Everyone has a plan, until…
Mike Tyson famously said:
“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.”
He said this in 1987 before fighting Tyrell Biggs.
His point was simple: preparation matters, but real life can defy even the best-laid plans.
Real-life client sessions vs workshop practice
The new PCW CPD/Dev modules increasingly focus on real client sessions rather than imagined workshop scenarios. These can differ greatly, and PCW is well placed to address problems that mainly analytical approaches often miss.
Instead of “building rapport,” we connect conversationally, human to human. This reflects Frank Farrelly’s Provocative Therapy, a key inspiration for Provocative Change Works. Talking to clients like an old friend often encourages more honest, useful exchanges.
It’s not “why?” but “how?”
PCW combines psychoeducation and provocation to build momentum for change. We ask, “How is the client creating and maintaining the problem state?” rather than, “Why do they have this problem?” There may be countless reasons, and clients often receive well-meaning advice that changes nothing. Analysis is useful only when it helps the client think and feel differently. Often the coach or therapist is busrting with ideas on how to assist the client, but they miss how to best discover the difference that makes the difference. There can be way to much analysic and although such approaches can be well intentioned, my expereince is that better results would come from more precise and converational work. In recent times PCW has been shown to work really well with many client problems that would be considered hard to resolve with more traditional methods. There’s nothing wrong with traditional approaches, but lets remember that Frank Farrelly’s original work after training with Carl Rogers was to change the dynamic of client sessions and his original Provocative Therapy.
Don’t put your egg in one basket.
Many coaching and therapeutic approaches rely on careful, direct one-to-one engagement and familiar coach-client roles. PCW also works indirectly and sometimes introduces random elements, creating a more dynamic opportunity for change. It is like broadband rather than dial-up: both work, but one offers far more speed and possibility.
