Me and God in the Studio - by Nick Kemp

In 2004, during one of Frank Farrelly’s workshops, to my amazement, I discovered that he had written a second book entitled “Me and God”. This was the good news. The bad news was that unless you understood German, you wouldn’t be able to read it, as it had only been published in Germany! I therefore discussed with Frank the idea of producing an audio book of “Me and God” and was pleasantly surprised by his interest in such a project and we tentatively agreed to explore recording the book in an audio format setting a recording date for May 2005 and I began to make extensive preparations for the session.

As the recording date loomed closer, and I made my preparations, my first call was to my old friend and fellow recording expert Pete Kelly. Pete is a gifted musician and producer in his own right and has an eye for detail that I could only dream of. We had worked together over the years on a number of projects and it was Pete who in less that ten minutes convinced me that the future of recording was in using computers rather than tape.

If you have ever worked or recorded in a studio, you will know that regardless of all the preparations you make, everything is ultimately down to the ability for the artist to perform on any given day. I caught myself wondering how well Frank would at 73 years old be able to cope with the thirty-seven chapters, consisting of 37,000 words. On the first day as Pete called for a take we looked at each other with the exact same thought, hoping that Frank would find his pace and relax into delivering his story. We soon realised that we needn’t have worried. Frank is like the Ernest Shackleton of therapy, in that once he sets his mind on achieving something, there really is no stopping him!

I had allowed a total of eight days for the project and had anticipated that the entire recording would be around six hours once edited. Previous experience had taught me to allow a minimum of one full day for each fully edited hours work. I had also considered best and worst case scenarios from this session. The absolute

best-case scenario would be that we completed the entire project including artwork in the allotted time. The worst-case scenario would be that Frank would need to return to the studio in November prior to presenting his workshop in Leeds.

On the first day we completed the first fourteen chapters comprising of some 11,000 words! Pete was not familiar with Frank’s work and could barely contain his laughter as he heard Frank’s stories of his interactions with the nuns. Anyone who has seen Frank in a workshop situation will realise that he has an extraordinary tonal range and an excellent ear. Both of these abilities were ably demonstrated throughout the recording sessions.

Our normal recording day would consist of starting the session at 10.30am and recording until around 2pm. We would then usually break for lunch after which Pete would return to his own studio to edit the morning session. Back at Clara studios Frank and my wife Sue would then listen to the previous day’s edits. In the evening we would usually go out for dinner to mostly Italian restaurants and discuss Provocative therapy, movies and all manner of other subjects. When we returned to the house, we would then watch a movie of choice on our home cinema set-up until around 2pm! Fortunately our taste in movies was very similar and I was pleased to find a few films Frank had not seen and subsequently enjoyed. These included Luc Besson’s “Joan of Arc” and “Open Range” with Robert Duvall and Kevin Costner and Tombstone. One of my fondest recollections of these eight days was hearing the comment “good” during the various westerns we watched as various undesirables were gunned down by Duvall and Costner. For a moment I pondered the concept of a Frank Farrelly audio commentary for a series of westerns, which seemed entirely appropriate! Of course it should be no surprise that such a superb teller of stories would also be an admirer of other people’s excellent tales.

During a break on the third day I recorded an interview with Frank on various aspects of his work including his interactions with Carl Rogers and the history of Provocative Therapy from the early 1960s. Frank commented that Carl’s view was that Frank would “never make a dent on the old guard” but rather would have a better response from new up and coming therapists. Many NLP trainers and practitioners have heard of Frank, but few have been fortunate enough to see him

in a workshop situation where you can appreciate just how big an influence he was on the creation of NLP.

On the fifth day we began final editing. What some people forget is that when you record an audio book its important to listen closely to the entire recording, which in this case was close to five hours in length. A good friend of Frank’s, Noni from Germany, who had been involved in the production of the original book, finally located the preface to the book and a copy of a 1937 picture of all the entire Farrelly family, depicted in the book and was kind enough to e-mail a copy to us.

On day 5 we organised the artwork for the project and we contrasted the Farrelly family picture from 1937 with one of Frank and myself in the studio. My good friends Karl and Darren at RRS Music in Leeds worked tirelessly to produce some initial copies of the CD set before Frank departed to Germany. Both of them remarked on how good the audio quality is, which is the highest compliment you can get from sound engineers. We recorded all the speech in 32bit resolution using SE tube microphones, which produce really superb fidelity.

“Me and God” is a fascinating book of stories from Frank’s early life up to the age of sixteen. My view is that the book is an excellent treatise on all human relationships from the personal to the cosmological and divine. The book also gives a good insight into how Frank’s family life was undoubtedly a major influence on the creation of Provocative Therapy. Frank’s unique humour is evident throughout this work and this humour is also reflected in the choice of chapter titles, my favourite being “How I almost lost my immortal soul with a protestant heretic girl one night at a drive-in movie” and “The Crucifixion and the burning at the stake”

New DVD set now available

This new DVD set is now available here

http://www.nickkemp.com/blog/2010/04/provocative-change-works-for-anxiety-now-available-as-4-dvd-set.htm

Frank Farrelly brings Provocative Therapy to the UK this May

Sat 22nd - Sun 23rd May 2010
Location: Queens Hotel, Leeds, Yorkshire
Details: This AFPT approved event is an opportunity to learn Provocative Therapy from the source. The weekend will include an opportunity for some to work one on one with Frank Farrelly. Nick Kemp founder of The Association of Provocative Therapy and creator of The Provocative Icon System™ will be teaching many of the latest exercises that assist in developing insights into this therapeutic approach. The AFPT policy is to run trainings with small groups to ensure that each attendee receives the very best attention. Places are issued on a first come first serve basis and we fully expect this event to be fully subscribed. Attendees of this event also receive automatic Associate Membership of the AFPT.



