What is Provocative Therapy?

Frank Farrelly initially entered the world of psychotherapy through psychiatric social work. He worked with the famous client-centred therapist, Carl Rogers.  One day in 1963, he dared to follow his instinct and use his years of training and experience in a new and radically different way. 

With a twinkle in his eye, and a gentle 'kidding' manner, he began to use a new, light hearted approach.  Clients who had been 'stuck' for years began to get better, as Frank's warm hearted, zany and irreverent humour, skilfully applied, began to entice these clients into discovering solutions within themselves.

Now the way Frank works his magic has been made accessible to therapists everywhere - Provocative Therapy (PT) includes easily learned patterns of language and behaviour, which can produce dramatic improvements very quickly for clients - including those who have been 'resistant' to other forms of psychotherapy. 

A Provocative Therapy Session is….
* A gentle, caring and warm-hearted interaction between therapist and client. 
* Sensitive to the needs of the client
* Enabling the 'stuck' to dare to discover new solutions
* Irreverent, playful and good-humoured.
* Great FUN! - for both client and therapist!

PT is becoming increasingly established in Europe, the USA, and Australia.  Frank Farrelly has entrusted Phil Jeremiah, Senior Psychiatric Social Worker and successful psychotherapist and Dr. Brian Kaplan, an eminent Homeopathic Physician, Author and Teacher, with the task of setting up PT training in the UK.

Press

Laughter brings healing - By Karin Franken

Affection in the heart and a twinkle in the eye - By Angela Wood

Radical new therapy 'dissolves the nonsense' - South African Sunday Times - March 2003

Other Articles

Provocative Art Therapy: A Case History - by Hephzibah Kaplan - July 2003

What people are saying ...

“Provocative Therapy is an amazingly elegant tool applicable to a huge variety of life’s dilemmas and deserves a place in every effective therapist’s toolbox”

Dr Susan Elton MD

"The beauty of Provocative coaching for me, when appropriately applied in
General Medical and Homeopathic pratice, has been the client's sudden
awakening to the fact they are no longer powerless, but indeed experience
their problem as a stutter, or missed stitch which they can recover or
re-tie themselves. It runs alongside the usual medical interventions and/ or homeopathic treatments.

With Provocative coaching I, as 'the Doctor', no longer need to perpetually
patch 'it' up for the client in a manner they may find irritatingly
inadequate (I wouldn't have done it that way/ It was done the way he wanted
it, not my way/ Too fast/ Too slow!!!) because they are fully in control of
the repair work themselves. In the role of a companion, I become a
'supportive observer' of the problem, sharing, encouraging and witnessing
the person's dilemmas and efforts in recovery. The amazing thing has been the speed with which return to balanced health has occured after unexpectedly brief encounters.

Provocative coaching could be described as a laugh/ a scream/ a step in to
the unknown/ a torch in the shadows/ reconnecting with the soul/
reconnecting with 'who I thought I really was all along' and has become an
indispensible part of my 'doctor's toolkit'. '

Nick Othen
Founder of the British Institute of EFT

"Frank Farrelly has been one of the major influences in my work. The four day master class has been a lifechanger, both in my personal life and professional clinical practice. If you ever get the chance to work with Frank, you must take it."

Andrew Austin
Clinical Hypnotherapist