Future Pacing

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Future pacing is a technique of asking a person to imagine doing something in the future and then observing their reactions. It is typically used to check that a change process has been successful; (i.e. by observing body language when the person imagines being in a difficult situation before and after an intervention). If the body language is the same then the intervention has not been successful.

You can also use future pacing to "embed" change into the future - to give the person an experience of dealing positively with a situation before they get into the same situation again. This is based on visualization: the mind cannot tell the difference between a scenario which is real and one which has been clearly visualized. The idea is that, having visualized positively, when they are again in the situation the previous experience will serve as a model for how to behave, even though the previous experience was imagined.