Pattern… Simple Deletions are when someone has said something, but they have left much of the information out. Again, this occurs all the time in our day to day lives and we come across it in statements such as, “I am unhappy.” Here, it’s not really clear what unhappy means, because there’s nothing to compare it to, such
as they might be unhappy because they don’t fit in a pair of jeans, or because
they just found out there’s a party coming up and they think they need to fit into certain sized clothing.
Response… Your response will dig up the missing information (or at least some of it) from the statement that the person has just shared. This may come across as
something like, “Why?” Just a simple question will help you to gather additional
information on this deletion, and what is causing the problem. They can’t make
any alterations to a problem if they can’t see the problem (if they only feel
unhappy and are not sure why). Sometimes as they uncover the answers for why
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they feel a certain way to you, they will also be uncovering these newly for
themselves. “Just because I’m unhappy.” Will not be sufficient information to
solve this problem.
Outcome… You’re probably noticing a reoccurring pattern here where once the person has explored the problem by answering your questions, they’ll find a new
way to look at and solve it. Sometimes this will be enough to collapse the
problem, and other times it will need further information to fully resolve it, but even the information they’ve gathered so far will help them to perceive the
problem from a different perspective.