"Verbal Questioning Skills For Kinesiologists"  Ref: 405
	Basic Considerations When Clients Are Pregnant, Extremely Ill Or On Powerful Medication Many practitioners are nervous about working on people like this, because they are concerned about doing more harm than good, even though they know that muscle testing should take care of this. I tend to preface questions with the phrase 'bearing in mind', when I am working in a situation of this sort, e.g. · Bearing in mind that you are six months pregnant, would it be appropriate for us to work together? · Bearing in mind that you are on tablets for your high blood pressure, would it be appropriate to carry out technique X? · Bearing in mind that you are seriously ill with colon cancer, would it be appropriate for you to take this supplement? Although this is unnecessary, it does give the client (and me!) an extra layer of confidence. Finding Thoughts, Words & Phrases When looking for words some general categories come up frequently so it is good to ask about these early on if it is appropriate. Common areas are: ­ Emotions (e.g. fear, anger, love, happiness, misery, etc.) ­ Feelings (e.g. hot, cold, shaky, in pain, etc.) ­ Virtues and vices (e.g. honesty, integrity, truth, meanness, greed, adultery, etc.) ­ Intellectual concepts (e.g. success, freedom, independence, etc.) ­ Physical body (e.g. fat, thin, beautiful, sexy, stiff, in pain, ageing, etc.) ­ Health / Ill health (e.g. healthy, fit, energetic, lively, vibrant, ill, unhealthy, dying, decrepit, etc.) ­ Relationships (love, intimacy, tenderness, mother, relative, lover, etc.) ­ Goals (e.g. future, purpose, intention, dreams, ideals, vision, objective, ambition, or a named goal of the client, etc.) ­ Spirituality (e.g. God, spirit, enlightenment, religion, sin, etc.) Placement: Where Is It? Locating A Particular Place When locating a particular place, you need to first find the general area. This may be clear from the context of the questioning. The place may be very specific (e.g. the client's bedroom, a particular beauty spot, etc.) or more general (e.g. anywhere as long as it is outdoors, by the ocean, in a small dark room, etc.). This needs to be determined first by questions such as: · Is this a specific place? · Is this a general place that has specific characteristics? Establishing Quantities: How Much? Before you ask any of these questions be clear in your own mind if you are asking minimum, maximum or optimum. ­ Minimum: if people are short of money or reluctant to do something, you might want to ask for the minimum for the person to receive any benefit. ­ Maximum: if you are looking at something that is basically not good for the person, you may want to know what is the maximum they can have / do without experiencing a problem. When you get the result to this, it is important that you explain to the client that the body is not saying they must drink three cups of coffee a day, for instance, but is saying this is the maximum that can be tolerated without harm. ­ Optimum: this is for beneficial things where you are finding what will give the most benefit either in general or for a particular problem. Establishing Quantities: How Many? Establishing An Exact Number There are several different ways of phrasing this sort of question. The fastest way to establish the exact number is to ask in one of the following ways: ­ At least X: if you ask Is it at least 4? and get the answer "yes", then the number is 4, 5, 6 , 7, etc. ­ X or more: this is the same as "at least X". ­ More than X: if you ask Is it more than 4? and get the answer "yes" , then the number is not 4 , but would be 5,6,7,etc. ­ Less than X: if you ask Is it less than 4? and get the answer "yes", then the number is 0,1,2 or 3. Time: How Often? When? I used to assume that whenever I was working in this area I would be working according to clock time or calendar time, e.g. at 6.30 p.m., three times a day, every other day, etc. Then one day I was working with a client and had a lot of difficulty establishing when she needed to do something. After a lot of head scratching I realised that there was the possibility of activity time, so that something is done at the same time as another activity. So now whenever I am faced with a time question, I first ask: · Are we measuring in clock time? If I get 'no' to this, I ask: · Are we measuring in activity time? Time: How Long? What Happens Then? It is important not to assume that when the time is over that the activity stops. The activity could: ­ Increase (e.g. more repetitions of an exercise or more frequent gym visits). ­ Reduce (e.g. take 2 capsules instead of 3). ­ Stop. ­ Change in some way (e.g. supplement now taken at a different time of the day) Alternate (e.g. take a different type of calcium for three weeks, then back to the original one for four weeks and so on). Allergy & Intolerance Testing You then use further questions to narrow down the area, e.g. · Is it a food? · Is it something drunk? · Is it personal care products? (e.g. shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, cosmetics, etc.) · Is it household products?(e.g. washing powders, bathroom cleaners, etc.) · Is it something the person inhales? (e.g. house dust mite, pollens, perfume, etc.) · Is it something the person touches?(e.g. metal, fabric, wood, etc.) · Is it something the person takes? (e.g. nutritional supplement, drugs, etc.) · Is it something taken in accidentally? (e.g. plastic sucked on a pen, remains of washing up liquid on cutlery, etc.) · Is it something specifically to do with the person's work? Nutritional Supplements Two Different Situations There are two main possibilities: ­ The person may already be taking supplements and you want to check if everything is correct. ­ The person may not be taking any supplements at all. The procedure I recommend is slightly different depending on which of these situations you have. Testing For Remedies & Test Kit Vials Finding The Exact Remedy Or Vial Having established the kit or box it is in, you next need to narrow it down to the specific one. Some practitioners place the remedies on the client's body while they ask questions. I prefer to have the box or kit next to me. If the vials are in a box, I run my finger along a row of them and ask: · Is it one of these? If I get 'yes', I ask about half of the row and so on until I pin down the exact bottle or vial. If the vials are in a bag, I take out a small handful and ask about that, using the same question as when the vials are in a box. Indexes Comparing Things Using Indexes This is an extremely useful way of using indexes. I usually arbitrarily allocate a score of 100 to one of the items / actions, and then compare others with it. If the score for the second item is more than 100, it is better for that person, and if the score is less than 100, it is worse. Alternatively, you could test for an exact figure for the starting item. This adds an extra complicating step, and is unnecessary if you really want just to focus on the relative merits of two or more things. Managing The Session What Do I Do First / Next? Over the years I have spoken to students and practitioners of many different branches of kinesiology, and a dilemma that many experience is of knowing what technique or procedure to undertake first. This is particularly true for kinesiologists who have an eclectic mix of techniques gathered from several different training programmes. Some find using finger modes works well, but others either do not have enough knowledge to use finger modes effectively or prefer not to do so.