When NLP practitioners work with clients under the assumption of positive intentions, it leads to interesting outcomes. If I’m doing a behavior that’s not good for me or other people, then I can look for the positive intention behind that behavior and find other ways to fulfill the positive intention.

There is an exercise called the 6-step reframe specifically designed to help people verbalize their unwanted behavior and identify the possible positive intention that underlies it.

This exercise is an opportunity to flex the muscles of analysis and imagination. It is a method for identifying underlying motivations and generating new ways of fulfilling those motivations.

Sometimes more intervention is needed because old and deep-running habits can be complex. However, once the underlying intention is understood and the defunct strategy is spelled out, the strategy can be altered.