model Foreground-Background, first introduced at the NLP World Health Conference at the University of Santa Cruz in June 1997. By doing this exercise you will be useful and powerful in your life.

As a coach and a guide, you will be able to use these steps to help establish rapport and ecology.

Step 1:
Explain and demonstrate the current external dominant eye. This step shows that there is a difference, and will assist in determining the internal dominant eye.

Step 2:
Have Explorer think of a challenging person with whom they would like to have a more resourceful initial internal response or reaction. Example: Supervisor, coworker, relative or neighbor. To begin with I suggest you pick a moderate example - a five on a scale of one to ten.

Step 3:
Elicit the Explorer's sub-modalities paying particular attention to:

Visual - associated or dissociated, clarity, color, movie or still picture, panoramic or framed, size and location.

Auditory - internal and external, volume, location and content.

Kinesthetic - tactile, proprioseptive, and emotional evaluation.

Guide calibrates external cues, checking carefully for ecology.

Step 4:
Say to Explorer: "Get a sense of which internal eye you're seeing that picture with. " Note response. After response guide says, "After checking inside and in a way that is just right for you, shift your internal dominant eye to the opposite eye so that you will be seeing that person now with a new perspective."

Guide note any change in external cues.

Step 5:
Elicit any differences in sub-modalities, paying close attention to any shift in emotional response.

Step 6:
Identify which picture the explorer wants to leave foreground, and which to leave background. Leaving one of the pictures background balances ecological issues.

Step 7:
Assist Explorer in establishing foreground-background by asking them "What would make that picture stand out?" Often changing color and intensity or size will make the difference.

Test for response and adjust as appropriate.

Step 8:
Check to see what follow up work is needed.

Doing this process may allow other issues to surface such as belief changes or re-imprinting.
These may be dealt with at a later time.

Step 9:
Future pace the new choice the Explorer now has to adjust their Hemispheric Integration.

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