Now, utilization can be considered a technique, but that makes it difficult to teach. Rather, I think of it as a posture that must be assumed, much like riding a bike is something that must be accomplished by learning an orientation, a posture. Utilization must be learned experientially, not didactically. Therefore, I have developed a system of exercises to help therapists incorporate and practice useful postures. Let us consider the grammar of therapy.
Patients speak in implied exclamation points.
They tell us about their imperative experiences. When we provide patients with experiences of change, we are speaking at the level at which problems are generated, the experiential level. It is at this level that generative change most commonly takes place. For example, I conducted a little drama with a patient filled with remorse about her failure to act assertively. I had her recite the event twice, the second time in the first person, present tense.