What People are saying about Frank Farrelly?

"Frank Farrelly's Provocative Therapy is like a treasure buried deep in the shadow of traditional psychotherapeutic modalities. These CD's provide you with a treasure map that lifts the techniques, methodology and attitude off the page and into the very real world of working with patients and clients. Be warned - while Frank is working with his clients, these CD's will be working on you..."

Michael Neill, NLP Master Trainer/Bestselling author on Frank Live in Leeds CD set

"Frank is a solid co-therapist -- not a carbon copy. His core of lovingness is easily apparent and available... He is also a wizard at destroying the meta-communicating bacterium 'why'. A body free of this bug may never be the same again. You've read Groddeck, Eichorn, Redl, Laing, Kopp... Read Farrelly!"

Carl A. Whitaker, M.D., Family Process.

"...your demonstrations of therapy... were really great. I liked your style enormously. All of your expressions of yourself while here were a kind of enlarging and expanding experience, combined with a total buoyancy we all need. Meeting you was the best therapeutic experience I've had in a long time."

O. Spurgeon English, M.D., Temple University Psychiatry Dept., Philadelphia, PA.

"Frank Farrelly... is a really exquisite example of requisite variety."

Richard Bandler and John Grinder, Frogs Into Princes.



What People are saying about Nick Kemp?

"Do you know Nick Kemp? - (he is) exceptionally bright, and I have immensely enjoyed communicating...The kind of exchanges that I have been having... are the kind of activities that I think can really advance the field."

Steve Andreas, NLP Author, Trainer, Developer

"Nick Kemp is what a trainer should be."

Doug O Brien - Master Trainer & Hypnotherapist

"I have known Nick Kemp for a number of years as both personal friend and mentor... no one has done more to promote Frank Farrelly and his highly effective treatment modality of "Provocative Therapy" than Nick Kemp. In 2004 when both myself and Nick met Frank Farrelly for the first time, the only readily available material was the classic 1973 book, "Provocative Therapy." Since that meeting, Nick and Frank have become firm friends and there is no doubt the rest of us have benefitted enormously from this unique relationship. Now with numerous audio and DVD training products produced and promoted by Nick Kemp, Frank Farrelly's work is more readily accessible than ever before.

With this is mind, I had the very great pleasure of attending Nick's first "Provocative Change Works™" course in Leeds. Having extensively studied Provocative Therapy and seen Frank work one-to-one sessions live with clients on several occasions, I was astonished at the level of expertise demonstrated on the stage. I have no doubt that with his modelling skills, Nick Kemp has managed to "get" the PT model in its entirety. Watching Nick interact with his clients left me in no doubt that he is the very embodiment of Frank's humour, wit, skill and flexibility. I suspect that anyone familiar with Frank Farrelly's style of working will get that spine tingling sense of familiarity when watching Nick work and that the mantle of Frank's ground breaking work has truly found its lineage, and his experience and dedication to detail makes him one of the best trainers and change work therapists in the UK today."

Andrew T Austin
Clinical Hypnotherapist, Neurolinguist & Author of "The Rainbow Machine"

Frank Farrelly's Provocative Therapy is one of the most fun and EFFECTIVE ways of helping a client to actually change since, well, ever. Nick Kemp is one of the few people on the planet who really understands what Frank Farrelly is doing in his Provocative Therapy AND CAN TEACH IT TO OTHERS. How do I know this? Because even after reading Frank's books, listening to his recordings and even sponsoring a live Provocative Therapy workshop with him in New York a couple of years ago, I was still in the dark as to what specifically it was Frank was doing and why it worked. When did I start to understand it all? When I sat down with Nick and he explained it to me. Nick has integrated Farrelly's Provocative Therapy with Ericksonian Hypnosis in a unique was that makes the original even better. He calls it Provocative Change Works™. He teaches it in a way that is fun and EASY to implement. YOU will be DOING it before the weekend is over.

Doug O Brien, Trainer

Hosts: Frank Farrelly & Nick Kemp
Price: Price £499 inc VAT for the weekend

BOOK HERE

Certification nonsense and need for a code of ethics

I notice increasingly that especially in the world of NLP, trainers are referring to "certifications" as "qualifications" and worse still in some cases talking about such pieces of paper as "recognised qualifications" which of course is very misleading as they are at best certificates of attendance and nothing more. Another misrepesentation is when trainers call their training company "The British Institute of XXX" when they do not represent "Britain" and of course it's not even professionaly correct to call yourself an Institute in the United Kingdom...

In the AFPT we decided to avoid the whole certification nonsense and instead have associate and full memberships. Both types are expected to adhere to the AFPT code of conduct and to behave with integrity and professionalism. It also amazes me that many people don't realise that being "provocative" does not equate to being aggressive and I recently also blogged on this at www.nickkemp.com.

Provocative Therapy in 2010

I have just added the schedule for Provocative Therapy and Provocative Change Works dates for 2010 at www.nickkemptraining.com
I am running events in London, Leeds, New York, San Francisco, Warsaw and other dates to be announced in due course

New Members section on AFPT site

We just added a members section to www.associationforprovocativetherapy.com which will give access to archive Frank Farrelly and other unpublished Provocative Therapy articles

Frank Farrelly talks to Nick Kemp about Therapy and NLP in 1970s