Overview and History
PCW Association · Overview & History
Change work that feels human, direct, and alive.
Provocative Change Works is a conversational model developed by Nick Kemp. It brings together lively human connection, practical psychoeducation, metaphor, trancework, and flexible ways of interrupting stuck patterns.
The essential idea
Call forth what is already possible.
In PCW, “provocative” comes from provocare: to call forth. The work is not about attacking, shaming, or diminishing a client. It is about using responsive conversation to invite new ideas, behaviours, and ways of relating to a problem.
The manner matters. PCW lampoons the problem, not the person — with a twinkle in the eye and affection in the heart, like speaking with an old friend.
The model
A practical framework for responsive conversations.
Rather than relying on rigid scripts, PCW gives practitioners distinctions and stances they can use while staying present to the person in front of them.
Conversational change
Live, responsive dialogue that helps people step out of familiar stuck states and consider a different response.
Psychoeducation
Clear explanations that help people understand how patterns are maintained — and how they can change.
Trancework
Conversational hypnosis and trancework used to support shifts in experience, attention, and response.
40 PCW stances. The model includes 40 ways to challenge, question, exaggerate, reframe, interrupt, support, or redirect thinking. The first 27 are taught in foundation training, with more explored at practitioner level.
Working style
More than a technique.
PCW can work directly, indirectly, and at times apparently randomly — always in service of helping someone move into a more useful position in everyday life.
- Metaphorical exploration reveals the structure of an experience and opens new possibilities.
- Internal voice work explores tone, tempo, rhythm, and the effect of inner dialogue.
- Visual processing considers how images, memories, and imagined futures shape a state.
- Natural connection puts human contact ahead of unnecessary formalities or formulaic rapport-building.
History
Built through teaching, practice, and development.
PCW began after Nick Kemp met Frank Farrelly in 2004. Farrelly’s Provocative Therapy remains a primary influence, alongside Milton Erickson, metaphor work, and the work of Andrew T. Austin. The model has since continued to evolve through live training, international teaching, specialist groups, and online programmes.
Nick Kemp meets Frank Farrelly — a meeting that becomes the catalyst for the PCW model.
Annual events for Frank Farrelly begin; live PCW training starts and Nick works with phobics for BBC Radio in Leeds.
PCW is presented internationally, appears in published work, and the first training in Japan takes place.
One-year online training programmes expand internationally and a second generation of PCW training is created.
The third generation of PCW begins, alongside the core PCW CPD and R&D group and specialist applications.
New training, clinical deconstruction groups, professional presentations, and foundations training continue the work.
The Provocative Archive
A living record to return to.
Following Frank Farrelly’s death, his son Tim transferred Frank’s archive to Nick Kemp in accordance with Frank’s wishes. Older reel-to-reel audio, Video8, and other material has been digitised, alongside more than two decades of Nick’s work developing PCW across Asia, the USA, Europe, and the UK.
What you can explore
Teaching sessions, recorded demonstrations, specific “how to” material, and resources released alongside live trainings.
Who it helps
PCW trainees and practitioners, curious coaches and therapists, and experienced professionals revisiting a session or idea between modules.
Designed to be revisited. The archive is a separate learning platform where students can notice fresh details and deepen their understanding over time.
Continue learning
See the work in practice, then make it your own.
Explore the archive to watch, revisit, and learn from this evolving body of work. The Association also supports ongoing training, development, and professional connection.